Things to look out for in your job management system

Choosing a Job Management is one of the most important decisions you’ll make for your business.   This system will become the platform for your business and the key points in the selection of a job management system is to ensure that it meets at least the top three key high-level requirements of your business.   You’ll also want to ensure that the job management system is regularly updated and will continue to evolve just as your business will evolve over the years.

You may wonder why only focus on your top three requirements – why not an entire list?  An important part of the selection process is to determine the key workflows within your business and see whether the prospective job management system can meet these needs.  The rationale behind this is simple – it is very easy to get distracted with requirements that are “nice to haves” rather than something that is completely critical for the business.  If you’re trying to both consider and evaluate multiple systems across a plethora of features it may just lead to analysis paralysis or the selection of a system that meets a number of needs but not the real key workflows for your business.  These also need to be at a high-enough level so the exact way this is performed is in itself not a distraction. 

An example of this can be recording materials and labour in the field and invoicing.  This becomes the starting point for a discussion or walk through of this key process.  What does this process look like in the prospective job management system?  Is it easy enough for everyone on the team to follow?  Is taking credit card payments part of your current workflows with your or the technicians on the team processing invoice payments via credit card at the completion of the Job?  If so, does the job management system integrate with a credit card gateway?  Does it automatically calculate credit card surcharges for you?  The last thing you want is to have anyone manually calculating and adding a surcharge for you – this should just be an option to configure in the platform and setup at the start and left to run for you.

Common mistakes we have seen over the years is businesses settling for a simple system for now and planning to upgrade in the future as their business grows.  You need to pick a system that will evolve and grow just like your business does.  Don't settle for a basic system - find the one that meets your requirements now and will also support the growth or evolution of your business.

Choosing a Job Management System is one of the most important decisions you will make for your business.  We hope the above pointers help you make a wise choice for your business and your team.  If you’d like to continue the discussion and see how Ascora can work for your business reach out to the Ascora Team on 1300 810 789 today!