Service Autopilot

[Briankook]

Here are pros and cons in my opinion of Service Autopilot:
Pros:
Excellent support team (they want to help)
It's constantly improving
Mobile functionality
Built on new technology
Easy to learn
Syncs with Quickbooks well
Automates billing
Can attach pics, images, contracts, etc to client and/or job
Excellent scheduling functionality
Can have new leads push from your website into system

Cons:
Monthly charge
Cannot add new services or materials to Quickbooks
Cannot 'hide' line items on invoice but have them calculated
Cannot send out renewal letters based on scheduled services like QX
Sales report doesn't seem to work

Verdict...SA will be excellent in another year or so after the improvements are made. I think they will be my choice for scheduling and billing software.
Posted via Mobile Device

[HBFOXJr]

Originally Posted by klsgc

Anyone use it for feet and squirt only? Can you send renewal letters to all the active clients during renewal time? I currently use qxpress and it is awesome for routing and scheduling but is terrible for lead tracking. Anyone come over from qxpress?
Posted via Mobile Device

I came from 10 yrs of QX and have no regrets. Lot's of good improvements and a few small drawbacks. I was running the enterprise version of QX. Upside potential or plan for SA looks very good with the next release.

[AdkadTechnologies]

Originally Posted by Briankook

Here are pros and cons in my opinion of Service Autopilot:
Pros:
Excellent support team (they want to help)
It's constantly improving
Mobile functionality
Built on new technology
Easy to learn
Syncs with Quickbooks well
Automates billing
Can attach pics, images, contracts, etc to client and/or job
Excellent scheduling functionality
Can have new leads push from your website into system

Cons:
Monthly charge
Cannot add new services or materials to Quickbooks
Cannot 'hide' line items on invoice but have them calculated
Cannot send out renewal letters based on scheduled services like QX
Sales report doesn't seem to work

Verdict...SA will be excellent in another year or so after the improvements are made. I think they will be my choice for scheduling and billing software.
Posted via Mobile Device

That is very helpful to break down the pros and cons that way for any product, but especially software. Software companies have to recognize that in many ways we are a big part of your business and if we cannot support you then we aren't doing our job and we aren't of much use.

[godjwood]

This is my first season using it. Overall- Great, saves me tons of time.

Pros:
-Excellent customer service (if it wasn't for this, I would never have stayed considering the cons below)
-Leads from website automatically entered as leads, leads easily converted to clients. Eliminates data entry in these areas. Saves a lot of time
-Invoicing so much faster than my old excel & quickbooks copy paste system.
-Good system for "waiting list" jobs & recurring work with no specific set data, eg fertilizing
-Charging credit cards a breeze
-Email templates saves tons of time

Cons:
-Glitches in almost all areas of system
-Long learning curve
-Takes a long time to set up your company
-Not user friendly or intuitive
-Many areas not fine tuned, like betas. You kind of have to feel your way through it and figure out what systems work for you.

But like others said, they have a huge update coming out soon that they have been releasing videos on which looks amazing, can't wait for it.

[ddmcintosh1]

Were you able to transfer your Qxpress data into Service Autopilot? I'm currently using Qxpress but just feel like it's losing advancement in the software field. Looking around but very nervous to switch and lose all my customer data.

[cpllawncare]

Originally Posted by ddmcintosh1

Were you able to transfer your Qxpress data into Service Autopilot? I'm currently using Qxpress but just feel like it's losing advancement in the software field. Looking around but very nervous to switch and lose all my customer data.

Do you not do backups? I have my customer data in more than one place for this very reason.

[ddmcintosh1]

Yes, I back everything up, but the last time I switched software my old customer data could not be imported into my new software, therefore, I lost 7 years worth of customer history. I still had it in a different location but I want it in only one location so I'm not switching back and forth.

[HBFOXJr]

Originally Posted by ddmcintosh1

Yes, I back everything up, but the last time I switched software my old customer data could not be imported into my new software, therefore, I lost 7 years worth of customer history. I still had it in a different location but I want it in only one location so I'm not switching back and forth.

Yes data can be moved. Also, your quick books history for the client appears to you essentially lose nothing.

[ddmcintosh1]

The info I'm most worried about losing is all of the job cost info, ex. how long each job took vs. estimated time, etc. All billing info is already in QB because I invoice thru QB, but I don't do job costing thru QB right now, I only do job costing thru Qxpress. Thanks for your help.

[cpllawncare]

Originally Posted by ddmcintosh1

The info I'm most worried about losing is all of the job cost info, ex. how long each job took vs. estimated time, etc. All billing info is already in QB because I invoice thru QB, but I don't do job costing thru QB right now, I only do job costing thru Qxpress. Thanks for your help.

I would think you could export data out of Qxpress as well?