Workiz Onboarding Timeline vs Getting Started the Same Week
Every day without your FSM running is a day of scheduling chaos. Here's how fast you can actually get going.
TL;DR
Workiz starts you with a blank slate — you'll spend 1-3 weeks manually setting up services, pricing, automations, and templates. Opsler's 12 industry presets pre-load everything for your trade. Pick HVAC, plumbing, or pest control and you're dispatching jobs the same day. Most teams go live within 24 hours.
How Long Does Workiz Actually Take to Set Up?
Here's what nobody tells you when you sign up for Workiz: the software might be ready for you, but you won't be ready to use it for a while.
Workiz gives you a blank canvas. Every service needs to be created from scratch. Every price needs to be entered manually. Every automation needs to be built step by step. Your team roles, notification preferences, template messages — all of it starts at zero.
Now, if you're a locksmith or garage door company (the industries where Workiz is strongest), you might find some community templates or guides. But for HVAC? Plumbing? Pest control? Electrical? You're figuring it out yourself.
How long does it take? Here's what we hear from business owners who've done it:
- Week 1: Set up your account, add services and pricing, create your first few templates. Realize you've forgotten half your services and go back to add them.
- Week 2: Add your team, configure roles and permissions, set up automations. Train your dispatcher on the interface.
- Week 3: Start actually dispatching jobs. Find things that aren't configured right. Fix them. Answer your techs' questions. Tweak more settings.
That's three weeks where you're either running your old system in parallel or stumbling through a half-set-up new one. And during those three weeks, your office manager is spending hours on software configuration instead of managing your business.
What Does "Same-Day Setup" Mean with Opsler?
When you sign up for Opsler, the first thing you do is pick your industry. Let's say you're an HVAC company. You tap "HVAC."
Instantly, your account is configured with HVAC terminology. Jobs become "Service Calls." Recurring work becomes "Maintenance Agreements." Your service list includes AC Install, AC Repair, Duct Cleaning, Furnace Service, and more. Pricing templates are pre-loaded. The pricebook has common HVAC items ready to customize.
You didn't type any of that. It took 5 seconds.
Now you add your team — enter their names, assign service areas, set hours. Import your customer list from a CSV (or from Workiz, if you're switching). And you dispatch your first job. The whole thing can realistically happen in an afternoon. Not an ambitious afternoon — a normal one.
Why Do Industry Presets Make Such a Big Difference?
Your terminology, not generic labels
Plumbers don't call things "tasks." HVAC techs don't call things "work orders." Pest control companies call them "treatments," not "jobs." Opsler speaks your language from minute one. Workiz speaks generic FSM.
Pre-loaded service types save hours
How long would it take your office manager to type in every service your company offers? AC Install, AC Repair, Duct Cleaning, Furnace Install, Furnace Repair, Heat Pump Service... Opsler loads 15-20 common services for your trade. You add or remove what you need. Saves 3-4 hours of data entry on day one.
12 industries covered
HVAC, plumbing, pest control, electrical, cleaning, landscaping, appliance repair, water purifier service, surveillance systems, and general maintenance. Each preset is built from real conversations with businesses in that trade. Workiz has no presets — for any industry.
Customize as you go
Presets aren't rigid. They're a starting point. Add your own services, tweak pricing, adjust labels — do it whenever you want. But you're making small changes to something that already works, not building from scratch.
Every day you spend configuring software is a day your techs are using sticky notes and text messages to manage jobs. The faster your FSM is operational, the faster you stop losing jobs to scheduling chaos. Opsler gets you there in hours. Workiz gets you there in weeks.
Frequently Asked Questions
Most teams report 1-3 weeks to get Workiz fully configured. You'll need to manually add all your services, set up pricing, create automations, configure team roles, and build any templates you need. There are no industry-specific presets, so everything starts blank. If you have a busy service business, finding the hours to do all this setup while still running your company is the real challenge.
Most teams dispatch their first job within a day, often the same afternoon they sign up. You pick your industry preset (HVAC, plumbing, pest control, etc.), and Opsler pre-loads your terminology, service types, and pricing templates. Add your team members, import your customer list, and you're dispatching. The 5-minute claim refers to basic account setup — full configuration with team and customers usually takes a few hours.
Workiz has onboarding resources and their support team can help guide you. But the actual configuration — adding services, building your pricebook, setting up workflows — is still manual work you or your office manager has to do. There's no 'pick your industry and go' shortcut.
Opsler offers 12 industry presets covering HVAC, plumbing, pest control, electrical, cleaning, landscaping, appliance repair, and more. Each preset comes pre-loaded with industry-specific terminology (HVAC sees 'Service Calls' and 'Maintenance Agreements,' pest control sees 'Treatments' and 'Follow-ups'), common service types, and pricing templates. You can customize everything after setup, but you're not starting from a blank slate.
Yes. Opsler supports CSV imports for customer lists, service history, and contact information. If you're coming from Workiz, you can export your data and import it directly. Our migration team helps with field mapping at no extra cost. Data import can happen in the background while you're already dispatching new jobs.
Everything is customizable. The preset gives you a running start — you can add services, modify terminology, adjust pricing, and configure workflows at any point. Think of it as a template, not a locked configuration. Most businesses tweak a few things in their first week and then settle into a rhythm.
More About Workiz
Deep-dive comparisons and guides for Workiz vs Opsler.
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