PestBossPro Blog — Running a Pest Control Business

What Pest Control Business Software Costs: Start, Pro and Crew Plans Explained

Software pricing in the pest industry can be hard to pin down. Some systems hide the price behind a sales call. Some charge per technician, per feature or per module, and the number you hear on the phone isn't the number on the first bill. For a company with one to a handful of trucks, a clear monthly price matters as much as the features.

Price Is Part of the Checklist

The checklist in Choosing Pest Control Business Software: What to Check Before You Sign Up ends with price for a reason. Features only matter if the business can carry the cost every month, in January as well as in June. This article lays out exactly what PestBossPro costs so you can run the numbers for your own company.

The Three Plans

PestBossPro has three plans, billed monthly:

• Start — $59/month. For an owner-operator or a very small company getting off paper.
• Pro — $89/month. For a growing company with more customers and more texting.
• Crew — $199/month. For companies running several trucks with technicians and office help.

Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial, and you don't need a credit card to start it. The pricing page compares the plans side by side.

What Every Plan Includes

The core of running a pest company isn't an add-on. On every plan you get the pieces a small company actually runs on:

• Recurring quarterly, bi-monthly and monthly service, one-time jobs and package plans.
• The Waiting List map, the dispatch board, auto-routing from the shop and printed route sheets.
• The tech app on iPhone and Android, with no app store download.
• Chemical application records, product mixes and chemical reports.
• Property measurements from the satellite map, quotes and online approval.
• Invoices, card on file, auto-charge, online payment and past-due follow-up.
• The customer app, two-way texting and automatic reminders.

The Monthly Text Allowance

One difference between the plans you will notice day to day is texting. Each plan includes a monthly text allowance counted in segments, sent and received: 500 segments on Start, 1,000 on Pro and 2,000 on Crew. Reminders, on-the-way and arrived texts and two-way conversations with customers all count toward it.

A segment is a chunk of a text message. A short reminder is usually one segment; a long message can be several. Keeping automated messages short and plain stretches the allowance further. Texting is available for customers in the US and Canada.

Does It Pay for Itself?

The honest way to judge software cost is against what it saves or recovers for your own company. Think through a few questions with your own numbers:

• Missed recurring visits. If the Waiting List keeps even one quarterly customer from slipping and cancelling, how many months of software does that cover?
• Unbilled work. How many re-services or add-ons went unbilled last season because they lived on a sticky note?
• Collections. How much is sitting in past-due invoices right now?
• Your evenings. How many hours a week do you spend typing invoices, building routes and writing up records by hand?

Profit leaks get their own article, Profit Leaks in a Pest Control Business: Where the Money Slips Away.

Costs to Watch Outside the Software

A fair comparison includes the costs that come with any system. Card payments carry processing fees from the payment processor, so build those into your prices. Phones for technicians are a cost if you supply them, though the PestBossPro tech app runs on the iPhones and Android phones people already carry. Setup time is a cost too; CSV import cuts it down by bringing clients in from a spreadsheet and placing their addresses on the map automatically.

Also count the cost of not switching. Every hour spent on a spreadsheet, every invoice typed on Sunday night and every quarterly visit that slipped because the notebook was in the other truck is a cost too. It just doesn't arrive as a bill. Write down what those hours are worth to you before you decide a monthly plan is too expensive. For most owners, the honest comparison isn't software against nothing; it is software against their own evenings.

On the software side itself, there is no separate per-module charge for the tech app, the application records or the customer app. They are part of the plan.

Pick a Plan for Today, Not for Five Years From Now

Start on the plan that fits the company you run now. A one-truck owner doesn't need to pay for the company they hope to be in five years. When you add a truck, hire a technician or bring on office help, move up. Your customers, records and history stay in the same system. To see how PestBossPro supports the business side as you grow, visit the PestBossPro pest control business software page.