5 features to check out in the New Year

Looking for a mini-project to improve your business and the way you use ServiceM8? If you haven’t already, here are some of the new features from the ServiceM8 6.0 release that are worth checking out:

1. Online Booking Forms with the Services Add-on

The new Services Add-on is powerful for generating work and saving admin time. In a nutshell, you teach ServiceM8 a systemised method of how you price and schedule services which your business offers. This can do two things:

  • allow customers to book these services online themselves through your own ServiceM8-hosted booking page; and
  • give all of your staff the ability to quote and book these services (not just senior/experienced staff).

Online booking forms are great for generating work and saving time on customer communication, quoting, job creation & scheduling. Using these specific and advanced online booking forms, customers can get a live quote, select a time and book a Service, without interacting with your business directly.

Services Add-on - online booking form
Forms can have different goals — customers can book a job, or simply submit an enquiry.

The potential outcomes of a Service’s online booking form are flexible, depending on how you want to use them. These forms can be configured to direct a potential online customer to:

  • Provide all the details you’d usually require for quoting a job, and submit an enquiry.
  • Request an on-site quote (no scheduling options).
  • Book an on-site quote at a certain time.
  • Book an on-site service.

Check out these help articles for more info:

2. The Form Store

ServiceM8 Forms are a powerful tool for so many industries, letting you instill great processes, and instantly generate professional PDF reports and certificates on site. However, many businesses can’t afford the time to build Forms themselves.

Forms are grouped into categories like Health & Safety, Compliance, Inspection Reports, and Checklists.

With ServiceM8 6.0, we launched the Form Store — an online marketplace of ServiceM8 Forms where you can browse and buy Forms for your account. This makes it so much easier to take advantage of one of ServiceM8’s most powerful features.

To check out the Form Store, go to Settings > Forms and click the green ‘Form Store’ button.

3. Barcode Scanning with the ServiceM8 app

When adding materials to invoices, you can now select Barcode Scan. Just hold the camera over the barcode and it will instantly scan. You can get the hang of it by pairing a few existing items with barcodes, then gradually pair the rest of your materials with barcodes as you use them.

This feature doesn’t require much setup — just make sure you’ve downloaded the ServiceM8 6.0 app and iOS 11!

Help article: How to use Barcode Scanning

4. Stripe fees auto-reconciliation

Taking payment through the app is really convenient, however the transaction fee withdrawn from the payment results in a mismatch between the invoice and funds received, creating a multi-step reconciliation process.

With the new Stripe Reconciliation wizard, Stripe payments can now be setup to automatically reconcile with invoices in your integrated accounting package. It supports Xero and QuickBooks Online.

If you’ve activated Stripe, the wizard will appear in your Invoicing tab.

Help article: How to reconcile Stripe fees in your accounting package

Haven’t integrated your account with Stripe? It’s an easy & convenient way to accept credit card payments on site, through the ServiceM8 app — check out these help articles for more info and how to get started.

5. Recurring Jobs auto-routing & scheduling

This add-on schedules recurring jobs to optimize scheduling & minimise travel times.

If recurring work is a major part of your business, route optimisation can make a huge difference to your efficiency. Now, in conjunction with the Services Add-on, you can set ServiceM8 to routinely process and schedule all recurring jobs, automatically. ServiceM8 will review and schedule the job times and staff to optimise efficiency and minimise distance travelled.

For example: if the Recurring Jobs Confirmation timeframe is set at 1 week, on a Monday the Auto-Routing Add-on will review and schedule all recurring “Services” jobs for the following Monday, and schedule the job times and staff to optimise efficiency and minimise distance travelled.

Help article: How the Recurring Jobs Auto-Routing Add-on Works

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