Many businesses that dispatch technicians into the field often struggle with the same issues. They’re buried in paperwork orders and worried their business is leaving money on the table. If this sounds like your business, it might be time to implement work order processing software and bring your work order management process into the 21st century.
What is service contract management?
Service contract management is a system of managing work orders and service contracts to help companies keep track of client and vendor accounts. Service contract management software can revolutionize your business by changing the way you view, assign, track, and bill work orders.
BlueFolder’s software offers a variety of features that can help you get organized and see the big picture on vendors and contracts.
What are the 4 components of efficient service contract management?
Here are the 4 steps of the service contract management process and how they can improve your business:
1. Defining the work
Contracts usually include blocks of hours, pre-paid amounts, or warranties, and they often specify expiration dates. With BlueFolder, business owners can quickly view active contracts, pending contracts, and those that have expired or will expire in the next 30 days. The software also offers customers access to a customer portal, allowing them to see the details of their contract. This type of transparency is a huge competitive advantage for businesses using work order processing software because customer loyalty increases when all parties are on the same page.
2. Assigning the work
With BlueFolder, it’s easy for scheduling personnel to divvy up assignments to the right technicians and communicate all pertinent contract details. When technicians know which contract should be associated with labor hours, material costs, and other expenses, business owners don’t have to worry about costs appearing at the end of a billing cycle that were never accounted for. That means more revenue and better profit margins.
3. Tracking the work
Tracking work over the life of a contract can be tricky with manual methods, particularly when multiple technicians are involved. For Craig Hickman, vice president of sales at ProBleu, relying on BlueFolder improved tracking accuracy and yielded a 60% upswing in billings. Before, work orders would be serviced and closed without being recorded, meaning clients got free work. Because BlueFolder accurately tracks contracts and provides an important audit trail, companies can ensure they’re billing clients the correct amount. As Hickman put it: “I wish I would have started with BlueFolder earlier. I missed out on a year of savings.”
4. Billing the work
With manual contracts, it’s easier for billable charges to slip through the cracks, costing your company valuable revenue. BlueFolder keeps contract details updated and makes them visible to both service businesses and their clients, ensuring that neither party gets an unexpected surprise at the end of a billing cycle. As an added bonus, customers pay invoices faster when the bills are easy to understand.
What is contractor management software?
Contractor management software is an application that is specifically designed to replace tedious, labor-intensive, and error-prone, traditional management techniques with a smarter, more efficient way to manage and track service contracts.
BlueFolder’s software offers a variety of features that can help you get organized and see the big picture on vendors and contracts. Our overview page provides a dashboard where you can see all your work orders, the personnel on each assignment, the profitability of each, and even key documents and photos related to a specific work order.
BlueFolder can also highlight contracts that are about to expire, giving sales personnel an opportunity to reach out to clients and obtain renewals from them. “From a revenue standpoint, having a good understanding of customers under contract and those about to expire is a revenue producer,” said Michael McHugh, senior vice president at HydroWorx, a BlueFolder customer.
If you’re still managing your service contracts manually, you’re doing yourself (and your business) a disservice. Make lost revenue and complicated contract management processes a thing of the past. Reach out to BlueFolder to schedule a demonstration, and you’ll see how our work order processing software will quickly become an integral part of your business.
