If you've been on Tradify or ServiceM8 long enough to have opinions about it, you've probably also got a spreadsheet open on the side. Maybe two. That's normal - for now.
But there's a point where the spreadsheets stop being a small workaround and start telling you something about the software. This isn't about bad software - Tradify is good, ServiceM8 is good, they do what they're designed to do. The question is whether what they're designed to do is still what your business actually needs.
Three signs you're getting close to that point.
Sign 1: You're running a spreadsheet next to the software
This is the most common sign, and on its own, it's usually not a crisis.
Almost every trades business running job management software has at least one spreadsheet on the side. Maybe it's a materials tracker that the app doesn't handle the way you need. Maybe it's a customer follow-up list because the built-in CRM is too basic. Maybe it's a job costing spreadsheet because the reports in the app don't break costs down the way your bookkeeper wants.
One spreadsheet is normal. It doesn't mean your software is broken. It means the software was built for a broad category of trades businesses, and your business has one or two things it does differently.
But pay attention to how many spreadsheets you're maintaining, and how much time you're spending in them versus in the actual software. If the spreadsheet is where the real work happens and the app is just where you generate invoices, you've quietly built a parallel system. The app has become a billing tool with a lot of features you're paying for but not using.
That's not a reason to panic. But it is a reason to keep reading.
If you've got more than two spreadsheets, or if one of them has more daily activity than the actual app, that's not Sign 1 anymore - keep reading.
Sign 2: The software is harder to use than what it replaced
This is where the problem stops being normal.
The usual path looks like this: you start on Tradify or ServiceM8 because they're simple and your business is small. They work. Then the business grows - more staff, more job types, more complex scheduling, maybe a second team or a different service arm. The entry-level tool starts showing its limits.
One office admin on Capterra described exactly this moment: she needed Tradify to handle a parent-company-with-child-entities structure for different teams and territories. It couldn't. That's not a Tradify bug - it's a structural ceiling. The tool was built for a 1-10 person operation and the business had grown past that.
So you upgrade. You look at SimPRO, AroFlo, or one of the more powerful platforms. For some businesses, the upgrade solves it. But for others - and this is the group this post is for - the upgrade swaps one set of problems for a worse set.
One managing director in New Zealand described paying $6,000 NZD for SimPRO setup and $200 NZD per user per month. The software was supposed to reduce admin staff. Instead, he had to hire an additional person just to run SimPRO properly. Invoicing “was a nightmare - could take several hours for single invoice.” Multiple other reviewers describe the same pattern - a director, an office administrator, a construction owner all using nearly identical language about needing dedicated staff just to keep the system running.
A construction owner put the other side of it: “Difficult to customise and inflexible. Reports are not consistent. Bookkeeper HATES it.”
The problem isn't that these products are buggy. It's that they were designed for a different kind of business, or a different workflow, or a different level of operational complexity than what the user actually has.
An electrician on Capterra left a two-word review of Tradify's cons: “Non-programmable.” That's not a request for more features. It's a request for software that does what his business does, not what a software company thinks his business should do.
When the upgrade is harder than what it replaced - when the “professional” tool needs its own staff member, when invoicing takes hours instead of minutes, when the bookkeeper hates it - the answer isn't to upgrade again. You've already tried that. The answer is to step back and ask whether any off-the-shelf tool is going to fit.
Sign 3: The tool's complexity is now a tax on every new hire
This sign shows up most clearly in businesses that have moved up the software ladder - from ServiceM8 or Tradify to something like SimPRO or AroFlo - and found that the upgrade came with an onboarding burden the entry-level tool never had.
One VP at a construction firm described paying for SimPRO training and finding that “trainers were not prepared and didn't know how to help. Nothing we were sold or told would work ended up working.” Another user reported it took 6 to 9 months to get the platform operational - while locked into a 12-month contract.
At AroFlo, a construction director described himself as “highly computer literate” and still finding the software so difficult to start that he went looking for a third-party training company. Training costs exceeded $4,000. Setup required an additional $20,000.
These numbers matter because they're not one-time costs. Every new hire goes through a version of the same process. Every new apprentice, every subcontractor you bring on for a project, every office admin who replaces the one who left - they all need to learn the system. And the more complex the system, the longer that takes, and the more it costs.
The tool that was supposed to make your business more efficient is now making it harder to hire and harder to grow.
If your entry-level tool (Tradify, ServiceM8) was easy to onboard but too limited for your business, and your enterprise-level tool (SimPRO, AroFlo) fits the business better but takes months to learn and thousands to train on - you're stuck in a gap. Too big for the simple tools, too small for the enterprise ones.
That gap is where the category stops being the answer.
I've watched this happen from the inside
I've seen entire roles get consumed by spreadsheet maintenance. The pattern is always the same.
It starts with the primary system being clunky, or missing one thing the business actually needs. So someone does a CSV export. The CSV becomes an Excel spreadsheet. The spreadsheet grows tabs. Features get baked in over months and financial years. Before long, the spreadsheet is the real system, and the software you're paying for becomes compliance theatre - the place you upload the final output so it looks like you're using it.
I'm sorry to say I've built spreadsheets like this. They worked, but they were hard to hand over and broke easily. The person maintaining them didn't necessarily understand why the formulas were structured the way they were - they just knew which cells to update and which tabs not to touch.
A spreadsheet is actually great for prototyping a workflow. It shows you what your business really needs, because you built it to fill the gaps the software left. But unless someone recognises that and builds the real thing, the spreadsheet becomes a permanent job for whoever got stuck with it.
What the alternative actually looks like
A custom build doesn't mean enterprise software development. It doesn't mean a six-figure project and a team of developers and an 18-month timeline. That's the enterprise world, and you're not in it.
For most trades businesses in this gap, a custom build means a focused web app that handles your three or four highest-friction workflows - quoting, job tracking, scheduling, invoicing integration - built around how your business actually runs. Not how a software company thinks your industry runs. How your business runs.
It's hosted somewhere you control. It's maintained for a known monthly fee. It doesn't charge you per seat. It doesn't lock you into a 3-year contract. It doesn't break when the vendor pushes an update. And it doesn't need a dedicated staff member to keep it running.
One contractor on Whirlpool Forums described spending $10,000 customising forms in SimPRO, only to have a software update break all of them. Another reported sinking $35,000 before even reaching onsite training. Those numbers buy a purpose-built system that does exactly what you need and nothing you don't.
The tradeoff is real: a custom build takes longer to set up than signing up for a SaaS trial, and you need to work with someone who understands both software and your trade. But the result is a tool that fits your business instead of a business that's been reshaped to fit the tool.
How to tell where you are
Not every business at Sign 1 needs custom software. Most don't. One spreadsheet on the side of a working Tradify setup is completely normal and probably the right state to be in.
But if you're at Sign 2 - if the software you upgraded to is now creating more admin than it saves - or at Sign 3 - if every new hire is a training project that costs thousands and takes months - the pattern is going to keep repeating with the next SaaS tool you try.
The honest question isn't “which software should I switch to.” It's “is any off-the-shelf software going to fit a business that works the way mine does.”
If the answer is no, that's a conversation worth having.
Outgrown off-the-shelf software?
If you've upgraded once already and the new tool is taking more staff time than the old one did - or if every new hire is a training project that costs thousands and takes months - let's talk. We'll figure out whether a custom build makes sense for your business, or whether there's a simpler fix.
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