Picture a six-truck plumbing company without FSM software. Calls get written on a notepad, the schedule lives on a whiteboard, techs text photos to the owner, and invoices are typed from carbon copies on Friday. Every hand-off is a chance to lose a detail, and nobody can say what last month's average ticket was without a day in a spreadsheet. Field service management software exists to replace that chain with one shared record.
What does field service management software do?
The modules below follow a job from first call to paid invoice.
| Module | What it does | Without it |
|---|---|---|
| Customers and locations (CRM) | Contacts, addresses, equipment, history | Searching texts and paper files |
| Booking | Phone, online and lead intake into real arrival windows | Double-booked mornings |
| Scheduling and dispatch | Assigns techs by skill, location and capacity | A whiteboard and phone calls |
| Technician app | Job details, forms, photos, estimates, signatures in the field | Paper tickets typed in later |
| Price book | Standard tasks and prices, often flat rate | Every tech prices differently |
| Estimates and invoices | Options on site, invoice when the job's done | Invoices days or weeks late |
| Payments | Card, bank transfer and text-to-pay | Checks in the truck |
| Memberships | Recurring plans, visits due, member pricing | Missed tune-ups and renewals |
| Reporting | Revenue, average ticket, close rate, first-time fix | Guesswork |
Larger platforms add phones, marketing, inventory, payroll and accounting connections. More modules isn't automatically better; every one you pay for and don't use is cost.
Who uses FSM software?
Any business whose revenue is earned at the customer's location: HVAC, plumbing, electrical, garage doors, appliance repair, pest control, cleaning, landscaping and commercial maintenance. The core is the same, but the details differ by trade. A residential HVAC shop leans on memberships, good/better/best replacement options and refrigerant records. A plumbing shop needs fast emergency dispatch and drain camera photos. A commercial contractor needs multi-location customers, purchase orders and progress billing. When you compare products, weight the modules your trade actually uses, not the length of the feature list.
FSM vs CRM vs accounting software
| FSM | CRM | Accounting | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main question it answers | Who's going where, and did we get paid? | Who are our customers and prospects? | Are the books right? |
| Core records | Jobs, appointments, invoices | Contacts, deals, activities | Ledger, bills, payroll, taxes |
| Used by | Office, dispatch, techs, owner | Sales and marketing | Bookkeeper, accountant |
| Mobile app for techs | Yes, central | Rarely | No |
| Typical setup in a trade shop | The system of record | Usually built into the FSM | Connected to the FSM |
Most trade businesses run FSM plus accounting software, with the FSM sending invoices and payments to the books. A separate CRM tends to make sense only for a dedicated commercial sales team.
How is FSM software priced?
Vendors use different models, and some don't publish prices at all. ServiceTitan's pricing page lists three plans priced per technician and asks you to request pricing.1 Jobber publishes plans priced in bands by number of users, with monthly, one-year and annual billing options.2
| Pricing model | How it works | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Per technician | Price × field techs; office users may be free or extra | Who counts as a tech; minimum seat counts |
| Per user, in bands | Fixed price for up to N users | Jumping a band when you hire one person |
| Quote only | Price after a demo | Hard to compare; negotiate in writing |
The number that matters is first-year cost at your real headcount:
Formula
Our FSM software buyer's guide compares published prices, contract terms and data export rights across the main vendors. If you're pricing a ServiceTitan quote, the calculator below builds the first-year total.
Free calculatorServiceTitan cost calculatorEstimate first-year ServiceTitan cost at your tech count and compare it with TradesWork.How do you choose FSM software?
- 1
List the five jobs you do most
A no-heat call, a maintenance visit, a replacement estimate, a two-day install, a membership renewal. Every demo should run those.
- 2
Price your real year
Use your tech and office headcount, the add-ons you'd actually need, and your card volume. Ask about setup fees and the contract term.
- 3
Test the tech app where techs work
Put the phone in airplane mode in a basement. Can a tech open the job, take photos, build an estimate and get a signature?
- 4
Check you can leave
Find out what you can export, in what format, and whether exports cost extra. Your customer history is yours.
- 5
Run a real week
A trial with your own price book and a handful of real jobs tells you more than any demo.
Questions to ask every FSM vendor
- Is pricing published, and who counts as a paid user?
- What's the contract term, and does it auto-renew at a higher price?
- Which features are add-ons, and what do they cost?
- What are the card and bank transfer rates?
- What works in the tech app with no signal?
- Can I export all my data myself, any time, at no charge?
Offline support is easy to claim and hard to do well; the offline mode page explains how to test it.
How TradesWork fits
TradesWork is a field service management platform for HVAC, plumbing and electrical shops, with published prices: Essentials $79, Pro $99 and AI $139 per tech per month billed annually, with office staff, helpers and apprentices free, month-to-month available and a 14-day trial with no card. It covers booking, the dispatch board, the TradesWork Field technician app with no-signal work, good/better/best estimates, payments, memberships and reporting, and its importer brings over customers, price book, history and memberships from ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber, FieldEdge and spreadsheets. Several ServiceTitan file layouts are still being validated against real exports.
Footnotes
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ServiceTitan pricing, ServiceTitan (vendor page), checked October 15, 2026. ↩
-
Jobber pricing, Jobber (vendor page), checked October 15, 2026. ↩
