How to use Jobs
What a job is
A job is one confirmed piece of work for one customer. It holds the text conversation, every visit, the checklist your crew works through, and the invoices — so the whole story of that work sits in one place instead of in somebody’s head or somebody’s phone.
Jobs do not arrive on their own. A form submission, a phone call, or a booking always creates an appointment first — a visit you have agreed to, not work you have won. A job is what you create once that visit turns into work. A customer can only have one open job at a time, so the job is always the thing you are doing for them right now.
Step by step
- 1
Turn a visit into a job
Most jobs start on the appointments page. When a visit turns into work you have won, open it and click Convert to Job. Name the job, and the visit comes across as its first one — date, time and address already filled in, editable there and then. That appointment is not marked finished, because it is the first thing on the new job’s schedule. If the customer already has an open job, FieldStone points you at it rather than starting a second — use Link to jobin the row’s ⋯ menu to put the visit on that job instead.ScheduledConvert to Job⋯ - 2
Set your workflow up first
A workflow is the list of steps every job follows. Set it up once and each new job starts from a copy of it that you can adjust. You can keep more than one — New workflow adds, say, an Install list beside a Repair one, and you pick which a job starts from when you create it. Do this before anything else: creating a job by hand is blocked until a workflow exists — you get a “Set up your workflow first” panel instead of the form. Open the ⋯ menu at the top right of the Jobs page and choose Workflow. That menu also holds Invoicing, All invoices, and the page’s sort and filters under Options, and it is there on a phone as well as a computer.Open the Jobs page⋯WorkflowInvoicingAll invoicesOptions›Workflows+ New workflowAdd step - 3
Create a job by hand
Not every job comes from a visit. Click New job at the top right — or Create job in the middle of the page while you still have none. One thing that catches people out: the button says New job, but the panel it opens is headed New project and finishes with Create project. They are the same thing. It walks four short stages — who it is for, what the work is, anything existing to attach, and the checklist to start from.New jobNew projectWho is this project for?1Who2What3Connections4WorkflowCustomerBackContinueNew projectWhat's the project?Who2What3Connections4WorkflowBuilt-in pantry shelvingJob site addressScope, constraints, customer asks…BackContinueNew projectConnect appointments, notes, tasks, and people.WhoWhat3Connections4WorkflowAppointments+Notes+Tasks+People+BackContinueNew projectPick a workflow checklist.WhoWhatConnections4WorkflowBackCreate project - 4
Find your way around the job
Each job opens as a two-pane board. The left side is your text conversation with the customer — on their first job it shows your entire history together; after that it picks up where the last job ended. The right side leads with the workflow checklist, its step count and progress bar; under it sit the next appointment and a list of drawers: Invoices, Estimates, Notes, Tasks, People, Activities, Recordings and My Apps, most showing what is inside before you open them. Activities is the one worth knowing — every call, text, email and status change on this job, in order, without you logging a thing.Message DanaWorkflow1 of 3+InvoicesEstimatesNotesTasksPeopleActivities›RecordingsMy Apps - 5
Talk to the customer, and to your team
One box at the bottom of the conversation does both, and how you start the line decides which. Anything you type without a slash is sent directly to the customer as a real text message — the box itself reads “Message” and the customer’s first name while that is what it will do. Once you pick a slash command, a line above the box says where it goes instead.
Type / to keep it internal:
- /note — add an internal note
- /task — create a task for this job
- /ask — ask the copilot about this job
/noteAdd an internal note/taskCreate a task for this job/askAsk the copilot about this job/ - 6
Book the visits the work needs
A job carries as many visits as the work takes. The right side shows the next one — when it is, how many days out, and the address as a map link — with a + to book another or attach one that already exists. Once a visit is done it drops into a past-appointments list rather than cluttering the top.+ - 7
Invoice the work
Money lives on invoices, never on the job itself. The value you see against a job is the sum of its invoices, and it only counts as paid once every one of them is.
Open Invoices and add one. Give it a label, then pick the Template— Simple, Detailed, Labor & Materials, Progress, Service or Commercial — and the form changes to match. Add a line item for each thing you are charging for and the totals add themselves up, with a preview of the finished invoice underneath. Tax, a discount and a deposit are all optional.
Saveit now and it joins the job’s invoice list as a draft. Send it from there when the work is done; Send becomes Resend afterwards. Mark as paid works at any point, including on a draft you never sent — which is how you record cash taken on the day. It asks how the money came in and on what day, and on an invoice you have already sent the confirmation offers Undo. A draft can be deleted; an invoice already sent is voided instead.
New invoiceCreate a new invoice for this job.LabelSupply line replacementTemplateLabor & MaterialsDue DateLine ItemsSupply line$480.00Shut-off valve$64.00Add line itemTotal$544.00Save#1042Draft$544.00Mark as paidSend - 8
Mark it complete
Nothing closes a job for you — not a finished checklist, not the last visit. You do it from the status pill at the top of the conversation, which moves the job to any stage — Pending, Scheduled, Confirmed, In progress, Completed or Cancelled. Read the confirmation before you accept Completed: completing a job messages the customer, asking them once to rate the work, on whichever channels you have job reminders switched on for. Cancelled closes it the same way but sends nothing. Either is reversible — pick In progress from the same pill to put the work back. On the Jobs page the job moves down into the Completed group.In progressPendingScheduledConfirmedIn progressCompletedCancelledMark this job complete?This closes the job and sends the customer a rating request by text. You can reopen it anytime.CancelMark completeActiveIn progressJobOpenedProgressValue6d25%$880.00Invoice sentCompletedJobOpenedProgressValue19d66%$2,400.00UnpaidCancelledJobOpenedProgressValue41d100%$544.00Paid
That is the whole loop — a visit becomes a job, the checklist carries the work, the invoice collects the money, and completing the job asks the customer how you did.