Count every cost that is not the subscription itself: the one-off setup fee, data import, training, any paid support tier, and the hours your own people spend learning and configuring the system. Then spread the one-off costs across the years you expect to stay, so that different options can be compared on a yearly basis.
The one-offs that appear on the quote
Field service software for a plumbing, electrical, heating or cleaning business arrives empty. Somebody has to fill it, and the vendor may charge to help. Read the quote line by line and ask about anything that is missing from it. Headings to look for include setup or implementation, import of customers and job history, training sessions, and a support plan above the basic level. Some of these recur, so check whether the support tier and any premium onboarding are charged once or every year.
The costs that are not on any quote
The larger cost may be your own time, and no vendor will put it on paper for you. Estimate it honestly.
- The office manager building the price book, job types, tax settings, invoice templates and message wording.
- Cleaning the customer list before import: duplicates, old addresses, landlords mixed up with tenants.
- Technicians learning the mobile app, and the slower jobs in the first weeks while they do.
- The dispatcher keeping the old schedule and the new one in step during the changeover.
- Reconnecting accounting, the phone system, the website booking form and card payments.
- Whoever ends up as the in-house expert answering questions for months afterwards.
Put a number of hours against each, and multiply by what an hour of that person's time is worth to the business. It will be rough. It is still better than leaving the line blank, which is the same as counting it as nothing.
Spread the one-offs across the years you expect to stay
A one-off only means something once it is set against time. Suppose setup, import and training come to 6,000 dollars and you value the staff hours at another 4,000. Stay four years and that adds 2,500 a year to the subscription. Leave after two and it adds 5,000 a year. Those numbers are invented to show the sum, so use your own.
The lesson is that a system you may outgrow quickly carries a heavier one-off burden than its quote suggests. Be realistic about how long you will stay. For the recurring side, our software bill calculator takes a per-seat price and any flat monthly platform fee and gives the yearly and three-year totals. Add your spread one-offs to that figure by hand.
What to ask before signing
- Exactly what the setup fee includes, and what would be billed as extra.
- Whether the import covers job history, notes, photos and attachments, or customers only.
- How many training sessions are included, for how many people, and whether new hires are covered later.
- What the basic support level includes, how you reach it, and what the paid tiers add.
- Whether adding office staff or technicians later changes any of these charges.
- What it would cost to get your data out again at the end.
Get the answers in writing and keep them with the agreement. A verbal assurance during a demo is hard to rely on a year later.
Apply the same test to every option
These costs exist whichever route you take, including a custom build. Anyone proposing to replace your software should be able to tell you who moves the data, who trains the crew, and what happens when something breaks. At Hiro we quote after seeing the current bill, we move the existing data across ourselves, and hosting, fixes and changes sit inside one flat monthly price. Even so, your staff will spend hours checking the new system against real jobs, and that belongs in your sums.
Our page for home service contractors sets out what contractors rent and what can be rebuilt, and our guide to renting versus owning business software deals with switching risk in more depth.