ElectricalBossPro Blog — Electrical Contractor Software

Testing Electrical Contractor Software With the Live Demo and the 14-Day Trial

No feature list tells you whether software fits your shop. Clicking around does. ElectricalBossPro gives you two ways to test it before paying anything: a live demo with a fully stocked sample electrical company, and a 14-day free trial with no credit card. Used well, they answer the question in about a week.

Demo First, Then Trial

The trial is where you live through something like The First Week on Electrical Contractor Software, Day by Day. The demo comes before that, and it costs you nothing but a few minutes.

The live demo is a sample electrical company already full of customers, houses, equipment, jobs and invoices. There is no signup. Open it and click around. It shows what the software looks like when it is running, which is hard to picture from an empty trial account.

What to Click in the Demo

Go straight to the parts that matter for an electrical shop:

• A house record. Look at the equipment list: main panel, generator, transfer switch, EV charger, with brand, model, serial, year, rating and location notes.
• A job. See how the equipment shows on the job and what the tech would see on the card.
• The Waiting List. See due visits on the map, colored not due yet, due now and overdue.
• The dispatch board. Look at jobs by day and van, and try auto-routing.
• An inspection. Look at a completed safety inspection checklist with readings, condition and recommendations.
• An invoice and a monthly account. See line items, and a commercial account set to Monthly, with the monthSee line items, and a monthly statement with each address labeled.apos;s work at every address waiting to go out on one statement.

Ten minutes in the demo tells you whether the software thinks like an electrician. If it does, move on to the trial.

Set Up the Trial With Real Data

Start the 14-day free trial. No credit card is needed. Then set it up with your real business, not test data, so what you learn applies. Enter your company details and shop address, your service list with your own prices, and your recurring plans such as yearly inspections and generator maintenance.

Bring in your customers with CSV import; addresses are placed on the map automatically. Add your techs with PINs and van assignments. The setup order is in Setting Up Electrical Contractor Software in the Order That Saves Rework.

Run Real Calls

The trial is only a real test if real work goes through it. For at least a few days, book every new call in the software, route the vans on the dispatch board and have techs work from their phones. Let the tech app send on-the-way and arrived texts. Complete jobs and send real invoices.

Try the parts that matter most to you. If you sell yearly inspections, run one through the checklist and print the report. If you do installs, build an estimate from your service list, send it, approve it online yourself and watch it become a scheduled job. If you have a property manager, set them to Monthly and look at the statement.

Ask Your Crew

Your techs will use the software more than anyone. At the end of the first few days, ask them directly. Is the phone screen easy? Is the equipment on the card useful? Did the route order make sense? Did customers mention the texts?

An honest answer from your best tech is worth more than any review. If they say it is easier than paper, you have your answer. If they have complaints, find out whether it is the software or just something new. Ask the office the same questions about the dispatch board, Form Responses and billing.

Pick a Plan

Before the trial ends, choose a plan. There are three: Start at $59/month, Pro at $89/month and Crew at $199/month. One difference to plan around is the monthly text allowance of 500, 1,000 or 2,000 segments, sent and received. A shop that texts customers often, or runs more vans with more alerts going out, uses more.

Compare plans on the pricing page. Whichever you pick, the data you entered during the trial carries on, so your customers, plans and jobs are already there when you start paying.

The Real Question

At the end of the trial, the question is simple: is the office calmer, are the techs calling less, and are invoices going out faster than before? If yes, the software fits. If not, you have lost nothing but a couple of weeks of trying.

For a full view of what you are testing, go back to the electrical contractor software overview, or read Electrical Contractor Software: The Complete Guide for Residential Electrical Companies.