Comparison
DownsizeRoute vs SmartMoving
SmartMoving is aimed at moving companies running trucks and crews, while DownsizeRoute is aimed at the manager who has to decide what fits the new unit before any truck is booked.
Comparison
DownsizeRoute vs Jobber: a downsizing plan versus a service business system
Jobber is general purpose field service software for small home service businesses, while DownsizeRoute is narrow software for the specific work of moving an older adult into a smaller home.
The short answer
Jobber is built for home service businesses that quote a visit, schedule it, complete it, and invoice it, across many trades. Plenty of senior move managers run their back office that way and it works. What it does not carry is the substance of a downsize: measured wall runs in the new unit, keeper decisions argued room by room, disposition channels for what is released, and a move day sequence the family approved. If your problem is billing and calendars, Jobber fits. If your problem is what fits in the apartment, this does.
DownsizeRoute and Jobber side by side
| What you are deciding | DownsizeRoute | Jobber |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | One trade: downsizing an older adult into a smaller home | Broad, covering many home service trades with one workflow |
| Shape of a job | A four to six week engagement with sorting sessions and a move day | Built around visits, work orders, and repeat service patterns |
| The core artifact | A measured fit plan the client and family sign off on | A quote and a job record, which suits recurring service work |
| Estimating basis | Room volume, access, disposition load, and family decision speed | General purpose line items you define for your own trade |
| Released belongings | Channel, date, consent, and record for each released piece | Outside the scope of general service software |
| Who reads the output | The client, her adult children, and the crew on move day | Your office and the paying customer |
| Invoicing and payments | Job level fees and package pricing for downsizing engagements | A strength of general service software across trades |
| Learning curve for the trade | Assumes senior move vocabulary and sequence out of the box | You build the senior move structure yourself inside a general tool |
What follows on the right is the shape of Jobber as a category: the workflow it assumes and the buyer it is written for. Any product moves on, so confirm the live details on their own pages first. DownsizeRoute is published by MLJ, SASU and this page is written by Jimenez Julien.
Choose DownsizeRoute when
- When the job is decided by furniture dimensions rather than by a service call length.
- When you need consent and disposition records because things are being sold or donated.
- When the client has dementia and the plan has to hold what she cannot hold herself.
- When a community expects you to arrive with a placement map, not a work order.
Choose Jobber when
- If your bigger pain is quoting, invoicing, and chasing payment across many small jobs.
- If you run senior moves alongside organizing, cleanouts, or other service work under one roof.
- If you already have a back office system your bookkeeper likes and you only need the plan side.
Back office software and trade software solve different pain
A senior move practice has two kinds of pain. One is administrative: getting a quote out on Tuesday, invoicing before the family scatters, keeping a calendar that does not double book a sorting session against a closing. General service software is genuinely good at that, and it is good at it across dozens of trades.
The other pain is specific: a client who will not release her husband's workbench, a receiving unit with one usable sofa wall, a donation partner that only picks up on Thursdays, and a move date the community will not extend. No general system knows what any of that means, so managers end up carrying it in notebooks and long email threads.
What a general tool asks you to build yourself
You can approximate a downsizing workflow inside a general service system. It usually means custom checklists per room, custom fields for dimensions, a naming convention for disposition, and a shared drive of photos that nobody else on the team names consistently. It works until you hire, and then it stops working, because the structure lived in your head.
The alternative is not more software; it is software that already knows a downsize has a walkthrough, sorting sessions, a fit plan, a disposition ledger, and a move day. Everything you would have built is already the shape of the thing.
Running a trade tool and a back office tool together
This pairing is common and it is cleaner than the moving software pairing, because the two systems barely touch. The plan side owns measurements, decisions, disposition, and move day. The back office owns quotes, invoices, and payments.
The one number that crosses between them is the estimate. A downsizing quote built from room count, access, and disposition load can drop into whatever you invoice from, and the arithmetic behind it stays visible in the plan where the family can see what they are paying for.
Questions people ask before they choose
Can I keep invoicing in Jobber and plan in DownsizeRoute?
Yes, and that is a common setup. The plan produces the scope and the estimate; your back office system produces the invoice and collects. The two barely overlap, so there is little double entry.
Does DownsizeRoute handle payments?
It handles the pricing side of a downsizing package, including how a room based or hourly quote is built. Collection and bookkeeping stay with whatever accounting or service system you already use.
I only do senior moves. Do I need a general service tool at all?
Many solo managers do not. If your volume is a handful of engagements at a time, a plan tool plus simple invoicing is usually enough. Add general service software when scheduling several crews becomes the daily headache.
Other comparisons on downsizeroute.com
Comparison
DownsizeRoute vs Magicplan
Magicplan is a field capture tool for producing a floor plan of a space, while DownsizeRoute is a decision tool for choosing which of a client's furniture that space can hold.
See the same numbers on your own senior move management
Send us the way you run it today and we will walk through what DownsizeRoute changes, what it leaves alone and what the first month looks like.