How to Choose the Right Software for Your Business

For many gas engineers, paperwork is a necessary evil. It’s time-consuming, mundane, easy to mistakes with, and certainly not what pays the bills. If you’ve ever been stuck one evening or weekend sorting out your taxes or chasing up on unpaid invoices… you know what we’re talking about. 

Fortunately, there are many job management software options out there for you to choose from. But even if you understand the benefit of software, but it’s not always easy to know which one is best because business needs can vary. Are you a sole trader? Lead engineer? Or owner of a larger business with structured teams. 

The last thing you want is to swap between 2 or 3 (or more) software platforms before finally landing on the right one – so here’s a guide to help you get it right the first time round.

A step by step guide to choosing the right software for your heating & plumbing business

There are countless software options out there. Some are better than others and, most importantly, some are better suited to your business.

1. The first step you need to do is assess your business’ needs. 
2. Next, get started with a free trial or demo (or both).
3. Lastly, complete this simple software checklist before you sign up.

You’ll want to be sure you’re choosing the right one so you don’t have to waste time and effort searching for another few weeks down the line.

Let’s go through each step in more detail:

Part 1: Choosing the right software depends on your business’ needs

A sole trader may do the same work as a heating & plumbing company with 20 engineers, but their needs as a business are very different. Here’s an overview: 

When you’re a sole trader

Working alone has its benefits, but it also means that 100 per cent of the admin and paperwork is your responsibility. While it needs to be done, nobody wants to get home after a hard day’s work to a pile of paperwork.

This is precisely why our own customer feedback has told us the biggest concern of a sole trader is paperwork. The features they should be looking for in job management software need to help them minimise the amount of time they spend on paperwork to reduce stress and get more done.

For them, the most important features to look for are:

• Certificate & records
• Quoting & invoicing
• Customer detail management 
• Automated reminders

These four main features provide the basis for what any sole trader needs. 

For example, with software, all new records and certificates can be created and issued on the spot, while old ones are also easily accessed for reference. The same goes with quotes and invoices, meaning you won’t have to spend ages sorting through paperwork later on. 

The ability for the software to store and manage customer details is the glue that holds these two features together, allowing the software to organise all your records. It also makes sending automated reminders possible, helping sole traders get paid faster and capture more repeat business without any effort.

When you hire your first junior engineers

Lead engineers managing a few employees will find software very helpful in tackling additional needs such as organising jobs, managing employees and nurturing a positive relationship with their clients. 

If you’ve got a few engineers working for you, look for software that has all the above as well as a well-designed scheduling system. We’ve seen far too many engineers manage their teams through WhatsApp or a spreadsheet, when software could make their lives far easier. Software can guarantee the most effective use of employee time and can quickly let customers know your next availability.

Owners of a small business like this should also look for multi-device support, as being able to work on both mobile and desktop make life easier.

Here’s a list of features for a small heating and plumbing business (~2-5 employees):

• Certificate & records
• Quoting & invoicing
• Customer detail management 
• Automated reminders
• Scheduling
• Multi-device support

For these businesses, a customer relationship management (CRM) platform becomes even more important as engineers can access job histories and provide a better service because of it. 

When you hire dedicated admin staff

Once you expand to a more sizable team with dedicated admin staff, management becomes much more complex.

Your team will still benefit from features like digital certificates, invoicing and scheduling, but you’ll also enjoy features that help you streamline the job management flow, identify process bottlenecks, and gain a top-down view of the business.

Managers should look for software with a built-in job calendar and job management system. Aside from the great oversight these two features provide, they prevent engineers from driving farther than necessary, jobs getting dropped or missed, and unhappy customers calling to ask where their engineer is.

On the administrative side of things, you’ll want software that can be integrated with other systems you already use (such as Xero and Sage).

Finally, a larger company will greatly benefit from customisable access rights so that engineers can only see the customer details relevant to their own jobs. It’s important to remember that not all software marketed to gas engineers is designed specifically for them.

Here’s a full list of recommended features for larger heating & plumbing companies: 

• Certificate & records
• Quoting & invoicing
• Customer detail management 
• Automated reminders
• Scheduling
• Multi-device support
• Job management & calendar
• Integrations
• Custom access rights 

Telltale signs a trades business needs software

Of the 76,000+ gas engineering companies in the UK, a good chunk still rely on paper-based systems to run their business. Most of these companies are small teams or even sole traders, and suffer the same problems including:

• Work creeping into your evenings & weekends 
• Jobs getting dropped or missed
• Engineers frequently turning up late
• Less than ideal repeat business due to limited service reminders
• Time wasted on manually entering paperwork into accounting systems
• No real way of keeping track of late paying customers

Sign up for a free trial of Gas Engineer Software to see how we can solve all of these problems and help you buy back your time.