Housecall Pro

Avantages: Housecall pro was designed with the most important things to be successful in business in mind. They are constantly improving the software, and have estabilshed a community that you can tap into to become a better business. They listen to their users and are proactive. And the mobile version works great!
I have Housecall pro fully integrated with Quickbooks Online, offer integrated online booking, offer service agreements, and impress customers with the automated texts and emails. I originally spent I don't know how many hours looking for the right software, trying to figure out what they all actually did, and tried several different programs. I even switched to another software after using Housecall for a year because I thought they were not going to develop their service agreement capabilities, but that

Inconvénients: Over the past two years, there have been several issues for which I have needed to use a work around, but most of those issues have been, or are being addressed. Currently the most inconvenient issue is a somewhat clunky estimate process, and the inability to create multi-option estimates from the mobile app, but they are working to solve that issue.

Commentaires: HCP has brought our business to the next level. We have been using the software for two years and have a very basic plan. Before HCP, we were keeping our appointments in a spiral calendar and customer information was difficult to maintain. With HCP, we have been able to better track our customer activity and history. One of the newer features that I find interesting is the lifetime value of the customer. This is giving us some insight into how much revenue our customers generate. I am considering upgrading to the next level of HCP to begin accessing some of the marketing tools that HCP promotes.

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.

Commentaires: I like HouseCall Pro very much on the desk top version and would definitely recommend the program to others. I would not recommend the mobile version at this point only because of the issues I have stated. I hope that in time the mobile version will catch up to the desk top version for the ADMIN to be able to conduct business whether in the field or in the office.

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.

Commentaires: it makes my job way easier AND we were able to have a paperless office.

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

Commentaires: We are a commercial cleaning business and have been in business for almost 20 years. For the last few years we have been transitioning from paper to digital. We have multiple employees, that are private contractors. They work at several locations. Each location has it's own pricing. Most times any additional services or charges added to a job are reported back with in a day or two.
We were using a paper calendar for on the go access, that was then copied to a shared online calendar. That information was entered into an invoicing program and invoices were emailed via a private email account. The process from work ordered to invoice sent could take up to a week depending on when our employees got back with information about the job. Going into this next year we decided to try an "all in one" program. Housecall Pro so far has been great! It has most of the features we need. I love the app feature that comes with this program. It pings the employee when a job is assigned. Reminds them of upcoming work, gives directions to the location and lets them add details, pictures, or services to that job on site. My workload has been cut significantly, allowing me to get to other administrative demands finished that usually get pushed into my weekend. Having the calendar, employee assignment, clients, services, and invoicing all in one place is amazing.
I've had to make some adjustments and "tricks", since it is a basic program. But nothing enough that's made it difficult to use. Overall it has taken a good amount of stress and transition from our plate. For single users to a company with multiple employees, this program can do a lot for you.

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.