Once a year ServiceM8 drop a bucket load of features to improve their software. ServiceM8 13 launch was in September 2024 and it did not disappoint. It is jam packed with improvements and new features. As mentioned, there was a lot of feature improvements. From a new modern look and feel that is faster to expanded capabilities giving you a powerful tool in your hands.
Here's a breakdown of the improvements launching ServiceM8 13.
I have unpacked the features with headings and dot points so you can find the features easily or you can watch the launch video here.
ServiceM8 Lite for Android
Previously, The ServiceM8 App has only been available on Apple devices. This was because they wanted to ensure that the ServiceM8 App was exceptionally fast, efficient and powerful. Dedicating their development to one system allows them to deliver this and they have done an exceptional job. BUT they receive lots and lots of feedback asking them to deliver an Android App.
Well they’ve delivered a lite version Android App which gives workers access to core features. You can find out more about the app and the features available here.
ServiceM8 Pay
Accept card payments and offer your clients a great payment experience! With the usage of ServiceM8 Pay, they have been able to negotiate a lower merchant fee & receive your money faster with next-business-day deposits.
- New Payment Options – Clients can transfer money to you, which costs far less than card payments! Customers simply enter their phone number or bank details, verify the payment in their banking app, and the payment goes through, with instant confirmation.
- Tap to Pay on iPhone – The ability to accept in-person, contactless payments, right on your iPhone — from physical debit and credit cards, to Apple Pay and other digital wallets.
Accept Customer Deposits
Taking a pre-payment when customers accept your quote is a great practice to protect your business, make jobs run smoother, and maintain cashflow to cover overheads, pay wages & buy materials. Now, taking Deposits with ServiceM8, on site or online, is easier than ever. This is available when enabling ServiceM8 Pay.
- Online Deposits – When a client accepts your quote online, they’ll be prompted to pay the deposit, then & there.
- Default % Deposit – Simply set a percentage amount of each job’s value as your default deposit required upon quote acceptance.
- Per Client Deposits – To waive deposits for some clients, or require a higher amount for others, you can set a custom rule in their Client Card.
- Per Job Deposits – The % deposit required can be adjusted from your default, on a job-by-job basis in the Online Dashboard.
- Per Proposal Deposits – When sending a Proposal, the % deposit required can be adjusted from your default, on a job-by-job basis.
- Fixed Amounts with Proposals – When sending a Proposal online, you can set a fixed deposit amount rather than a percentage.
- On Site Deposits – If the client accepts on site, you can take the pre-payment on the spot, with nothing but your iPhone.
- Payment Sync – Deposit payments sync straight away to your accounting package as pre-payments, and are auto-linked when the final invoice is Approved.
- Merge Fields – You can add new merge fields to your quote, email & SMS templates to auto-populate deposit percentage & fixed amounts.
Enhanced Job Card
A more powerful, intuitive & dynamic job card for your Online Dashboard. It’s flexible, with expanding fields & side-by-side browsing of your Diary, Photos or Attachments. It’s easier to see where a job is up to, and what needs to happen next. And it’s faster than ever to make and save changes.
- Auto Save – No more deciding between ‘Save’ & ‘Close’ every time you’re in a job card! Make a change, and it’s auto-saved.
- Undo & Redo – Make a change you don’t want to keep? Just click ‘Undo’. Realise you wanted it after all? Click ‘Redo’.
- Auto Close – Looking for a specific job? Just click to open another job card, and it will auto-close the previous one.
- Client History – When you open a Client Card from a job, you can now view each job in their Jobs history.
- Colour Coding – You can now instantly see a job’s Status from the card’s border colour.
- Flexible Job Description – The Job Description field automatically expands as you add more information, and the Details pane scrolls up and down.
- Minimise Diary – If you need more room to work with your Job Description, you can now minimise the Diary pane for a clear & wide view.
- Future Bookings – Upcoming bookings on a job have a dedicated space, so you can always find future bookings, fast.
- Expanding Billing Fields – The Quote & Invoice description, plus your list of Items/Services, now expand as you add to them, and the whole page scrolls.
- Fast Add & Remove – It’s easier than ever to add & remove items in a Quote/Invoice, with a single click to add or remove a line item.
- Add Items with Keyboard – Search items, add them to your Quote/Invoice, edit fields, then add another item — only with the Tab key.
- Totals Section – See the job’s value, any payments made, and the balance due, all in one place.
- Workflow Actions – Gauge where the job is up to & what needs to happen next, then action it with a single click, to keep jobs moving forward.
- Secondary Actions – Select other job actions via the dropdown — select a specific Quote/Invoice template, set a Deposit, change the Invoice Date & more.
- Approve Invoice – It’s now possible to Approve a job’s invoice & payment details to your accounting app, from the Dispatch Board.
- Job Template Support – Create and save Job Templates with the new Enhanced Job Card format.
- Live updates – See new notes, photos, items and changes from other staff members update in real time, even when you have the job open!
Mini Tabs
Making the job card more flexible than ever, the new Mini Tabs let you browse the job’s Diary, Photos & Videos or Attachments, side-by-side while you work in either the Details or Billing views.
- Diary – You can now see the job’s Diary side-by-side while working on a Quote or Invoice, to make sure you’ve included everything.
- Photos & Videos – A dedicated, expanded view of all Photos & Videos saved to the job, in one place.
- Attachments – Looking for a particular file or supplier invoice? Use Attachments to get a list of all files saved against the job card.
Checklist & Tasks
Checklists are far more powerful, and Tasks are now a part of Checklists. It’s easier than ever to create a checklist. You can assign checklist tasks to staff members, attach Forms & Assets, set a reminder for a task, complete checklists online, create multiple checklists, and drag-and-drop to reorder. Checklists have become more intuitive & easier to track. Plus, you can now complete them online!
- Suggestions – When you click to add a new checklist item, you’ll now get suggestions of common tasks. Just click to add!
- Forms – To set the completion of a Form, rather than applying a badge, you can just search & add it as a checklist task.
- Assets – You can now search & add the servicing of a specific Asset, as a checklist task! Technicians just tap to open the Asset.
- Asset Type – If you want the technician to inspect all assets of the same Asset Type, you can add the Asset Type as a task too!
- Reported Asset – If a client scans an asset to report an issue, when you convert the Inbox message to a job, it’ll auto-add a task for the specific Asset.
- Multiple Checklists – If you want to divide a job’s requirements by category, stage or areas, you can create multiple checklists, and rename each of them.
- Drag & Drop – You can drag-and-drop individual tasks within a checklist, as well as reorder multiple checklists within the job.
- Assign to Staff – Assign a checklist task to a staff member to notify them and display it in the Tasks menus of the app, and online.
- Reminders – Attach a reminder to a checklist task, due on Navigating, Check In, Check Out, or a specific date & time.
- App Tasks Refresh – In More > Tasks, when you tap an item, it will now open the job card in which the task was assigned to you.
- Online Task Refresh – In the Tasks tab of the Dispatch Board, you can now complete tasks without needing to open the job card.
- Check In/Out Pop-Up – If you assign a task to a staff member with a reminder on Check In or Check Out, the app will remind them if it’s incomplete.
- Custom Date & Time – If you assign a task to a staff member, you can set a reminder for a specific date and time.
- Improved Notifications – When you tap a Notification about a checklist task, it will now open the job card in which the task was assigned to you.
Proposal Improvements
Proposals were a great new feature out of latest year’s release. While they looked more professional being able to offer options and add photos, they have their limitations. Proposals have had a overhaul making them much more accessible and customisable. They are now available in the App!
- Templates – You can save a Proposal as a template! This allows you to design a layout that speaks to your brand and customers giving you better systemisation and speed up your quotes.
- Improved Suggestions – When starting a Proposal, suggested templates are now based on similar past jobs, so they’re more relevant and helpful.
- Search – When starting a Proposal, if you have a lot of templates, you can also now search to find the exact one you’re after, fast.
- Success Rate – After using a template a few times you’ll see its acceptance rate, so you can experiment and learn what works, and what doesn’t.
- Colour Theme – You can now set a theme colour for your Proposals to best align with your business’s branding.
- Header Customisation – There are now different layouts for the header to choose from, plus you can customise the wording to best suit your business.
- Writing Helper Improvements – The Smart Writing Helper now understands the full context of your Proposal, so it can reference other sections, and won’t duplicate information.
- Flexible Address Block – You can now choose between job or billing contacts and addresses to display at the top of a Proposal — just click the dropdown.
- Last Viewed – For sent Proposals, you can now see if the client has viewed it, how many times they viewed it, and when they viewed it last.
- Not Viewed – If a client has not clicked and viewed your Proposal within 24 hours of sending, you’ll now get a Notification, so you can follow it up.
- Undo & Redo – The Proposals editor now has built-in Undo & Redo buttons, to make it easier to work with.
- Copy Text – After a Proposal has been accepted by the client, you can now copy text from sections of the Proposal.
Electronic Forms
Electronic forms are an extremely important feature. The allow you to communicate with your team, send certificates to your customers and be safety compliant. The Forms Add-on is incredibly powerful for completing paperwork and reports on site. But if you forget something, or make a mistake, it can be time-consuming to fix — often requiring a complete do-over. Now, you can revisit all types of fields in a completed Form. Just open it from the Diary, tap Edit, and you can work back through the Form.
- Select Photo from Job – When completing a Form online, it’s now possible to select photos from the job’s Diary, instead of only from your computer.
- PDF Name Improvements – Now when you email a Form to a client, the PDF’s label won’t include the name of the staff member who completed it.
- Form Store – They’ve made it easier to find a form that suits you and your business needs. You can try before you buy and make changes to certain fields without going back to the developer.
Badges
Badges are a great tool to where leads came from, follow ups & key actions. They have potential to be a big feature. While there were some improvements in this feature, I think they could do more.
- Custom Badges – Now, it’s possible to create new custom badges to better-suit your business, with a range of icons and colours to choose from.
- The Burn List – Sometimes you get customers who are rude, abusive, or refuse to pay. To avoid bad customers you never want to deal with again, you can now add them to your “Burn List”. Apply the Burn List badge in their Client Card, and if they come back, when you’re creating a new job for them, you’ll get a special warning.
ServiceM8 Network Improvements
With ServiceM8 Network, you can send and receive work requests from other businesses, directly in your account — so whether you use subcontractors, or subcontract to another business that uses ServiceM8, you can still manage all your jobs in one place. ServiceM8 13 brings improvements to ServiceM8 Network, making it easier to find, track and manage your Network Requests.
- Requirements Checklist – Whether you send or receive a Network Request, its job requirements will now display as a dedicated checklist in the job card, making it easier to track or complete the work.
- Network Updates – Network Messages and Updates from the subcontractor now appear in the job’s Diary, in chronological order, making them easier to keep across.
- Network Jobs List – A new jobs list makes it easier to find Network jobs, and see their status at a glance with highlights like ‘In Progress’.
ServiceM8 Chat Improvements
Your AI-powered, voice-activated ServiceM8 assistant, can now do more for you — you can now send any SMS Template, add billable items to the job, get tips on how to use ServiceM8 itself, or discuss general topics, all with your voice.
- Confirm – If you ask ServiceM8 to do something that can’t be undone, like send the client a message, it will now ask you to confirm, first.
Send SMS – You can now ask ServiceM8 to send the client any of your SMS templates. - Add Items – Tell ServiceM8 to add items to the job, giving you the ability to build quotes & invoices with your voice.
- Get Tips – ServiceM8 Chat now has broader ServiceM8 knowledge, meaning you can ask them questions about how ServiceM8 works, and get feature tips.
- Have a Chat! – You can now ask more general questions of ServiceM8, to help troubleshoot problems or brainstorm ideas.
How to Get Started
If you have a business who feels ServiceM8 might be right for your business, set up a free trial here. Get in touch with us to discuss a set up and training package.
If you use ServiceM8 in your business, but feel you are under utilising its features, contact us to arrange a tailored training session today.
To activate ServiceM8 13, head to the launch page here and click the Activate ServiceM8 13 button.
