HVACBossPro Blog — Dispatch & Scheduling

Choosing HVAC Dispatch Software: What to Check Before You Switch

Picking dispatch software is a decision you live with every day. The wrong choice means a team that works around the software instead of with it, or a monthly bill for features nobody uses. The right one makes the office quieter and the vans more productive. Here is a practical checklist for a small HVAC company with a few vans.

Know What You Are Fixing

Before looking at any software, list the problems you want gone. The ten in Common HVAC Scheduling Mistakes and How to Avoid Them are a good starting point. If your biggest pain is forgotten tune-ups, weight the maintenance features heavily. If it is the phone ringing all day with “where's my tech?”, weight customer texts. Software that solves problems you do not have is not a bargain.

Then be honest about the options. The big enterprise HVAC platforms do a great deal, but they are built for companies with call centers and many trucks, and they are priced and set up that way. Generic field-service software is often affordable but treats an HVAC call like any other appointment, with no idea of equipment, filter sizes or twice-a-year tune-ups. Spreadsheets and paper are cheap until a heat wave.

The Dispatch Board

Ask to see the board and try it yourself. Questions to answer:

• Can you see jobs by day and filter by van?
• Can you auto-route a van from the shop, and set route order by hand afterward?
• Can you drag a job to another day, and does the tech's phone follow?
• Does each job show the equipment and access notes, or just an address?

The board in HVACBossPro is described in The HVAC Dispatch Board: Every Van, Every Day and Every Call on One Screen.

Maintenance Agreements

For most HVAC companies, agreements are the steadiest revenue. Check how the software brings due visits forward. Does someone have to remember, or do tune-ups come due on their own? Can you see due visits on a map so you can route them in clusters? Can you tell what is overdue at a glance?

In HVACBossPro, agreements are set by minimum days between visits, 180 for spring and fall or 365 for yearly, and due visits show on the Waiting List map colored not due, due now and overdue.

Equipment Records

HVAC is equipment work. The software should store system type, brand, model, serial number, tonnage, year installed, filter size and unit location on each address, and show it to the office and the tech on every visit. If equipment lives in a free-text notes box, it will be inconsistent and hard to use.

The Tech App

The best dispatch board is useless if techs will not use the app. Check:

• Does it run on the phones your techs already have? HVACBossPro runs in the browser on iPhone and Android and installs to the home screen, with no app store.
• Is the day in route order, with a navigation button?
• Are equipment, access notes and past notes on the card?
• Is it simple: Start, Skip, Complete, photos, payment?
• Is there a time clock, and does crew GPS show on the office map?

Hand a phone to your least tech-savvy tech during the trial. Their reaction tells you a lot.

Customer Communication

Check whether on-the-way and arrived texts are automatic, whether customers can choose their alerts, whether there is two-way texting from the office, and whether customers can see the route. HVACBossPro includes all of these, plus a customer app with a live route map, service requests, invoices and online payment. Plans include a monthly text allowance: 500, 1,000 or 2,000 segments, sent and received, on Start, Pro and Crew.

Price, Trial and Getting Started

Look for clear pricing with no surprises. HVACBossPro costs $59, $89 or $199 per month (Start, Pro, Crew), with dispatch, routing, the Waiting List, the tech app and customer texts on every plan. There is a 14-day free trial with no credit card.

Check how hard it is to start. Can you bring your customers in by CSV import? Are addresses placed on the map automatically? Can you set up vans and techs in an afternoon? Use the trial on real work, ideally in a shoulder-season week: put tomorrow's jobs on the board, route them, and have a tech run the day from the phone.

The full guide to how HVACBossPro handles dispatch is HVAC Dispatch Software: The Complete Guide to Scheduling Service Calls and Tune-Ups, and the overview is on the HVACBossPro HVAC dispatch software page.