Housecall Pro

Avantages

I like the ease of use for employees and users in the field. It is simple, yet allows our company to be in contact with our customers. From the office perspective, we have reduced how many invoices we are sending the mail significantly. Our customers like receiving e-mails from us, including the invoices. The portal for payment is easy to use. There has been a significant increase in online payments through the portal.

Our employees find the app easy to use and the location services make it easy for them to find our customers homes.

Inconvénients

The times on the schedule page, need to somehow be highlighted or the top of the hour bolded. It is really difficult to schedule an appointment on the week view for Friday, because the time is in the far left margin.

I would love to have the ability to make comments on the time card section. That way when I need to make a change to an employee's time card, I can also note why the change was made.

The way that the credit card payments integrate with quickbooks is frustrating, as I have to go to each transaction and manually change where it posts the payment. I would like to have the ability to designate where the payment goes. In addition, it would be nice to change the QB display name on HCP ourselves, instead of talking with customer support. One more thing, can payments affecting more than one invoice be posted as one payment, versus each individual invoice. This would make processing deposits so much easier.

Avantages

I like the way house call works on the desk top. It is quick and easy for me to do all my daily tasks as it pertains to each individual project I have going on. It is pretty easy to navigate through. The system allows me to keep all projects organize even if we have to go back out on more then one occasion.

Inconvénients

I don't like how difficult it is to search on the desk top version for a particle project. It would make it quicker and simpler to have a "1" step process to look up any project by address or contractor name. Too many steps and difficult right now to find what I am looking for.

The mobile version needs to be simpler for the ADMIN to be able to use. If I am away from the office I can only see my projects, not ALL. I need to be able to see all as the ADMIN in order to conduct business when I am away from my desk and office. Our business requires putting in the home owner address which is not the contractor's address on file. When I try to schedule a job in the field on the mobile version I can never put in the address of the home owner which is where I need my employee to go.(NOT THE CONTRACTOR OFFICE) I have to always put it in the notes and take an extra step to tell the employee address is in the notes instead of where it should be. This makes it very difficult to work with and dispatch my employee to the correct address.

Avantages

Ok so my partner and I started a new business together and I was using Joist which, for free, is a sweet app but I quickly realized that a serious business needed a serious software to help with logistics. Demo ensued and... Long story short our sales person was really cool and answered all of my difficult questions with ease. And trust me I am an office gorilla. And if you are trying to bamboozle me, well, I have those maternal instincts that can smell bamboozling a mile away. the program was easy to use and easy to learn. It has a real-time app that my tech in the field uses, it is partnered with zillow so the service address shows up with all the juicy details, bed/bathroom, sq ft, price it sold for . my tech uses the map function so he doesn't have to call me for directions. you can search specific date ranges and tag customers with specific tags for ROI data. It keeps a graph display dashboard of all the business vitals. Unlike other programs this one lets you pick the level you want to pay and for more you can get extra services. the lowest level still gives you plenty to run a successful business. I LOVE house call Sparky, the virtual text concierge, that reminds clients when their appointment is, confirms appt, tells them when the tech is en route and when a job is finished. There is a pay online feature, a "bill to separate address" feature, and the customer service is the BEST I've ever dealt with. they even take suggestions.

Inconvénients

when you use the payment box to run a credit card it pops up in the center of the screen and you cant move it to see what the billing zip is on the screen below it.
I don't know if it's me but sometimes it takes a few seconds longer than I like to load between screens. There might be a toggle feature I am missing.
I work hard and I expect my technology to do the same.
I would like to see a little more flexibility in the price list feature. It should operate faster with the line item selection. If I pick something I know is in our saved price list it takes a minute for it to populate the selection box.
When you are inputting the prices of line items by hand the cursor goes to weird places in the price. drives me bonkers

Avantages

Convenience, combines most of your business programs into one easy to use program
Customer Service, with offices on both coasts I am able to get in contact with customer service within 10 minutes.
Accessibility, I can access the program from any computer with internet connection or use my phone via the app.
Faster Reporting, employees out on the job can add details, services, or new jobs on sight.
Cuts out bridges between programs and communication, I can enter in a job on the program, assign my employee and it's sent to whomever I need it to be sent to (employee or client) saves me from having to enter it onto either a paper calendar, or a shared calendar, and then notifying the employee of the job and then waiting on a report that they have completed the work.
No contract - you can do monthly, half year or annual commitments

Inconvénients

Limited customization, I have to incorporate my own item code to personalize my clients services. The invoices are also limited on what can be changed/added
Only completed jobs can be searched. There's no search or sort option for each client. So I have to scroll through jobs. Once a client accumulates work it can be a hassle to scroll though pages of information.
Confirmation emails, because the invoices are sent though the program. I don't receive confirmation emails. It only show what has been sent.

Avantages

I have been a user since House Call Pro went national with their service. I don't have anything but good things about the company itself and the app/software!

First, the app is for the phone works flawlessly and has improved so much since I first started. (aka awesome development and customer service team behind the app).

The latest feature that I love is the employee time tracking feature! They can clock in and out right in the app! and the report for that is simple and user-friendly! I have 1 employee and looking to add another and this solves that huge time tracking issue I was having because they listen to their pros.

Now that doesn't cover what my customers have said to me about how they like all the notifications and email reminders and text alerts and so on and so on. This adds so much value to my company. Communication with customers is I think #1 in service based business' and House Call Pro knocks it out of the park!

Also great customer service. Great development speed. They are always getting feedback from their pros and using that to put the more requested features to the top of their development roadmap. I love that and have seen it over and over again the past 1.5 years or so I have been using the app.

Inconvénients

Cons? I would have to say no Ipad native app. However, they have made changes to the web portal so it is touch screen friendly and you can still use the mobile app as well just zoomed in. But the web portal through the browser on my iPad works well, I just know it would be snappier as a dedicated app. BUT I also know adding another version of the app would slow overall development of new features as a whole so I am understanding.