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Are flat-rate pricing models working in FieldPulse for anyone?

Connor Burke

so our shop has been doing time + materials forever basically and we're looking at switching to flat-rate pricing for hvac installs and repairs. my boss wants to know if anyone's actually made this work in FieldPulse or if it's more headache than it's worth

the main thing i'm wondering is like... do you set up flat-rate items as services in the catalog? or do you handle it some other way? and how do you deal with when a job ends up being way more complicated than the flat rate covers

also curious if customers push back more on flat rate vs seeing the actual time on the invoice. we've got some elderly customers who really like seeing the breakdown

anyway would love to hear what's actually working for people in the field bc the office is all theory and no practice lol

Parents

  • in my experience flat rate is how you end up eating costs on jobs that should've been time and materials. seen too many shops bleed money on "simple" panel swaps that turned into rewiring nightmares

    that said if you're gonna do it, FieldPulse handles it fine. just don't let your office set the rates without asking the guys actually doing the work

  • in reply to Art Kowalczyk

    Art makes a fair point about rate-setting, though I'd frame it differently. The key is building in enough margin to absorb the occasional nightmare job while staying competitive on the routine ones.

    We spent six months tracking actual time on every job before finalizing our flat-rate book. That data lives in custom fields on our work orders now — actual hours vs. flat-rate hours — and we review quarterly. Our electrician with 20+ years of experience was invaluable for flagging which jobs consistently run long.

    One workflow improvement worth mentioning: we created a "Flat Rate Review Required" checklist item that triggers on any job where actual time exceeds 150% of the flat rate allowance. Forces a conversation between tech and office before we quote the next similar job.

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  • in reply to Art Kowalczyk

    Art makes a fair point about rate-setting, though I'd frame it differently. The key is building in enough margin to absorb the occasional nightmare job while staying competitive on the routine ones.

    We spent six months tracking actual time on every job before finalizing our flat-rate book. That data lives in custom fields on our work orders now — actual hours vs. flat-rate hours — and we review quarterly. Our electrician with 20+ years of experience was invaluable for flagging which jobs consistently run long.

    One workflow improvement worth mentioning: we created a "Flat Rate Review Required" checklist item that triggers on any job where actual time exceeds 150% of the flat rate allowance. Forces a conversation between tech and office before we quote the next similar job.

Children