Choosing trade software: seven questions before you decide
Most wrong decisions about trade software are made before the first demo. Seven questions you should answer for yourself beforehand.
Every piece of trade software looks good in the demo. That is its job. The differences show not in the presentation but two years later – when the business has grown, an employee has left and the vendor has raised prices.
So you are better off answering these seven questions before the first appointment, not after.
1. What problem should the software solve – in one sentence?
Not “we want to become more digital”. But: “Our fitters write timesheets on paper, the office types them up, and the invoice goes out three weeks late.”
If you cannot state the problem in one sentence, you are buying a solution to a problem you do not know. Everything else follows from it: a business with an invoicing problem needs something different from one with scheduling chaos.
Write down the three biggest time-wasters before you open a single website. That list is your yardstick in every demo.
2. Who works with it – and on which device?
Trade software rarely fails in the office. It fails on site.
Ask specifically: does the app run offline? What happens when there is no signal in the basement and the fitter still has to record hours? Is the data cached and synced later, or is the entry lost?
And: how many taps does recording an hour take? If it is more than five, it gets entered from memory at the kitchen table in the evening. Then you have digital data of worse quality than before on paper.
3. What happens to my data if I cancel?
The most uncomfortable question – and the most important. Ask it in the first demo, not the last.
Specifically: do I get my customer, order and invoice data out in an open format (CSV, XML)? Does the export cost extra? How long does it take? Do I also get the attached documents and site photos?
A vendor who answers that evasively has just given you an important piece of information.
4. How does the software work with your accountant?
This is where the most money gets burned. If invoice data does not flow cleanly into the bookkeeping, someone types everything in a second time – either you, or your accountant at your expense.
Ask your accountant before the decision which systems they work with without friction. That one email is often worth more than three vendor demos.
5. What does it really cost – over three years?
The monthly price per user is rarely the whole price. Add up:
licence or subscription fees for all users, including stand-ins
one-off set-up and data migration
training – including your people’s working time
add-on modules that seemed a given in the sales pitch
price adjustments: what does the contract say about increases?
Project it over three years and divide by the number of orders in that time. The amount per order is the number you can weigh against the hoped-for benefit.
6. Who do I reach when nothing works on Friday afternoon?
Support is not a side criterion. Ask: phone or ticket system only? What hours? Are there people who know the trades, or a generic call centre?
A good test before buying: write the support team a technical question as if you were already a customer. The response time and the quality of the answer say more than any reference list.
7. How big is the step for the business – honestly?
A system that can do everything changes everything at once. That overwhelms most businesses. Often the better path is to start with a clearly delimited area – time tracking or quoting – and only expand once that holds up in daily work.
So ask the vendor whether you can start modular, or whether entry only works as a complete package.
The practical sequence
If you want to go about it in a structured way:
Write down three time-wasters (30 minutes, alone).
Ask two or three employees what annoys them most. The answers almost always surprise.
Ask your accountant about system preference (one email).
Invite at most three vendors – nobody seriously compares more.
Have each demo play through your three time-wasters, not the prepared standard run.
Agree a trial phase with real data and a real site. Not with demo data.
Only then decide.
That costs a few weeks. A wrong decision costs years.
Frequently asked questions
That question has no universally valid answer, and the magazine gives no paid recommendations. The right software is the one that solves your three biggest time-wasters, runs on the devices actually used for the work, and fits your accountant's systems.
The monthly price per user is the smaller part. Calculate over three years and include set-up, data migration, training and add-on modules. Only that sum can be compared between vendors.
For solo businesses free tools can carry the load as long as one person keeps the overview. Their limits show with several users, with data export and with document retention. Before the product question therefore comes the question of whether the business even needs a trade solution yet.
Write down three time-wasters, ask two or three employees what annoys them most, ask your accountant about their system preference, invite at most three vendors, have each demo play through your own time-wasters, and agree a trial phase with real data – only then decide.