PortaPottyBossPro Blog — Porta Potty Rental Software

The Porta Potty Rental Software Buyer's Checklist

When you're comparing options, it helps to have a list in front of you. Common Mistakes Companies Make With Porta Potty Rental Software covered what goes wrong after you pick. This checklist is for before: the things to confirm, ideally by testing them yourself with real jobs, before you commit.

Units and Sites

• Every job carries unit type, quantity, unit numbers and placement notes.
• Unit types cover what you rent: Standard, Deluxe Flushing, ADA Accessible, High-Rise or Crane, Hand Wash Station and Restroom Trailer.
• Units show under the address on office lists and on the driver's phone.
• One client can have many job sites, each with its own contacts and gate or access notes.
• Tags and custom fields hold how you group customers and what you track.

Scheduling and Dispatch

• A Waiting List shows every delivery, weekly service, extra pump-out and pickup that still needs to go out, on a map and a list.
• Weekly service comes due on its own from minimum days between visits.
• Pins are colored by status: not due yet, due now, overdue.
• A dispatch board by day and truck, with drag-to-order and auto-routing from the yard.
• Totals of stops and dollars per service for each day.

Rentals

• Delivered and picked-up dates on each rental job.
• Days included and a per-day rate after.
• Days out and extra days visible on the lists.
• Extra rental days added to the invoice automatically.

The Driver's Phone

• Runs on the iPhones and Android phones your drivers already have.
• Simple sign-in: company login plus a personal PIN.
• Jobs in route order with navigation.
• Start, Skip and Complete, with notes and photos.
• Automatic on-the-way and arrived texts to the customer.
• Card-on-file charge and invoice when a job is completed.
• Crew location on the office map.

The Customer's Side

• A customer app with a live view of the route on service day.
• Customers can request service, sign up, update their card, see invoices and pay.
• Customers choose their alerts: night before, when they're next, when the tech arrives.
• Ratings and referrals.

Texting and Intake

• Two-way texting from the office, tied to the customer record.
• Automated reminders and alerts by text and email.
• A clear monthly text allowance.
• Estimates customers approve online that become scheduled services.
• Website request and sign-up forms that flow into the software, with one-click conversion to a client.

Billing

• Invoices created from completed jobs, with sales tax per site.
• Card on file, auto-charge on completion or on a schedule.
• Online payment and past-due follow-up.
• Monthly accounts: one statement covering every site, each line labeled with the site address.
• Billing in your customers' currency if you work outside the US.

Setup and People

• CSV import of your existing customer list.
• Employees with PINs, truck assignments, office user roles and a time clock.
• Realistic setup: running real jobs within a day or two.

Setup is where a lot of software choices go wrong. A product can look great in a demo and then take weeks to load because every site, unit and service has to be entered in an awkward way. Ask to see the import and the screen where you add units to a job, and time yourself entering a few real sites during the trial.

Pricing

• Clear monthly plans with no per-user charges.
• A free trial long enough to run real weeks, without a credit card.

Ask what happens as you grow. Adding trucks, drivers, office people and sites shouldn't move you into a different pricing world. Also ask what's included in texting, because automated alerts and two-way conversations add up quickly once customers are using them, and you want a clear allowance rather than a surprise on the bill.

PortaPottyBossPro is $59, $89 or $199 a month, never billed per user, with a 14-day free trial and no credit card. The breakdown is in Porta Potty Rental Software Pricing: What $59, $89 and $199 a Month Get You.

How to Use the Checklist

Don't just ask whether a product does each item; see it. During the trial, put a delivery on the Waiting List, dispatch it, complete it from a phone, and look at the invoice and the customer's view. Set up a contractor with two sites on Monthly and check the statement. Put a short rental out and look at the days-out count. Every item you watch work is one you won't be surprised by later.

Involve the people who will use it. Have a driver run a test day on their own phone and ask them what was confusing. Have whoever does billing look at an invoice and a monthly statement. Their reactions in the trial tell you more than any feature list. For everything on this list in one place, see the porta potty rental software overview.