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Item Search
January 15, 2010We've just added a useful feature for customers with long item lists.
When adding job charges there is now a small search icon to the right of the Item drop down list. Clicking this icon will bring up a text field where you can type in text to narrow down the item list. This will save a lot of time scrolling for our customers with hundreds and thousands of items.
We hope you like this new feature!
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Unscheduled Jobs
December 31, 2009We've just released a small change to way jobs and estimates can be scheduled.
Previously setting a scheduled date and time was a requirement when a job or estimate was created.
Now we have added the option to check that the job or estimate is not scheduled.
This is great for estimates or jobs that are on hold or pending. Now your calendar will show only truly scheduled work instead of all work.
We hope you find this feature useful!
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Customer Merging
December 16, 2009A highly requested feature has just been added to ServiceSidekick - customer merging!
Before today there was no easy way to take duplicate customers and merge them together.
As of today there is a new "Merge customer" link in the right sidebar of every customer record. Clicking that link will allow that customer to be merged into another.
A screenshot is worth a thousand words:
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Work locations
November 27, 2009We've just released a small change to how work location status is set.
In ServiceSidekick a customer can be set-up as a "work location" of another customer. This allows categorizing customers that are related to each other. The classic example is a property management company who might have work at many work locations.
Before today work location status was set on the new customer screen and the edit customer screen. For various reasons building the work location list on these pages can be very resource intensive. In order to speed up the process of showing these common pages we have added a dedicated work location status page which is linked to from the sidebar of the customer record.
We are always looking for ways to speed up ServiceSidekick and we hope you enjoy this latest improvement.
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File Attachments
November 21, 2009Today we are very excited to announce that one of the most highly requested features of all time has just launched - file attachments!
Files can now be attached to customer, estimate, or job records!
All paid plans will include a base amount of storage space. We will be offering paid upgrades if more storage is required (more details to follow).
We hope file attachments makes your ServiceSidekick account even more useful!
File Attachment help section
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Admin employees
October 28, 2009We've just added the ability to easily mark an employee as an ADMIN to quickly grant them full permissions to ServiceSidekick.
Before today you would have to click a bunch of boxes or request the user to be promoted to an account owner.
Now it's as simple as:
- Click Settings => Manage Employees
- Click the permissions link for the appropriate employee and mark them as an admin
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Task Enhancements
October 23, 2009Today we just released a major upgrade to tasks.
Here is a list of the major improvements:
- Ability to categorize tasks via "task types"
- Ability to create custom task reports
- New cleaner interface for viewing and editing tasks
- Duplicated and recurring jobs will copy over tasks (great for job templates)
- Tasks created on a job also display on the customer record
Tasks can now be created in three places:
Adding tasks via the Tasks tab
Simple reminders or todos unrelated to a customer or job can be added under the Tasks tab.
Example: Doctor's appointment
Adding tasks to a customer record
Tasks related to a particular customer should be added to the tasks section of that customer's record.
Adding the task on the customer record will automatically link the task back to this customer when the task is displayed on the calendar or the Tasks tab.
Example: Send thank-you note to John
Adding tasks to an estimate or job record
Tasks related to a particular estimate or job should be added to the tasks section of that estimate or job record.
Adding the task to the estimate or job record will automatically link the task back to that record when the task is displayed on the calendar or the Tasks tab.
Example: Call to follow-up on open estimate
Task Types
Task types can be setup via the Settings tab -> "Task types" link.
Task types simply allow you to categorize tasks.
To get you started we've automatically created the following task types on all accounts:
- Call
- Meeting
- Follow-up
- Lunch
- Thank-you
Feel free to add additional types or make these defaults inactive which will remove them from your task type list.
Watch a short 4 minute video about tasks
Tip: Click the icon on the bottom right of the player to watch in full-screen mode.
Have additional questions?
Checkout the tasks help section for the answers to common questions.
We hope you enjoy these new task enhancements!
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Calendar Improvements
September 23, 2009Great news - we've just updated the weekly calendar with some nice enhancements:
- Multi-day jobs are now accurately portrayed as spanning across multiple days (columns)
- Quickly jump to any calendar week via the red calendar icon in the calendar header
- Collapse and expand calendar rows to show just certain work hours
In addition to the weekly screen, all calendar screens now allow quickly jumping to a day, week, or month via the red calendar icon in the calendar header.
We hope you enjoy these refinements!
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QuickBooks Online Integration
September 18, 2009ServiceSidekick has long had the ability to synchronize with both the desktop and online versions of QuickBooks.
However for various reasons both business-related and technical our QuickBooks Online sync has always been less full-featured than our flagship desktop sync. Of course this never felt right... being an online business ourselves why would ServiceSidekick not focus on creating great integrations with other online businesses?
So we rolled up our sleeves and revamped our entire QuickBooks Online sync. There are still a few areas we are polishing but we are extremely proud of the result.
The best way to understand how powerful and easy we have made the QuickBooks Online sync is to watch the video below. In 7 minutes we take a brand new ServiceSidekick account, setup QuickBooks integration, import customers and products and services, and show how jobs can be pushed across to QuickBooks Online with one click.
We'd like to thank the many QuickBooks Online customers who helped us make this new sync possible through their feedback and patience. Enjoy!
Tip: Click the icon on the bottom right of the player to watch in full-screen mode.
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Custom time entry reports
September 18, 2009We've just added the ability to create custom time entry reports!
Check out this new edition to our powerful custom reporting toolset under your Reports tab.
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Job Templates
August 20, 2009ServiceSidekick has long had the ability to duplicate jobs. During this process the only attribute of the job that was allowed to be changed was the scheduled date. This feature made it easy to create similar jobs for the same customer and has worked well for that purpose.
Today the duplicate feature has been overhauled to allow changing the customer as well. At first this might not sound like a big deal but in fact it enables a very important workflow - job templates.
Let's say that in your business you have different types of jobs that are typically performed. These jobs might differ in terms of time (duration) or the way you bill for the work. Certain types of work might automatically be assigned to a certain employee based on a skill set or a tool they possess.
By adding the ability to change the customer during the "duplicate job" process we can now fully support job templates. Check out the following instructions and watch the short video to learn more:
Create job templates
- Create a customer named "Job Templates"
- Create "template" jobs with all the attributes and job charges that apply for each job. Choose a scheduled date in the future to hide these jobs on your calendar.
Create jobs using job templates
- Open the "Job Templates" customer record. Use search tab for easy access.
- Choose the appropriate "template job" in list of jobs.
- Click duplicate job and choose the customer and scheduled date.
Tip: Click the icon on the bottom right of the player to watch in full-screen mode.
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Sales Tax
August 17, 2009Great news for our QuickBooks desktop users - we've just added the ability to edit a customer's tax code from within ServiceSidekick!
Before today, a new customer created in ServiceSidekick was assigned the default QuickBooks sales tax code and that could not be changed until it synchronized with QuickBooks.
Now the customer's tax code can be changed by clicking the "Edit" link on the customer record.
We hope you find this a useful enhancement!
Note: Only applies to QuickBooks desktop users in the USA
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New customer fields
August 9, 2009We've just added two customizable built-in fields for customer records: type and source.
Customer type
Customer type can be used to segment customers into categories such as:
- Commercial
- Residential
- etc.
The other question that is often asked is "How can I track leads?"
Now it's easy. Just add a customer type called "Lead".
Customer source
Customer source is another data point that is really a "must-track" for every business. Source in this case means "How did this customer find my business?". Some common examples are:
- Yellow pages
- Referral
Customizing
Both customer types and source can be customized via the Settings tab.
Customer types
Customer sources
Filter by customer type
[Update: 8/10/09]
Many customers were already tracking customer type and source using custom fields (this was one of the main reasons we added them as built-in fields).
When this was the case we automatically migrated those custom types and sources to the built-in fields. In order to make sure everything migrated OK we did not take the final step of removing the custom fields. So those accounts previously tracking these fields will see two types and two source fields now: the built-in ones and the custom ones.
Once you have familiarized yourself with the new fields the custom fields can be "turned off" by going into Settings => Custom fields and removing the appropriate custom fields. If you have created any custom customer reports with these fields make sure to edit these reports as well.
As always please contact support with any questions.
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New Report Filters
August 3, 2009We've added some new smart values to our report filters that will be very welcome to ServiceSidekick power users.
Click on the "Advanced usage" link when creating a report to see them all.
Smart Values
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Weekly Calendar
August 3, 2009Lately we've been working very hard on improving our calendaring tools. Most of these improvements have been minor tweaks and polish but some are bigger...
Today we excited to release a BIG one - an entirely new weekly calendar view!
The old version was quite frankly a sorry excuse for a calendar. Here are the major improvements:
- Job and task duration is shown
- Jobs are colored by job type
- Cleaner look
- Clicking anywhere on calendar will allow creating new job, estimate or task for that date and time
Old version
New version
We hope you enjoy this new feature and look forward to your feedback!
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Job tasks
July 24, 2009You sent massive amounts of feedback and we listened.
One huge area of feedback has centered around the need for more detailed job management when it comes to longer and more complicated jobs. Historically this has involved shuffling the scheduled date forward in time or duplicating a job across multiple days
We are sad to report those workarounds will no longer have a place in your daily routine because today we are announcing "job tasks".
Job tasks can be viewed as tasks, todos, or visits. They are related to a job but have their own scheduled time, duration, assignment, note and completion status.
To enable this feature check the box under Settings => Labs:
Then go to an estimate or job and there will be a new Tasks section:
Multiple tasks are listed in sequence by date:
Job tasks integrate into the calendar:
You can create custom reports to filter job tasks:
Stay connected by enabling task notifications. Simply check the notification box to enable this feature when editing an employee:
P.S. If you currently integrate with a third-party calendar like Outlook or Google Calendar using our iCalendar feeds then you'll want to remove your existing feeds and re-add the new feed that includes job tasks. You can find this new iCal feed under each employee's record.
We hope you find this new feature very useful!
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Task notification
July 23, 2009Even if you're not the forgetful type everyone can use a helpful reminder.
That's why we've just added the option to receive email notifications 1 hour before tasks are due.
Under employee settings simply check the box to enable this feature.
We hope you find this new feature very useful!
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Bulk Item Import
July 7, 2009Great news - non-QuickBooks accounts can now bulk import items.
Before today we automatically imported item lists from QuickBooks or QuickBooks Online. But why let QuickBooks users have all the fun. Just upload an existing item list as a CSV file (more details on the import page) and your entire item list will appear in ServiceSidekick a few seconds later.
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Bill parent address
July 1, 2009We've just added support for the very highly requested "Bill parent" feature for work locations!
Before today you'd have to re-enter the parent's billing address for a work location... yuck.
Well the yuck is gone and the interface has been polished with three simple options:
- Bill service address
- Bill parent
- Bill different address
We hope you find this new feature very useful!
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Developer API
June 30, 2009Developers: Start your engines.
The ServiceSidekick API has just been released!
Not a developer? Wondering what the heck an API is?
API stands for Application programming interface. An API is a standard and documented way to allow third-parties to write software that integrates with your product.
What this means is that other developers, customers and partners can create products that integrate, synchronize, and work with ServiceSidekick. Example applications of the API:
- You have a lead form on your web site. When a lead request comes in you could use the API to automatically import that lead data into ServiceSidekick.
- You are migrating to ServiceSidekick from another software vendor and would like to import all historical customer, job, notes, and contact data in a particular way. The API is the perfect tool for this scenario.
- You have a GPS device and you'd like to download your route for tomorrows jobs. Using the API a program could be written to do exactly this.
I hope these short examples provide a glimpse as to what is possible using our API. Head over to the API Documentation page for more info.
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Setup page
June 23, 2009Today we are proud to announce the first step in making ServiceSidekick even easier to learn.
Now when a new account is created the first screen displayed will be a setup page with details on how to get setup fast.
Each section expands to show the exact steps needed to complete that portion of the setup. Once complete a check mark will be displayed so you can see your progress.
We hope new accounts find this feature very useful!
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Status Update
June 10, 2009We work very hard everyday to improve the overall experience of using ServiceSidekick. Normally this involves things like improving existing features, adding new features, custom training, etc.
But an application is only as good as it's availability and speed.
Over the last two weeks ServiceSidekick experienced two short outages and a number of instances where the site just seemed sluggish. And that is not OK. We first want to convey that we take this downtime very seriously and deeply apologize for the disruption this caused your business. We also want to assure you that your data was safe at all times. The slowdowns and outages were caused by hardware-related events as opposed to a software problem with the site.
As of right now we have taken the first major steps to ensure this does not happen again. We are happy to report ServiceSidekick is now running on much more powerful hardware which will offer vastly improved performance and stability. We will also be making some additional adjustments in the coming days and weeks that should further increase our performance.
Again we want to thank all of you for your support and understanding as we work through these growing pains.
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Tax list
June 2, 2009We work very hard to make it easy for customers to use ServiceSidekick in conjunction with QuickBooks. We automatically import the complete QuickBooks Item list (Products and Services List) from QuickBooks and use the exact same list for adding job charges. Customers using the desktop version of QuickBooks also have their sales tax codes imported automatically.
In order to make sure our non-QuickBooks customers don't feel left out we've been hard at work to implement non-QuickBooks item and tax lists. We blogged about the item list a couple weeks ago. Now we are excited to announce tax list support for non-QuickBooks customers!
The tax list allows you to create all the tax entities in which you do business. Customers can then be assigned a tax code and this tax will reflect on all new jobs. Of course we also support changing the tax on a job-by-job basis.
The best part is that the interface stays exactly the same for non-QuickBooks customers. So if you upgrade to QuickBooks sync support the interface is immediately familiar!
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New Jobs tab
May 27, 2009We are excited to announce that the Jobs tab has just been made simpler, smarter, and more powerful!
Here are some highlights:
- Cleaner column display
- More information displayed via fullscreen view (sidebar has been removed)
- More sorting options
- The screen remembers the last sort when you return from another page
- Ability to run specific custom job reports in the Jobs tab
- Export jobs to CSV (Excel)
Old Jobs tab
New Jobs tab
Allow reports to be run on the Jobs tab
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Job Charge Revamp
May 24, 2009We've just revamped the interface involved with adding, editing, updating, and deleting job charges.
We hope you enjoy this update!
Old look
New look
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ServiceSidekick Labs
May 24, 2009Today we are excited to announce ServiceSidekick Labs!
ServiceSidekick Labs are a place to experiment with features.
You can access Labs via the Settings tab. Note that you need to login as the account owner to view or change Lab settings.
Lab features could be new screens, new reports, etc. that may not be ready for prime-time. By placing these features in Labs, we give you the option to enable or disable specific lab features on a case by case basis.
The first lab feature is one that some of you might already be familiar with - the dispatch screen. The dispatch screen is a smart way to visualize assigned work. Want to take it for a test-drive? Click on Settings tab => Labs and enable this feature.
We hope you enjoy ServiceSidekick Labs - expect more Lab features soon!
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Item list
May 20, 2009We'd like to welcome a new configuration section to the ServiceSidekick Settings tab - the Item list!
The item list is simply the list of products and services that you charge for in your business.
If your account integrates with QuickBooks then this list is a read-only version of your QuickBooks item list.
If your account does not integrate with QuickBooks then the item list is a place where you can create, update and manage your products and services.
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Update Future Jobs
May 19, 2009Our recurring jobs feature saves our customers a ton of time by creating repeating jobs automatically.
But one of the things this feature has lacked is the ability to bulk edit jobs in the recurrence.
Example: You create a weekly recurring job called "Weekly Landscapin Service" and mis-spell the work landscaping. Our system automatically creates the next 4 jobs which means you have to correct this mis-spelling in 4 places - yuck!
So we are proud to announce today that recurring jobs can now be updated in bulk!
The best part is it's really easy - the edit screen of a job which is part of a recurrence now shows an additional button called "Update & apply changes to future jobs".
We hope you find this new feature very useful!
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New Templates
May 18, 2009We are excited to announce that our estimate, invoice, and work order templates have been revamped to look more professional and be more flexible.
Prior to this update viewing and printing work orders were handled differently than estimates and invoices. Also, the online view of the template did not match the printed PDF version.
With the new template system:
- A job can be viewed in one of three templates: estimate, invoice, and work order
- All templates are handled the same way for consistency
- All templates can be printed to PDF for easy emailing and printing
- The online view matches the printed PDF version (unless you have manually overridden with a custom template)
- Default templates are much improved over the previous versions
- Estimate and invoice template have two editable sections for terms and notes
- Default terms and notes can be set for estimate and invoice templates
We are really excited about this update and we hope you find these changes very beneficial.
Templates
Invoice template
Estimate template
Work Order template
Customize template settings
Edit terms and notes on invoice and estimate templates
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Custom Field Search
April 21, 2009Another highly requested feature has just launched - searching on custom fields!
Many of our customers make heavy use of custom fields to customize their ServiceSidekick experience. For the uninitiated custom fields can be defined on customers or jobs and can be one of three types: text, dates, and numbers. Once a custom field is defined it appears on the customer or job record and can be filled out.
But filling out the data is only half the story. Retrieving the data is the other half. That's where searching on custom fields comes into play.
Now on the Search tab there is a new link called "Search custom fields". Clicking on this link will bring up a dropdown list of all custom fields. Type in a search and pick the custom field and click the Search button. That's all there is to it!
We hope you enjoy this powerful new feature!
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Custom Reports Update
April 16, 2009We've just added the ability to export custom reports to CSV.
This seemingly tiny addition is actually a big deal. This was a highly requested feature as many businesses owners want to further manipulate their custom report data in Excel.
Now you can Export to CSV, open in Excel and sort, filter, order, and group.
We hope you find this feature useful!
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Historical Insight
April 16, 2009Have you ever wanted to view your entire work history currently stuck in QuickBooks in ServiceSidekick? Well now you can!
Before today any invoices in QuickBooks created before starting your ServiceSidekick account were trapped and would not flow over.
We heard over and over again that being able to have this complete work history in ServiceSidekick was very important.
In the past we've done scores of custom imports which achieved the desired result but where expensive for the customer and tedious for us.
Today we can offer this historical import of past invoices "out-of-the-box" for a very reasonable one-time fee.
In the future this will be enabled via you account's Settings page. But we wanted to get the news out right away. If you want complete historical job history in ServiceSidekick right away give us a call at (800) 530-3156 or send an email to support@servicesidekick.com.
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Contact reporting
April 9, 2009We've just added the ability to include contact information on custom customer and job reports.
Customer reports
If a customer has more than one contact the customer will appear as multiple rows (one row for each contact). Combined with a grouping by customer name, this gives a nice view of a customer's contacts.
To narrow down customer rows you can add the following filter:
Contact Primary is not blank
This will filter out any contact that is not marked as the primary contact.
Of course if there are multiple primary contacts then multiple customer rows will still appear.
Job reports
Job reports only return one row regardless of the number of customer contacts. The contact displayed is the first primary contact for the customer.
We hope you enjoy these new reporting enhancements!
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New CEO
March 31, 2009Editor's note (April 2nd): April Fools!
Today we have some really great news to announce.
Since last May we have been grooming executives from all levels of the organization to take on the head role here at ServiceSidekick.
In the past few months a true front-runner has emerged with the knowledge and passion for the business that will allow us to grow to the next level.
Today we are extremely excited to announce that Nathan Walker Chandler will be taking over as CEO of ServiceSidekick - effective April 1st.
Welcome Nathan! We look forward to following your strategic vision into the future!
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Pricing visibility
March 30, 2009ServiceSidekick now offers the ability to set estimate and job pricing visibility for each employee.
Many of our customers have subcontractors or technicians who need to know the estimate or job details, but not how much the company is charging for the work. This is especially true when the employee or subcontractor is paid hourly and the company charges a higher rate for that work.
To hide pricing simply use the "Hide pricing?" checkbox when creating or editing an employee.
Here are the differences on the estimate or job record.
With pricing
Without pricing
To fully hide pricing information the employee permissions which control whether the employee can print estimate and invoices must also be correctly set. Otherwise an employee could print an invoice PDF and see pricing that way.
These permissions can be found under the Employee Management section.
We hope you find this new feature helpful!
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Upcoming API
March 27, 2009Exciting news for companies and customers looking to integrate with ServiceSidekick - our API is on track to be released sometime in April.
Not familar with the "API" acroymn? Don't worry - it's just a fancy geek way to make other software systems work with ServiceSidekick.
Examples:
- A customer could build a custom time tracking desktop widget and have timecards attached to ServiceSidekick jobs automatically
- A GPS navigation provider could offer an integration through which ServiceSidekick jobs could be shown through their GPS displays
- A customer/developer could integrate ServiceSidekick with other accounting systems
The possibilities are endless and we are excited to be providing a simple and effective way to integrate with ServiceSidekick - stay tuned for more API updates!
Have a great idea for an integration? Contact us for early access to the API at developer@servicesidekick.com
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Contacts
March 20, 2009One of the most widely requested features ever has just launched - Contacts.
That's right - no more messing around with custom fields to support basic contact management.
Now each customer can have one or more contacts each with their own phone numbers, email addresses, address, etc.
Features
- Manage multiple contacts for each customer
- Contact import from QuickBooks
- Contact export to QuickBooks
- Smart importing of customers and contacts via Outlook CSV files
- Ability to add primary contact at the same time you create a new customer
- Contact report
- Contact search
Frankly we can't imagine ServiceSidekick without contacts and we hope you love this new feature!
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Time tracking improvements
February 18, 2009We've just updated our time tracking feature with the following new features:
- The ability to edit previous entries. Before you needed to delete an entry and re-add it - yuck!
- Time entries now have a note field - very useful for tracking how time was spent, etc.
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Job type and status
February 11, 2009We've just rolled out a nice update that allows managing custom (and colored) job type and statuses.
Take 2 minutes and watch the video to learn more.
Tip: Click the icon on the bottom right of the player to watch in full-screen mode.
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U.K. support
February 6, 2009Pop the champagne - ServiceSidekick is going international!
Truthfully we have been "international" for some time if you count our Canadian customers. But now we are moving beyond the continent by adding support for U.K. businesses!
We now support QuickBooks integration with the U.K. edition and handle locale changes like showing the pound sign (£) in place of the dollar ($) sign.
Are you a U.K. service business looking to optimize your business? Request a demo now to see our system in action!
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More custom fields
February 2, 2009Some of the most frequent feedback we get is - We love your custom fields... now give us some more!
No problem. Starting today all plans at $149/month or higher receive 10 more custom customer and job text fields.
Enjoy!
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Mobile estimates
February 2, 2009Another frequent feature request has just been enabled - the ability to edit the estimate status from the mobile site.
Enjoy!
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iPhone icons
January 6, 2009Thanks to a recent customer request we whipped up some handy-dandy iPhone icons.
Note that the difference in the mobile site icon vs. the full site icon.
Thankfully the iPhone can handle even the full-fledged ServiceSidekick site with ease.
So now when you browse to your ServiceSidekick page on your iPhone (or iPod Touch) and click "Add to Home Screen" you will be presented with one of these nice icons.
Enjoy!
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Recurring jobs
December 17, 2008We've just enabled another big feature - recurring jobs!
A number of our accounts have been beta-testing this feature for a few months and it's ready to go.
Get up to speed by watching a quick demo of this feature:
Tip: Click the icon on the bottom right of the player to watch in full-screen mode.
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Custom reporting
November 17, 2008Drum roll please.... we've just released a very powerful new feature to ServiceSidekick - custom reporting!
This great new feature allows sorting and visualizing your business data like never before.
Get a quick rundown by watching a quick demo of this feature:
Tip: Click the icon on the bottom right of the player to watch in full-screen mode.
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Calendar integration
October 23, 2008A great new feature we are officially launching today is the ability to see your ServiceSidekick jobs and tasks via your current calendar program such as Outlook, iCal or Google calendar.
Get a quick rundown by watching a quick 2 minute demo of this feature:
Tip: Click the icon on the bottom right of the player to watch in full-screen mode.
Why is this a big deal?
- You now have offline access to ServiceSidekick job and task data
- Your desktop calendar will popup a reminder alarm for jobs and tasks
How can I try it out?
- Click on the Employees link in the upper right sidebar
- Click on the appropriate employee
- Click on the appropriate feed url under the iCalendar Feeds section
- Your calendar program should take over from here and add the new calendar
What calendars support this integration?
Any calendar that supports the industry-standard iCalendar format including:
- Outlook 2007
- iCal
- Google Calendar
Is Outlook 2003 supported?
Outlook 2003 does not support the iCalendar format. However there is a third-party plugin to enable iCalendar support called RemoteCalendars.
Have additional questions?
Contact us at support@servicesidekick.com
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Twittering
September 5, 2008Follow ServiceSidekick on Twitter for daily happenings and micro thoughts regarding all things ServiceSidekick.
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Assign multiple techs to jobs
August 16, 2008We've just added support for a very highly requested feature: the ability to assign multiple techs to a job.
Before today, one tech could be assigned to a job. Now, you can assign one, two, three, or more techs!
Assign multiple techs to a job
Multiple techs on a job
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Mobile additions
July 9, 2008We've just rolled out a couple great new additions to our mobile site.
First, now the whole customer list is accessible with filtering.
Also, the widely requested feature of allowing new jobs to be created through the mobile site is now in!
Enjoy!
Filter customers by first letter
Create a new job
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Custom Fields
June 28, 2008Need to track customer and job information that doesn't map to existing fields in ServiceSidekick?
Well then you're going to love the new custom field support we are rolling out.
To activate this feature click on the "Settings" tab and then the "Custom Fields" link.
Check out these screenshots to see how easy it is to define and use custom fields!
Create some custom fields
Edit a record and set some custom fields
Custom fields now appear on the record
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New job reports added
June 24, 2008Two new reports were recently added to ServiceSidekick.
- Job snapshots by scheduled date
- Job snapshots by completed date
Enjoy!
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IT Services case study
April 21, 2008Vista Information Systems is a leading IT company specializing in systems integration, internet solutions, and telephony.
Read the case study on how Vista Information Systems saves time and money and organizes for growth by using ServiceSidekick.
Also: Don't forget to read the Anchor Tree Service case study.
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ServiceSidekick goes gold!
April 10, 2008Pop the champagne - ServiceSidekick has just been certified as a QuickBooks Gold Developer - the highest level within the QuickBooks certification program!
We are extremely proud to be recognized for our current achievements in offering simple and compatible QuickBooks software for service businesses. It's likely that our customers save more time with our QuickBooks integration features than with any other part of ServiceSidekick. So rather than rest on our laurels, we are looking forward to rolling out many new features in 2008 to further our goal of offering the best software package for service businesses.
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Export reports to Excel
March 24, 2008Microsoft's Excel is a great tool for slicing and dicing information.
As such, we've added support to export reports directly into a format that Excel can read.
Here are a few screenshots:
Export options
View report to screen (default)
Export to Excel
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Filter by customer name
March 19, 2008Filtering by the first letter of a customer name is now available on the customer board.
Here is a screenshots of the new functionality - hope you enjoy!
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Duplicate jobs and estimates
March 14, 2008Another hot new feature has just been added to ServiceSidekick - the ability to duplicate jobs and estimates.
How can this help your business?
Do you ever have recurring jobs or work that is very similar at the same location?
If so, now you can simply click "Duplicate job", set a scheduled time and a new job (or estimate) will be automatically created. Even job charges are copied over.
Here is a screenshot of the new functionality - enjoy!
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Custom estimate and invoice templates
March 12, 2008Today we are pleased to announce that one of our most highly requested features has been introduced - totally customizable estimate and invoice templates!
Many of our customers have already spent some time customizing estimate and invoice templates from QuickBooks and obviously didn't want to settle for our former pre-canned options.
Thankfully we now can support nearly any template style, color, or format that can be imagined!
The best part is that custom templates in ServiceSidekick are created using HTML & CSS - the building blocks of every web site on the Internet. Using basic HTML & CSS, you can design your template in any one of the thousands of html editors and then copy and paste the template into ServiceSidekick.
If you need help translating an existing template from QuickBooks into HTML or need some pointers to get started feel free to contact us and we'll help straight-away.
The Details
Let's walk through building a custom template by first looking at a very simple example.
Example 1 - Simple template (without formatting)
<html> <body> Estimate # <span class="estimate_number"></span> <div class="job_charges"></div> </body> </html>Now this template is not very pretty but it serves as a good starting point to begin explaining the process of designing a custom template.
Enclosed in the standard HTML opening tags of html and body are the following lines:
- Estimate # Just plain text and will print out as shown in the estimate.
- span class="estimate_number" A span HTML tag with a special class of estimate_number. This class instructs ServiceSidekick to replace this tag with the actual estimate number.
- div class="job_charges" A div HTML tag with a special class of job_charges. This class instructs ServiceSidekick to replace this tag with all the estimate line items.
The reason this template looks jumbled is because it contains no formatting at all.
But before we add formatting, let's take a look at the basic format of a custom template that can be used as a starting point for any template.
Custom template skeleton
<html> <head> <style type="text/css"> FORMATTING GOES HERE... </style> </head> <body> TEMPLATE GOES HERE... </body> </html>Again, those familiar with HTML & CSS will recognize this as the basic skeleton of a web page.
So now we are ready to give our example template a much-needed makeover...
Example 2 - Simple template (with formatting)
<html> <head> <style type="text/css"> body { margin: 20px 50px; } table { width: 100%; margin-bottom: 20px; border-collapse: collapse; } table td { vertical-align: top; } table#charges { margin: 25px 0; border: 1px solid #555; } table#charges th, table#charges td { text-align: left; padding: 3px 10px; } table#charges td { border-top: 1px solid #dcdcdc; } </style> </head> <body> <h1> Estimate # <span class="estimate_number"></span> </h1> <div class="job_charges"></div> </body> </html>Now our template is starting to look a lot better. Let's break down what is going on here:
- body { margin: 20px 50px; } Setting up our margins (px = pixels).
- table { width: 100%; margin-bottom: 20px; border-collapse: collapse; } Set tables to fill the width of the page and streamline the border.
- table td { vertical-align: top; } Align text in table rows to top.
- table#charges { margin: 25px 0; border: 1px solid #555; } Set margin on line items table and draw border.
- table#charges th, table#charges td { text-align: left; padding: 3px 10px; } Align text to the left and pad (make margins) in the line item text sections.
- table#charges td { border-top: 1px solid #dcdcdc; } Separate line items with a line.
This example should serve as a good starting point for your own custom templates.
Special CSS classes
The following special classes can be used to instruct ServiceSidekick to replace it with the actual account, customer, estimate, or job data at the time the template is processed.
Account information
logo company_name company_billing_address company_billing_city company_billing_state company_billing_zip_code company_billing_phone_numberCustomer information
customer_name customer_number customer_service_address customer_service_city customer_service_state customer_service_zip_code customer_billing_address customer_billing_city customer_billing_state customer_billing_zip_code customer_email_address customer_phone_number customer_fax customer_alt_phone_numberJob information
job_name job_number job_created_on job_scheduled_on job_completed_onEstimate information
estimate_name estimate_number estimate_created_on estimate_scheduled_on estimate_completed_onJob or estimate job charges (line items)
job_chargesExamples
Add company logo (must be uploaded first)
<div class="logo"></div>Insert company name
<div class="company_name"></div>Insert customer email address
<div class="customer_email_address"></div>Insert date job was completed
<div class="job_completed_on"></div>Conclusion
We hope you really like this new feature. Again, feel free to contact us with any questions regarding custom templates at support@servicesidekick.com
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Multiple location support
February 7, 2008You spoke and we listened. One of the most requested features of our customer base has just gone live.
ServiceSidekick now supports managing multiple work locations for a customer!
This is great for businesses that do:
- sub-contract work
- maintenance work at multiple locations for a management company
- any work where the customer to bill is different from the customer/person/business at the service location
Here are few screenshots of the new functionality - enjoy!
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We have a blog!
February 4, 2008Welcome to the first post of the ServiceSidekick blog!
No, up until now we haven't tried to be secretive. We've just been busy adding great new features to the product. But great features aren't so useful if new and existing customers don't know about them.
So here we'll be posting product updates and other happenings in the world of ServiceSidekick.
You can follow this blog a number of different ways:
Subscribe to our email updates. This means when we post a new article, you'll be notified via email.
Subscribe to our RSS feed. This is a bit more advanced as it requires an RSS reader. There are many great free readers out there:
- Google reader (web-based)
- FeedDemon (Windows)
- NetNewsWire (Mac)
Just go to our blog and read it!
We have an exciting lineup of new changes coming in 2008 so stay tuned!
