Scheduling & Invoicing using Service Orders

Modified on Thu, 19 Dec at 10:38 AM

One of the greatest time saving advantages of Pet Sitter Plus is that services are entered only once (on the service order) which then simultaneously appear on any schedule or planning tool which can be viewed by staff, administrators or clients alike.

Service orders are typically organised into billing periods, so if you invoice monthly, enter all services for each month onto one service order. If you are creating an order for a two week vacation that requires a single invoice, then put all services relating to the two weeks vacation onto a single service order.

Example of a Client Service Order in Dog Walking Software

Service Orders have many functions:

They contain the services a client wants performed.
Once a service is added to an Order, it is also live in the schedule for admins, staff and clients.
An Update to a Service Order, is reflected in real time in all schedules as well.
They save time by only entering data once and reducing the potential for duplication and errors.
A Service Order is used to produce accurate and itemized quotes and invoices.
A service order usually contains the services that will be invoiced together.
- If you invoice weekly, you would create one service order per week for a client.
- If you invoice monthly, you would create one service order per month for a client.
- If you invoice a client for a two-weeks of vacation care on one invoice, then all the services for that vacation would go on one service order.
If a service order contains a broad date range of services that will not be invoiced together, use "up to a date" to segment the order into multiple invoices.

Tip: Placing Services on a Service Order is how you build your Schedule. Service Orders can be edited at any time. A Service Order then becomes an Invoice. An Invoice cannot be edited.

Navigation: Clients > access a client account > Orders & Invoices

Below is an explanation of what each column means on a Service Order, reading left to right:

Day and Date

Contains the day of the week and date for the service.

Staff Notes

Can be added, overwritten or appended to services in the Staff and admin schedules, or client service orders. Staff Notes provide a prominently seen and useful tool for communications to staff regarding the scheduled service. They are not seen by clients.

If the service was requested through the client portal, any notes the client added to their order will appear here, and are repeated on service requests.

Invoice Notes

Invoice Notes appear on the invoice beside the service description and will be seen by clients. These are different from "Admin Notes" which can be added to an invoice and will appear in the Unpaid Invoice report.

Note: If you are adding a range of services, Invoice or Staff notes added here will be added to ALL services in the range. If you want your note to appear on one service, enter services without notes and use "Edit Services" to add notes to the appropriate service. The process is the same for any view of the Schedule (List View, Column View or Compact View). You can also add to or overwrite existing staff/invoice notes to other services.

Service Item

The service item long description, such as "Dog Walk," "Home Boarding" or "Overnight."

Time

Time or Timeblock for the service.

Staff

Staff assigned to the service. If the staff has Time Off, a warning (!) and red text is displayed.

Client and/or Pet Ref

Depending on your Settings, this column will display either:

Client name
Schedule ref (pet name)
or both Client and Schedue ref

Status

This indicates if a service has been invoiced or is yet to be invoiced. If a number (the invoice number) is displayed - the item has been invoiced. If "Quote" is displayed, the item has not been invoiced.

"A" badge

The "A" badge is Acknowledged. When it is green, the service has been acknowledged by the staff.

"C" badge

The "C" badge is Completed. When it is green, the service has been completed by the staff.

"SR" badge

When the "SR" badge is green, the Service Report has been sent to the client.

Key icon

The key icon is color coded as follows:

a black key is shown if the schedule entry is in the past.
a red key is shown if a key is registered for the client, but the key is not assigned to the staff scheduled for the service - indicating they do not have the key required to do the job.
a green key is shown if a key is registered for the client and it is assigned to the staff scheduled for the service - indicating they DO have the key required to do the job.

Net Unit

The amount charged for each individual service sold. This figure does not include tax. This is automatically calculated based on price rules defined in service items.

Net Charge

The total amount charged. This figure includes tax.

Staff Pay

The staff pay amount to be paid for each service. This is automatically calculated based on staff pay rules – defined in service items.

Staff Pay Summary

For clients who provide boarding services and pay their staff at the end of a service, a staff pay summary is displayed underneath a service order. This visibility of this feature is subject to Staff and Company Permissions.