Dispatch/Invoice Programs

[Drain Medic]

Anyone use these? I use My Invoices and Estimastes for invoicing. Good program. I just Quickbooks Contractor Edition as well on the advice from Robert. I know JayRay has a good dispatching/customer database program and invoicing system. What do you guys use?

[stxrus]

for dispatching i have a legal pad and a bic pen. forinvoicing i have an invoice pad (2 part non carbon) and another bic pen. :D

i'm a small guy on a small island in the middle of a BIG body of water

steve

[Herk]

Sometimes, I find my customer's address in Google Maps, then, before I print it, I put all the pertinent information in the place where you can type in notes. That way, it's all on one sheet.

Then, I use my self-made 2-part NCR paper invoices that I've upgraded from T&M to Flat Rate.

When I take the call, I write the info on anything from a medium-sized post-it to a "while you were out" type of call book. Those are nice because they have a duplicate if you lose the first one . . .

And I use an ancient Quickbooks Pro for my books.

[bigPipe09]

I just ordered some 3 part carbon work order/invoices that have a 50 item checklist conveniently placed on the margin, these are for the service van.
But I would really like to try an invoicing program. Can someone please suggest one so I can download it illegally.

[Service Guy]

Now that I am using a professional upfront pricing program, I really need to get more professional invoicing also.
I am pretty good at finding this sort of stuff on the interwebz, so if nobody else does, I'll post what I find.

[Crappy days]

Considering companies like ARS, Roto Rooter,Mr. Rooter are corporate and usually on top of paper work, I always review there invoices. I bet these companies have been sued more than any other service company out there. Because of that there paper work is probably pretty solid. I usually see a few guys I know from time to time at the supply house(from these companies) . They will always give me copy's of there paper work/invoices for review. At least when I first started this was how I would draft my own three carbon copy invoices. I know it sounds cheesy but why spend the money on a lawyer if you don't have to. Now my wife updates my invoice every time I have them printed( she is a lawyer). And Ill be dammed if another lawyer wouldn't cost me less. Oh well at least shes my wife.

[DuckButter]

Sometimes, I find my customer's address in Google Maps, then, before I print it, I put all the pertinent information in the place where you can type in notes. That way, it's all on one sheet.

Then, I use my self-made 2-part NCR paper invoices that I've upgraded from T&M to Flat Rate.

I think I posted this a month or so past.
I do the exact same thing using Wordpad.
I copy/paste a mapquest image of their location with all customer info at the top for easy future reference, I have yet to get a GPS for my truck.

I use old school carbon paper and work order / invoice forms from Office Depot.

For scheduling, I keep a simple notepad with the other work documents on a seperate zip drive in case the PC were to fail.

I also use a seperate notepad doc to run daily totals of both gross/ net income and expenses...makes it extremely easy at tax time to know what, when & where my expenses occured.

Each night, I open my schedule & totals documents, add in my days figures & call tomorrows customers or add new business into my schedule.

I'm afraid to get software that does all this, the learning curve would likely cost me in the short run, also prices on this type software can be high...I'd priced simpler packages at $1500 to $2K when I first started.