GarageDoorBossPro Blog — Garage Door Software

Choosing Garage Door Software: What to Check Before You Switch

Switching software is a real cost. Your office learns a new screen, your techs learn a new app, and your customer list has to move. It is worth doing once and doing right. Here is what to check before you commit to any garage door software, based on how a garage door company actually runs.

Test Before You Decide

The best way to check everything below is hands-on, as described in Trying Garage Door Software Before You Commit: The Live Demo and the Free Trial. Use this list as your guide while you click around.

1. Does It Know What a Garage Door Is?

This is the big one. Generic field-service software knows an address and a notes box. Garage door software should let you save each door and piece of hardware on the house:

• Doors, openers, torsion and extension springs, cables & drums, keypads, remotes, sensors, commercial doors and gate openers
• Brand, model #, serial #, year installed, size, drive or material and bay for each
• Equipment that fills onto new jobs, and changes on a job that flow back to the house
• Equipment that shows on the tech's job card, not buried in a notes field

If the tech still has to call the office to ask what size the door is, the software has not done its job.

2. Is There a Door Safety Inspection?

Tune-ups are a big part of steady garage door revenue, and an inspection is what makes them visible to the homeowner. Check for a checklist on the tech app that covers springs, cables, rollers, hinges, tracks, balance, the auto-reverse test, photo-eyes, opener force and limits, lubrication, seals, the emergency release, keypads and remotes. Check for readings, a condition and written recommendations, and a report you can print for the homeowner.

3. Do Tune-Ups Come Due on Their Own?

Recurring work should not depend on someone remembering. Look for yearly plans and commercial maintenance set by days between visits, and a map that shows who is due and who is overdue. That is how tune-up customers stay on plans year after year.

4. Does Dispatch Fit How You Split the Day?

Whether you run one van or five, check that you can see jobs by day and van, auto-route from the shop, set route order by hand, and drop an emergency spring call into a van's day. Crew GPS on the office map makes that last part much easier.

5. Will Your Techs Actually Use the App?

The best office software fails if techs will not use the app. Check that it runs on the iPhones and Android phones they already carry without an app store download, that each tech has their own PIN, and that a job takes a few taps: Start, checklist, photos, Complete. Check that on-the-way and arrived texts go out without the tech typing anything.

6. Can It Bill Every Kind of Customer?

Homeowners pay per job. Property managers, HOAs and commercial accounts want one statement a month. Check for invoices with line items and sales tax, card on file charged at completion, online payment, past-due follow-up, and monthly account billing with every address on one statement.

7. Can You Get Set Up Quickly?

Ask how your customers get in. A CSV import with addresses placed on the map automatically is the practical answer. Check how long it takes to add your services, vans and techs. A garage door company should be able to run real calls within a day or two.

8. Is the Price Simple?

GarageDoorBossPro plans are Start at $59/month, Pro at $89/month and Crew at $199/month, with the office, tech app and customer app on every plan. Each includes a monthly text allowance for the US and Canada. Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial and no credit card.

Whatever you compare, look at what is included in the price, not only the price itself.

9. Does the Customer Side Hold Up?

Your customers will use the software too, so look at it from their side. Can a homeowner see where the tech is on today's route, request service, sign up for a tune-up plan, update their card and pay an invoice without calling you? Can they choose their own alerts? A good customer app takes the small calls off the office phone and keeps your name in front of homeowners between yearly visits.

Making the Call

Run through this list with your own calls. If the software remembers every door, runs the inspection, brings tune-ups back, fits your vans, gets used by your techs and bills every customer the way they want, it is the right fit. You can always step back to the complete guide, Garage Door Software: The Complete Guide for Garage Door Companies, for the full picture. And for every feature in one place, visit the GarageDoorBossPro garage door software page.