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Release Notes - May 11, 2021
Release Notes - May 11, 2021

Create estimates in the mobile app, invoice maintenance contracts with Quoted pricing, and more functionality!

Weston Zimmerman avatar
Written by Weston Zimmerman
Updated over 9 months ago

Hey SynkedUP Crew! Cheers to you! I can't tell you how excited I am to roll out this latest release and its new features. πŸ˜ŽπŸŽ‰
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A lot of the focus in this release was to expand the ability of the mobile app to allow you to continue working on the fly without having to wait until you get back to the office. On the web app side, most of the focus has been on expanding and polishing how maintenance contracts work, and how invoicing works for maintenance contracts.


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Quick Glance:

Web App

  • Invoicing for Quoted Price maintenance contracts

  • v1 of Maintenance Contract Bundling feature

  • Add new date stamps for Leads and Customers

  • Added a new Invoicing permission and Roles structure

Mobile App

  • Ability to create estimates/jobs in mobile app

  • Ability to view, edit, and create Consultations in the mobile app

  • A new "Year" filter when clocking into Maintenance Contracts

  • Updated Home screen user interface

  • Added "popup menu" to customers and timesheets

  • New "Weekly Time Summary" feature


Web App


Invoicing for Quoted Price Maintenance Contracts

You are now able to invoice for Quoted Price Maintenance Contracts, in the same manner as you always could for Projects and Service Tickets. What this means is you can now invoice in advance instead of being limited to the "pay-as-you-go" method that is used for T&M or Flat Rate pricing type jobs. Invoicing for T&M and Flat Rate is done after work has been completed and invoicing for Quoted Price jobs can be done before, or after, work has been completed.


Bundling Feature in Maintenance Contracts

Bundling allows you to bundle multiple random tasks together in the same "bundle" so to speak. And then you can set a total Final Price for that Bundle in the Details tab (Quoted Pricing type only), and the system will set the Final Price of all Tasks belonging to that Bundle at the amount needed to total up to the custom amount you entered into your Final Price field on the Details tab for that Bundle.


Date Stamps for New Leads and Customers

SynkedUP now records the date that a new lead or customer was created in the system. A common use case for this is to measure the time that it took for a new lead to become a customer. For instance:

When you enter a new Lead into the system, it will record the date of the new Lead. Then when you create an estimate for that Lead, and that estimate gets sold, SynkedUP will automatically convert that Lead to a Customer and record the date that Lead turned into a Customer.

This allows you to see the date this person became a new Lead and then also see the date they first bought something from your company and became a Customer.


Roles and Permissions

We've added a new structure around Roles and Permissions in SynkedUP. In the My Company settings, you will see a section for Roles. In that section, you see all the default Roles.

You can create any new Role you want, say for example, Senior Foreman, and then assign permissions as you wish for that new Role you just created. Currently, the Invoicing permission is available to assign to Roles, and as we build out more permissions, you'll be able to build out your own custom Roles and assign permissions for those Roles as you wish.

Once you have created the Role, you can go to any user account, and assign whichever Role you'd like to that user.


Mobile App


Creating an Estimate in the Mobile App

Yoooo! Glorious day! You can finally create an estimate while out in the field! No more need to run back to the office to your computer or lug along your laptop and wifi hotspot.

The workflow is pretty much the same as in the web app, only that the screens, buttons, etc are adapted for mobile devices. The workflow follows the basic pattern of:

  • selecting your customer and property (or creating new)

  • naming your estimate

  • creating your first workarea

  • naming the workarea, selecting a cost code, and a division

  • adding items, editing quantities, etc.

  • adding customer-facing descriptions and internal workarea notes

  • repeating that all over for the next workarea(s)

The mobile app is pretty much fully-featured, meaning there's not much you can't do in the mobile version that you can do in the web version. About the only thing that isn't available in the mobile version right now is the ability to use production rates as you add items. You have to manually enter quantities on your items.

After you've created your estimate you can upload pictures, send it off to the customer as a proposal, mark it as Sold, select a scheduler, enter scheduling notes, and immediately schedule it on the calendar and assign it to a foreman. So you've successfully gone from a new lead to an estimate to a sold job to a scheduled job. You're ready to clock in and execute the job without ever touching the web app!


Pretty cool eh! We're pumped to have this level of mobile workflow available in the SynkedUP mobile app. Really looking forward to your feedback and how this feels to you the first time you use it. This is the first version of this feature and is still in beta, but we've put a lot of care and effort to make sure that even the beta experience is a good one. Let us know in the chat or the SynkedUP Users Facebook group what your experience is like when using it!


Consultations!

You can now view, edit, and create consultations in the mobile app! How frustrating was it to always have to look back through your email for that consultation notification email to find details like phone numbers and addresses?

I know!

So we got Consultations in the mobile app as well.

There's a new section in the main menu on the left in the SynkedUP mobile app for the Consultations. Here you can filter by salesperson, or just search for the consultation you are looking for.
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Or you could also go to the calendar and filter the calendar to only see Consultations (filter is in the upper right corner of the Calendar page). Once you see the consultation you want to go to, click on it to see all the details.

You can also create new consultations by clicking on the popup menu icon in the Calendar or Customer profile screen, and selecting the New Consultation button from the popup menu (hint: it looks like a handshake).


New "Year" filter in maintenance contracts

When we introduced the ability for maintenance contracts to continue year after year, it caused a bit of a difficulty in the mobile app for users trying to select the correct task to clock in because the mobile app would show all tasks for all years as options. So, what we did is introduce "year" filters so that you can toggle to see this years' tasks or last year's, etc. This cleaned up the view and made it much easier to see exactly what you were after, select your task, and continue on with clocking in


Updated Home Screen User Interface

We dressed up the home screen to be easier to read and show more pertinent information.


We added the Weekly Time Summary, improved the layout of the Most Recent Timecard, and added the My Schedule to the home screen. The intent is to show the user the most important information for the day right there at a glance


New "Popup" menu

We added a new "popup" quick action menu in

  • timesheets

  • customers

  • calendar

  • schedule

  • estimates, projects, & service tickets

This is super useful to provide quick and fast access to the most common needs on each screen. Here's an example of the menu in Timesheets:

Below is a list of the quick action options in the popup menu of each screen:

Timesheets:

  • add actual items

  • add Internal Notes or Customer Notification notes

  • upload attachments

  • navigate to Property

  • call the customer

  • send SMS to customer

Customers:

  • edit customer

  • edit property

  • upload attachments

  • create new Consultation

  • create new Estimate

  • create new Service Ticket

Calendar:

  • create new Consultation

  • create new Service Ticket

  • schedule an existing job
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Schedule:

  • create new Consultation

  • create new Service Ticket

Estimates, Projects, and Service Tickets:

  • edit property

  • edit customer

  • send customer proposal

  • link customer to QuickBooks Online

  • upload attachments

  • edit job


Weekly Time Summary

We felt it was too difficult to just see someone's total hours that week at a glance, so we built the Weekly Time Summary component and added it to the main Home screen, as well as the Timesheet Overview screen.

You can filter this new weekly time summary to see whomever's hours you'd like, but it will always default to the logged-in user's hours.

You can also use the navigational arrows to go back and forth a week at a time to see hours from the past.


As always, let us know your thoughts about and experience with the new update! We're always keen on hearing feedback since this feedback is crucial to determine what we build next, and what we prioritize.

You can expect to see some cool abilities coming up in the next updates with the ability to filter pricing info from certain users in the mobile app, as well as the ability to create and send an invoice from the mobile app.

Cheers guys! πŸ₯‚ Good luck on the rest of your season! I know you all are crazy busy these days!

-Weston

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