The Real Cost of Software for a Growing Electrical Contractor

Sales & Marketing: $600-750/mo

Local pay-per-lead ads (Google Local Services Ads) typically run $700-800/mo for a shop this size — priced per booked lead, not per click. A CRM/quoting tool built for small crews runs $200-250/mo, review management around $300-350/mo, and a business phone system around $100-120/mo. Email marketing for seasonal reminders is the cheapest line, usually under $50/mo.

Core Operations: $250-500/mo

This is the pillar where team size matters most. Housecall Pro, sized for crews up to about 15 people, runs $350/mo; FieldEdge, built for the 5-50 employee range with trade-specific QuickBooks sync, runs $380/mo and adds dispatch-board complexity an 8-person team doesn't need yet. Add Profit Rhino's flat-rate pricebook (around $260/mo) so techs quote consistent prices on-site instead of guessing, plus fleet tracking if you're running more than a couple of trucks — Verizon Connect runs $220/mo for small commercial fleets.

Finance: $250-350/mo

Core accounting runs $40-90/mo, payroll runs $175-200/mo, and corporate cards/expense management is often $0/mo. Bill-pay automation adds $0-80/mo depending on whether you use a free tier.

Admin & Security: $250-350/mo

Email/productivity hosting runs $100/mo, password management $40-80/mo, endpoint security $40-70/mo, and e-signature for estimates and financing paperwork $50-60/mo.

The number that actually matters

Total: roughly $1,400-1,950/mo for a genuinely right-sized stack at 8 people. We regularly see electrical contractors this size paying $4,000+/mo — almost always because they're on a platform built for a much bigger crew, or running two tools that do the same job (a dispatch app and a separate CRM, when one tool already covers both).

Run the free audit with your actual headcount and current spend to see exactly where your stack lands.