Best invoicing software for contractors
HVAC, plumbing and electrical work bills nothing like cleaning does. You sell from a pricebook instead of a rate, you take deposits on installs, you mark up materials, you carry equipment history across years, and you often invoice under a service agreement rather than a single visit. This page sorts the options by crew size and puts the real prices on them — including the ones that are not published.
The short answer
| Your shop | What we would use | Published price |
|---|---|---|
| Owner and one truck, straightforward service invoicing | The free template you are already using | $0 |
| 1–5 technicians, work quoted before the visit | Jobber Core | $49 a month, or $29 annual |
| 1–5 technicians, money made at the door on flat-rate pricing | Housecall Pro Essentials — Basic is too thin | $149 a month annual, up to 5 users |
| 5–50 technicians, books still on QuickBooks Desktop | FieldEdge | Quote only — reported $100–150 per user a month |
| 20+ technicians, a dedicated dispatcher, $5M+ revenue | ServiceTitan | Quote only — reported $245–500 per technician a month |
Published prices were read from vendor pricing pages in August and September 2026. "Reported" figures come from third-party analyses and operator reports, because the vendor does not publish a price. Every number here changes, and piles up with add-ons — confirm on the vendor's own page before you sign anything.
Why contractor billing is not cleaning billing
Most "best invoicing software" pages treat every trade the same. It is why so many contractors end up in a platform that invoices beautifully and cannot hold a pricebook. Six things separate your billing from a cleaner's:
- You sell from a pricebook, not a rate. A flat-rate book turns a repair into a fixed, sellable option. Without one, every quote is a fresh guess.
- Installs take deposits. One job is often two or three invoices — deposit, progress, balance — against the same contract.
- Materials get marked up. Parts, freight and consumables have to land on the job with a margin, not at cost.
- Permits and inspections belong on the record. For electrical and plumbing especially, the permit number is part of the job's defensibility.
- Service agreements bill across visits. A maintenance plan is one sale and many appointments, and none of that fits an invoice form.
- Equipment history follows the address. Knowing what was installed at a property three years ago is what lets you quote without a site visit.
If none of those six applies to you — you do simple service calls and you know every property — the free template is still the honest answer. If two or three apply, the tiers below start to pay for themselves.
The options, cheapest first
1. The free template — $0
Who it is for: the owner-operator whose jobs are quoted on site and paid on
completion, and who does not need a pricebook behind the number.
What it does well: dated, numbered, itemised invoices with tax, discounts
and a logo, produced in about a minute on a phone, at no cost per job.
Where it falls short: it has no memory. No pricebook, no equipment history,
no deposit-and-balance structure, and nobody chasing an unpaid account except you.
2. Jobber — Core $49 a month, or $29 on annual billing
Who it is for: the shop where work is quoted ahead of the visit and the
quote-to-invoice flow is the whole point.
What it does well: the cleanest quoting and invoicing in this price range,
a client hub, and 14-day trials without a credit card. Tiers scale with team size and extra
users run about $29 each a month.
Where it falls short: there is no flat-rate pricebook. If
your business depends on selling from a book rather than a labour rate, this is
disqualifying — which is exactly why a lot of contractors end up on Housecall Pro or
FieldEdge instead.
3. Housecall Pro — Basic $59 a month, Essentials $149, MAX $299 (annual billing)
Who it is for: residential service work where the money is made at the door
— flat-rate options, financing, and a customer who books and pays online.
What it does well: flat-rate pricing, a pricebook, equipment tracking, job
costing, online booking and consumer financing through Wisetack, with a 14-day trial and no
credit card. Up to 5 users on Essentials, 8 on MAX.
Where it falls short: Basic excludes QuickBooks sync and GPS
tracking, and monthly billing costs $79 / $189 / $329 versus $59 / $149 / $299
annually. Extra users past the plan cap cost around $35 each. Most working crews get pushed
to Essentials to get the accounting sync at all — budget for the tier above the one on the
banner.
4. FieldEdge — quote only, reported around $100–150 per user a month
Who it is for: established HVAC, plumbing and electrical shops of roughly
5–50 technicians, especially the ones whose books still run on QuickBooks Desktop.
What it does well: the deepest flat-rate pricebook content in the market
through Coolfront, service-agreement and membership management, customer and equipment
history, and real-time two-way QuickBooks Desktop sync — something most competitors have
dropped.
Where it falls short: no published pricing, no free trial, a demo before
you learn anything, setup reported at $500–$6,000, and about four to six weeks of onboarding
during which the subscription is already running. It is HVAC-first, so an electrical-only
shop is paying a premium for features it will not use.
5. ServiceTitan — quote only, reported $245–500 per technician a month
Who it is for: 20+ technicians, a full office team, a dedicated dispatcher
and $5M+ in revenue. ServiceTitan's own documentation says the platform is not optimised for
companies with three or fewer technicians.
What it does well: the deepest dispatch, pricebook, reporting and marketing
attribution of anything on this page, with per-technician pricing that scales predictably as
you hire.
Where it falls short: implementation fees reported between $5,000 and
$50,000, a twelve-month minimum contract with longer terms reported on larger accounts, no
free trial, and add-on modules that operators report inflating the base rate by 30–50%. For
a shop under ten technicians it rarely survives an ROI calculation.
6. QuickBooks Online — from $38 a month
Who it is for: the books, not the jobs.
What it does well: accounting depth none of the field tools match, and the
one system every bookkeeper already knows.
Where it falls short: it does not know a job happened. No dispatch, no
pricebook, no technician app. Most contractors run a field tool for the work and QuickBooks
behind it.
Also worth a look
Workiz has a free Lite tier and reported plans from roughly $187 a month, with dispatch and call tracking built in — useful if you live on inbound emergency calls. FieldPulse is aimed at custom workflows, with reports of $99 a month and up. Knowify is the one to look at if your jobs are commercial projects needing cost-plus billing and AIA-style progress invoices rather than service calls. We have not verified the current pricing on these three, so treat the figures as leads, not facts.
Three questions that decide it
Almost every wrong contractor software purchase traces back to one of these, and all three are answerable in an afternoon:
- QuickBooks Desktop or Online? If Desktop, your realistic list is short and FieldEdge is at the top of it. Most platforms sync with Online only, and migrating your books is a project, not a setting.
- Do you actually sell from a pricebook? If your technicians quote options rather than hours, Jobber is out and flat-rate platforms are in. If you quote by the job from experience, you can save a lot of money by staying on a cheaper tier.
- How many technicians will you have in two years? Price the plan at that number. Per-user charges are where a $49 plan quietly becomes a $300 one, and the quote-only platforms punish a small shop for buying ahead of its size.
Contractor invoicing questions
What is the best invoicing software for a small HVAC or plumbing shop?
For an owner-operator up to about five technicians, Jobber and Housecall Pro are the two realistic starting points and both publish their prices. Jobber Core lists at $49 a month, or $29 annually. Housecall Pro Basic lists at $59 annually but excludes QuickBooks sync and GPS, so most working crews end up on Essentials at $149 annually for up to five users. Under roughly ten technicians, the quote-only platforms rarely justify their implementation fees.
Why is contractor invoicing different from cleaning or lawn care billing?
You bill against a pricebook rather than a rate, take deposits on installs, mark up materials, keep permit and inspection details on the record, and often invoice under a service agreement covering several visits a year. Cleaning and lawn work is usually a flat rate or hourly charge on a recurring schedule. A template that fits a cleaner's invoice usually needs rework before it fits an HVAC install.
Do ServiceTitan and FieldEdge publish their prices?
No. Both are quote-only, with a demo request instead of a pricing page, and neither offers a self-serve free trial. Third-party estimates put ServiceTitan around $245–500 per technician per month plus implementation reported at $5,000–$50,000 on a twelve-month minimum. FieldEdge is reported around $100–150 per office user and $100–125 per technician a month, with setup of $500–$6,000 and four to six weeks of onboarding. Treat those as estimates, not quotes.
Is a free invoice template good enough for a contractor?
For a one- or two-truck operation doing straightforward service work, yes. It produces a dated, numbered, itemised invoice that holds up in a payment dispute, at no cost per job. It stops being enough when the invoice has to do something more: carry a pricebook, remember equipment, split a deposit from a balance, or chase an unpaid account without you remembering to.
Does it matter whether my bookkeeper uses QuickBooks Desktop or Online?
Yes — it is the most common reason a contractor picks one platform over another. Most field-service tools sync with QuickBooks Online only. FieldEdge supports Desktop with a real-time two-way sync, which matters if your books still live there. Housecall Pro includes QuickBooks sync from Essentials, not Basic. Check the tier you are actually buying, because this is not something you can add later.
Why do you list software you do not earn a commission on?
Because at certain crew sizes it is the correct answer and leaving it out would make this page useless to the contractors who need it. FieldEdge and ServiceTitan are not affiliate links here and we earn nothing from them. Listing only the tools that pay us would make the recommendation for a large shop wrong on purpose.
Some links on this page are affiliate links — if you sign up through one, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Prices were checked against vendor and third-party sources in August and September 2026 and change often; confirm on the vendor's own pricing page before you buy. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or paid by any vendor for placement.