Best HVAC Truck Stock Tracking Tools: 7 Compared for 2027

Key Takeaways

• Truck stock tracking is its own category. Each van has to act as a stock location, parts have to move between van and warehouse, and a logged part has to reduce the van count.

• ServiceTitan and Ply both describe truck-level stock on pages we could open. ServiceTitan's pricing is per technician with no dollar figures, and Ply's is priced by stock location.

• Simpro's van-transfer workflow could not be verified from the pages available to us, so make it a demo requirement rather than an assumption.

• Housecall Pro, Service Fusion, FieldEdge and Sortly publish plans or tiers, but none of the plan lists we read names truck-level stock as a feature.

• Zapier, Make and n8n can move these events, but the buyer then owns retries, duplicate protection, access control and upkeep.

Truck stock tracking is the practice of recording how many units of each part sit on each service van, moving stock between vans and the warehouse, and reducing a van's count when a technician logs a part on a job.

TL;DR: if your dispatch and invoicing already run on ServiceTitan, evaluate its inventory module first and put van transfers in the demo script. If you need a contractor-first stock layer that connects to several systems, shortlist Ply. If you run a smaller shop on Housecall Pro, Service Fusion or FieldEdge, confirm the truck-level feature in writing before you move to a tier that includes inventory.

Why truck stock needs its own category

Most HVAC shops keep parts in two places: warehouse shelves and van bins. A general inventory app can count one stock room well, but truck stock also needs a location for each van, a way for technicians to log usage against a job, and a transfer record that shows where a part went. Without those, counts drift, and the drift costs time on the next service call.

The pressure is not only in the field. A 2026 survey by Phocas, reported in trade press, found that More than 6 in 10 distributors report lost sales according to ACHR News (2026). That study sampled more than 100 distribution professionals, only 11% of them HVACR or plumbing distributors, and it did not sample contractors. Read it as a signal about stock pressure, not as a measure of contractor losses.

How we evaluated these tools

We scored each product against seven weighted criteria on a 0 to 5 scale. The weights follow the buyer's decision: truck-level visibility matters most, and price clarity counts because several vendors publish no figures. Scores come only from pages we could open for this guide. Vendor blog posts were read as marketing and were not used as scoring evidence.

Two candidates were dropped. Jobber's plan list shows no inventory or truck stock in any plan, and BuildOps' pricing page describes no inventory or van stock tracking in any plan. inFlow was left out of the profiles because its pricing page supports multiple locations but does not mention trucks as stock locations.

Feature matrix: what each product lists

In the matrix, "Stated" means the vendor's own page says so. "Not listed" means the page we read is silent. "Not verified" means we could not open a page that confirms it. A "Not listed" entry does not prove a feature is absent; it is a reason to ask.

Read across the rows and the pattern is clear. Only ServiceTitan's help docs and Ply's pricing page describe truck-level stock in sources we could open. Simpro's van workflow remains unverified, and the other four are silent on trucks.

Published prices and quote-based gaps

Only three vendors in this set publish dollar figures on pages we opened: Housecall Pro, Service Fusion and Sortly. The table below reproduces those printed figures. Each vendor name links to the pricing page it came from. Monthly and annual rates appear separately where the page shows both.

Housecall Pro's Basic plan costs $59 a month billed annually according to Housecall Pro (checked 2026), and the same page shows $79 a month on monthly billing. None of its three plans lists inventory or truck stock, so a Housecall Pro shop should treat truck tracking as a separate question to settle with the vendor.

Four vendors publish no dollar figures on the pages we could read, so their entries are quote-based.

Pricing checked October 26, 2026. Each figure above is the vendor's own printed number from the pricing page opened on that date. Simpro's pricing page did not load for us, so its entry stays quote-based without a verified figure, and no Simpro price appears anywhere in this guide.

Field-service suites with truck locations

ServiceTitan

What the vendor publishes: ServiceTitan's pricing page lists 3 packages, Starter, Essentials and The Works, and states that its "per-technician pricing is designed to fit your business and goals, at any size" according to ServiceTitan. Each package ends in a Request Pricing button rather than a figure.

The inventory help docs describe trucks as stock locations. Technicians and default warehouses can be assigned to trucks, items can move between trucks and warehouses, and transfers can be linked to jobs according to ServiceTitan. The docs also say to enable the Purchasing module first, because effective inventory use depends on a good purchasing foundation.

Best fit: a multi-technician shop that already runs dispatch, scheduling and invoicing in ServiceTitan and wants truck stock in the same system. Limitations: the docs do not use the term min/max or describe automatic low-stock alerts, so ask for that behavior in writing. Implementation: the docs ask you to complete an Introduction to Inventory workshop before rollout, and exports to Intacct or QuickBooks Desktop require contacting your implementation advisor. Our read: the truck model is real, but budget for the module, the Purchasing foundation and an advisor.

Simpro

What the vendor publishes: we could not open Simpro's pricing or help pages during this check, so no Simpro price or van-transfer step is stated here. A third-party comparison last reviewed July 7, 2026 describes simPRO as suited to trades that carry warehouse-style stock, with parts and inventory management that includes cost tracking according to fieldservicesoftware.io.

Best fit: mid-sized trade firms that want quoting, scheduling and job costing in one system and can test van transfers in a demo. Limitations: in our sources, the van-transfer workflow is unverified, so do not assume it. Implementation: ask the vendor to show a single van's stock, a transfer from the warehouse and a job-level consumption entry in one session before any contract talk.

A contractor-first stock layer

Ply

What the vendor publishes: Ply's pricing page lists 3 tiers, Starter, Plus and Enterprise, and describes its pricing as "Priced by your stock locations" according to Ply. The page says all plans track vehicle stock alongside warehouses, that NFC tags for truck and warehouse lookups and transfers are not included in Starter, and that Plus and Enterprise add QuickBooks Online, Sage Intacct and AccuLynx connections.

Integrations on all plans include ServiceTitan, Jobber, Housecall Pro, FieldEdge and ServiceM8. API access is an add-on on every plan, and Ply Pay, the ACH supplier-payment product, is an add-on for Plus and Enterprise.

Best fit: contractors who buy from several suppliers and want purchasing, van stock and supplier payment in one layer that sits beside an existing dispatch tool. Limitations: there are no public prices, Starter lacks NFC transfers, and API access costs extra. Independent review data is thin. Most of the favorable comparisons we found sit on Ply's own blog, which ranks Ply first and calls it "the strongest contractor-first option in the group," so we did not use them as scoring evidence. Implementation: confirm which of Ply's five dispatch integrations matches your system, then confirm the tier that carries it.

Smaller suites and general inventory apps

Housecall Pro

The help article we opened describes a Material Usage on Jobs Report and a material detail report, but it does not describe truck locations. It also says many pros use QuickBooks Online Plus for its built-in inventory tracking according to Housecall Pro.

Best fit: residential shops that dispatch and invoice in Housecall Pro and need job-level material usage more than per-van counts. Limitations: none of the three plans on the pricing page mentions truck stock. Implementation: ask whether a truck can be modeled as a location. If the answer is no, pair Housecall Pro with a stock layer such as Ply, which lists Housecall Pro among its integrations.

Service Fusion

Service Fusion's Starter plan costs $208 a month billed annually according to Service Fusion (checked 2026). The Plus plan is $325 and the Pro plan is $533 on the same billing basis, and the page says annual options carry a 15% discount.

Inventory Management is included in Plus and Pro and is an add-on on Starter. The page does not mention truck or van stock in any plan. Best fit: shops that want jobs, invoices and inventory in one system on the Plus or Pro tier. Limitations: no truck-level stock is listed, and the Starter tier requires an add-on for inventory. Implementation: confirm the Plus tier in writing and ask how van locations would be modeled.

FieldEdge

FieldEdge's pricing page lists 3 tiers, Select, Premier and Elite, each behind a Request Pricing button according to FieldEdge. Only the Elite tier includes Warehouse Inventory Management, and a footnote says that feature is available only to users of QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise with Advanced Inventory.

Best fit: residential and light-commercial shops already on QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise that want inventory inside their field-service platform. Limitations: inventory is Elite-only, it carries a QuickBooks Desktop requirement, and truck stock is not in the listed features. Implementation: check your QuickBooks Desktop version before any pricing conversation, and ask whether replenishment covers vehicle stock, since the page lists replenishment on all tiers without saying what it covers.

Sortly

Sortly's pricing page lists a Free plan with 100 unique items, an Advanced plan at $24 a month on yearly billing, and tiers up to 5,000 items on Premium, with an Enterprise tier quoted on request according to Sortly. The page also shows a 50% discount on paid plans in the first year of a new subscription.

Best fit: small crews that want visual item tracking for a single stock room at a low monthly cost. Limitations: the pages we read mention no multiple-location or truck setup. Implementation: if you want each van tracked separately, confirm in writing that the tool supports it before you build your item list around that assumption.

Worked math for a four-van shop

Take a hypothetical four-van shop that tracks 260 unique items across its vans and one warehouse. Sortly's Free plan allows 100 items, so the shop would need a paid tier, and the Advanced plan allows 500 items at $24 a month on yearly billing, or $288 a year (24 × 12 = 288). The 260-item catalog is 2.6 times the Free cap (260 ÷ 100 = 2.6), and Sortly's pages show no per-van location, so the four vans would be modeled as workarounds rather than true stock locations. If the shop later syncs counts into QuickBooks Online, the sync writes to Item.QtyOnHand, the field that holds the on-hand quantity for an inventory item, so someone must reconcile those 260 quantities against the van counts before the sync is trusted.

Reorder and transfer alerts in practice

Consider how a proposed US Tech Automations design could handle a low van. The trigger is either a part line logged against a job or a van count that falls below the reorder point the shop set in its own inventory settings. The configured action reads that van location, compares the count with the minimum, and drafts a transfer request from the main warehouse. The output is a draft for the dispatcher, not a purchase order. Prerequisites are an export or API path from the inventory system, a mapping between item IDs in the field-service platform and the accounting system, and a list of which van location belongs to which technician. ServiceTitan's help docs name exports to Intacct and QuickBooks Desktop and do not describe a public API, so confirm that path before designing anything. Review points: the dispatcher approves each transfer, and the owner signs off on any purchase order above a threshold the owner sets.

A second configurable workflow runs once at the end of each workday. The trigger is the scheduled run. The action compares the day's logged parts with each van's count and flags any van that goes negative or differs from its last physical count. The output is an exceptions list in a shared sheet or email, which the office clears the same day. US Tech Automations would configure the matching rule, but the shop still owns the item map and the physical-count schedule. This is a design to configure, not a deployed result, and no measured outcome is implied.

The alternative many owners weigh is stitching this together in Zapier, Make or n8n, or building it in-house. Once configured well, those tools can keep run histories, retries, error branches and audit evidence. The buyer still designs and owns what makes an inventory workflow trustworthy: idempotency, so a retried job event does not decrement the same van twice; escalation when a count goes negative; access controls on who can change a count; and maintenance when an API changes. A proposed US Tech Automations design would differ mainly by packaging those pieces into one configured flow with an exceptions queue and a run log, but it needs the same prerequisites and the same named owner. For a clinic version of the reorder problem, see our dental inventory reorder comparison.

Who this is for

This guide is for owners and operations leads at small HVAC businesses who already dispatch and invoice in a field-service platform and need van counts that match what technicians log on jobs. Shortlist a tool from this list when one person can own weekly counts and the trucks carry a shared parts list.

Red flags: no one owns counts every week, trucks carry different parts with no shared item list, or the vendor will not confirm truck-level stock in writing for the tier you plan to buy.

Decision checklist

• Write down how many van locations and warehouse locations you need, then check each candidate's tier for both.

• Ask for a live demo that moves one part from warehouse to van, logs it against a job, and shows the van count afterward.

• Confirm which tier carries inventory. Service Fusion and FieldEdge both gate it by plan.

• Name the owner of the item map between your field-service system and your accounting system.

• Get the reorder behavior in writing: min/max levels, reorder points, or manual replenishment lists.

• Compare the annual cost of the tier you actually need, not the entry tier.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Buying the entry tier when the inventory feature sits on a higher tier.

• Treating a single-stock-room app as truck stock without confirming per-van locations.

• Skipping the item map, then discovering duplicate SKUs after go-live.

• Reading "Not listed" as "unavailable" instead of asking the vendor.

• Letting anyone edit a count without a log of who changed it and why.

Frequently asked questions

Can a general inventory app track truck stock?

Yes, for one stock room, but per-van tracking becomes a workaround on Sortly, whose pages we read show no truck or multi-location setup.

Do I need a field-service suite to track van stock?

Not always. A contractor-first layer such as Ply can sit beside an existing dispatch tool, provided its integration list includes your system and the tier you buy carries the feature.

Why are most prices quote-based?

Vendors that price per technician or per stock location, such as ServiceTitan and Ply, do not print a per-unit dollar figure on their pricing pages, so a written quote is the only reliable number.

Can Zapier, Make or n8n replace a truck-stock tool?

Yes, for a small, well-owned flow. Someone still has to design retries, duplicate protection, escalation and access control, and keep them working when APIs change.

When should you skip US Tech Automations?

Skip US Tech Automations if a shelf count and a shared spreadsheet already keep your trucks accurate, if you want a finished vendor product with support tickets rather than a configured design, or if you cannot provide an export or API path from your inventory system. In those cases, Sortly for one stock room, Housecall Pro's built-in material usage reports, or the truck-stock module inside your existing field-service platform is usually the simpler answer. A configured design earns its cost only when the exceptions list has a named person who acts on it.

Choosing before you buy

If your dispatch already runs in ServiceTitan, start there and make van transfers a demo requirement. If you need a contractor-first stock layer, shortlist Ply and confirm its tier and integration path in writing. If you run Housecall Pro, Service Fusion, FieldEdge or Sortly, confirm truck-level stock before paying for a tier that carries inventory. When you want to see how a configured truck-stock flow would look, see how US Tech Automations configures this.