CRM with Xero - regular maintenance contracts/invoicing?
Discussion
Just started a new role with a garden maintenance company. Established 25 years and the systems and record keeping haven't changed much as the business grew. Relatively successful for what it is, own the industrial unit base, around 150 monthly contracts.
They use Xero to a very basic level (like printing out bank statements in Xero and then identifying payments one by one against printed invoices). They also have their own bespoke database (not linked to Xero) where they add and manage customer contracts and can trigger a monthly invoice run. It is an ancient thing that has worked for them, but they are selling up and a new owner is coming in. I spotted customers getting double-billed and others hadn't been invoiced at all in this month's run. Chap who made the database is contactable (it was paid for outright with additional work paid as needed), but it's all very dated and tired feeling. The database is not in the cloud (although is occasionally backed-up).
I was here partly to learn how things run and facilitate the handover (first business for new owner), but it's a million miles from being a system that someone could sit in front of and have any idea how things work. I've looked at Tradify and other add-ons to the Xero package, but I've not found one that offers a monthly billing run without having to trigger an action to each client within the package. Though I'd ask in case there was an obvious answer.
'Scheduling' is currently a big wedge of papers that are sorted for a day's work (normally 3 or 4 teams out) and then (after being out on the road for a day) filed into a tray marked "month 3/week 4" (or wherever) to wait their turn to be sorted again. I grabbed a random worksheet and asked why 'Mrs Jones' hadn't been visited since November but was on a monthly contract and there was a valid reason - but only in the owner's head, no written record of it. I envisage a period of a new scheduling system running alongside the paper version to prove its suitability - with app/smartphone job-sheets being considered at a later date. I showed a quickly knocked-up version with Google Calendar to show how easy it should be with repeating visits etc.
Vast majority of people pay the same amount every month. Visit frequencies vary and change during different seasons, but all spread over a yearly contract and payments split equally over 12 months. Other people have one-off visits or additional work sometimes added to an invoice, plus corporate/local authority accounts.
It's not really what I do, but looks like it's something I need to do! Any recommendations are very welcome. Could even ditch Xero and start over.
They use Xero to a very basic level (like printing out bank statements in Xero and then identifying payments one by one against printed invoices). They also have their own bespoke database (not linked to Xero) where they add and manage customer contracts and can trigger a monthly invoice run. It is an ancient thing that has worked for them, but they are selling up and a new owner is coming in. I spotted customers getting double-billed and others hadn't been invoiced at all in this month's run. Chap who made the database is contactable (it was paid for outright with additional work paid as needed), but it's all very dated and tired feeling. The database is not in the cloud (although is occasionally backed-up).
I was here partly to learn how things run and facilitate the handover (first business for new owner), but it's a million miles from being a system that someone could sit in front of and have any idea how things work. I've looked at Tradify and other add-ons to the Xero package, but I've not found one that offers a monthly billing run without having to trigger an action to each client within the package. Though I'd ask in case there was an obvious answer.
'Scheduling' is currently a big wedge of papers that are sorted for a day's work (normally 3 or 4 teams out) and then (after being out on the road for a day) filed into a tray marked "month 3/week 4" (or wherever) to wait their turn to be sorted again. I grabbed a random worksheet and asked why 'Mrs Jones' hadn't been visited since November but was on a monthly contract and there was a valid reason - but only in the owner's head, no written record of it. I envisage a period of a new scheduling system running alongside the paper version to prove its suitability - with app/smartphone job-sheets being considered at a later date. I showed a quickly knocked-up version with Google Calendar to show how easy it should be with repeating visits etc.
Vast majority of people pay the same amount every month. Visit frequencies vary and change during different seasons, but all spread over a yearly contract and payments split equally over 12 months. Other people have one-off visits or additional work sometimes added to an invoice, plus corporate/local authority accounts.
It's not really what I do, but looks like it's something I need to do! Any recommendations are very welcome. Could even ditch Xero and start over.
I have done a few of these types of projects (Probably a lot more complex), you want a system that is integrated e.g your customer database (crm) and billing platform should all be on one system otherwise your bound to have issues, e.g if a change is made to a customers order/bill it requires updating several systems and that is open to human error.
What your under taking is not a simple task and it's not really invoicing it's more of a billing system. If the client can add or change things each month then your system needs to be able to support that change .......or you could go down the easy path of creating a separate invoice, but then that mean finance has to chase two invoices.
If you need any advice drop us a PM I can save you a lot of headache as I have been there!
What your under taking is not a simple task and it's not really invoicing it's more of a billing system. If the client can add or change things each month then your system needs to be able to support that change .......or you could go down the easy path of creating a separate invoice, but then that mean finance has to chase two invoices.
If you need any advice drop us a PM I can save you a lot of headache as I have been there!
I'd agree that it would be very nice to have one system that does it all, however those sort of products only seem to exist at the enterprise level and with all the associated costs to match. I've yet to see anything that's tailored for smaller businesses. The best option currently seems to be an accounting system with a separate CRM that integrates with it. ServiceM8 and Jobber might be worth a look.
Bikerjon said:
I'd agree that it would be very nice to have one system that does it all, however those sort of products only seem to exist at the enterprise level and with all the associated costs to match. I've yet to see anything that's tailored for smaller businesses. The best option currently seems to be an accounting system with a separate CRM that integrates with it. ServiceM8 and Jobber might be worth a look.
That is a thing of the past with SAAS we have small clients who have enterprise setups tech is becoming more affordable and scalable which is great for small businesses. You can be a one band and have an enterprise system now days if your a switched on individual ; )Haven't really had time to read your post in depth, but it sounds like Workflow Max would be ideal for this. It's great for configuring all sorts of custom workflows, and as it is actually made by Xero the integration is very good.
https://www.workflowmax.com/
https://www.workflowmax.com/
juggers said:
That is a thing of the past with SAAS we have small clients who have enterprise setups tech is becoming more affordable and scalable which is great for small businesses. You can be a one band and have an enterprise system now days if your a switched on individual ; )
OK, that all sounds great, but how about some product suggestions?Thanks all.
I had a look at Workflow Max, including some very basic tutorials etc. It seems to lean very heavily toward jobs charged per hour; either a chargeable value of doing something for an hour, or the value of the people doing it. It can probably be changed to be less centred on time but the majority of customers here pay an agreed monthly amount for work that varies (hugely) throughout the year.
I also had a quick trial with jobber that I really liked, but it doesn't seem to have any auto-fill sections in invoicing. One example; If I trigger an invoice run in the current database, for the regular customers it automatically says "for work done in February" (or as necessary). Speaking to the Jobber help guys (after waiting until someone was awake in Canada) it seems the only way to do this, is to export the database, change the relevant field and then import again and that would be a nuisance. Only a small detail, but I'm then trying to sell something to the management that doesn't do what his own system already does. Currently sending 150+ monthly invoices is a click of a button - albeit with some tidying up afterwards and painstaking reconciliation.
Invoice payments go into a separate bank account with a monthly lump sum transferred over into the business current account (with the latter reconciled and linked properly in xero for anything going out). The monthly transfer is based on bank statements (so only paid invoices) and I'd like to at least import the invoice data as a .csv file from the database, tie it in with the savings account and let xero discover what's outstanding etc. Presumably with all payments checked into a single code ('customer payments' or something) for now and eventually each set up as clients once we've modernised a little/lot!
Current database was written to work with Access and I'm more of a fan than I was a week ago, but I still need something ultimately that ties in with xero - with scheduling a later addition I imagine. Each time a payment is received, it gets manually chalked off against the customer in the database (again based on the non-xero-linked bank statement). Also a fair % still sending in cheques, but of an age where that's not likely to change. Massive piles of papers, statements and invoices getting shuffled between folders regularly.
They did have a lengthy trial with Sharepoint a while back - huge file of the history, but for reasons currently not fully understood it didn't stick (lead 'developer' a friend of the owner.
It's looking like a mammoth task - either horrific or a great opportunity (and either way not exactly what I came in to do) - I'll let you know! But any more suggestions etc very welcome. I'm only 2 weeks in and with very limited experience of such things it looks like there are decent scheduling bolt-ons with limited billing etc or vice versa (and payroll also a different piece of software that hopefully can be brought into xero, but a battle for another day).
I had a look at Workflow Max, including some very basic tutorials etc. It seems to lean very heavily toward jobs charged per hour; either a chargeable value of doing something for an hour, or the value of the people doing it. It can probably be changed to be less centred on time but the majority of customers here pay an agreed monthly amount for work that varies (hugely) throughout the year.
I also had a quick trial with jobber that I really liked, but it doesn't seem to have any auto-fill sections in invoicing. One example; If I trigger an invoice run in the current database, for the regular customers it automatically says "for work done in February" (or as necessary). Speaking to the Jobber help guys (after waiting until someone was awake in Canada) it seems the only way to do this, is to export the database, change the relevant field and then import again and that would be a nuisance. Only a small detail, but I'm then trying to sell something to the management that doesn't do what his own system already does. Currently sending 150+ monthly invoices is a click of a button - albeit with some tidying up afterwards and painstaking reconciliation.
Invoice payments go into a separate bank account with a monthly lump sum transferred over into the business current account (with the latter reconciled and linked properly in xero for anything going out). The monthly transfer is based on bank statements (so only paid invoices) and I'd like to at least import the invoice data as a .csv file from the database, tie it in with the savings account and let xero discover what's outstanding etc. Presumably with all payments checked into a single code ('customer payments' or something) for now and eventually each set up as clients once we've modernised a little/lot!
Current database was written to work with Access and I'm more of a fan than I was a week ago, but I still need something ultimately that ties in with xero - with scheduling a later addition I imagine. Each time a payment is received, it gets manually chalked off against the customer in the database (again based on the non-xero-linked bank statement). Also a fair % still sending in cheques, but of an age where that's not likely to change. Massive piles of papers, statements and invoices getting shuffled between folders regularly.
They did have a lengthy trial with Sharepoint a while back - huge file of the history, but for reasons currently not fully understood it didn't stick (lead 'developer' a friend of the owner.
It's looking like a mammoth task - either horrific or a great opportunity (and either way not exactly what I came in to do) - I'll let you know! But any more suggestions etc very welcome. I'm only 2 weeks in and with very limited experience of such things it looks like there are decent scheduling bolt-ons with limited billing etc or vice versa (and payroll also a different piece of software that hopefully can be brought into xero, but a battle for another day).
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