Why upgrading to ServiceM8 Premium is about more than just more jobs
Most ServiceM8 users on the Growing plan start thinking about upgrading when they hit the monthly 150-job limit. That’s fair enough, running out of jobs is an obvious trigger. But if that’s the only reason you’d consider moving up, you’re probably missing a trick.
The Premium plan costs £119 per month. The Growing plan is £59. That’s £60 more per month, which across 20 working days means just £3 a day or £2 per day over the entire calendar month. So you only need to find £2 – £3 of additional profit per working day to cover the difference and still come out ahead. For most trade businesses, that’s very achievable once you start using what you’re paying for.
And if you’re not sure it’s worth it? ServiceM8 plans are rolling monthly, so you’re never locked in. Try Premium for a month, see whether the features make a difference to your margins, and if it doesn’t stack up you can drop back to Growing. There’s nothing to lose by giving it a go.
Here’s what you unlock on Premium that Growing doesn’t include:
Job Costing
Before a job, you can see how profitable it’s predicted to be, based on your estimated costs versus what you’re charging. Once it’s done, you back-cost it, comparing what you actually spent on materials and labour against what you invoiced, so you can see exactly what you made.
Setting up Job Costing starts with ServiceM8 asking you to enter your labour costs, what each hour, day, or element of labour actually costs your business. That might feel like admin, but it’s a genuinely useful exercise. It either prompts you to do the maths yourself or gives you a good reason to have a conversation with your accountant. For any growing business, knowing your real labour costs is something worth getting right.
Markup Billing
Markup Billing shows you the cost price of each item on a job and lets you set a markup percentage so ServiceM8 does the maths for you.
This is particularly useful for your team in the field. If an engineer picks up parts on the day, they can add the cost price to the job card, apply the minimum markup you’ve told them to use, and ServiceM8 works out the selling price. That means you’re not relying on anyone to do mental arithmetic on a van step, and you’re not discovering later that materials went out at cost.
Knowledge
Store your procedures, tips, and business know-how so your team can access it from the app while they’re out on the road. Less phoning the office, more consistency on the job.
Branded SMS
Messages sent to clients through ServiceM8 show your business name rather than a random number. A small thing, but it looks more professional and clients are more likely to actually read them.
The Bottom Line
The two features that most directly affect your bottom line are Job Costing and Markup Billing. Used properly, most businesses find there’s at least one area where they’ve been undercharging, and sorting that out tends to cover the cost of the plan fairly quickly.
If you’re on the Growing plan and thinking about whether Premium is worth it, take a look at the full comparison at servicem8.com/uk/pricing, or feel free to get in touch with me and we can talk it through.
Are you already on Premium? If so, are you making use of Job Costing, or has it been sitting there unused?
