George CollierMost trade and field service businesses start on ServiceM8, Jobber or Simpro, and for good reason. They work out of the box and they're built for the common case. Some businesses outgrow them, and the signs are usually the same.
Below about 10 engineers, off-the-shelf scheduling software is usually the right choice. It's cheaper and you can be live in days.
Custom scheduling makes sense when per-engineer fees add up, or when your work doesn't fit their templates, like multi-day installs, planned maintenance contracts or jobs that need specific certificates.
What off-the-shelf does well
Scheduling software for trades covers a lot: a calendar of jobs, a mobile app for engineers, quotes, job sheets and invoices. If your jobs are mostly single visits by one engineer, with a standard job sheet at the end, these tools are hard to beat. I wouldn't build custom for that.
Signs you've outgrown it
- The planner keeps a spreadsheet or whiteboard next to the scheduling tool, because the tool can't show what they need to plan.
- Multi-day jobs and crews are split into separate bookings that have to be moved one at a time.
- The office still phones engineers with job details, access notes or parts, because the app doesn't hold them in a useful way.
- Planned maintenance visits are tracked outside the system, and some get missed.
- Certificates are filled in on paper or in a separate app, then typed up back at the office.
- Job sheets are retyped into invoices, so billing runs days or weeks behind the work.
What it costs to work around
For a team of 15 engineers, we estimate scheduling admin takes around 28 hours a week: planning the week, rescheduling around cancellations, phoning engineers, confirming appointments, chasing job sheets and turning them into invoices. A system that fits the work gets most of that under two hours, because the phoning, confirming and retyping go away completely.
What custom scheduling looks like
Custom scheduling and dispatch software plans jobs around each engineer's skills, certificates, location and availability, and groups them by area to cut driving time. Move a job on the board and the engineer and customer are told straight away.
Engineers see the day on their phone, with addresses, job history, parts and access notes, and it works offline. They fill in job sheets and certificates on site, with photos and a signature. A finished job becomes a draft invoice in Xero or QuickBooks with the time and parts already on it. Recurring visits are scheduled from each maintenance contract, with reminders before they're due.
It's one of the systems we build and run for a flat monthly price, with no per-engineer fees, so adding engineers doesn't change what you pay.
| Compared on | Off-the-shelf | Custom |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Per user or engineer | Flat monthly price |
| Time to go live | Days | First version within 30 days |
| Job types | Their templates | Multi-day installs, crews, maintenance contracts |
| Planning | Calendar and drag and drop | By skill, certificate and location |
| Certificates | Generic forms or add-ons | Your required format, filled in on site |
| Changes | Feature requests to the vendor | We build and release weekly |
| Best for | Under 10 engineers, single visits | 10+ engineers with work that doesn't fit |
How to decide
Watch your planner for a week. If most of their time goes on the scheduling tool itself, stay on it. If it goes on spreadsheets, phone calls and retyping around it, that's the time a custom system gives back.
If you're thinking about this, the cost of hiring a developer to build it is worth reading first.
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