Field Service Software For Small Businesses

Find small-business Field Service Software that fits your budget and reduces the use of spreadsheets for managing jobs and schedules.

What Are the Best Software Solutions For Small and Medium Field Service Businesses?

How Much Should Small Businesses Spend on Field Service Software?

For small field service businesses, software plans start from £7.50 per user, per month. Your yearly budget for FSM tools should be between £200 and £4,000, depending on the number of users, work orders, technicians, and required features.

Field Service Management Software solutions comprises of multiple financial factors:

• Upfront costs like hardware
• Software subscription fees (either monthly or yearly, depending on the vendor)
• Extra fees for data migration, implementation, and integration with existing systems
• Add-ons such as fleet dashcam services and additional mobile app users
• Extra learning and support courses for staff

When budgeting, keep in mind the cost of a double-booking or spreadsheet error versus the monthly cost of purchasing software. Although there are upfront and recurring outgoings with software choices, the cost of a spreadsheet error can often be significant in a competitive landscape like field services.

Below is a table showing the potential ROI and Field Service Software for small businesses based on actual user data.

Benefits of Field Service Software For Small Businesses

Field Service Software for small businesses is designed to reduce time-consuming admin tasks, improve cash flow, and stay competitive. It provides tools like mobile apps means:

• Invoices are paid on time or immediately after job completion
• Money is saved by not over-ordering inventory and spare parts
• More jobs are completed on time and without delays or re-visits
• Admin time is reduced by digitising manual forms like quotes, invoices, and job sheets
• Engineers stay in the field more often, taking on more jobs

However, these outcomes aren’t guaranteed. To achieve them, you must ensure your choice of product, vendor, and implementation process is right. Otherwise, you risk purchasing a system that under delivers, causes friction among workers and customers, and fails to deliver meaningful ROI. This leads to buyer’s remorse.

Buyer’s remorse is common among first-time software buyers, like small field service businesses. 60% of SMBs regretted new technology purchases in 2024 after seeing no return on investment within 6 months. To avoid this, you’ll need to focus on three parts of your software research process:

1. Understand what it is you want from your field service tool in terms of opportunity or growth
2. Identify your must-have requirements in terms of features, support, and pricing
3. Finalise a budget that incorporates upfront costs, additional costs, and training

5 Considerations For Small Businesses When Choosing Field Service Software

1. What Can You Budget?

The most crucial part of your decision in this process is understanding what budget you have for purchasing Field Service Software. This should go beyond your budget for hiring workers, purchasing equipment, or upgrading vehicles, instead focusing on value:

• What does good ROI look like for your business?
• How long will it take for this solution to deliver ROI?
• Does the cost outweigh the inefficiencies of missed jobs, late invoices, or manual scheduling?

2. What Upfront, Monthly, and Long-Term Costs Are You Most Likely to Incur?

Identifying your expected costs will go a long way toward understanding your budget. You need to take into account the cost of:

• Onboarding and training costs
• Hardware requirements (tablets, smartphones, barcode scanners, etc.)
• Extra charges for additional users or job volume
• Storage, integrations, or support fees
• Annual price increases or contract renewals

Cloud-based field service solutions have made tools more available for small field service businesses. Instead of large lump sums, costs are typically split into manageable monthly or per-user fees.

3. What Are Your Most Required Capabilities?

To generate the most ROI from your purchase, you need a solution that delivers the capabilities your business requires. These capabilities should solve your current pain points first and gradually add value to your operations.

• Job scheduling and dispatching
• Mobile access for technicians
• Digital job sheets and customer signatures
• Inventory and parts tracking
• Integration with accounting or CRM systems

4. When Do You Need It Up and Running?

For small field service businesses, there is little margin for downtime. Once committed to a Field Service Software, you’ll want it up and running right away. This process can depend on:

• How much data needs to be imported
• The level of staff training required
• Whether the software integrates smoothly with your existing tools
• How quickly the vendor can support onboarding

5. Should You Take a Free Trial Before Purchase?

Free trials are an important part of the software buying process, especially for small businesses switching from spreadsheets. They help determine how useful a product is for staff and customers, how easy it is to use, and if it can deliver on your KPIs.

Today, it’s common for vendors to provide a free trial. However, a free trial is only as good as you make it. To ensure you get the most from this experience, be sure to:

• Set aside dedicated time to use the product in depth
• Make a list of what you want to achieve from this trial and what a successful trial looks like
• Recreate real-life scenarios such as logging job requests, assigning work orders, or tracking technicians
• Engage in a free trial set-up with the vendor to make sure you’re getting the most from it
• Involve your field staff and gather feedback

Essential Steps For Increasing Your Software’s ROI Potential

1. Focus on Smooth Data Migration From Spreadsheets

For businesses that don’t have a dedicated IT team, implementation of field service software can seem complex. Especially when migrating historical customer, work order, technician, and job data.

To give yourself the best chance of a smooth migration:

• Organise and clean existing data, making sure it is up-to-date, and that no wrong data will be transferred
• Tag essential data fields for import priority
• Ensure data is in the correct fields, meaning it can be transferred with existing field names
• Lean on the software vendor to assist when exporting and inputting data

2. Invest In Employee Training and Support

Adjusting to new technologies can be difficult, with staff and field workers shifting their normal way of working. To combat any user friction, vendor training and support are essential. Ensure your chosen vendor has the right resources to help. During the training and support processes, be sure to factor in:

• The amount of time needed to train employees during business hours
• Cost of training, including job delays and closing in business hours
• Training resources needed

3. Make Choices Based On User Familiarity

To avoid user friction and speed up the training process, select a system that is familiar and easy to use. That includes:

• Easy access to and understanding of dashboards and reports
• Raising work requests
• Assigning jobs
• Managing spare parts and inventory
• Creating and sending invoices and quotes

This is where free trials and product demonstrations are key, letting you see firsthand how the software interacts with your existing processes and data. A top tip here is to include workers in the trialling process and receive feedback on usability.

Spreadsheets and Calendars Vs Field Service Software For Small Business

Excel spreadsheets have over 750 million users worldwide, with most small and medium-sized businesses opting to use them because they are cost-effective and easy to use. Yes, spreadsheets are great when starting with a small client list, but they reach their limits once the number of jobs, workers, and customer grow.

On top of spreadsheets, small businesses will use a mix of shared calendars, email, messaging apps, and accounting tools. However, a field service system brings all this together in one platform. This results in fewer manual steps, fewer duplications, and more accurate data.

When migrating from spreadsheets to Field Service Software, vendors make the process as easy as possible. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days to map and transfer historical customer, job, accounting, and inventory data. The process typically looks like this:

1. Clean customer & site lists (names, addresses, postcodes) and format into one CSV file
2. Upload the CSV file into your field service management product (look for an import button or talk to a support team member)
3. Map your data from each column, row, and cell into the correct field
4. Review and run tests to ensure data is being collected and displayed correctly

How Field Service Software Helps Small Businesses With Invoicing and Billing

52% of small field service business owners worry about unpaid invoices. While 44% describe how late payments are the biggest pain points when issuing invoices to customers. For self-employed and small field service operations, receiving payments on time is a factor prioritised higher than anything else. Without payment, purchasing supplies are restricted, pending jobs build up, and cash flow problems mount.

Digitising billing and payments is just one of several benefits that small businesses reap when using a field service management system.

Collect Payment On-Site With Integrated Apps

With mobile access to a field service invoicing system, workers can generate invoices on the job. Whereas time would be wasted filling out forms and taking them back to the office, invoices can be generated with the click of a button, allowing customer details to be picked from the original work order. Once presented to the customer, instant payment is taken via a card reader and a digital signature is collected on a touchscreen device.

Automate Customer Payments

If a customer’s payment details are already stored on file, you can automatically take payment when a service has been agreed upon. This reduces the need to chase payments. If you have a client’s PayPal or credit card details, invoices are paid within minutes of a job being completed.

Utilise Batch Invoicing

Whether you’ve fallen behind on invoicing or prefer to send them all at once, batch invoicing can help. Having a batch invoicing option allows you to select the jobs that need billing and effortlessly send an invoice to all clients in just a few clicks. With customer and job details pre-loaded into your field service invoicing system, multiple invoices are ready within minutes.

Reduce Paperwork

An effective way to reduce billing and invoicing errors is by going paperless. Instead of sending payment forms back to the office to be filed and sorted, data is instead stored electronically. This essentially creates a digital trail that is accessible to all staff and customers. A digital audit trail can save hours when having to search for customer payment history.

Use Templates to Build Brand & Speed

A key factor in speeding up the invoicing process is by using already-generated templates. Invoicing templates have the necessary fields and data already stored, meaning your field workers don’t have to waste time by filling out forms and information at the end of a job. Templates can also be customised to include company branding and disclaimer messages. This makes the payment process both professional and consistent across all jobs.