Create a New Service


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Create a new service

OctopusPro allows you to create services for your customers to be booked through the customer portal or by admins or fieldworkers. You can add your desired prices, description, and payrates. You can easily add services to categories from the settings to keep everything organized and simple for you and your customers.

 

Table of contents:

How to create a new service?

To create a new service, go to Settings > Services Settings > Services, then click on Create new.

Add service details

You will be redirected to the new service page, from the details tab, you can enter:

  • Service title: Enter a name for your service that your customers will recognize.
  • Category: If your business offers a wide range of services, you can group them under categories to make finding services easier. If you don’t want to categorize your services, all the services will be added to category 1 by default. You can select the category from the drop-down menu, or add a new one by clicking on the + button.
  • Description: Write a description that describes your service better, this will be visible to your customers in your customer portal and branded app. Admins and fieldworkers will also view the description when creating bookings/inquiries/estimates.
  • Service manual: Enter a service manual that only your fieldworkers and admins will see to give them specific instructions to help them provide better service with consistent quality.
  • Create a new package: Encourage your customers to buy more by creating packages of the same service in one bundle. Your clients can then buy your packages online and book the prepaid or post-paid services from the package whenever they need them. You can also decide the frequency of the package if you want to sell daily, weekly, fortnightly, or monthly services. To learn more about packages click here.

Customer portal settings
  • Allow the service to accept recurring/repeat bookings: Enable this flag if you want to allow this service to be booked multiple times from the customer portal. To learn more about recurring bookings click here.
  • Display in customer portal: Enable this flag to make your service visible on the customer portal and allow your customers to book it. If you disable the flag the service will disappear from the services list in the customer portal.
  • Allow scheduling bookings through the customer portal: When this flag is enabled, the service will be visible on the customer portal and can be bookable. When disabled, the service will be visible in the service list but customers will not be able to schedule a booking, instead, they can send an inquiry or buy it as a gift card if these flags are enabled.
  • Display in inquiry widget: Enable this flag to allow your customers to select this service when they want to send an inquiry through the customer portal. When disabled, the service will not be visible in the services list in the inquiry widget. To learn more about the inquiry widget, click here.
  • Allow this service to be sent as a gift card: Enable this flag if you want your customers to be able to buy a gift card or send it as a gift card through the customer portal. This also allows your customers to schedule a booking for this service.
  • Only allow selling this service to be sent as a gift card: Enable this flag if you want your customers to only book this service as a gift card, this disables the option of scheduling a normal booking on the customer portal.

Display service description settings
  1. Display service description to fieldworkers: Enable this flag if you want your fieldworkers to read the service description provided when creating a new booking.
  2. Display service description in invoice PDF: Enable this flag to display the service description in all invoices, which will be visible to your customers and fieldworkers.
  3. Display service description in quote and booking PDFs: Enable this flag to display service description when viewing or sending quotes or booking overview PDFs to customers or fieldworkers.

Edit service images, videos, and attachments
  1. Service images: Service images will be visible to your customers on the customer portal and the branded app, this image will also be sent with quotes and booking confirmations. Click on the + button to upload an image. You can add multiple images, the first one will be used as a default for the service and the rest will be on the service view page on the customer portal.
  2. Show the service image in the view service page: Enable this flag to view uploaded images on the service view page on the customer portal. If disabled the default image will only be visible in the services list and booking confirmations.
  3. Service videos: You can add a video for a better presentation of your service. The video should be uploaded on Youtube first, then enter the video URL in the text field provided and click on Save.
  4. Service attachments: Add attachments related to your service, whether images, PDFs, or any file that will suit your service using the + button.

Edit embed buttons on website
  1. Embed booking button on website: A book now button is a simple button that you can edit and style to suit your website and brand. When clicked, the booking process will start from within your website in a separate pop-up window. You have to edit the HTML code of your website to add the button to the page.
  2. Embed gift voucher button on website: A gift voucher button can be edited and styled to suit your website and brand. When clicked, the button will allow your customers to purchase gift vouchers from within your website. You will need to be able to edit the HTML code of your website to add the button to the page.

Then click on Next,  and a pop-up window will appear asking you if you want to assign this service to all fieldworkers or to assign it by yourself to specific fieldworkers.

Edit cost and payrate

In the cost and payrate section, you can select whether your service is paid or free, and set your payment requirements. You can also set service payrates and select your preferred payment structure.

Type of service:

After setting your service details, you can set your type of service to be able to charge for your service, set payment requirements for online bookings, and set the tax rate. You can also select it to be a free service, with the ability to set service payrates for your fieldworkers.

  • If you want to charge for your service, click on Paid service.
  • You can select Free service (no invoice) if you want your service without a charge for your customers, and no invoice will be generated for the bookings related.

Payment requirements for online bookings

If you allow your customers to place booking requests online through your customer portal, you can set the payment terms required for them to be able to place their booking requests.

Click here to learn how to set payment requirements for online bookings.

  • You can use the same default payment requirements as in your account settings. If you already set your payment settings and will use it as a default for all your services.
  • Or you can Set up different payment requirements for this service. If you want to set different settings than the default, the default settings will not be applied to this service. Click here to learn more about how to set payment requirements.

How do you charge for your service?

You can easily set how you want to charge for your service, whether by time, per job, or unit.

Charge by time

 You can set your service to be charged by time, for example, 15 USD per hour. 

  • Default value: The default value that shows in the time field when placing a booking, you can leave it empty or enter a number. For example, if you set the duration field to be hourly then the value “1” in the default value will mean that the default value showing is 1 hour.
  • Standard rate: Set the standard rate you want to charge for the duration unit selected for this service. For example, 15 USD per hour.
  • Duration: Select how you want your time to be calculated from the drop-down menu.

Charge per job

You can set your service to be charged per job regardless of how long it takes to be completed.

  • What is the starting cost of this service? The starting cost is the minimum cost for this service before any options or extras are added.
  • How much time does it take on average to complete this standard service? Enter how much time the service will take to be completed to manage booking calendars and availability.

Charge per unit

You can set your service to be charged per unit based on the size or amount.

  • Unit: The name of the unit used for the quantity here like m2, liters, rooms, steps, boxes, pets, children, etc. For example, if you offer a tile cleaning service and you charge by the square meter to clean tiles, then your unit field should be “m2”, so the customers can enter the size of the area to be cleaned in m2.
  • Unit label: The unit label is used as a description text to help the user understand what to enter in the unit field e.g., “please enter the area size in meters” or “ number of rooms” or “number of children” etc.
  • Default value: The default value that shows in the unit the first time, you can leave it empty or enter a number. Then select the accepted quantity type, whether you accept it with decimals or not.
  • Pricing description title: If your unit pricing is complex, or you wish to give instructions for your customers, fill in the Pricing description title and Description. You can also upload an image to provide further instructions.

  • Set standard unit cost: Set the standard cost per unit for this service.
  • How much time does it take on average to complete each standard unit for this service?  Enter how much time it requires the service to be completed, this information is required to manage booking calendars and availability.
  • How much time does it take on average to prepare for starting this service upon arrival? Enter how much time it requires the fieldworker to prepare for the service, this information is required to calculate the time required to complete a service more accurately.

Create a new rate

If you only set the standard duration cost of e.g. $100 per hour, when a booking is made for more than 1 hour, the standard duration cost will be multiplied. If you want to customize your pricing, you can create as many new rates as needed. For example, A business has a standard duration cost of $100 per hour for the first two hours but wants to charge differently for any time after the first two hours. The rate for the standard duration can be set as $100, and a new rate can be created with a minimum duration of 2h and $80 as the hourly rate.

Set minimum booking price

Set a minimum price for your service. This will prevent a booking to be placed for any amount less than the minimum. 

Set tax rate

 Set the tax rate for your service that will be added or included in the standard rate, you can add a new tax rate from the drop-down menu. To learn more about setting tax rates for your company click here.

When you click on Add new tax rate, a pop-up window will appear to enter your tax name and value, then click on Save. The tax rate will be added to the drop-down menu.

Set service cost zone

If a service is priced differently in other locations, you can create zones and add a price to each zone for a specific service, so that the correct price for a service is applied when the location is selected. To create a new zone for a service click on Add new range.

To learn more about how to add new prize zones click here.

Set discount range

Discount ranges are similar to rates, but just a little different in the way they are set. You can add a discount range to any service unless the service is charged a set amount per job, as there is no unit quantity field in that case. Discount ranges only work if the service is charged by time or per unit. When the unit value falls within a specific range, the set discount will be applied to the original unit price for this service.

You can add more than one discount range by clicking on Add new range. To learn more about adding discount ranges to a service click here.

Setting service payrates

Admin users can set fieldworkers’ preferred service payrates or payments based on one of the below structures:

To learn more about service payrates and fieldworker share click here.

Hourly: 

Admin users can pay Fieldworkers using an Hourly payment structure, where a Fieldworker might receive different rates based on the working hours scheme applied as displayed below:

Commission

In case of applying commission as a payment structure, Admin users will need to set both the Base commission rate and the Upsale Commission rate, which can be set as a percentage of the Service Subtotal “excluding tax”, or as a flat rate, noting that only one Commission can be applied “Base commission” or “Upsale commission” for the same Fieldworker.

Adding custom fields to a service 

Custom fields are fields that your customers need to answer when making a booking through your Customer Portal and/or Branded App, or admins when they create bookings, quotes, or inquiries manually.

Click on the ‘+’ icon to add a new or existing custom field. When you click on Add existing custom field a list of already added custom fields will appear to select which ones you want to add.

Click on Create a new custom field, and a pop-up form will appear to create a new custom field to be added to the service. 

To learn more about custom fields, click here.

After clicking on Save, a pop-up window will appear asking you whether you want to create a new service or not. If yes, it will save the current service and redirect you to a new service form to repeat the process.

How to view, edit or delete services?

You can easily view, delete or edit services after creating them. Go to Settings > Services Settings > Services, you will be redirected to the All services page.

Edit: You can edit any service when you click on the action button next to the service and then click on Edit.

Delete: To delete a service, tick the checkbox next to the service and click on delete from the drop-down menu.

How to add services while creating a booking/ quotes/ inquiries?

To add a service while creating a booking, go to Bookings/quotes/ inquiries from the left sidebar menu, then click on Create new.

A form will appear, scroll down to the services section then click on Add service.

A pop-up window will appear to select the service you want to add, or you can create a new service.

How to add services while creating a booking using the fieldworker app?

Fieldworkers can view services while creating a booking on the fieldworker’s app. Click on Create a new booking from the sidebar menu on the left, and proceed with the booking by selecting a customer then the list of services will appear, select the service then continue with the booking as usual.  

How do customers view services on the customer portal?

To get the customer portal link, go to Settings > Customer portal > General settings.

Customers view services on the customer portal homepage.

How to import and export services?

You can easily import and export your services list on the system for easier access and sorting. 

Go to Settings > Services Settings > Services, where you can:

Export services: To download the list of services already added to the system, click on Export as (Xls), and a pop-up window will appear where you can click on Download file and select where you want to save it on your computer.

Import services: You can upload your list of services easily from your computer to OctopusPro so you don’t have to create them manually, click on Import services. A pop-up window will appear where you can upload the excel file, if you don’t know what format is needed, you can download a template and then upload your file. Click on Upload file then your services will appear below.

For more information please visit Octopuspro user guide, and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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