Work Order Systems Advice Needed

[WCEI]

We had a custom work order system created for us several years ago. We have outgrown this system and modifications are not possible.

We are looking for a system that syncs with Quickbooks Desktop version. The system needs to merge with a scheduling calendar that can be used remotely by our technicians in the field.

Quickbooks online version was ruled out, which limits some of the app options.

Service Titan, prohibitively expensive for our company.
Housecall Pro, the biggest draw back was expense, but would select if the price was a little cheaper.
Service Fusion, affordable, but seemed a little less user friendly and would have a larger learning curve.

I would appreciate any advice that you could provide.

DP

 

[Electromatic]

We use a system called RazorSync. It has the features you mention. I don't know how much we pay for it, but we are a somewhat small company.

 

[WCEI]

Thank you sir.

Our secretaries have done most of the research and are leaning toward Service Fusion. Their research found that RazorSync are very similar.

For the cost of a system like Service Titan, I honestly believe I could find a programmer to develop the software and implement it, and not have to pay the ridiculous user fees.

Electromatic, do you mind sharing what part of the great state of Virginia that you call home?

 

[petersonra]

There is a reason why people are willing to pay annual fees for software. It is much cheaper than trying to do it yourself. It always ends up that way.

 

[gadfly56]

There is a reason why people are willing to pay annual fees for software. It is much cheaper than trying to do it yourself. It always ends up that way.

Meh. We have an in-house IT duo that do the programming and maintenance on our home-grown system. It creates work orders, syncs with the tech schedule, has inventory tracking, can process PO's and invoices, track the costs/profitability of jobs, and much more that I'm not going to go into right now. Is it more expensive than buying someone else's of-the-shelf product? Maybe, but it tracks over 50,000 customers, and we have a portal that customers can use to look at upcoming services, outstanding invoices, inspection reports, etc. which is available at no additional cost to the customer.

 

[mooreaaryan]

Jobtread? Seems cost effective and links QB

 

[petersonra]

Meh. We have an in-house IT duo that do the programming and maintenance on our home-grown system. It creates work orders, syncs with the tech schedule, has inventory tracking, can process PO's and invoices, track the costs/profitability of jobs, and much more that I'm not going to go into right now. Is it more expensive than buying someone else's of-the-shelf product? Maybe, but it tracks over 50,000 customers, and we have a portal that customers can use to look at upcoming services, outstanding invoices, inspection reports, etc. which is available at no additional cost to the customer.

Two guys with those kinds of skills are probably costing your company north of a quarter of a million dollars a year. Can buy a lot of software for that kind of money.

 

[paulengr]

We use Google calendar but migrating to Microsoft office.

Think about it…you need a shared calendar. The rest is accounting/billing/quoting/CRM.

That’s for contractors.

If you are a fixed site then really you are looking at asset management, something to generate work schedules and capture costs and store histories.

 

[gadfly56]

Two guys with those kinds of skills are probably costing your company north of a quarter of a million dollars a year. Can buy a lot of software for that kind of money.

Possibly, but they also handle all of the other IT issues for the company as well. Six or eight years ago there was still a lot of development work going on, but it's more maintenance now with relatively minor feature adds. We just can't let them both fly on the same plane!

 

[petersonra]

Possibly, but they also handle all of the other IT issues for the company as well. Six or eight years ago there was still a lot of development work going on, but it's more maintenance now with relatively minor feature adds. We just can't let them both fly on the same plane!

If they are that good chances are they're going to move on at some point anyway they're going to get tired of being the tech support department.

 

[gadfly56]

If they are that good chances are they're going to move on at some point anyway they're going to get tired of being the tech support department.

The senior guy was there when I came on board the first time in 2006. If I had to make book on it, I'd bet against his leaving anytime soon, or ever. His associate might very well pick up some day, he's just a few years out of school.

 

[paulengr]

If they are that good chances are they're going to move on at some point anyway they're going to get tired of being the tech support department.

Look custom software of this kind is easy to do and gives you a lot more options. I’d say 99% of the business software out there is basically the same thing.

You write a few forms. Dump data into a database. Show queries. Wash, rinse, repeat. It is pretty much why databases were invented. Ruby on Rails and follow on products exist to feed this model. Maximo is pretty much the same thing with maybe a few canned templates.