What Role Does Software Play In The Field Service Industry? Part 9: Reporting

This is the last article (don’t be sad!) in a nine part series about the role that software plays in the field service industry. It’s focus is on reporting and how software can help you run a better service business by improving your reporting and business intelligence operations. We’re passionate about software and the service industry, and we want to help you find the right software for your business, whether it’s our product or a competitor’s.You’ll receive the next white paper in the series next week, but if you can’t wait we encourage you to use the links at the bottom of the page to read the rest of the series now.

---

How Can Software Improve Reporting Processes For The Service Industry?

What Reporting Capabilities Are Needed For Service Businesses?

The ability to track and record data for your service business is of little use if you have no

A good dashboard-style sales report

way to visualize and communicate the data that you work so hard to keep. Reporting tools are what turn your raw data into important business intelligence, useful work order forms, detailed invoices and big picture overviews of your business. Without good reporting software it can be nearly impossible to collect the data you need and format it in a meaningful way. Some meaningful reporting capabilities are listed below:

These are just broad areas that reporting comes in handy. In reality any service management software you use should come loaded with hundreds of standard reports. In general it’s also important that your reports are…

• Easy to use
  • You should be able to generate any report with a single mouse click
• Themed Appropriately
  • You should be able to upload your company logo and other details to the standard report templates and pick fonts and themes easily

A list of standard reports you should expect to get with any good service management software (click to enlarge)

---

Customizing Reports

Sometimes you may find that the standard reports you work with aren’t quite detailed enough for your business processes. That’s why it’s important to find service management software that:

1. Enables you to customize your own reports
2. Performs custom report building for their customers

Customize Your Own Reports

Lots of software out there will allow you to build your own reports, though tying those reports into your service management software might be less than ideal. Make sure you’re using compatible systems or that your report builder is directly integrated into your service management software as its own module. It’s also helpful if the standard reports that come with it are similar to what you want to customize and you can use them as a template to save yourself a lot of work.

Get Custom Reports From Your Software Provider

Good software providers will accept requests to build custom reports that supplement the standard reports their software comes with. This is a great option to have if you don’t want to devote resources to maintaining a report building team, especially since the results will be professional and native to your software, so they’ll always integrate seamlessly.  Plus, when you’re making your report request you’ll be speaking in the terms that your report builders understand, since they designed the software you use.

---

---

Read The Whole Series