Thermal

Chip’s take on Thermal

Most field service software starts from the calendar or the customer account. Thermal starts from the equipment. The installed unit is the record, and agreements, PM visits and service history hang off it. In Thermal’s words, “Equipment is the centre of the spine. Everything hangs off the unit on purpose” (equipment), and “Coverage is written against installed equipment, not against a customer name” (agreements). If your revenue lives in service agreements on equipment you maintain, that is how your work already runs.

Thermal is built by Thermal Fieldserv Software Inc., based in Nanoose Bay, BC, Canada (about).

Who Thermal is for

Built for commercial and mechanical contractors; residential crews inside those shops are supported too. The fit is 5 to 200 technicians, often across more than one branch, in shops that run several trades under one roof: HVAC, mechanical, refrigeration, fire and life safety, and commercial plumbing (industries). It suits agreement-heavy, asset-heavy books, where the question is not “what is on the calendar today” but “what does this unit need next.”

What it does

Thermal is one schema rather than a bundle of apps: customer, service site, equipment, agreement, work order and invoice are wired together (platform). The live modules are Dispatch, Equipment, Preventive maintenance, Service agreements, Quoting, Invoicing, Customer portal, Subcontractors and Inventory. The Rentals and Job costing modules are early access.

• Equipment: nameplate capture, full service history and warranty tracking on each serialized unit.
• Service agreements: tiered agreements, escalations, MSAs, per-equipment coverage, route-based PM and SLA reporting.
• Preventive maintenance: PM work orders generate from the agreement’s schedule and report against compliance.
• Dispatch: one board for every technician’s day, including emergency work orders and multi-visit jobs.
• Quoting and invoicing: quote to accepted proposal from the job record, then invoice from the job and take a card on site or by Pay-Now link.
• Inventory and subcontractors: serialized inventory tied to the truck and the job, purchase orders, and one compliance queue for subs and vendors.
• Customer portal and branches: customers see their own quotes, invoices and documents through a magic-link session, and every branch runs in the same tenant.

Automation you can switch off

Thermal’s automation framework is in production. The available modules are smart scheduling, PM sweep and PM optimization, dispatch auto-assign, agreement renewal, AR and collections follow-up, quote follow-up, equipment health, KPI watch, call intake drafting, pre-visit briefing, refrigerant compliance and accounting sync. Each module has Off, Suggest and Auto modes, and every action carries a mandatory reason string. A per-company master kill switch turns it all off, and an activity ledger records what ran and why (automation). Modules are available to switch on; you choose what runs.

In the field and on the phone

Technician mobile web app. Install it to the home screen, and it keeps working with poor or no signal; changes sync when you reconnect.

After-hours call answering that takes the caller’s details and drafts the work order for your office to confirm.

Integrations and switching cost

Thermal has QuickBooks Online two-way sync (customers, items, invoices, payments) (QuickBooks integration). Xero, Sage Intacct and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central are on the roadmap. Approved technician hours export as a generic CSV or an ADP RUN time-sheet import file (canonical facts). Card payments and text messaging are built in: technicians take a card on site or send a Pay-Now link, and the invoice closes out the moment it is paid; appointment reminders and “tech on the way” texts go out from your shop’s number (integrations). Invoices and proposals go to customers by email.

The switching cost is low. Thermal imports price books from 11 named sources (ServiceTitan, Jobber, Housecall Pro, Service Fusion, FieldPulse, FieldEdge Flat Rate/Coolfront, Profit Rhino, The New Flat Rate, PricebookPlus, Allpriser, Callahan Roach) (integrations). There is no implementation project: you export what you have, stage it for review, and approve what moves (migration). There is no minimum term, it runs month to month, and there is no exit penalty (terms). If it doesn’t fit, you leave owing nothing. Buyers who want to see it on their own data first can sign up for a self-serve trial.

Security

Security details are on Thermal’s security page.

A young, fast-moving product

Thermal is modern and lightweight, and it moves fast. The company describes itself as “early — still a small team, on purpose, for now” (about). Rentals and Job costing are early access modules. No commercial-customer testimonials are public yet (canonical facts), so buyers should judge Thermal on their own data rather than on a reference list. The trade is agility over tenure: a fast-moving product that changes often.

When to pick Thermal (and when to look elsewhere)

Pick Thermal if you run a commercial or mechanical shop with 5 to 200 technicians, your work spans more than one trade, and your revenue is the equipment you maintain under agreement. Switching cost is low: bring your price book, skip the implementation project, and stay month to month.

Look elsewhere if you need live Xero, Sage Intacct or Business Central sync today, or if you are a single-trade residential crew that does not track equipment; Jobber or Housecall Pro are the better fit there. For the full write-up, read the Thermal review.