Lawn Care Forum banner

Service Autopilot

118K views 492 replies 82 participants last post by  canucks 
#1 ·
For those of you using service autopilot:

Can you tell me what you like and don't like.

How far are you using it. Do you have devices in each truck they use for their daily lists?

What else?
 
#2 ·
subscribing....I only use a device in one of the trucks right now and the other is paper routes but going to try all devices next season if I can train some of the older guys to like the technology.lol

Jason
 
#4 ·
best software for time tracking. it is unbeatable in that sense. it also allows you to automatically see how much you making per job/minute working. either by day or job site over time.

the bad. to track on a device it needs a data connection.
there is no real marketing section of the software.


they are putting out a release october 8
it is suppose to have maintenance tracking of equipment.

one of there next updates will be a app based time tracking/routing and not a data based one
 
#6 ·
That would be a nice update to have an app based routing system. It would save from having the data connection in each truck.

What else guys? Do you feel like the time it saves is worth the 140 bucks a month?
there not saying when the phone app will be out.
hopefully soon but who knows.

it does save you time when invoicing, it totals up the whole month automatically, as well as weekly invoices on Saturday night it also adds what they did not pay yet.

i love there system for charging the credit cards. i send invoices on sunday every week, then charge the cards on tuseday. in my bank on thursday.

that alone is worth it for me. it really speeds up cash flow.
 
#8 ·
Good thread we are looking for some software right now.

I saw mcfarland had mentioned this in another thread and became very interested.
However I am concerned about not working with cell phone yet as someone said.

Everyone has phones already I don't want to make the investment of getting tablets for each truck. Or am I misunderstanding this?
 
#10 ·
Good thread we are looking for some software right now.

I saw mcfarland had mentioned this in another thread and became very interested.
However I am concerned about not working with cell phone yet as someone said.

Everyone has phones already I don't want to make the investment of getting tablets for each truck. Or am I misunderstanding this?
It does currently work on cell phone with a data connection. It is rather slow though, they are releasing an app though that will be much more lightweight.
 
#12 ·
SAP is the way to go. It saves alot of time and energy at the end of the day. You schedule everything in the morning close it out on the mobiles or close it out at the end of day everything gets billed. I have been using it over 2 years now and it has saved me tons of time and money. They are coming out with another BIG update next month should be even better then what we are using now.
 
#14 ·
Do you see much from the sales and marketing aspect of it?
what do you mean?

in terms of marketing?

in terms of sales, it is perrty good.
but you do need to use the software.

for sales
you can add new calls as leads.
it also tracks who enters information into your website. there added as leads.
it can track leads by month and the conversition to new clients.
it also can tell you how many times some one calls you and when, and what they wanted.
it can also tell you what estimates where sent, accepted, denined, by date or client.

in terms of sales it is great.
the new update should also help with new alerts for time passing with leads,estimates.

in terms of marketing
there is not much there.
there is a website that they can build for you,
there is a email message you can send out.
that is it in terms of marketing
 
#15 ·
Yeah thats what I was looking for.

I was curious how it all tied together. I saw they can develop your site, add a lot of seo, and then track leads and thought I saw something about email marketing.

I was assuming it would help with sales keeping you right on top of everything.
 
#16 ·
In addition to everything said before, if you make use of the ticketing system it can save you a ton of headache trying to remember who to call, or where you are with this lead and what the next step is, etc.

I use it a ton during the Christmas season when you have a hundred different phone calls to make and installs to schedule, you simply create a ticket for each customer and when you get off the phone with them you update the ticket to what the next action is and when it is suppose to happen. Then you can forget it and the system will remind you automatically when to perform that action and you can look back and see exactly what has transpired from day one.

Or if a client calls in June and says they want you to aerate and seed in the fall you can simply create a ticket to remind you to call them the first of September with notes of exactly what they asked for and if you have any suggestions you would like to make to them as well.

There is a little more to the marketing than was said but it is definitely somewhat limited.

One other thing, you can set up document templates so that you can send off a preliminary proposal for clients to review and when they agree to it, one click and that proposal turns into a full blown contract with all the custom fields filled in and ready to be signed. You just have to put a little time into getting everything set up.
 
#18 ·
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
 
#20 ·
I'm possibly coming over from QXpress. I've been a QXpress user for seven years and liked it. We used the Enterprise edition with 10 users. However, QX seemed to go stale and there has been no improvements of the software, especially since it sold.
I've been experimenting with SA for about a month and like the direction the company is going. Especially the mobile functionality.
Posted via Mobile Device
 
#21 ·
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
 
#22 ·
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.
 
#23 ·
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.
 
#24 ·
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.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top