7/7/23 - Webinar - "Open Mic" Night

Thanks everyone for joining this afternoon. Open mic night. So I was just sharing a little bit here with Maureen that basically this is the first time we're doing this.

Most of the webinars usually have a 20 to 30 minute topic we discuss, go through a presentation, do a little bit of a demonstration, and then end the webinar with open Q&A or office hours. And I got a lot of feedback from folks that they felt that the open Q&A was one of the best parts of the webinar, that they can hear what others are doing, how others are using the software, learn from their questions. And so what the suggestion was what we're trying tonight is to do the entire webinar as open Q&A.

So a little bit different, a little bit of an experiment. So we'll see how this goes tonight. And if this is good, we'll do it again.

If not, we'll go back to the usual format. So having said that, part of the introduction is I really would like for everyone to feel free to speak up, ask questions, join in if there's a particular topic we're discussing, and you would like some clarification. This might be a little tricky because we're going to have folks on the line that use both the starter kit and the pro package.

So for those of you that are on the starter kit, you might learn a few things about the pro package and see how that could benefit you in the future. Those of you on the pro package can hear about the new starter kit and how that works with some of the newer, smaller home watch businesses. And that could benefit you as well.

(2:00 - 2:54)

You know, the introduction, I do want to bring up a couple of points that Maureen just brought up before. And I think it's good to just discuss here. Number one is there is an issue with QuickBooks.

I know I've had two or three of you email me about this, where not all of your clients are receiving the email invoices. It seems to be most common on AOL.com email addresses. QuickBooks is pointing their finger at AOL, AOL is pointing it back.

I don't think it's entirely an AOL problem because I have seen a couple non-AOL emails have the same issue. The easy workaround on there is when you have your list of invoices on the screen in QuickBooks. To the right of each invoice, there's a little highlight and drop down that says receive payment.

(2:55 - 3:37)

And if you click that drop down, one of the options you'll see is send link or copy link, I think is what it says. And if you get the copy link, it'll just give you a URL. That you can email directly to the client.

Once they click on that link, it's all as they always have. It'll open up the invoice on the screen. It'll have the pay now button.

Everything will work as it always has. It just is, you're going to have to email them a link separately from your email instead of trying to email it via QuickBooks. So that is a workaround I'll just bring up here because that seems to be an issue here lately that I've heard about a few times.

(3:39 - 4:06)

All right. Sorry. That worked fine for me and my clients.

Great. Thanks. So we'll just jump right in.

You know, as I said, I just would love to have the questions. You know, we'll pull up the software, walk through the questions and leave it open. So whoever would like to go first, jump in.

(4:06 - 4:48)

Hey, Gary, John in Florida. I'll start us off. All right.

Because I ain't scared. I know that. What was the deal with rolling back the automatic cancel for in-residence? It wasn't really rolled back.

It is now there is an option that you can turn it off. By default, it's going to be the automatic cancel. So nothing has really changed just as now there's an option that you can turn off the automatic cancel if you want.

(4:49 - 5:08)

The reason for that is I had a few clients that do schedule work orders for tasks, even if the client is in residence. And whenever they try to schedule it, of course, the system will automatically cancel it. And that created a lot of confusion.

(5:09 - 5:29)

So for those clients that need to go when a client is in residence or if you need to, for my customers that have to go when a client is in residence, this now gives you that opportunity by turning that feature off. OK, great. Personally, it didn't affect me, but I can see how it could.

(5:30 - 5:47)

I would say 90% of my clients, it does not affect, but there are a few now that are more on the estate management side of things and they do things. Yes, I get it. Thank you.

(5:47 - 5:53)

Sure. Hey, Gary, Steve. Hi, Steve.

(5:54 - 6:14)

On the QuickBooks invoices in the last week or two, a new format has come up. And I'm not sure if it's in beta or whatever, but it did say you could switch back to the original format, but eventually everybody will be on this new format. I don't like the new format.

(6:14 - 8:56)

I like the old format of the invoices better. Yeah. I agree.

Yeah. So first off, and this doesn't affect you, Steve, but it'll affect everybody that's on the pro package, is when that screen comes up, change it back immediately to the old format. And the reason for that is I have found that as soon as you make your first save, if you've modified an invoice in the new format and save it, it turns off a setting in QuickBooks called custom transaction numbers.

I'm sorry, it turns on that setting. And when that setting is on, it means you're going to key in your own invoice numbers, which means now method is no longer going to be able to put invoice numbers on your invoices for you. So you're going to end up with a batch of invoices with blank numbers.

So you need to make sure that that setting in QuickBooks is always set to off. And so therefore, if you get that new invoice screen, make sure that you immediately revert back to the old one until they fix that particular issue. I've reported it to them twice.

Knowing QuickBooks, it'll take them a while to fix that. But as long as you don't use it and save an invoice in QuickBooks, you won't be affected. With the new invoice modification program that is in the pro package as of about two updates ago, you probably don't need to use the QuickBooks invoice modification anyway, because the one in the pro package will allow you to change anything.

And it works better because it knows about work orders, whereas the one in QuickBooks doesn't. And I'd be happy to show you those features if you'd like. Okay, I'll try that.

So custom transaction numbers needs to be off then? Okay, mine is off. Yeah, I've had a couple of clients where I've kept turning on for them every month and they swear to me they haven't changed it. And I found that new screen, which a couple of my clients have had now for two months.

Every time you went in there and saved an invoice, it will turn it back. Okay, I have a question and I apologize if it's going to be very elementary for all of you experienced people. Please don't apologize, we've all been there.

(9:01 - 9:53)

When I create work orders in method, outside of like, Ron does his home watch visits, because he's the one who's doing the home watches. But I do like a lot of like the miscellaneous work orders, if I go to the post office and mail something or if I have to go let a contractor in. Then I come in and I create the work order in method.

What I was doing was I was also creating the invoice at the time, which pushes over to QuickBooks, correct? If I create the invoice in method for that particular line item. Yes. It pushes over.

(9:53 - 10:32)

Should I not be doing that until the end of the month and all of his home watches are done? Yeah, you want, well, the question is, do you want separate invoices for everything or do you want everything on one invoice? Yeah, ideally everything on one invoice. Yeah, then don't run the invoicing until the end of the month. Okay.

We'll then put everything on one invoice for you. Okay. Create a couple, you can fix that.

And this goes back to what I was just talking about with invoice modification program. So let me show that I'm going to go here into my invoicing. And I don't know if you're familiar with this invoice reconciliation screen.

(10:33 - 13:27)

You can actually also get to that screen right here from your dashboard. Right. Invoicing right here, invoice reconciliation.

Okay. The screen, this will bring up for you all of your invoices from QuickBooks and you can always reconcile between QuickBooks and the HomeWatch IT system by clicking on a particular invoice here. And this will show you the work orders that are on that invoice.

And it will show you all of the line items that were generated from those work orders that are on that invoice. So you can see exactly, you know, that this work order on June 1st created these three lines on my invoice. So this allows you now to be able to go back and forth and see exactly what is in both systems.

Can you just repeat that? So you're saying on the 1st of June at the top here, works order 10481, weekly HomeWatch visit. And then if you go down to the service date, you've got HomeWatch visit. You've also got the mail.

You've got the auto. Right. But are those, how do we know that that's in that invoice? Let me click into that work order.

That's, it's because I broke down all of those line items on the work order itself. I'd have to go back to the work order screen. I'm sorry Sheila, am I missing your question? Well, just those first three items on the bottom there, the lines on invoice, you've got three items there.

The HomeWatch, the mail pickup, the auto starting. And you're saying all of those three are in that one invoice 10481. They're in that one work order 10481, yes.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

So it's under that. Okay. All right.

So if the work order has all of those three items as separate line items. Okay. Because we do separate.

Yeah, we do. We tend to do separate works orders for anything that's, you know, not a HomeWatch visit. So we do it differently.

That's what was confusing me. Fine. I would say, you know, that, I mean, the mail processing and auto start, that's all part of the home visit.

I have it spelled out here separately more for demonstration to show that a work order can have multiple lines on it that show up on the invoice. But there's nothing wrong with doing it as you're stating. Okay.

Okay. I did want to show, let me pick a different one here. I'm going to pick, let's pick Johnson.

(13:28 - 15:54)

Okay. So this has got four weekly visits and it's a little bit simpler. You know, I don't have quite as many lines here, but you can edit this invoice directly here in HomeWatch IT.

You do not have to go to QuickBooks and you can edit that invoice either by clicking the pencil that's right next to the invoice on the line or clicking the edit link here at the top where it shows you the invoice, in this case, 1969. So I'm going to go ahead and just click the pencil over here. When I do, this will open up the invoice modification screen, which this came out about two updates ago.

But the nice thing is this shows you all of the details of the invoice here at the top, the invoice number, the dates and the terms and so on. And then it shows you the work orders involved. And then it shows you the line items.

So if you realize that, oh geez, maybe I should have billed them, you know, this last mail processing should have been $20 instead of 10. You can come in here and physically change that 20 and then save the invoice and it would update it. The other nice thing about it is, let's say that you invoice this and then you realize, ah, May 26th, Memorial Day weekend, he was in town.

I forgot to cancel the work order. This should not be on the invoice. You can click the button here to say remove from invoice.

And then what it will do is actually remove that work order from the invoice and all the associated lines from May 26th will also disappear at the same time. I meant to remove the invoice. I didn't.

It was for Smith, not for Johnson. So I need to put it back on. You can click here where it says add another work order to the invoice.

And what you'll notice on this dropdown is it'll bring up all of the uninvoiced work orders. Here's the one we just took off of May 26th. I can select it to add it back on.

It shows me here what it is. Add this back on. OK.

Now it's added that work order back on. So I have four of them invoiced. And if I scroll back down, you'll notice here are those lines from the 26th added back on.

(15:54 - 17:15)

So this makes it really nice and easy to manage the invoice just by adding and subtracting work orders. And if the client for some reason says, you know what, I'm coming into town for the summer and you were there one visit in June, can you just add it to the May invoice? And we'll call it good. You can come in here and add another work order, then select from your list.

You'll see June is the next one for that customer. We'll select that and say add. And that's now added the fifth work order, including the one for June.

And if we scroll down, you can see that the lines were added for June. So it makes it really easy to manage the invoice, modify any invoice, and even control which work orders should or should not be included in the system. But Gary, when you did that, you added a future or an upcoming visit, right? An upcoming work order directly to the invoice.

And it apparently all automatically went from not started to completed. Is that correct? This is June. This one's been completed.

(17:15 - 17:41)

Oh. So it wasn't a future visit, you just went ahead and grabbed. Correct.

I just grabbed the next one in sequence. But let's say if I do grab a future visit, let's say here, July 25th. I can grab that.

I can add that to the invoice. Oh, not started. Okay.

(17:41 - 18:02)

Not started because we haven't done it yet, but we are going to go ahead and invoice for it anyway. Oh, okay. All right.

Sorry about that. I'm sorry I asked. If you were to go to that work order right now, you would see that the invoice status would show that it's been invoiced because it's actually on here.

(18:03 - 19:17)

Sure. No, but it does not complete it until you actually do your report and do the work. So, where you've got the job name and you've got weekly home visit or whatever, some of our additional car share services could run into two or three lines with regard to fuel up the car, detail the boats, fuel up the boats, take out the outdoor, place out the outdoor cushions, excuse me, yada, yada.

So, sometimes our invoices run to like three pages. Particularly, we've got clients who are back and forward a couple of times a month. And the things we do, I just, this just looks confusing to me.

I much prefer the using the left-hand side column, the dollar sign invoicing. And then you just check the box. If you go to the old way.

(19:18 - 19:27)

Oh, the old way is still your primary way, Sheila. Yeah. This is only if you need to modify an invoice after you generated it with the regular system.

(19:29 - 19:57)

Right. The intention here is this, this is not your primary. This is if for some reason you need to modify, like you said, you have a lot of work orders, multiple pages for a client with a different task.

So, let's say you just generated an invoice and it had a dozen work orders on there and you realize, oh, you missed one. Okay. With the current system, you'd have to pretty much un-invoice all the work orders and then regenerate.

(19:58 - 20:19)

But really it's like, it's fine. So, take it to the store. And you wouldn't have to worry about that.

Here, you could go in, here are the 12 that are already invoiced and you would just have to add the one that you missed. Okay. So, it's a simpler process, but no, this isn't your primary.

(20:20 - 21:16)

Okay. This is only to modify existing invoices. Right.

Okay. All right. So, as I seem to have the floor at the moment, can I ask my question then with regard to works orders? So, we tend to do individual works orders for, we have two teams.

We have our home watch team and we have our maintenance team. And at the moment, if we are generating a works order through the customer screen, which is, yes, where you are on the right there. If you go into that, you can't print the works order off, you know, down the side.

(21:16 - 21:42)

So, if you go into one of your customers there, and then down the right-hand side, you've got the list of things you can do. The activities open, the activities close, contacts, et cetera, et cetera. Is there a way that you can have a route technician button so that we can print off that works order for the route technician through that screen? To print an individual work order? Mm-hmm.

(21:43 - 21:50)

Yes, you would have to, I mean, you can click on the work order, go to it here. Yeah. So, if you go there.

(21:52 - 22:01)

Yeah. And then you have the ability to, because this puts you in mobile mode. I'm not following you from there.

(22:01 - 22:09)

Oh, that's, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. I'm speaking out loud. Because this is in a narrow panel.

(22:09 - 22:20)

Yeah. I forgot about this. Method actually uses the view that I create for it to work on your smartphone.

(22:21 - 22:36)

And I don't have a print option on the smartphone because you're not going to print from your smartphone. So, that's not the normal program you use to do them on the laptop. This is actually the phone version.

(22:37 - 23:04)

You know, if you were to go to the work order here, and, you know, go into the item, and then you have the print option somewhere down here, right? Email. Yeah, the only way I can print it off is by going to the, like, the daily schedule, you know, the works order for today. Okay.

(23:04 - 24:33)

Yeah, and then that's it. Check there, drop down box, create and print route list. So, that's the only way that I can print it.

Is there no other way that I can print it on an individual basis? I guess whether it's through the customer screen, or through this daily screen, you know, the daily diary, or whatever you call it. Yeah, that is the only way right now. Is it something that potentially could be available? When you say you need it from the customer screen, I mean... So, the reasoning behind it is that, so I have a full-time office administrator, and what we do is we print out the works orders, and that will contain the information for the job.

But when they go out on the job, they'll do what they need to do and send it back. But if they've had to purchase materials, they'll come back with the receipt, and then we will attach it to the back of that works order, so that we know that that receipt has to be added into the works order, because we have to charge that back to the client. Okay, right.

(24:33 - 25:16)

So, we then have to go back into the works order, add a separate line item, materials purchased X, Y, and Z, save it, and then we know that that works order has been completed. And then at the end, at the beginning of the following month, we can then go back, check the box, and then raise the invoice for it. So, it's so that we have a paper trail, and we can marry it up with our receipts, instead of us having to have another printed form for them to add the paper, the receipts to.

(25:17 - 26:35)

So, let me ask, when your tech is purchasing something at Public Depot, for example, yep, they have the receipt. Do they have the route technician application? Yes, on their iPhones. All right.

So, are you aware that you can add that bill right in through the route tech? Probably not, because I haven't explored that. Okay. So, let's go into the route technician.

Now, granted, I'm not on your phone, but it'll function the same way. Okay. So, let's just go out to the Browers home.

Okay. Bring up the details of that work order. So, down here on the bottom, you have an item called enter vendor bill.

So, they can click on that. Right. Then this would allow you to enter in some information, so they can, sorry, let me say this is Home Depot, the date, if you can put invoice number, if you need to, what have you, but you probably have some services code you use for materials purchased or whatever.

(26:36 - 26:52)

And then you can say something that's going to appear on the invoice. And I'm actually going to copy that as well. And then you can put in the total amount of the invoice.

(26:55 - 27:01)

Right. And then save that. So, the total amount of the receipt.

(27:03 - 28:49)

So, that does two things. Now, the receipt, you can actually do a click here on the attachment and open up the camera and take a picture of it, or they can turn in the physical receipt at the end of the day to you. But what you've actually done is by putting in that bill, it's now pushed the bill over to QuickBooks.

So, you have an item for the bookkeeper already showing, ah, we're going to get a bill from Home Depot for $64. It's going to show up on somebody's credit card fee. And then they'll be able to match it up so that she'll know it's coming.

Then the technician can also come right in here into the work order and put in the charge for that. So, they can come in here and say this is a reimbursable. They can put the description and then put whatever that amount was.

Similar to what you're doing now. Mm-hmm. It just is, you can actually do it in the field as you incur it.

And so, now- That's complicated to do in the field, though, if you're using a phone. Is it? To be able to- Yeah, I find the method is very slow when you're in the field. And so, it's easy to do it on the desktop because you can see the screen.

And maybe it's because I only use a phone, an iPhone. But to get all that information in the phone, in the field, I feel it clogs up method. And then it's very frustrating to try and do it in a field.

(28:49 - 31:00)

Not only that, but also we put a markup on materials purchased. So, I won't be relying on the technician to be doing that. I should have, when I was in here.

Yeah, you don't want to rely on your guys to add 10% or $5 or whatever, because the case would be to put it in here. So, they can enter in the bill portion and leave it for you to put the air filters, the charge on there. That's up to you.

Karen, should we try to do this on the phone right now? Just- Yeah. So, I want to make sure everybody's finished asking their questions. And then I can ask, then we can go back.

But I do feel like, so I just want, were you done? I kind of jumped in there. No, no, no, no, no. You make an absolutely valid point.

I would not be relying on the technicians to be entering in the information. You know, it's difficult enough to get them to enter in the information of what they physically have done and how long they've been there. So, to ask them to also add other information is not an option.

And I find that when I open Method, when I'm in the field, and of course, I'm probably using data and not connected, you know, to the homeowner's Wi-Fi most of the time. So, when I'm creating a work order on the fly, Method 2 gets very slow. And so, then I'm waiting, waiting, waiting.

So, then when I finally get it to open and start the report, so once I create the work order, I get so frustrated, I don't put in any of the payment information because it's cumbersome to get to those screens and put it in properly. So, I'm just really trying to get that work order made so I can grab it so that it will then open safety culture. Does anyone else have that problem when they're making a work order in the field that it's very slow? Yeah, I know Ron does.

(31:01 - 33:17)

Yeah, it's depending whether, as you say, whether you're connected to the homeowner's Wi-Fi. A lot of our homeowners will actually suspend the Wi-Fi when they're away. If they're away for like six months.

So, we have to rely obviously on our data and if we're not in a good spot. So, what we do is we have the work orders for the day and then we open the reports in the office before anybody leaves. This is what you're doing today.

Check your iPhones that you can see them and that's the reasoning behind that. So, they can go in and complete what they're doing on there. Well, that's what they should be doing is completing what they're doing on the actual iPhone.

A lot of the times they will come back and write their notes on the printed copy of the works order because that's why we then attach it to any receipts and we've got a paper trail that the lady in the office can then track. So, I'm a little bit old school with paper and pen still and you know I hate computers, Gary. I took my phone off Wi-Fi.

Okay. So, you can see right here I'm on cell right now. Now, you're saying when you create a work order is when you're having an issue, Karen? Yeah.

So, when I go and I click that work order, I click customer. So, usually it doesn't happen that quickly. Usually, it really takes a little while.

Okay. Job name. So, say it's a package pickup because that's usually what we're are the ones that are unplanned for, you know, package pickup.

Template. Yeah. The template.

Yeah. Services probably. Yeah.

That's usually what I put under services. Okay. And then when you go to add the cost, that's where it kind of gets.

(33:19 - 33:45)

It doesn't come up that nice or quickly for me. Maybe I just need to take it off of Wi-Fi. Well, Gary, I know for us, we're in a newer neighborhood.

So, we just don't have a lot of cell towers around us. I even have difficulty with calls. So, that's what we've attributed it to.

(33:47 - 34:21)

Okay. Because yeah, I mean, I'm running this right now on cell signal. Yeah.

It's only 4G. It's not 5G. And you know what I think I was doing wrong now that I think about it? I was going into HomeWatch admin and clicking new.

So, and I guess that's just another way to get to the work order. But this is the one that's really designed to be used in the field. If you do admin, it doesn't display quite as nice, but you can do new work order.

(34:22 - 34:28)

But it's much nicer in Root Technician. It is. Absolutely.

(34:29 - 36:00)

So, just click on Root Technician, go up to the upper left and click work order. Right. And there you have it.

Use your error, Gary. Imagine that. If you're not relying on the Root Technician to produce a new works order and you're relying on the person in the office to do that, then they have to.

Yeah. I guess, how does it work with like employees? Are you giving the employees carte blanche? Well, at the moment, there's only two of us and my business partner isn't very tech savvy. And so, I do most, I do all the admin.

Yeah. So, that's the same for us. We do it here in the office.

We open up the reports and we do the, you know, putting in all the information. So, all they have to do is just pull it up on their phone and then they're supposed to complete it on there. Yeah.

So, that's so that the control happens from the office and not the technician. Correct. That's kind of how we're using it.

(36:01 - 37:37)

But the problem came in when I was on vacation and she couldn't create the work orders easily. But I think just watching this, it's a lot easier. I was going through home.

I was going through the admin to create the work order or she was going through the admin to create the work order in the field. And I think that's might have been what was slowing her down. Because if we go in through what you just showed me, it's much, much quicker.

So, I just recreated it on my phone as we were walking through it. So, wow. Thank you.

That's very, very helpful. I'm a little embarrassed. It's designed to be used in the field.

So, it's a little bit slimmer. So, Gary, do you have, are there different protocols if you've got somebody who's office based and raising those works orders as opposed to the root technician? So, if you've got somebody who's, you know, just a husband and wife team or somebody who's grown and now has employees and has a person dedicated to, you know, be handling, be overseeing the administration, is there a particular protocol that you would suggest that we follow? I mean, what do the other companies? With respect to entering in the work order itself? Well, yes, raising a new works order. And I would say that's really up to that particular business, whoever works for them.

(37:38 - 38:02)

You know, I know I have some clients, I mean, you mentioned husband and wife. I have some that don't have, you know, even that it's just, you know, just him or just her, for that matter, running the business. So, there's not somebody in the office.

They do have to do everything out in the field. So, I don't know if there's a general protocol. It really is what works best for your particular business requirements.

(38:03 - 39:14)

Okay. I just wasn't sure if there was some sort of shortcut that we should be doing, which might make it easier for us. Knowing your business, you know, I think what you're doing is right, having the admin really control that.

You know, the route technicians could add the additional charges or the bills from Home Depot, et cetera, on there if you wanted them to. But, again, that's up to you. It's a matter of what you feel your staff is able to do successfully.

Let's put it that way. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Yeah, it's good to know. All right.

So, did that help on the work order entry? Are we okay with speed and ease of use and so on? Yeah, there's some feedback I need to know if there's an issue. Well, I still… No, I'll pass it on to Ron. Sorry? I was just going to say I'll pass the information on to Ron because I'm not sure if he's going into route technician or admin.

(39:15 - 39:29)

Okay. Gary, I still have trouble often in the field opening method. When I open method, it takes a long time for it to load.

(39:30 - 40:07)

Do you think that's just… Should I just turn off my Wi-Fi when I'm in the field? So, sometimes what I do to get around that, which probably isn't good and I can only do it because our business is still fairly small, is I'll just go into safety culture and create a report. And then when I get back to the office, I'll know that there was a work order out there and I'll just mark it as complete. So, you know what I mean? It's not a great system, but at least I can get the report done.

(40:07 - 40:25)

A lot of areas that have weak signal, what Sheila was alluding to before is actually creating the reports before you even leave home instead of creating them one by one. No, I do create them. I do create them.

(40:25 - 40:53)

I'm just saying, yeah, so I have my work orders, my reoccurring work orders. I build them out for the month, each month. Sometimes if I know someone's going to be gone six months, I build them out.

But the actual reports? The work orders. Right. I'm referring to the reports.

You could actually start the reports. Oh, that's true. But then it doesn't geolocate it properly.

(40:54 - 41:16)

You just tap on the relocate when you're at the property. Right. Okay.

That's helpful. Yeah, that's the easiest way I've found it. So, you can tick down that where Gary is at the moment, you can tick three or four boxes, go down to the drop actions and then create inspection reports.

(41:18 - 42:11)

And then it will say create. In your case, I would say create an auditor report. Yeah, create a report.

And then it will come up on the right hand side that these reports have been created or if there hasn't been one created, maybe because it's been duplicated or there's some information missing. So, you get a chance to go back and look at it. And then that's, we can then refresh the iPhones before they leave the office.

And then the reports are shown on the iPhones. So, we can do it that way. So, that's a good thing to the phone, you know, while they're on Wi-Fi or local in the office.

Yeah. So, it's definitely easier to create the inspection report prior to leaving the office. And that you just have to physically enter in the date and time.

(42:12 - 42:30)

Usually what we do is we take a photograph of the mailbox when we arrive and we use that as our start time. So, when you're completing your report, we tend to complete our reports at the end of our visit. You know, we'll sit down five, 10 minutes, whatever it takes.

(42:31 - 43:15)

And then just go back, insert the photographs, type in any of the verbiage that we need, if there's been an issue. And at that point, because we're physically at the property, we can just tap the map and it will relocate. You probably have to enter the, it might be two or three numerals out for the address, because it might be like 1300, but you're actually at 1320 Dockwood Lane or whatever.

So, you can correct it that way when you're physically at the property. So, that's how we tend to do it. That's how we've got around it.

Let me put it that way. That's good. Yeah, that is helpful.

(43:16 - 43:36)

Thank you, Sheila. I can't see you, but how are you? I'm doing really well, thank you very much. I noticed your beautiful voice and accent.

I can only see Gary's screen. So, it's nice to hear you. It's very sweet of you, thank you.

(43:37 - 44:21)

You're welcome. Thank you for that, Sheila, that was helpful. There's been tears and tears and tribulations.

So, as I say, computers are on a need-to-know basis, and I really don't need to know. It's not my strength at all. So, I have found ways to get around things, but I know I'm not working smart, and that's frustrating for me.

The HomeWatch IT does so much more than I am capable of, and I'm trying to get there and find out. You're not alone. We just get caught up with the daily tasks, and we don't always find the time to sit and take our time to watch the videos, which are very helpful.

(44:22 - 45:09)

Well, that's a constructive criticism for you, Gary. I really, really, really, really, really wish there were some PDFs that we could download and revisit. You know, if you want to do this, you click on this box, and then you have it.

So, even for this exercise you've just shown now, you've got the three checks there, and then you could go down, and it will show the drop box, and you could see that you then click on Create Inspection Report. And just, some of us are still old school. I think in all fairness, Sheila, you're on about five years now with the system, and let's face it, what you bought five years ago and what the system is today are very different.

(45:10 - 45:24)

We've definitely made improvements. Have you played with the help link that's at the top of all the primary screens now? I have in the past. I can't say I have recently.

(45:25 - 45:58)

This was actually added, I think, about two updates ago, but it's a bit context sensitive. So, for example, I was on the work order list when I clicked it. So, therefore, it's only going to bring up items that pertain to the work orders.

So, you can see, you know, these are all of the various, you know, work order options here. So, let's, as we've got that exercise already, let's go back to the creating the inspection report. So, you've checked those three buttons.

(45:59 - 47:11)

Yes. And now I need help to open the inspection report. So, I'd go up to HomeWatch IT Help, click on that.

This one, it's actually not part, because this is focusing on the work orders itself, but you can always go in and search in, you know, overall for the business management system. It's got the different tutorials here, the linkage, the release notes. So, I wouldn't put in that search bar, create an inspection report.

What would that bring up? If I, because that's where I would. Let me still report properly. And then I would click, yeah.

So, you're saying that I would have to go down into the boxes on the left-hand side saying general info starter kits or. Yeah, different options for creating and sending reports. There was a webinar that we did.

(47:15 - 48:06)

Options available for sending reports from the system. This is a write-up here. So, that, you know, having a single PDF is difficult.

So, I've done it more with smaller articles that explain how to do it. Okay. Paper, you can print out paper worklists and give those to your fields as a default.

There's a lot to activate when you must request that we activate access. So, anyway, this is, you know, the batch part here. It goes through various.

Okay. All right. Okay.

Well, I'll definitely make a note of looking at that help button. Now, if, you know, if there's help missing, if there's areas you have trouble finding the article, let me know because. Okay.

(48:07 - 48:15)

You know, I've got like 120 different things out here. Of course. I'm happy to add more.

(48:15 - 50:06)

Right. And or revise what's there. Well, again, my other biggest issue is actually raising.

So, I'm out doing a home watch visit. So, we're doing the reports and I want to create an action item for the maintenance team to come and fix the leaking tap. But I want to send a photo of that leaking tap to our in-house maintenance team.

So, I mean, the reports in safety culture. So, you've added the report, the item. I'm sorry.

You've added the photo to the report in safety culture. Yes. Okay.

So, then that would be available in the report. You could also create an action while you're in the report, which in turn then will create an issue in how much IT that you can track. Action then issue.

Okay. I'm making notes. And the last, you know, I mean, there's options as always.

If it's just a note that you want to make, as opposed to it being in the report itself, when you're at the property, let's just go back to Mr. Blanco. You have this section here that says route tech notes. So, this allows you to, let's just say something like this.

(50:06 - 51:47)

This just allows you to make an internal note. This doesn't go into the report. This doesn't go to the client.

But you can save that note right here. You could add a photo by clicking, you know, this little plus sign next to the photo icon. So, we can, you know, grab an image.

I'll just take an image with my camera. I'll grab a picture of my water. Oops, I grabbed a video actually.

So, let's upload image. Are we creating that for the technician? This is the technician creating it. So, he can do it right on the fly.

Okay. So, he's creating it for us. He's putting the note and he's putting the image right here.

Okay. What happens then is when you are in the admin. Yes.

You will notice that this banner right here popped up now. Open route tech notes appear or exist. Okay.

You can click on this. This actually scrolled to the bottom. You see here's the note we just put in.

Okay. Wow. So, you can click on that.

I can't see that. Look at the photo. There you go.

Okay. That's very large but you get the idea. And then if you, in this case, let's say make the phone call to the plumber.

Because yep, I can come out on Friday. You can create a work order right here with one button push. Now, because this note was taken at that customer, it has it, the system knows how to fill in that work order for you.

(51:48 - 53:20)

So, you'll see it's already pre-filled in with the customer, with the job name, taking those notes. And now all we have to do is put the time in there that, you know, the plumber said he would come out to the property and save the work order and we're done. So, you have two choices.

This is an internal note. Yes. Like you were saying, if the technician just needs to make the admin aware of something.

Yes. Even if it's something like, hey, I ended up replacing three batteries in the smoke detectors. Right.

That way, the admin can add it to the invoice, to the work order. Okay. So, that's the internal.

And then if it needs to be a customer communication, you can do it via your iAuditor report and create an action. Okay. There are two options.

It depends on if it's internal or external. And I should be able to access all of that information through the help and watch IT. Yes.

For step-by-step instructions. Okay. And as always, I mean, everybody on this call, you know, if you have questions, email them over.

If it's something you'd like to walk through and work through, you can use the scheduling link that's on the portal and it's on the website and it's on every email I send. And there's a block in there that says schedule a one hour training. Yes.

You don't have to use the white glove if it's just a regular question like what we're doing right now. So, just schedule it. That's included in your monthly fees.

(53:21 - 53:36)

Okay. Thank you. And I know you're always there.

Yes, he is. He's very responsive. I don't know if this would help you, Sheila, but I'm just going through the help area as well.

(53:37 - 57:45)

And if you right click on your screen in any area and select print, it prints the whole module, the whole subject of what it's talking about, the graphics and the wording and everything. So, okay. I should definitely look at that too.

You know, having a PDF. Yes. Yeah, exactly.

Thank you. You're welcome. I just had one more quick one.

I don't want to hog the time here. I think you can answer this probably really quick, Gary. If I get a lot of customers that will pay, like if they leave in May, they'll pay for June and July.

They're going to be gone for June and July. So, you know, they give me a check for $200 for June and July. I just go into QuickBooks and post the check.

Now, when we create the invoices in method, say for July, the first month, RON does semi-monthly, two visits. Will that automatically, that payment that I've posted, will it automatically line up with the work orders and the invoice that I push over? Is it intuitive enough to know to post that payment to the July work orders or part of the payment? So, the answer is QuickBooks is supposed to do that, but what I've noticed is probably three quarters of the time it does not. Now, it's very easy to do that.

If you, and I don't have a QuickBooks opener, I'd show you, but if you've got the payment as a credit, you know, $200, and then you've got an invoice here for $100. Next to the invoice on the side, it'll say receive payment. If you click that link, it will open up the screen and it'll already pre-fill it.

It is smart enough to know, ah, there's a $200 credit, $100 invoice, it's going to apply the $100, and they still have $100 remaining. So, all you have to do is pretty much hit save. It'll fill it in.

You'll see it on the screen. It'll fill it in for you, but unfortunately, you do have to go in and hit that receive payment link in QuickBooks and let it actually do the application. So, if I'm religiously now, because I was doing all of my invoices through QuickBooks until, you know, now I've ported over to Method, and I'll be actually, most people send their invoices out through the Method system, correct? Correct, yeah.

Okay. So, if I'm working in Method, I'm not necessarily going to know that those prepayments are in QuickBooks. So, what I'm hearing you say, I think, is that I just need to be mindful of the prepayments that are in there.

Does anybody else experience that, where they get paid before the actual work is done? Yes. Okay. So, is that what you're doing? You're physically, I'm finding it a little cumbersome because I'm not keeping a list of those people that I put prepayments in for.

So, if you have a lot of them that prepay you, there is a prepayments, there's a full way to manage that here with the system. The whole idea is that you can put, you create an invoice for the $200 of the prepayment, and then it applies that amount to each invoice. It will do that for you automatically in HomeWatch IT.

It is a little bit of a setup required in order to get it running, but then it's all automatic after that. I was assuming you only had a couple of them, which is why I said, you know, just do it as you were doing it. If you have more than that and you need to manage it, let the system manage it.

(57:45 - 1:00:19)

Okay. Well, the reason I found out was because I made a mistake and sent someone an invoice, and they said, wait, we paid you for two months. And then I went into QuickBooks and I could see that I did indeed post the check.

It just didn't post to their invoice. Okay. All right.

I just wanted to make sure that I was doing everything properly there. If you do want to switch to the more automated way, let me know and I can help you set that up. Okay.

I was just going to say that the way that I get around that is that I have the previous month's invoices open on my desk when I'm doing, say, this month's invoices. And I've got two or three clients who will pay a big chunk of money up front. Okay.

I have it written down and attached to the back of the invoice, the previous month's invoice, and I just re-clip it to the back of the next invoice or just put it in the binder so that I can see it as a lead that way. Okay. All right.

That's good system too. Thank you. Paper and pen.

Old school. Yes. We'll never get away from paper and pen.

I'm sorry. There is another option in QuickBooks. Maybe we can help you out here, Maureen, in that on the invoice, you can set it up and turn on this little, I forgot what they call it, account status, I think, something like that.

And basically it'll show balance forward, charges on this invoice, payments received, net due. I think I remember seeing that, Gary. So if you don't have the negative 200 charges as invoiced, you still have a hundred dollar credit.

And that will keep that running balance and then you wouldn't have to do the manual way. Okay. All right.

I'll try that. Very good. Let me point you to it because I don't think it's obvious.

It's in the, where you set up the invoice format. I remember it. I remember looking at that and wondering if that was what that was.

So we actually had that turned on when we had our home watch business. Okay. Good to know.

Go back to my snap. Okay. All right.

(1:00:20 - 1:03:14)

Any other questions? I don't want to cut anybody off. If you have anything open that you want to talk about. This was great.

All right. So yeah, Gary, this is Jill in Florida. I have a couple of questions for you.

Yeah, go ahead. On the, when you did the work order reconciliation, I went into that on my computer just to see and kind of follow you through the steps. But I noticed down below that I have a little box that says invoice is not syncing with issues.

And they were just from today. And I know who the client is, but is there a way to, I'll say get rid of those. So you know, can it take some out of that section if we've taken care of that issue? Yeah.

Does it tell you what the issue is? It should. Yeah. It just says that there wasn't an email for the client and there wasn't.

So we put it in and we've sent it. We didn't send it through the system, but we sent it separately. Put the email in for the customer.

Yep. And then it'll go ahead and it'll catch itself up and sync it properly. Okay.

Yeah. I've already got that in there so that it'll catch up and that message should go away. Okay.

Great. And then if I can ask a couple more things and I've been out of town, so I haven't looked at any of the updates or anything like that. Is there a way or did it get updated or can we do it now in the subject line of the email? You know how we like to have the date and the date of the visit on the email subject line, but it was always date and time.

Were we able to get rid of the time part of that? No. No. Okay.

All right. That's fine. Okay.

One more question. All right. And then so we do, is there, and I'm sure there is, I just haven't looked into this, but is there, when we send the email to the client for the HomeWatch that it works great.

And for the service record, it always says that it's a HomeWatch visit, even though it was a service record. Do I just need to set up another template? Yes. And then how do I connect that? Exactly correct.

Let's say you create a new email template. Yep. If you go into your preferences screen, we want to get to the templates.

Let me switch this back to safety culture here real quick. Okay. So under your safety culture settings, you have the option to click to manage templates.

And this is where all of your templates are set up. So you see, here's all my templates. So you've got the one that says service record.

If you click on that, I've got it. I've got it messed up here because I've got both systems running. Oh, that's easy.

(1:03:15 - 1:04:21)

Oh, you found it already? Yeah. Yeah. It just says email template right there.

And that way, right here. So yeah, if it's a service record, you set it up with a different email template. If it's a card drive, it can have yet another email template.

And anything that's left blank, just use the standard, you know, your HomeWatch. Okay. Great.

Great, great. I was trying to figure it out. And like I said, I hadn't looked into the deal at all.

And so I just kind of saved it for this. So perfect. Thank you.

Sure thing. That's all I've got. All right.

Well, thanks everyone for joining. I guess this was a success. I was wondering if we were going to be able to fill up even a half hour of material.

We did more than that. So I appreciate everyone joining. I appreciate the questions.

I appreciate everybody's feedback and response. I think it was really good. So we'll probably be doing this again on a more regular basis.

Yes, please. All right. Yeah.

(1:04:23 - 1:04:33)

Thank you so much, Gary. Have a great time. All right.

Thank you. Bye-bye.