By David Crary
As a business owner, you do your best to be as efficient as possible. Usually that means getting things done as quickly as possible, while being accurate and effective along the way.
To be as efficient as possible, a lot of field service businesses believe printing in the field is their best option. While this may make you slightly more efficient, it actually fails when it comes to being as accurate and effective as possible. Some of the reasons printing in the field isn’t efficient are:
- You won't get to review invoices.
If your tech is printing the invoice right when they finish a job, when do you get to review it? After the bill is already in the customer’s hands? Do you really want to be a business that has to ask for the invoice back so you can adjust it? Giving the invoice to the customer without the correct person reviewing it is a dangerous and unnecessary risk. - It's expensive.
You'll need a portable printer in your trucks to print the invoices immediately. These can be quite expensive. Plus, field printing technology still isn’t all that reliable – cheap models can break down quickly. And you’ll need to constantly buy ink and paper. You can cut out a lot of costs by printing in your office or better yet, emailing invoices to customers. - Your techs are cool and all, but they aren't running a business.
Being face to face with a customer, can at times, be a nerve wracking experience. Your tech may end up cutting a deal because they feel bad for the customer and are more concerned with appeasing them instead of keeping your lights on. The nice thing about printing the invoice in the office and sending it out (or emailing it) is that you can look over all of the details without the prying eyes or little voices of your customers. - Mistakes are pretty permanent.
Once a customer has an invoice, they consider it final. A customer usually won’t be willing take a new invoice with more charges on it because your guys made a mistake when they printed it out in the field. No one likes making mistakes and having to admit you made a mistake with an invoice in the field can make your company seem less reliable.
Case in point: We had a customer that wanted to print in the field. We were more than happy to help them – our mobile field service software enables printing in the field. But we also knew their process: They had their service manager review every invoice for accuracy. We recognized the potential for error and costly billing mistakes, and advised them to continue to review their invoices and, when approved, send them by email to their customers using Quickbooks. Because our service software for Quickbooks gives them the ability to send work order data to Quickbooks with a single click, customers receive invoices quickly and they can still be reviewed and approved by the service manager.
Field service scheduling software that connects to the field and to an accounting program that enables email invoices, like Quickbooks, is a much more accurate, cost-effective solution. You can still email a bill the same day, but now you get to review it before it gets into the customer's hand.
It is also nice to know you have one less device out in the field that can be damaged by techs. Invest in field service management software that will automatically send invoices to the office for review. Your customers can wait a few more hours for their invoice if it means it’ll be accurate and even environmentally friendly!