How to choose quoting software when you are the one doing the quoting
Almost everything written about this is written by somebody selling one. This page is too, so here is the useful part first: most of what follows tells you when not to use Tono.
If you run a home service business of one to ten people and you write the quotes yourself, the decision is simpler than the comparison tables make it look. It comes down to one question, then five checks.
The question that decides it
Does somebody other than you answer the phone?
If yes, and you have a schedule to fill and crews to route, you are looking for field service management. Quoting is one feature inside a larger system that also handles dispatch, scheduling and invoicing. Housecall Pro, Jobber and ServiceTitan are built for that, and a business at that size should be looking at them rather than at a quoting tool.
If no, and you are under a sink when the phone rings, the problem is narrower. The quote has to happen without you sitting down at a desk, and the rest of the platform is weight you will not use. That is where a lighter tool earns its place.
This is the single most common way a small business buys the wrong software: it buys the platform it will grow into, pays for it for a year, and uses one screen of it.
Five things worth checking before you pay
1. Where does the number come from?
Ask whether it prices from the rates you set or from market averages. A tool guessing at your prices will be wrong in both directions, and the expensive direction is not the one you notice. You lose the jobs you were too high on without ever knowing why.
2. Can anything reach a customer without you seeing it?
Check the default, not what can be configured. A price is a commitment and you are the one who has to honour it. If a tool can send a number on its own, your risk has quietly moved onto software that has never seen the job.
3. What happens at nine at night on a Saturday?
That is when these requests arrive, and it is the hour you are least able to answer. Whatever a tool does in that hour with no help from you is the thing you are actually buying.
4. Is the price flat, or a cut of your work?
Some tools take a percentage of the jobs they help you win. That reads as fair and is not: the better your year, the more it costs, and the cost arrives exactly when the job was hardest. A flat monthly fee is a cost you can plan.
5. Can you leave?
Ask about the contract term, whether cancelling requires a phone call, and whether your rates and past quotes come with you. Your pricing is your business. Ask before you start, because it is the one question nobody wants to answer after you have paid.
Where Tono fits
Tono is built for the narrow case: a home service business of roughly one to ten people, where the owner writes the quotes and answers the reviews. A customer asks what a job costs through your quote link, Tono asks the follow-up questions you would ask, prices it from the rates you set, and sends the draft to you. The customer sees nothing until you approve it.
It covers plumbing, HVAC, electrical and roofing.
Where Tono is the wrong answer
- You need scheduling, dispatch, invoicing or payments. Tono does none of them and is not going to. Housecall Pro and Jobber are field service platforms and will serve you better.
- You work in a trade outside plumbing, HVAC, electrical and roofing. Those are the four the pricing engine covers today. Anything else is captured as interest rather than priced, and being honest about that is cheaper for both of us than a quote it cannot stand behind.
- You want the review replies today. That half of Tono is not open yet. It waits on one real Google profile going through a read, a draft and a post with a person checking each step, so there is nothing to sign up for.
- You want it to just send the quote. Tono will not. Every quote waits for you, and if that sounds like friction rather than a safeguard, it is the wrong tool for how you work.
Questions people ask
Do I need field service management or just quoting software?
It depends on one thing: whether somebody other than you answers the phone. If you have a dispatcher, a schedule to fill and crews to route, you need field service management, and quoting is one feature inside it. Housecall Pro, Jobber and ServiceTitan are built for that. If you are on a job when the phone rings and the quote has to happen without you sitting down at a desk, that is a narrower problem and a lighter tool solves it.
Should a quote ever be sent to a customer automatically?
No. A price is a commitment, and the number that reaches a customer is the one you have to honour. Any tool that can send a price without you seeing it first has moved your risk onto software. Check what happens by default, not what is possible to configure.
Should quoting software price from my rates or from market averages?
From yours. A tool that prices from national averages is guessing what you charge, and it will be wrong in both directions: too low and you lose money on the job, too high and you lose the job. Ask where the number comes from before anything else.
How much does quoting software cost for a small contractor?
It varies widely, so check each vendor rather than trusting a range. Tono is a flat monthly fee: Quotes at 49 dollars a month at the founding rate, 69 regular. What matters more than the number is the shape of it. Some tools take a percentage of the jobs they help you win, which means the better your year, the more you pay. Tono never does.
What should a quoting tool do at nine at night on a Saturday?
That is when most of these requests arrive and when you are least able to answer. The honest test of any tool is what happens in that hour without you. It should either produce something you can approve in a few seconds from your phone, or tell the customer plainly that a person will come back to them. What it should not do is go quiet until Monday.
Can I leave, and what happens to my pricing?
Ask before you start. Your rates and your past quotes are your business, not the vendor. Check whether you can cancel without a call, whether there is a contract term, and whether you can get your data out. With Tono there is no contract and no setup fee, you can cancel from the account page, and the Google connection can be disconnected at any time.
If it does fit
Tono is free during early access and there is no card. Setting it up is two steps: your account, then your rates. If you would rather see it work before any of that, the quote writer is open with no signup at all.
Founding rate 49 dollars a month for Quotes when billing begins, 69 regular. No contract, no setup fee, and never a percentage of a job. Or try the quote writer first.