Software for Field Service and Heating/Cooling Loads

Wintac (Davisware, www.davisware.com, 800/724-7899) is an on-premise solution with an accompanying (optional) mobile app for technicians. Suitable for small to medium sized contractors active in residential and commercial install and service work, it features scheduling, dispatching, work order tracking and management, job costing, customer lead management, and reporting capabilities.

Working from a color-coded dispatch board, users can drag and drop jobs and the software can automatically assign a tech to the best open time slot or to the best service tech based on job location. Users can toggle among daily, weekly, monthly, and all-inclusive views and drill down to view specific job and work order details. With GlobalOne Fleet, Davisware’s GPS and Fleet Management add-on, dispatchers can directly send the customer address and job information to the technician. It is possible to schedule multiple jobs from a single work order and assign multiple techs and crews to any job.

Wintac’s RemoteField Service web portal app enables technicians to accept service jobs in the field and view work schedules for the day, week, or month, along with the service history of a job, including specifics of equipment installed. Techs can also schedule jobs and service from the field for existing and new customers and attach and view photos, spreadsheets, and other documents to customer records and can add, view, print and email proposals, quotes, estimates, work orders, and invoices. The app also allows users to work offline without interruption. In addition, the software supports automatic time stamping to document a technician’s arrival at job and the completion time of the job.

Using the mobile app, field personnel can electronically capture and print signatures on work orders, proposals, and invoices via any mobile computing device and, through its own gateway, integrate with a merchant provider for processing customer payment from most major credit cards direct from the Wintac receipts window. 

Contractor personnel can track sales leads, log calls and sales progression, and utilize a built-in Letter Writer to automatically generate targeted sales correspondence and prepare bulk mailings.

With Davisware’s GlobalOne Fleet GPS, users can view trucks, vendors, jobs, and employee home locations on a map, facilitating dispatch of the closest tech to a job. The GPS system also can monitor driver behavior and vehicle location and run reports on various aspects of driver activity.  

Job costing capabilities include accurate count of parts, labor, equipment, and miscellaneous time. Management can run detailed profit and analysis reports such as commercial versus residential and breakdown by technician and by job. You can set three pricing levels (e.g. standard, contract, and after-hours work). Based on permissions you set, users can upload pricing changes from suppliers/spreadsheets and all relevant pricing will adjust. You can also permit techs to submit POs on the fly.  

For managing inventory and equipment, the software supports barcoding and can track stock at up to 60 warehouse/truck locations, with the ability to specify minimum and maximum quantities to be maintained at each location. Users can drill down by piece of equipment at a job site, including relevant warranty and service information.

The software integrates with QuickBooks to expedite accounting and payroll and supports the ability to track employee productivity and profitability as well as reimbursements for tools and other expenses. Plus, there is built-in support for direct deposit to employee bank accounts and electronic filing of employee W-2 forms.

Among features supporting purchasing, bill-paying and accounts payable: visual check writing with instant look-up of unlimited vendors and payables due; ability to automatically generate vendor purchase orders based on minimum and optimal stock levels; and accounts payable tracking with 30/60/90-day invoice aging payment history.

Pricing: One-time purchase fee for each office. Mobile access per month/per user. 

CHVAC V.8.02.54 (Elite Software, www.elitesoft.com, 800/648-9523) calculates heating and cooling loads for commercial buildings based on ASHRAE, complying with the ANSI/ASHRAE/ACCA Standard 183-2002. The software, after requesting five types of data (general project, outdoor design, building material, air handler, and specific room), uses the RTS (Radiant Time Series) calculation method while preserving the ASHRAE CLTD calculation method for comparison purposes. The calculations, including cfm requirements, allow different indoor conditions for each room.

The software supports an unlimited number of rooms which can be grouped into up to 100 air handling systems. A people density help dialog enables choosing from a list that shows people per 1,000 square feet, with values given in ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62.1-2019.  

CHVAC comes supplied with design weather data for 2,000+ cities in 75 countries and users can input data for additional cities. It selects unitary equipment from the AHRI databases. The software, which allows manual or graphical data entry, can perform peak load calculations for any and all the 12 months of a year.  

Project data from CHVAC can be exported to Elite Software’s Ductsize software, DEFINE; Energy Audit residential/light commercial energy analysis; and EnergyPro, a LEED-certified ASHRAE 90.1 program for residential and non-residential buildings which performs comprehensive energy analysis and does evaluations of multiple compliance standards.

The software can also transfer data to eQuest energy modeling software for detailed energy analysis, including calculating commercial building tax deductions.

CHVAC v.8 comes with a demo version of Drawing Board, Elite Software’s program for drawing floor plans and ductwork linked to calculations in CHVAC, RHVAC (for calculating heating and cooling loads for residential buildings), and with Ductsize.

Pricing: one-time purchase fee per license based on capacity - maximum number of rooms. Free downloadable updates are provided for some years until a major update (separate fee) is offered; the customer is not required to purchase it in order to continue using the software.

Patti Feldman writes articles and web content for trade magazines and manufacturers of building products. She can be reached at [email protected].