High-Level Differences Between ServiceTitan and FieldAware That Service Businesses Should Know

There are a couple fundamental differences between ServiceTitan and FieldAware. 

On FieldAware’s website you can see that:

1. They’ve built their product to serve 100+ field service industries.

2. Their primary focus is on commercial service industries. For example, their featured industries include: building and construction services, facility and property management, industrial equipment, commercial equipment, health sciences and medtech, and oil and gas.

The fact that they serve 100+ industries is the first notable difference between our products. The positive side of this is that if you’re in one of the wide range of industries they serve, there’s a good chance they have some features that may be useful to your business. However, the other side of that coin is that when a product is built to serve that many industries, it can sometimes lack customization that service businesses can benefit from with a more specialized, focused product. 

That’s what we’ve built at ServiceTitan. Our product is primarily focused on serving HVAC, Electrical, and Plumbing businesses, as well as pest control, landscaping, and select others. As a result of this focus, we’re able to provide a product that’s more custom built for these select industries.

So, if you’re in one of the select industries we serve, there’s a good chance we have certain features and workflows that fit your business operations better than FieldAware.

The other key difference—that their product is primarily for commercial service companies—means that they may have a good feature set for you if you’re in one of their listed primary industries (construction, property management, etc.). However, if you’re a service business that primarily serves residential customers, or you’re a hybrid shop with both commercial and residential business units, there’s a good chance that ServiceTitan may better suit your business needs.

In its infancy ServiceTitan was built primarily to serve residential service businesses, so that side of our product is extremely well developed. And in recent years we’ve built out (and continue to build out) significant features for commercial service businesses and subcontractors working in construction.

In fact, we now offer certain project management capabilities (discussed below) for the commercial and construction business units that appear to be completely absent in FieldAware.

With these high-level differences in mind, let’s now look at the specific feature differences we noted earlier:

1. Residential proposal functionality

2. Real-time integrated financing

3. Project management capabilities

Specific Feature Differences Between ServiceTitan and FieldAware

1. Good Better Best Proposals For Residential Business Units

At present, FieldAware doesn’t appear to have a specific feature set built out for building Good Better Best style proposals.

However, as we’ve written about previously, the service companies that succeed in optimizing a Good Better Best model for residential sales presentations tend to see the highest average ticket prices and close rates, as well as the best long-term customer relationships.

For hybrid shops using ServiceTitan, Good Better Best presentations are seamlessly linked with the process of generating estimates and proposals.

Now, we know that in the service industry, “proposal” and “estimate” are commonly used as synonyms. In our software, however, every estimate functions as a kind of menu item that homeowners can choose. For an HVAC business, these might include things like: HVAC installation, thermostat replacement, and maintenance agreement.  

The proposal, meanwhile, is akin to the menu on which those items appear. In an option-based sales model, each estimate falls somewhere between Good and Best.

To begin the process, contractors create estimate templates for all of the tasks that will feature in proposals. In addition, contractors can use pre-populated estimate templates that the business owner or office manager has already created to save even more time. If it is a job type that contractors have been to multiple times, this can really help save time without having to build a "basic" estimate over and over again.

Our search function allows users to quickly add items from ServiceTitan’s fully integrated pricebooks to their templates, so there’s no chance of math mistakes or expensive memory lapses. 

Next, contractors or members of their team use those estimate templates to build proposal templates like the one above, which illustrates a simple Good Better Best model. Populating each option is simply a matter of dragging and dropping estimate templates into the relevant boxes.   

Upon completion, each tier will reflect a full, precise estimate. 

Crucially, with ServiceTitan, techs get access to all of their employer’s templates via our mobile app, which is compatible with iPad, iPhone, Android, and other iOS devices.

When it’s time to move into customer-facing, presentation mode, ServiceTitan uses an automation-enabled process to translate the selected proposal (read: menu) into a professional, easy-to-use interface. Whether a proposal features just three options, or seven, business owners can be sure that every one of them is accurate, with no additional work for their techs.

ServiceTitan’s proposal features also help contractors keep their employees on track, guiding them step-by-step through best practices to ensure that they provide homeowners with polished, option-based sale presentations. 

2. Real-Time Integrated Financing

There’s no doubt that residential jobs tend to have lower price tags than commercial work. But for homeowners, things like HVAC repairs, contracting projects, and even lawn care can still be an expensive reach.

Making financing as frictionlessly accessible as possible can be the key to convincing customers who are otherwise on the fence to seal the deal—or to go for an option with a higher ticket price.  

In keeping with our integrated, holistic approach to managing service business operations, ServiceTitan makes financing available to customers directly from the sales presentation view of the software (or, “SaaS”, as it’s otherwise known).  

By clicking the Apply Financing button, they can begin working with one of our financing partners, filling out an application that takes just a minute or two to complete, and get approved almost right away. 

ServiceTitan also facilitates fast, easy online payments for an improved customer experience. Homeowners can e-sign their proposal and pay using their tech’s phone or tablet, or their own mobile device. Records are accessible via email or our online customer portal for a fully paperless experience. 

At present, while FieldAware also offers online payments, they don’t appear to offer this type of real-time financing feature. And as we’ve described above, for many customers (especially in the residential sector) this can make a significant difference in the services and equipment they choose to invest in. Service businesses who offer this type of integrated financing can facilitate greater revenue growth.

Note: ServiceTitan offers multiple financing partners including GreenSky™, Turns Service Financing, Service Finance, and FinanceIT for our Canadian customers. 

3. Advanced Solutions for Complex Project Management       

At present, despite FieldAware featuring construction services as one of the core industries it serves, they don’t appear to have any robust features built out for subcontractors to facilitate construction project management.

We’re talking about tools that help subcontractors facilitate complex things such as job costing for profitability over the course of a long term job, or generating applications for payment and continuation sheets required for AIA® style progress billing. 

These project management functions require significant time and effort to manage manually in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. And ServiceTitan recently introduced a suite of project management features that seamlessly integrate job costing into overall business operations via an intuitive, easy-to-use interface.

Here we’ll take a closer look at the following features:

• Building estimates

• Project tracking and job costing

• Generating applications for payment

• Invoicing

Building Estimates

Much of our project management workflow is informed by the initial estimate that’s created for a given job. From our estimate page, contractors can add all of the tasks, equipment, and materials needed to complete the work. And from that very same page, they can print or email that estimate to their client, and even begin the process of requisitioning equipment and materials for the job. 

For example, by clicking Initiate Requisition in the top right corner, they can select specific line items to requisition:

And that will lead them through a workflow to generate purchase orders for each of those line items:

Those purchase orders can then be sent to their appropriate procurement sources and shipped to whichever location you choose, be that the job site, warehouse, etc.

From there, the accrued expenses are automatically reflected in the project tracking tables on the project overview homepage—and all subsequent documents such as applications for payment, continuation sheets, and invoices are informed by this initial estimate.

Progress Tracking and Job Costing

From the Project Overview page, all of a given project's key information can be found. This includes basic details like the project’s name, location, number, and customer contact info. But importantly, it also includes tables for keeping an eye on project job costing.  

For example, the Project Summary table reflects total payments received, invoiced to date, total expenses, total earned, total retainage, and percentage of the total contract sum completed. These numbers update automatically as hours are logged by technicians, materials and equipment are purchased, payments are received, etc.

To assist business owners in managing cash flow in real time, the page also contains a Budget v.s. Actual table, giving company owners and project managers an accurate, updated view of billing and costs. This feature lets our subscribers access their budget and margins as a function of both dollars and a percentage of the total.

The page also contains an Expense Details chart, shown in the screenshot above, where subcontractors can zoom in on the nuts and bolts—literally—of their construction projects, viewing a detailed breakdown of expenses to date, each of which can be clicked into for further details about exactly where those expenses came from (e.g. which purchase order, which technician, etc.).  

Combined, these job costing tables save subcontractors an incredible amount of time while ensuring they can make any changes necessary throughout the course of a job to maintain profitability.

Generating Applications for Payment

Creating applications for payment with our project management workflow can be done in a few clicks. From the Project Overview page, users can simply click on Add Application For Payment to begin the process.

From there, a continuation sheet is automatically generated based on the initial estimate that was created, and users can simply select the percentages they want to bill from each line item for that payment period.

Then, once that’s saved, they can generate an AIA® style application for payment in PDF form to be sent to their client, saving them hours of time every month from keeping these documents up to date manually. 

Invoicing 

Invoices, which can be created within moments of client sign-off on an application for payment, can likewise be converted to PDF for delivery.

Because all of the underlying information is efficiently organized on a single platform, defending applications for payment, overcoming payment denials—and, ultimately, getting paid on time—becomes drastically easier.   

Conclusion

On the surface, there are many areas in which FieldAware and ServiceTitan appear to be similar. Both services offer features for scheduling and dispatching, sending SMS notifications to customers, customer relationship management (CRM), work order creation and job management, QuickBooks integrations, and myriad other features that help service companies streamline operations. User reviews indicate both services also provide top-notch customer support.

However, as we’ve demonstrated in this article, there are certain areas where ServiceTitan can better meet the business needs of its customers. Specifically, for service businesses serving residential customers, our Good Better Best proposals and integrated financing can help close more jobs and provide better customer experiences. And for subcontractors working on construction projects, our project management features are absolutely invaluable for saving time and increasing profitability. 

If you serve residential customers, work on long term construction projects, or are in one of the industries we specialize in serving (HVAC, electrical, plumbing, etc.)—there’s a good chance that our field service management platform would be a better fit for you. 

Discover what ServiceTitan’s software solution can do for your commercial or home service business. Schedule a call to get a personalized demo of our software today.