A customer looks at an $18,000 estimate, goes quiet, and says they need to think about it. You already know how that ends. They're not thinking, they just can't write that check today. Financing fixes that, and ServiceTitan has it built right in. Here's how to set it up so your techs can offer a monthly payment on every job, not just the big ones.
Where financing lives in ServiceTitan
ServiceTitan works with a bunch of financing partners, and they're always adding more. Right now you've got GreenSky, Service Finance, GoodLeap, Wells Fargo, and FinanceIt, which I think is Canada only. There's also Turns, which is a second-look option for customers who get declined by your main lender. If there's a lender you already like that I didn't list, still ask. There's a decent chance they've added it since I wrote this.
To turn one on, go to Settings, then Integrations, then Financing. You'll put in your dealer ID and dealer name, and you can exclude business units if there are certain ones you don't want using financing. One heads up. A lot of accounts start with just one partner enabled. If you want more, your CSM or support can usually flip them on for you.
Set your financing rules so fees don't eat your margin
Here's where it gets useful. On the loan options tab you can build financing rules that control which plans get offered on which jobs. Why does that matter? Because some of the most attractive plans for the customer come with a nasty merchant fee, sometimes 17% or higher.
Let me show you with real numbers. Say you've got a $4,800 job at a 50% margin. That's $2,400 in profit. Take a 17% financing hit and you're down around $1,500. That stings on a smaller ticket. Now take an $18,000 job at that same 50% margin. That's $9,000 in profit. Even after the 17% hit you're still keeping about $6,000. Same percentage, completely different feeling. The bigger the ticket, the more fee you can stomach. Financing rules let you offer that expensive but attractive plan on the jobs you can't afford to lose, and keep it off the small stuff.
The good news is you don't have to build these rules by hand anymore. Titan Intelligence does it for you. You just pick a strategy: conservative, balanced, or aggressive. Conservative keeps your fees as low as possible and you're okay losing a few jobs to do it. Aggressive goes for the highest conversion rate even if it costs you profit dollars. Balanced sits in the middle. It offers attractive plans when you can tolerate the fee and pulls back on the smaller tickets where you can't. Balanced is the recommended one, and I agree. Start there.
Lead with the monthly payment
This is the part that actually moves your close rate. In the financing display settings you choose what the customer sees first, the total price or the monthly payment. Most people should lead with the monthly. "As low as $300 a month" lands a lot softer than "$18,000." The tech can still swipe over to the total if the customer asks for it. And if you want to be really aggressive about it, you can show only the monthly price. That's your call.
A couple of settings I'd turn on while you're in there. First, let customers apply for financing straight from the online estimate. When you send that estimate link, they get a "get pre-qualified" button and can start the process themselves, no tech needed. You can also decide whether to show estimated financing on printed estimates, and you can set a default provider if you run more than one.
On the mobile side, your tech gets an "apply for financing" button right on the estimate screen. They tap it, walk the customer through a quick form from the lender, and that's it. Pair this with leading with the monthly payment on your online estimates and you've got financing showing up at every point where the customer is staring at price.
Offer it on every quote, not just the big ones
One thing I'll push on. The biggest gains don't come from offering financing on your huge jobs. They come from offering it on everything. Plenty of customers who'd never think to finance a $2,000 repair will say yes when they see it's 60 bucks a month. Make it part of the normal pitch, not a special thing you pull out only for the monster tickets.
Know how you actually get paid
This one trips people up, so pay attention. When a customer uses integrated financing, you usually get a number back that works like a credit card. You run it as a card and you get your money. Sounds easy, right? Here's the catch. Running it as a card means you're paying a credit card processing fee on top of the financing fee you're already eating. You're getting hit twice.
There's a better way called direct funding. Instead of running that virtual card, you kick off a fund transfer through the lender's own portal, like the GreenSky portal for example. It skips the extra card fee. The setup lives outside ServiceTitan so I can't walk you through every screen, but ServiceTitan's knowledge base has a basic how-to. Open the little help widget, search "financing FAQ," and look for direct funding. If you're doing any real volume through financing, this is worth the trouble.
Watch your numbers with the financing dashboard
Once financing is running, you'll want to see if it's actually working. There's a financing dashboard for that, and it lives under Accounting, then Financing, then Dashboard. Not where you'd expect, I know.
It shows you the stuff that matters. What percentage of your revenue is coming from financing, your approval rate, your conversion rate, and your average ticket size on financed jobs versus non-financed ones. That last one is the number to watch. If your financed tickets aren't bigger than your regular tickets, something's off with how your team is offering it. You can also see which plans are performing, whether customers are applying through the tech's app or the customer portal, and how each tech is doing. Filter it by date range, partner, business unit, job type, or technician.
Do this before you flip it on
Financing is one of the few areas where I'll actually tell you to call your CSM first, and I'm not usually that guy. The details get specific to your situation and they really matter. A couple of examples. If you already have an account with a lender, you might not be able to use that same account with the integration. Some lenders make you sign up through a special ServiceTitan landing page for it to link up right. That kind of thing is easy to get wrong and annoying to unwind later.
So before you dive in, loop in your CSM, tell them which lender you want and what you're trying to do, and let them steer you around the landmines. Ten minutes on the phone beats a week of cleanup.
Wrapping up
Financing isn't complicated once it's set up. Pick your partner, let Titan Intelligence handle the rules on balanced, lead with the monthly payment, and get direct funding going so you're not paying two fees. Do that and you'll start closing jobs you used to lose to sticker shock.
If this was useful, the guide goes much deeper. Searchable video lessons covering financing, estimates, payments, and every other part of ServiceTitan, built for every role on your team. You can check it out here: https://www.bluecollarnerd.com/#pricing