Housecall Pro

Avantages

The feedback I get from clients is that they love the professionalism of the software, the easy ways to communicate, the online booking option, the automated 'on my way' text and paying online. What I like is how easy it is to look at. I know other software have more options, but sometimes less is more. You can get lost in all the functions and it makes it harder to use. I don't need a lot of the other features that other software offers. I need software that is quick and easy to use (and hard to screw up). The way everything is set up makes each page easy to look at, therefore, easy to navigate and use.

Inconvénients

I don't like that I can't call someone to help me figure something out. I don't like that the invoice number is not the same as the estimate number and sometimes it can be tricky to keep them the same. I wish there was an automated function to send an invoice for the deposit once someone approves an estimate. Another thing that would be helpful is if people can schedule an estimate online, not just a job. I know I can convert jobs to estimate, but numbering can get tricky. One more thing. It would be helpful if on the app, you can see the invoice number right on the calendar or when you open up the job. I'm in metal warehouses a lot buying material and I have to select the invoice button just to see the invoice number and reception is bad. My way around it has been putting the invoice number in the notes, but that's obnoxious.

Avantages

Ease of setup. Kind and patient support team. Did I say patient? After our office manager retired, we were able to implement HCP and within weeks realized that we no longer needed an office manager! It was tough to change my ways after doing “what worked” for the first 28 years, but these last two years with HCP have really helped us grow and I spend about 15 hours/week less sitting at a desk. Our crews like having the power to create estimates and quote work and extras. The payment portal speeds up collections. The software is constantly improving. We are a completely paperless company now, save for permit applications and such. It is so easy to schedule out days, weeks, a month. Drag and drop to move appointments. Creating/changing unit prices is so easy.

Inconvénients

Making changes to estimates or invoices to a customer puts you back to the dashboard, which is distracting if you are handling multiple invoices for a property management company for instance. A work around is to open each one in a new window on the desktop. We use the desktop site in the field since the mobile site will not rotate on our iPads and we have keyboard cases. The dashboard shows outstanding invoices when you log on, but you cannot click on them individually to review. No integration with QB desktop, though I may be the only person who has that problem.

Avantages

With my main responsibility being dispatching service calls and administrative work, Housecall Pro makes it so easy to have all of the information in one place. You are able to see the status of service calls and invoice homeowners directly from the app. Another great feature of Housecall Pro is offering direct communication with customers and employees via text from the app. The convenience of an online dispatching system is that information can be accessed and updated in real-time so that everyone has accurate information at all times.

Customer service agents are available via chat during business hours and provide solutions to problems that you have within minutes which is also very helpful and reassuring when you have questions.

Inconvénients

There is nothing in particular that I don't like about Housecall Pro. Housecall Pro will continue to offer an excellent product, while actively improving their site and adding new features on a regular basis.

Avantages

Housecall Pro is a great CRM product. We are a plumbing company and we use this software every day and it helps us keep track of our customers in the cloud. We have not started using Housecall Pro in the field as of yet, but we will soon. Once a person learns the software it is fairly easy to upload a list of inventory items such as plumbing parts and then add these parts to a customer's invoice. We are experimenting with locating parts through voice recognition from the tablet and then adding these parts to the invoice rather than keying them in by hand. We use a time and material vs. flat rate customer invoicing system. Many companies are hard to reach or place you on long holds when you call them. Housecall Pro utilizes a chat feature which provides a timely response to our questions. Housecall Pro is an affordable and good quality software program that is web based. Some of the features of the program include job scheduling, dispatch, customer invoicing, the ability to accept credit cards in the field, and more. Overall we are very satisfied with Housecall Pro and recommend them as a Field Service Software solution.

Inconvénients

It would be nice to have sub categories or some type of drop down menu for our parts so they would be easier to find. For example it would make sense to have a category called copper fittings and then a sub category called elbows, and then a sub category to that for different types of elbows such as 22, 45, and 90 degree.

Since we are time and material plumbers it would also be nice to have an automated way to calculate our labor costs based on time spent on the job, but this still requires a manual calculation from what I understand.

Avantages

This has got to be the easiest "learning curve" I have ever experienced. Coming from a completely different industry, to manage the office here was a bit daunting. BUT - HouseCall Pro made it much easier.
a) Customers: Easy to set up customers in system, note their special preferences, create "tags" to track for where they heard about us, and contact them via emails or texts. Each account has the Zillow pic and profile of each of our customers - providing a wealth of information to us before we even arrive to service their home.
b) Employees: Love the "personal touch" of adding the photos of our team - Our customers can see who is arriving - and - with the notification system, they know when they will be there. TimeTracker makes payroll a snap, and allows employees the flexibility to check in and out while out in the field thru the app - not tied to a punch clock or computer in the office.
c) Scheduling: Easy to use, nice 'color-coding' features for each employee, with options to notify your customer of changes or not. Quickly able to schedule on the fly, thru the phone app. Can look day, week or month with a quick tab change.
d) Invoicing: LOVE it --- the team can enter in all their details, which would normally have to be transcribed from paper notes, on the Work Orders thru the phone app. Nice presentation to the customers, with immediate email invoice available, the minute the job is done and paid for. AND it flows to QuickBooks!

Inconvénients

Creating "work arounds" for creating multiple sub-accounts for a main client. Sometimes, there needs to be a three layer deep ability to categorize a customer. Example: Parent Company (Main Customer), which has multiple condominium complexes (Sub Accounts of Main Customer)- each one having its own name/ billing account, and then, the need to create sub accounts for each Condo Complex (a Sub Sub Account) - for each individual Unit (for service address)