Signs You're Ready
- You have 2+ techs and double-booking happens monthly
- You spend 5+ hours/week on invoicing
- You can't remember who you quoted last week
- You've missed follow-ups that would have closed
- You're doing $150K+ in revenue
If you check 3+ boxes, the math on $29-$99/month FSM software almost always works.
Pick the Right FSM (Quick Match)
- Solo to 3-person service trades → Jobber Core/Connect ($29-$99)
- Marketing-focused HVAC/plumbing/electrical → Housecall Pro ($49-$149)
- HVAC/plumbing with QB Desktop → FieldEdge
- $1.5M+ HVAC/plumbing/electrical → ServiceTitan
- Roofing, retail → JobNimbus
- Roofing, insurance restoration → AccuLynx
- Remodeler / small GC → Contractor Foreman ($49) or Buildertrend ($299)
Take the 2-minute software quiz if you want a personalized match.
What to Migrate (and What to Skip)
Migrate first
- Active customer list (name, address, phone, email)
- Open quotes
- Unpaid invoices
- Service agreement / recurring customers
- Job history for top 100 customers
Skip (or do later)
- 10-year-old customer records — your active list is your last 24 months
- Old quotes that didn't close
- Pricing pre-2024 (rebuild a current pricebook instead)
30-Day Implementation
Week 1: Setup + import
- Sign up + complete onboarding call
- Import customer CSV (most platforms have free import help)
- Configure quote/invoice templates with your logo
- Set up payment processing
Week 2: One workflow
- Pick ONE: quoting OR scheduling. Get good at it before moving on.
- Send all new quotes through the FSM only — no fallback to Word
Week 3: Bring in techs
- Mobile app training, 2-3 hours per tech
- Each tech completes 3 jobs end-to-end in the app before going solo on it
- Run a job-completion checklist for the first 2 weeks
Week 4: Cut over
- Stop using spreadsheets for new work
- Keep old spreadsheet as read-only history reference for 90 days
- Review one report (revenue, AR aging) every Monday for 6 weeks
Common Mistakes
- Picking software without trying free trials. Sales demos hide real friction. Test on real jobs.
- Trying to migrate everything at once. Start with one workflow. Add automation later.
- Not training techs. Office adoption is 80%; tech adoption is 20%. The whole system breaks if techs revert to paper.
- Going live during busy season. Pick your slowest month. Productivity will drop 20-30% for 2-4 weeks.