Invoice on the Go with Mobile and QuickBooks Integration
A few years ago, we put in a call to one of our clients to ask about pain points in his business and what we could help with. When he answered the phone and we started discussing how his day was going, the first thing he said was, “I’m in Quickbooks hell.” That was years ago, and the story is still memorable.
Many field service small businesses probably feel and understand this concept of being in “Quickbooks hell.” Payroll, inventory, sales and other small business needs — all managed within Quickbooks — can be time-consuming, annoying, and prone to issue if not done right. But your people need to get paid, and sales need to get registered. So many of us consider this a necessary evil, whether we use Quickbooks or another program. Since Quickbooks enjoys close to 80% market share among small businesses, there’s a good chance you are using Quickbooks.
The thing is? “Quickbooks hell” doesn’t need to exist.
In fact, it’s possible to use Quickbooks to drive profits in your small business field service shop.
How? Like most ideas around field service management tools, it all comes back to integration.
When a program like Quickbooks fails for a small business — or when it causes people to say they’re in “Quickbooks hell”– what’s really happening is a lack of integration. If all of your systems operate in silos, then Quickbooks and similar programs do become a hassle. It’s often a maze you’re trying to navigate to get the right information you need to do your job. That can be frustrating.
This is where Quickbooks integration with Field Service Management software integration can come into play. You simply integrate Quickbooks with your field service management software — which is usually not that complicated and can be done in under three minutes — and now many of your systems are “talking” to one another.
That means scheduling, inventory, sales, dispatch, and payroll are all integrated and aligned. So if a technician gets backed up one day, the overtime will flow right into payroll. It’s not two separate calculations, or someone trying to determine billable hours after the fact. It’s integrated.
Integration makes your business run smoother and faster, which means more time can be freed up for bigger-picture items around decision-making. It’s less logistical, or “shallow,” work. It’s more strategic, or “deep,” work. That’s how you grow your business.
Using a Quickbooks FSM integration is a good example of common business advice, too: Outsource the parts of your field service operation that you’re not as good at. You may have a masterful payroll/accounting person in-house, and that’s great. But if he or she is good with numbers, this person could probably serve your business better in another capacity. So you outsource these skills to Quickbooks FSM integration, and you put this person in a more business-facing role. It benefits you in the long run.
It brings up one additional important point: You need a mobile-friendly field service management solution. Your technicians drive your business by being in front of customers, which means they need to be out in the field. Those customers might have something like Uber on their phones –so they’re entirely used to paying for service on mobile without even thinking about it. They don’t want some complicated paper-based process from their field service clients. They want a quick, easy, mobile field service management tool. If you have FSM software that’s mobile-first or mobile-friendly and you integrate that with Quickbooks, you’re ahead of the game on delivering the best customer experience possible.
This mobile part of the equation is crucial because that’s what your customers will expect. What else should you be considering when selecting a field service management software tool apart from mobile-first, integrated, and Quickbooks-friendly? Download our eBook to explore additional considerations as you research the possibility of purchase.
