Moving from Joblogic: what it actually involves

Joblogic is a capable product, and for many contractors it is the right one. If you rely on SFG20 schedules, stock control or an accounts package other than Xero, it covers those and PPMdesk does not, and this post will not change that. But if you are reading this, something has probably prompted the question: the renewal quote, the per-engineer licence cost, or the time your office spends retyping emails into jobs.

Here is what moving actually involves.

Start with the contract, not the data

Joblogic says most customers commit to 24 or 36 months; 12 months on request. So the first question is not how long the data takes; it is when your term ends and how much notice it needs. Find your renewal date and notice period, put both in the diary, and plan backwards from them.

Get your exports early

Joblogic exports PPM contract schedules to Excel. For customer, site and asset lists, export what the list screens allow, and if anything will not export, ask Joblogic support for a full data export while you are still a customer. It is much easier to ask while the account is live than after it closes.

What comes across

Into PPMdesk, we import:

• Customers and sites. Every client with its sites and postcodes, matched so the same client is never created twice.
• Contacts. Site and client contacts with their email addresses, filed against the right client.
• Units and assets. Each unit on its site with make, model, serial number and location, ready for QR labels.
• Parts price list. Your parts and materials with codes, costs, suppliers and markup, so quotes and invoices price them the same way they do now.
• Xero clients. If your clients are already in Xero, we connect it and bring them across from there.

And we set these up with you, rebuilt from your exports:

• PPM schedules. Rebuilt from your Joblogic PPM contract schedule export: each site's visits, frequencies and units.
• Subcontractors. Your subcontractors with their trades, rates and the insurance and accreditations you hold for them.
• Job sheets and RAMS. Job sheet templates per type of unit, and RAMS templates per trade, set up with you.
• Your team. Office users invited, mailboxes connected to Outlook, and engineers sent their first job links.

What stays behind

• Closed jobs and job history. Keep your Joblogic export as the record; PPMdesk starts from your open work.
• Invoices already issued. Those stay in Joblogic and your accounts package; PPMdesk invoices from the day you switch.
• Stock and van stock levels. PPMdesk has no stock control, so there is nowhere to put them.

Keep your Joblogic export somewhere safe. If a client asks about a job from two years ago, that is where the answer is.

Switching without disrupting anyone

1. Start a PPMdesk trial a few weeks before your Joblogic term ends. Nothing changes for engineers or clients.
2. Send us your exports. We import the data and rebuild your PPM schedules, and you check them against Joblogic.
3. Pick a switch-over day, ideally the start of a week. New jobs go into PPMdesk from that morning.
4. Engineers get their jobs as links by text or email, so there is no app to install and no training day.
5. Finish any open Joblogic jobs in Joblogic, or move them across, and keep Joblogic read-only until the term ends.

What it costs

Joblogic: Standard plan from £49 per user per month, billed annually. Field engineers count as users. A floor, not a quote: PPM contracts start on the Premium plan, which is quote only, and SFG20 and the customer portal cost extra. Most customers sign for 24 or 36 months. PPMdesk is £49 per office user per month with engineers and subcontractors free, and the move itself is free. For a side-by-side at your size, see what job management software costs.

When you are ready, the Joblogic migration page has the details, or see the full PPMdesk vs Joblogic comparison.