Field service management companies come in all sizes, and their computing needs will differ greatly by industry. That’s why you should never choose a field service management (FSM) software without comparing the features. This comparison of Housecall Pro vs. Workiz focuses on the major capabilities of these two FSM systems, and how they might improve your organization.
Overview of Housecall Pro
Housecall Pro‘s unique selling point is a premium set of features packaged into a very easy to use interface that’s optimized for both desktop browsers and mobile devices. It has a seamless user experience-focused aesthetic and makes updating and accessing records easy for even the least technology savvy user.
It supports all the major desktop browsers and mobile operating systems so it’s accessible from anywhere, and the dashboard interface gives users easy access to deeper insight like business statistics and analytics, giving you an at-a-glance picture of your financial health and employee performance whenever you need it.
Overview of Workiz
Workiz is suited to larger organizations with more users than many FSM competitors (including Housecall Pro). It’s similarly designed for both desktop and mobile access, and has an underlying philosophy built on communication. From right in the platform and without the need of third party apps or plugins, you can send notifications and alerts to users or customers and even set up custom notifications based on different behaviors or triggers along the chain of job completion.
Voice over IP (VOIP) capability also lets you make and record calls from within the platform, exchange text messages with staff and customers and more.
Major features in common
Field Service Management software, if implemented properly, should contain everything you need to cost or quote a job, manage, schedule and track its progress, finalize and bill when you’re done, and then give you easy access to historical records after the fact, and both Housecall Pro and Workiz excel in those basic areas.
Accounting integrations
They both contain seamless connectivity to major accounting packages, so when it comes time to do your tax return you won’t have to export, repurpose and juggle files and formats to force data into your accounting system.
Job management
The management of jobs after they’ve been done also includes auditing in both platforms, a critical step in making sure you’re covering overheads and staying in profit (and adjusting rates or prices if you’re not).
Customer relationship management
And where a lot of cheaper or free offerings in this sector contain only rudimentary customer contact databases, both Housecall Pro and Workiz have fuller-featured CRM suites to give you deeper insight into the work, billing and marketing history you’ve shared with each customer.
Major differences
Because it targets larger organizations than Housecall Pro, Workiz has a larger toolset with capabilities you’d expect if you ran a larger fleet or workforce. A good example is inventory tracking if you deal not just with vehicles but parts or products.
Another feature that Workiz has that you won’t find in Housecall Pro is advertising management, letting you input data about campaigns you’ve conducted and giving you even finer detail about the ROI of your marketing efforts. In fact, ad management is just one aspect that contributes to direct ROI tracking, which covers several sources of both expenditure and revenue and gives you a much clearer picture of your financial standing.
Oddly enough for a platform with this many features, there’s no onboard invoice creation or invoice history tracking in Workiz, other than through the CRM function. You have to transpose or export your data from the system to create a customer invoice. It seems like a strange omission, but it has to be said an organization of the size Workiz is likely to appeal to will probably have invoicing set up as part of its accounts system.
Housecall Pro has native budgeting and forecasting tools you can compare against finished jobs or tasks to give you ROI information, and its data visualization aesthetic is a little more suited to those with less IT knowhow who need more guidance about how to find information.
Choosing the best Field Service Management software
Housecall Pro has a lower introductory monthly subscription fee at $49 (billed annually) that contains almost every function you could possibly need for Field Service management as an SME, with other plans at $109 and $199 that extend the features right up to some of those mentioned above like GPS tracking.
The different pricing tiers from Workiz, by contrast, offer the same essential features but access for an increasing number of users. Each plan has an unlimited number of free users (subcontractors or suppliers who have the ability to accept assigned jobs). But the $109 per month (annually) subscription gives you two pro users – intended for admins or business owners who can access all features, communicate with other users and/or invoice and accept payments. Beyond that, $199 per month includes six pro users and $299 buys you 15 or more pro users.
As always, look at your field service management needs from end to end and come up with things you need that are non negotiable. That will direct you to one choice over another, and both platforms offer free trials to put the UIs through their paces.
