Written by Colin Tross, founder of EasyDone and an audio visual installation business owner. Last checked 10 October 2026.
It's 4.45 on a Friday in a Canning Vale factory unit and Aaron Kopp is looking at two very different weeks on the same screen. Thirty-one service calls: broken springs, a roller door off its track in Southern River, a gate motor that's decided it doesn't like the remote any more. And one builder's contract: forty townhouses in Treeby, every one with a double sectional door and a motor, going in over five months in stages.
The service calls fit ServiceM8 like a glove. They always have. The townhouses don't fit it at all, and Aaron's office manager, Josie, is running them off a spreadsheet with forty tabs.
A Simpro rep told him last week he'd "outgrown the small stuff". Aaron looked at the demo, then at his twelve staff, then at the setup fee, and felt like he'd been sold a semi-trailer to do the school run.
Too big for one, too small for the other. Sound familiar?
Yeah, we make EasyDone, so we're biased. Here's why we reckon there's a size in the middle, and how the three compare, area by area.
Why staff count is the wrong question
Kopp Garage Doors & Gates has twelve people. That number tells you almost nothing about what software it needs.
What matters is the shape of the work. Thirty short visits a week is a volume problem: booking, routing, getting the tech there and the invoice out. Forty staged townhouses is a complexity problem: stages, stock, variations, claims and a builder's site manager who wants to know where you're at. Most growing trade businesses end up with both.
ServiceM8 was built for the first. Simpro was built to carry the second at a much bigger scale. That's the gap Aaron's standing in.
Who's each one really built for?
ServiceM8 is established and good at short jobs. Its own help centre describes it as job management for high volumes of jobs that take a matter of hours or days, with no project object. (ServiceM8 Help Center, Can ServiceM8 track overall project progress?, read 10 October 2026) Paid plans include unlimited users but cap your new jobs each month: from $29 for 50 jobs up to $349 for 1,500, with a charge per job beyond that. (ServiceM8, Pricing, read 10 October 2026) In our view, it's built for small crews doing quick work, and you feel the ceiling once the work gets bigger.
Simpro is established and deep, with inventory, scheduling and dispatch, and serious project tools. (Simpro inventory tracking, read 10 October 2026; Simpro scheduling, read 10 October 2026; Simpro, Project management software, read 10 October 2026) Its pricing is scoped to your business, with an initial setup fee covering onboarding, training and migration. (Simpro pricing and implementation, read 10 October 2026) In our view, it's built for the big end of town, and it feels old and heavy for a twelve-person business that just wants to get the doors in.
The assistants, side by side
| What its AI does | Does it do your admin? | |
|---|---|---|
| ServiceM8 | Office Agent opens beside a job, reads the diary and drafts quotes, invoices, reports and follow-ups for you to approve; the voice version adds notes, checks availability and drafts an SMS. (ServiceM8, AI quoting, invoicing and CRM for tradies, read 10 October 2026; ServiceM8, September 2025 update, read 10 October 2026) | Drafts, inside the job you've opened. |
| Simpro | Cooper, the AI layer of its Lightning platform, answers questions, surfaces problems and helps with briefings, voice job notes and customer summaries. (Simpro Group press release, Simpro Group unveils Lightning, read 10 October 2026) | It helps you read and write about the job. |
| EasyDone | The Assistant can do anything a screen in EasyDone can: quotes, bookings, invoices, purchase orders, chasing, moving jobs, even your settings, typed or spoken.10 | Yes, across the whole business. You OK the money and the sends. |
Here's Aaron's Friday in EasyDone: "Move the Southern River roller door to Monday at eight, quote the Hendersons for a new gate motor at our usual rates, and tell me which Treeby stages are ready to claim." The Assistant finds the jobs, the customers and the project, uses his saved rates, asks for anything it can't find, and shows him the booking and the quote before anything goes.10
Verdict: ServiceM8 drafts inside one job, Simpro tells you about the job, and ours does the work across the whole business.
The short visits: fast in, fast out
Credit where it's due: ServiceM8 is quick for this. Its online booking lets customers pick a service, answer your questions and land as a booking, an enquiry or a quote visit. (ServiceM8, Online booking, read 10 October 2026) Its Android app has been filling out, too, so it isn't only an iPhone thing any more. (ServiceM8, September 2025 update)
EasyDone handles the short stuff just as cleanly. Enquiries land on the right customer and site, with the site history, so the tech can see the same door had its springs done two winters ago. Bookings go against who's actually free. The tech opens Today, hits On my way with the customer text previewed, runs the timer, adds photos and the parts, and the invoice goes straight from the finished job with overdue reminders sent for you.12 And there's no job allowance to watch.
Verdict: a draw on the quick jobs, without the monthly job cap.
The staged job: forty townhouses in Treeby
This is where it splits.
| Staged project work | |
|---|---|
| ServiceM8 | No project object; a job can be scheduled more than once and to more than one person. (ServiceM8 Help Center, Can ServiceM8 track overall project progress?) |
| Simpro | Gantt views, variations, progress claims and retentions. (Simpro, Project management software) |
| EasyDone | Every won quote a scope, variations as tagged scopes, Gantt, labour budget against hours burned, milestones, numbered claims and retentions.12 |
In EasyDone, the Treeby contract is one project. Each stage is a milestone. When the builder swaps ten of the doors to a premium colour in month three, that's a variation: a tagged scope with its own lines, its own labour budget and its own bar on the Gantt. Aaron sees labour budget against hours actually burned while the stages are running, and Josie raises numbered progress claims straight from the project.12
Simpro can do all that too. The difference is how it feels on a Friday afternoon with twelve staff and no full-time system admin.
Verdict: ServiceM8 can't really do it. Simpro can, with a lot of weight. EasyDone does it on one screen.
Stock: eighty doors and eighty motors
ServiceM8's stock relies on your connected accounting package: the quantity updates when an invoice with the tracked item syncs across. (ServiceM8 Help Center, Does ServiceM8 track stock levels or offer inventory management?, read 10 October 2026) Fine for spare springs. Not great for eighty motors reserved for a builder.
Simpro documents proper inventory tracking. (Simpro inventory tracking) EasyDone runs stock as one trail:12
- Items carry supplier buy prices and your margin, so quotes price themselves.
- Win the Treeby contract and the doors and motors flow onto the project as gear to order.
- Raise purchase orders from the job and see the margin before they go.
- Receive them and they're reserved for Treeby, so a service call can't quietly pinch a motor.
- Transfers to the vans and stocktakes keep their full history.
Verdict: the motors in the factory unit have a project number on them.
The phone app
All three have one. ServiceM8's is quick for short jobs. (ServiceM8, September 2025 update) Simpro Mobile covers job details, site and asset history, timesheets, quotes in the field and offline use. (Simpro app store listing, Simpro Mobile, read 10 October 2026) EasyDone's opens on Today and keeps the whole day in one place, with checklists that can hold a stage open until the install photos are there.12
When your business works a bit differently
Aaron's builders each want a handover sheet with the door serials and the motor's remote codes. In ServiceM8 it's a form; in Simpro it's a configuration job.
In EasyDone, he asks for the change. Workshop plans it, builds it and tests it, and he reviews it before it's his.15
Everything, side by side
| Area | ServiceM8 | Simpro | EasyDone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Built for | Small crews, quick jobs. (ServiceM8 Help Center, Can ServiceM8 track overall project progress?) | Big operations; scoped pricing and setup fee. (Simpro pricing and implementation) | Growing trade businesses with both. |
| Users and jobs | Unlimited users, monthly job cap. (ServiceM8, Pricing) | Scoped to your business. (Simpro pricing and implementation) | See the pricing page. |
| AI | Drafts for you to approve. (ServiceM8, AI quoting, invoicing and CRM for tradies) | Answers and summarises. (Simpro Group press release, Simpro Group unveils Lightning) | Does the admin when you ask.10 |
| Projects | No project object. (ServiceM8 Help Center, Can ServiceM8 track overall project progress?) | Gantt, variations, claims, retentions. (Simpro, Project management software) | Scopes, variations, Gantt, labour burn, claims.12 |
| Stock | Through your accounting package. (ServiceM8 Help Center, Does ServiceM8 track stock levels or offer inventory management?) | Inventory tracking. (Simpro inventory tracking) | One trail, reserved per project.12 |
| Changes | Configure what's there. | Configure what's there. | Workshop builds it.15 |
How should Aaron test all three?
Two jobs, same brief, every demo. Don't let anyone pick an easy one.
Job one, the short visit. A broken spring in Southern River. The customer books online, the tech gets it on his phone, finds the door also needs new rollers, and the customer says yes on the spot. Watch how many taps it takes to add the extra, finish the job and get the invoice out.
Job two, the staged contract. Stage four of Treeby. Ten motors arrive late, the builder changes the colour of ten doors, and the stage-three claim is overdue. Watch whether the system knows which motors are for Treeby, whether the colour change is priced on its own, and whether anyone has to open a spreadsheet.
Then ask each one's AI to do something real: "Move Monday's Southern River job to Tuesday and tell the customer." See who does it, who drafts it, and who explains how you could do it yourself.
Get Josie to drive the office side and a tech to use his own phone. The one they'd pick is usually the right one.
Moving off ServiceM8
Aaron's six years of customers, sites and door histories come across first, then the price list, then the open jobs and the Treeby project with its stages to date. Old closed jobs stay searchable in an archive. Both systems run until the checks pass. We plan it with you.16
Back in Canning Vale
The next Friday at 4.45, Aaron had the same two weeks on one screen. Thirty-odd service calls, booked and invoiced. The Treeby project with stage four claimed, the premium-colour variation priced on its own, and eighty motors with a project number on them.
Josie deleted the spreadsheet with forty tabs. She said it felt better than a pay rise. Aaron didn't ask whether that was a hint.
Book an EasyDone demo with your own two weeks. Bring the service calls and the staged contract. We'll run both, side by side, in one place.
