10 things to look for in HVAC field service software

Most shops shop for field service software at the worst possible moment: the board is full, the phones are ringing, and somebody just lost a paper ticket. That's when a slick sales demo looks like the answer to everything.

A demo shows you the best path through the software. Your team walks a different path every day: the rushed path, the "customer changed their mind" path, the "tech forgot to write it down" path. This checklist is built around those paths. Each item comes with a quick test you can run yourself, in a trial or a demo, before you commit.

011. A dispatch board you can read at a glance

The board is where the office lives, so it has to answer three questions in a few seconds: who is where, what is late, and what hasn't been scheduled yet. Look for every technician's day on one screen, clear status on each job, and a place for unscheduled work that isn't a pile of sticky notes.

The test: move a job from one technician to another, then push it to tomorrow. Count the clicks. If it takes more than a few, it will take longer on a Monday in July.

022. A technician app your techs will actually open

The best office software in the world fails if the field never touches it. Technicians want their visits in order, big buttons, the customer's phone number one tap away, and nothing to fill in that doesn't matter.

The test: hand the phone to your most impatient tech and say nothing. Can they find their next job, mark themselves en route, and leave a note? Also ask the vendor what happens with weak signal in a basement or a rural driveway. "It needs a connection" is a fine answer, as long as it's the honest one.

033. Equipment and service history on the job

A tech who walks in knowing the make, model, serial number, install date and last three visits looks like a professional, and works like one. Look for equipment records attached to the customer and the address, not buried in a notes field, and for warranty dates you can actually see.

The test: open a customer with two systems and ask, "When does the warranty on the upstairs unit run out?" If nobody can answer from the screen, the warranty will expire without anyone noticing.

044. Invoices that come from the work

Every time someone retypes a paper ticket into an invoice, you pay for the same work twice and risk missing a line. The invoice should be built from the job itself, including the parts and labor the tech added on site, with sales tax worked out for you.

The test: complete a job in the demo with one extra part added in the field. Does the invoice already include it, at the right price, without anyone touching it?

055. A pricebook with costs, not just prices

A pricebook that only holds customer prices tells you what you charge, not what you make. Look for your cost and your price on every item, with the margin shown, so you can spot the service you've been doing at break-even for three years.

The test: find your most common repair in the pricebook and ask what it earns you after parts. If the software can't say, neither can you.

066. Maintenance agreements as records, not notes

If your agreements live in a spreadsheet or a note on the customer, you can't answer the questions that matter: how many visits do we owe this season, who is overdue, and what are the plans worth a month? Look for plans with a price and a number of visits, and a count of visits owed.

The test: ask, "How many maintenance visits do we owe this fall?" You want a number, not a project.

077. An accounting connection you can verify

"Syncs with QuickBooks" can mean almost anything. Ask exactly which records go across (customers, invoices, payments) and which don't (often voids, refunds and edits made after sending). Ask what happens when an invoice fails to sync, and where you'll see it.

The test: have your bookkeeper look at three sample invoices on both sides. A good vendor will welcome that. A vague answer about "real-time two-way sync" deserves a follow-up question.

088. Your data, in and out

Getting started means bringing in customers, equipment and your pricebook. Leaving someday means taking everything with you. Both should be possible without a support ticket and a fee.

The test: ask how to export all of your records, in what format, and whether that's included in your plan. Then read what the terms say happens to your data if you cancel.

099. Security basics that don't depend on trust

You're putting customer addresses, door codes and invoices into this system. At a minimum, look for a separate login for every person, roles that limit what each person can see and do, two-step sign-in, and a way to cut off a former employee immediately, including on a phone they're still holding.

The test: disable a user in the trial and ask whether their open session ends right away or whenever it happens to expire.

1010. Pricing you can predict

Make sure you know what counts as a user (often office staff count too), which features sit behind a higher tier, how long the contract runs, whether there's a setup fee, how much notice you get of a price increase, and how cancelling works.

The test: work out next year's cost at the size you expect to be, not the size you are. If you need a sales call to get that number, factor the sales call in.

How to run your own test

A demo shows the vendor's best case. A real test uses yours.

1. Pick three real jobs from last week: an easy one, a messy one and one that turned into a callback.
2. Run each from the first phone call to the paid invoice.
3. Do it with the people who'll live in the software: a dispatcher, a technician and whoever does the billing.

You'll learn more in an hour than in a week of feature lists.

Where Berm stands on this list

We make Berm, so take this with the appropriate grain of salt. It covers items 1 to 6 and 8 to 10: a dispatch board, a phone app for technicians, equipment and warranty records, invoices made from the job with sales tax, a pricebook with margins, maintenance plans that count visits owed, import from spreadsheets, export as CSV or JSON, roles and two-step sign-in, and public prices with every feature on every plan.

Where it falls short today: there is no offline mode, the QuickBooks Online connection is in early access, and card payments from your customers aren't available yet. We'd rather you hear that from us than find it out in week two.

The short version

• Test the paths your team walks every day, not the one the salesperson walks.
• Insist on invoices built from the work and a pricebook that knows your costs.
• Find out exactly what syncs to your books, and have your bookkeeper check.
• Know how your data gets out before you put it in.
• Price it at next year's size, including office staff.