Written by Andy and Angela Smith
Job management software does lots of the heavy lifting for tradies in business. It allows you to coordinate and automate many day-to-day functions and provides a central hub for your office and mobile teams.
From the initial quote to final invoicing, job management software manages all of your jobs. It ‘plugs in’ to your systems ecosystem and ultimately frees you up to step out of your trade business. Booyah!
This article is for you if you’re keen to give up your paper or cloud-based diary but you’re not sure which job management software is best for you. Or, you want to up the ante on your job management software.
Before we reveal our top job management software systems for tradies, it’s worth noting, one size doesn’t fit all. We’ve compiled the following quick checklist to help in the decision-making process.
Here’s our job management software checklist
- Is it industry specific?
- Is it cloud based?
- What are your device and network capabilities?
- Hardware compatibility?
- Does it have offline features?
- Is it easy to use?
- Can you trial the product?
- Can it be customised?
- Which tasks can be automated?
- Can it produce customisable reports?
- Can it scale with my business?
Comparing apples with apples
We’ve recommended job management software products developed by businesses committed to making constant upgrades, courtesy of feedback from customers. This means they’re all whiz-bang. It comes down to which one’s most relevant to you and your trade business.
Here’s how you work it out.
- While each job management system fundamentally does the same job, they’re different in many ways. The best fit for you will depend on the style of your business, for example maintenance versus project work, and how your business is set up.
- For job management software to be most effective, set it up so you’re getting the information that’s important to your business for reporting purposes, for example, market segmentation, customer campaigns, and customers details should be specific.
- Consider how your business operates. Are you a one-man show or do you have a big team? Do you take customer calls on-the-job or do you have a team in the office managing this?
- Job management software is mobile. It allows for visibility in the field, which is great for tradies. Does your job management provider activate job changes in real-time or is there a lag?
- What’s your long-term business plan? Some software providers have lower-cost products available while you’re in the start-up phase, with flexibility to move up to a more robust version later.
Our advice is this: Speak with fellow tradies about their experiences and ask questions about a product’s capacity to service your specific needs.
Finally, here’s our top 6 (in alphabetical order)
- AroFlo: aroflo.com
- Ascora: ascora.com.au
- Buildxact: buildxact.com.au
- Fergus: fergus.com/en-au
- ServiceM8: servicem8.com/au
- Tradify: tradifyhq.com/site
Selecting job management software is a huge decision for tradie bosses. Once the software is integrated into your business, it’s hard to switch products. Doing your due diligence will help you get the right product in place to kick long-term profit and lifestyle goals.
If you want to learn more about systemising your trade business, head to our awesome new podcast, ‘The Tradie Show — Together in Trade Business’ episode, ‘Why systemising your business is the key to success.’ This episode guest stars friend of the show and owner of Fergus job management software, Dan Pollard. Click here to check it out wherever you get your podcasts.
