FieldproxySwitching guide · sources checked 13 November 2026How to switch from ServiceM8 without losing a job, a client or a photo
Short answer: download your full ServiceM8 account backup before you cancel, because ServiceM8 deletes the account and its data when you cancel, with no read-only access afterwards. Send that backup to the new vendor, rebuild your forms, checklists and templates (they are settings, not data), run new jobs in the new system from a fixed date, then cancel with the 30 days' notice ServiceM8's terms ask for.
With Fieldproxy, migration is free and assisted: our team builds your stages, forms and checklists and moves your clients, jobs, materials and documents, and you're live within a day, with unlimited users on one price per company. ServiceM8 is cheap and good for small crews; this guide also says when you should stay.
Leaving ServiceM8? See your setup first
Send us a ServiceM8 export. We build your stages, forms and data in Fieldproxy, free, before you decide.
In buyers' words
What people leaving ServiceM8 told us
From our sales calls between August and November 2026, word for word. We don't name the people or companies. These are the reasons they gave, not a survey.
“ServiceMate has got a monopoly here, because it's cheap, but it's clunky.”
“The main issue was that we had too many tools. Service mate for booking. Monday.com for lead management. Panda.com for quote and proposal.”
“I can't spend hours and hours creating checklists manually.”
“They just text me their receipts. And put the job number on it, and it's not being tracked properly so that we know how much the job is actually costing us.”
“At the end of the week, they invoice us. We want to eliminate them invoicing us.”
“ServiceMate cost us way, way less currently.”
Why teams leave
Why teams leave ServiceM8, with the facts checked
ServiceM8 is a polished, low-cost app priced by jobs per month. Teams leave when the work around it grows: purchase orders, van stock, subcontractors, a customer portal, more forms, more tools glued on. Each point below is checked against ServiceM8's own pages on 13 November 2026.
The price steps up with your job count
ServiceM8 charges a flat monthly fee set by how many jobs you create, with unlimited users on paid plans: $0 to $349 a month in the US, and 20 cents per extra job above 1,500 on Premium Plus. Go over your limit and you can keep working for 7 days, then you are asked to upgrade. Cheap at low volume; a growing team pays more each step. Fieldproxy is one price per company with unlimited users, and it doesn't count jobs.
source: ServiceM8 pricing (US): plans, job limits, add-ons, FAQ
No purchase orders or van stock built in
ServiceM8's help center says it has no built-in way to create and send purchase orders, and stock levels come from Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks Online. That is where texted receipts and untracked job costs come from. Fieldproxy has warehouse and van stock with purchase orders on the job.
source: ServiceM8 Help: purchase orderssource: ServiceM8 Help: stock levels
No customer portal
ServiceM8 offers online booking, online quote acceptance and live invoice statements, but no customer portal by that name. Commercial clients who want to see every visit, photo and invoice in one place get emails. Fieldproxy has a customer portal and per-job links for visits, photos, quotes to approve and invoices to pay.
source: ServiceM8 pricing (US): plans, job limits, add-ons, FAQ
Offline stops at the paperwork
ServiceM8 says you can view and update jobs and save notes and photos offline once they have synced, but final PDF quotes and invoices, forms, and sending email or SMS need a connection. Fieldproxy's technician app works offline, with GPS check-in, and syncs when signal returns.
Forms and checklists are yours to build
You build your own forms from the Growing plan up. Owners told us the checklist is “basically a mirror of the quote that we send them”, and that typing it by hand for every site is the job they wanted gone. In Fieldproxy, your forms and checklists are built for you from your quotes and paper forms, with required photos and signatures.
source: ServiceM8 pricing (US): plans, job limits, add-ons, FAQ
Reports and exports cost extra
Basic reports are on every plan and visible to the business owner. Job and client CSV exports need the Advanced Reporting Pack add-on. In Fieldproxy, reports and dashboards are part of the setup, and you can ask questions of your data in plain English.
QuickBooks Desktop and Sage aren't on the list
ServiceM8's accounting help covers Xero, QuickBooks Online and MYOB; we found no QuickBooks Desktop integration. Fieldproxy has two-way sync with QuickBooks Online, Desktop and Enterprise, Xero and Sage, including bills. It does not connect to MYOB.
Not a reason to leave: Android, or Claude and ChatGPT
ServiceM8 launched a full Android app in 2026, and it has an official MCP server that creates and schedules jobs and sends job email and SMS from ChatGPT or Claude (quotes and invoices aren't listed). If those were your reasons, check again. Fieldproxy's MCP server does anything you can do in the app, invoices included, with a confirm step.
source: ServiceM8 About: company timeline, Android appsource: ServiceM8 Help: connect ServiceM8 to ChatGPT or Claude (MCP)
Stay on ServiceM8 if
- Your monthly job count sits comfortably inside a ServiceM8 tier and the price is fine. For a solo operator or a small crew, Free or Starter will cost less.
- You don't buy parts on purchase orders or track van stock in the field software.
- Your team is happy with the app and nothing is glued on around it.
- You run your books in MYOB. Fieldproxy's accounting links are QuickBooks, Xero and Sage.
- You want to sign up tonight and set it up yourself. Fieldproxy is set up with you on a call.
Before you go
What to export from ServiceM8, and how
ServiceM8 gives you two ways out: a full account backup, which ServiceM8 says covers jobs, clients, materials and documents, and CSV lists of jobs and clients if you have the Advanced Reporting Pack add-on. Download the backup first. Send it as it is; messy is fine.
| Data | How to get it out of ServiceM8 | What happens to it in Fieldproxy |
|---|---|---|
| Clients, sites and contacts | Account backup (Settings, ServiceM8 Account, Download account backup). Client list as CSV with the Advanced Reporting Pack. | Customers and service sites, checked for duplicates. Each site can get a QR code. |
| Jobs, with quotes and invoices | Account backup. Job list as CSV with the Advanced Reporting Pack. | Open jobs come in as live jobs at the right stage. Past jobs sit on each customer and site as history. |
| Materials and your price list | Account backup (materials). | Your price list for quotes and invoices, including good/better/best options. |
| Photos and documents | Account backup (documents). | Attached to the customer, site or job they belong to. |
| Recurring jobs | Listed in your jobs; send us the schedule you run today if it isn't obvious from the data. | Rebuilt as service agreements with recurring visits, so visits are created ahead. |
| Staff and subcontractors | A plain list: name, role, phone, email. | Unlimited users, so everyone gets a login. Subcontractors get a portal login or a job link. |
| Invoice and payment history | Stays in Xero or QuickBooks, which remains your ledger. | Fieldproxy connects to the same Xero or QuickBooks file, two-way. |
source: ServiceM8 Help: download a backup of your datasource: ServiceM8 Help: Advanced Reporting Pack
What doesn't come with it
What doesn't export, and what we rebuild
An export carries records, not the way your account is set up. Here is what to expect, and who does the work.
Your settings, templates and forms
ServiceM8 says its backup covers jobs, clients, materials and documents. It doesn't list job templates, forms, checklists, message templates or automations, so plan to rebuild them. We do that from screenshots, your quote PDFs and paper forms, during setup.
Stock levels
ServiceM8 shows stock levels only when they are tracked in Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks Online, so there is no ServiceM8 stock to export. Start Fieldproxy's warehouse and van stock from a count of each van on go-live day.
Anything after you cancel
Cancelling permanently deletes the account and its data, with no read-only access afterwards. Take a final backup on your last day, after the last ServiceM8 job is closed.
Add-ons, payments and phone
Data held in add-ons, ServiceM8 Pay and ServiceM8 Phone is not named in the backup. Check each one before you cancel, and ask how your phone number moves if you use ServiceM8 Phone. In Fieldproxy, invoices carry payment links through Stripe, with Tap to Pay on the phone.
source: ServiceM8 Help: download a backup of your datasource: ServiceM8 pricing (US): plans, job limits, add-ons, FAQ
Do these before you cancel ServiceM8
- Download the full account backup, and again on your last day.
- Export job and client CSVs too if you have the Advanced Reporting Pack.
- Screenshot your job templates, forms, checklists and message templates.
- Note your notice date: ServiceM8's terms let either side end the service with notice at least 30 days before the end of the payment period.
- Decide which tool invoices which jobs during the overlap, so nothing reaches Xero or QuickBooks twice.
Send us your ServiceM8 export and see it running in your setup.
Get DemoLive within a day
The move from ServiceM8, day by day
Migration to Fieldproxy is free and assisted: our team builds your setup and moves your data. You're live within a day, meaning your first team runs real jobs in Fieldproxy the day after the call. How fast everyone else follows is your call.
This is how a typical move runs, not a guarantee. A large data clean-up or extra integrations add time, and we say so on the first call.
What happens on go-live day- 1
Before the call: download the backup and pick a switch-off date
You, about an hour
Download the account backup. Pick the date ServiceM8 goes off, outside your busiest week, and count back 30 days for notice. Don't cancel yet. - 2
The call: one job, from enquiry to paid invoice
You and Fieldproxy, 30 minutes
Walk us through how a job runs today and what you glue on around ServiceM8: the quote tool, the checklist, the group chat, the spreadsheet. Send the backup, a few quotes, your checklists and your invoice template. - 3
We build your setup
Fieldproxy's team
Your job stages, job types, forms and checklists (built from your quotes, with required photos and signatures), good/better/best quote templates, invoice templates, roles, and the screens each person sees on the web and on the Android and iOS app. - 4
We move your data, free
Fieldproxy's team and Fieldproxy AI
Clients, sites, open jobs, job history, materials and documents from the backup, mapped and checked for duplicates. Recurring jobs become service agreements. Nothing is retyped by your office. - 5
We connect Xero or QuickBooks, and payments
Fieldproxy's team, with your bookkeeper
Two-way sync with Xero, QuickBooks Online, Desktop or Enterprise, or Sage, checked against a few real invoices. Stripe for payment links and Tap to Pay. - 6
You check it on your own jobs
Your office
Book a real job, dispatch it, complete it on the phone, quote and invoice it. Anything that is off is changed while you watch. - 7
Live: the first crew on Fieldproxy
Day one
The first crew installs the app and runs today's jobs in it, offline if needed, with GPS check-in. New enquiries go into Fieldproxy from now on. AI agents stay off until you switch them on, and each asks before anything goes out. - 8
The next days: everyone else, then switch off
Your pace
Other crews and subcontractors move over. Jobs already open in ServiceM8 finish there or are moved. On the switch-off date you take the final backup and cancel.
Cutover
Running ServiceM8 and Fieldproxy side by side
For a short, dated window, both tools are open. Fieldproxy is there to replace ServiceM8, not to sit on top of it, so the rules below are about ending the overlap cleanly. Our view from moves we have run, not a sourced fact.
One home per job
From go-live, every new job is created in Fieldproxy. Jobs already open in ServiceM8 finish there, or we move them; a job never lives in both.
One tool invoices each job
Both tools can push invoices into Xero or QuickBooks. Agree which jobs each one invoices and a numbering rule, so no invoice reaches the books twice.
Recurring work moves once
Switch off a ServiceM8 recurring job on the day its Fieldproxy service agreement starts making visits, so no customer gets booked twice.
Customers hear from one place
Turn off ServiceM8's automatic texts and emails for jobs that have moved, so a customer doesn't get two reminders for one visit.
Someone owns the overlap
One person checks both boards each morning until the switch-off date. The Watcher agent flags overdue jobs and missed visits while the team is new to the system.
A fixed end date
Keep ServiceM8 for reading, not working, and switch it off on the date you set. Without the date, people key jobs into both and trust neither.
The fear
“The risk of migrating all of an operating system that runs 95% of our business onto something else is such a high risk for us.”
Owner of a multi-trade service business, about leaving the system they had run for years
It was said about a bigger system than ServiceM8, but every owner we spoke to felt it. Your field software holds the schedule, the customers and the cash. This is how to take the leap out of it.
- 1
See your own data running before you sign
We build your setup and load your ServiceM8 data before you commit, so you judge your jobs, not a demo company. - 2
Start with one crew
Put one crew or one service line on Fieldproxy first. A missing checklist item shows up on day one, not after everyone has moved. - 3
Keep ServiceM8 until you are sure
ServiceM8 has no lock-in, so keep it readable through the overlap and cancel only after the final backup. - 4
Nothing goes out without approval
AI agents are off until you switch them on, and each one asks before a message, quote or invoice goes out. Schedule changes are previewed, with Undo. - 5
Your data stays yours
Export your records to CSV, or read them through the open API or the MCP server, whenever you want. Ask any vendor, us included, to put the exit terms in writing. - 6
Changes are a conversation
Ask for a field, a stage or a form and it is built, and small changes go live in seconds. You are not stuck with what was set up on day one.
Where things live
ServiceM8 terms and where they go in Fieldproxy
So your team knows where things went on the first morning.
| In ServiceM8 | In Fieldproxy |
|---|---|
| Jobs and job statuses | Jobs with your own stages |
| Job templates | Job types, each with its own forms, checklists and price lines |
| Forms (Growing plan and up) | Forms and checklists on every job type, with required photos and signatures, offline |
| Quotes with options | Good/better/best quotes the customer approves online |
| Online booking, quote acceptance, invoice statements | Customer portal and per-job links |
| Recurring jobs | Service agreements with recurring visits |
| Materials | Price list, plus warehouse and van stock with purchase orders |
| ServiceM8 Pay | Invoices with payment links through Stripe, and Tap to Pay |
| Staff (unlimited on paid plans) | Unlimited users with roles; subcontractors by portal login or job link |
| Office Agent Pro and AI add-ons | AI agents, each asking before anything goes out |
| ServiceM8 MCP server | Fieldproxy MCP server: anything you can do in the app, invoices included, with a confirm step |
| Xero, QuickBooks Online, MYOB | Xero, QuickBooks Online, Desktop and Enterprise, Sage (two-way, including bills); no MYOB |
Straight answers
Switching from ServiceM8: FAQ
How long does it take to switch from ServiceM8 to Fieldproxy?
Do I lose my data if I cancel ServiceM8?
How do I export my data from ServiceM8?
Is ServiceM8 a lock-in contract?
Is migration from ServiceM8 free?
Is Fieldproxy cheaper than ServiceM8?
Can I run ServiceM8 and Fieldproxy at the same time?
Does Fieldproxy work with Xero and MYOB?
Do subcontractors need a paid login?
Can my checklists come from my quotes?
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from
Every ServiceM8 fact links to ServiceM8's own pages, opened on 13 November 2026. Features and terms change, so check the current page before you decide. The full comparison, with every source, is on Fieldproxy vs ServiceM8.
- source: ServiceM8 pricing (US): plans, job limits, add-ons, FAQ
- source: ServiceM8 terms of service
- source: ServiceM8 About: company timeline, Android app
- source: ServiceM8 Help: does ServiceM8 work offline
- source: ServiceM8 Help: purchase orders
- source: ServiceM8 Help: stock levels
- source: ServiceM8 Help: accounting integrations
- source: ServiceM8 Help: Advanced Reporting Pack
- source: ServiceM8 Help: connect ServiceM8 to ChatGPT or Claude (MCP)
- source: ServiceM8 Help: download a backup of your data
- source: ServiceM8 Help: cancelling your subscription
- source: ServiceM8 Help: set up your account
Leave ServiceM8 without the leap. Live within a day.
A 30-minute call about how a job runs in your business, and a ServiceM8 export. We show you your own setup and data running in Fieldproxy before you commit.
Plan my switchFree, assisted migration. One price per company, unlimited users. Changes are a conversation.