Billing from the field

Billing from the field#

Dispatch writes into the estimates and invoices your CRM already has. There is no second ledger to reconcile.

Preset estimates read your CRM's own estimate templates, so the on-site presenter shows the same pricing the office quotes. The customer signs in person and signing turns the estimate into an invoice on the spot.

That converted invoice is live and payable straight away, and the job's Billing tab shows it as the job's own rather than as something floating loose in the CRM. So if you draft a second invoice on the same job, Dispatch warns you first and names the one that already exists, telling you whether it is still a draft or already live. Take the warning seriously on a job whose estimate was signed in the field - the work is usually already invoiced, and the second draft is how the same job gets billed twice.

Taking a deposit is not a field on the estimate sheet. Set that location's billing rhythm to Multi-part packet first, then use Split into parts on the draft invoice to make the deposit-and-balance pair. The sheet the customer signs has no deposit-percentage box, so a shop that expects one finds out at the kitchen table.

On-site billing#

Billing buttons on the job page follow the CRM's own Invoices permission, with one deliberate exception. The On-site billing switch on the dispatch Settings page lets an assigned roster technician present an estimate and record a payment on their own job without holding that key.

Use the switch. Handing a technician the Invoices permission instead opens every customer's estimates, invoices and payment history to them.

Three things have to be true together before those buttons appear for a technician: the switch is on, the person is an active technician on the roster, and they are the technician assigned to that job. A helper or an unassigned roster technician does not get them. Field billing also requires Jobs read, because the present-estimate sheet lives on the job page.

Getting paid on the spot#

Recording a cash or cheque payment needs the invoice sent first. The control is hidden while the invoice is still a draft, so the order is draft, send, then record the payment. A solo operator taking cash at the door hits this on their first job and it looks like the button is missing.

Longer jobs#

A long job can bill in parts rather than one invoice at the end. Equipment is deployed with a serial and a daily rate, the row shows days out against what has been billed, and recording a partial pickup stops the counter for those units only. Work that could not be priced lands under held for review with a reason rather than quietly billing at zero.

Equipment days are not part of the packet, and this one costs money. They bill through the Invoice equipment days workflow step, not from the split. If you also price a packet part for drying days, the same days go out twice. Price that part at zero and let the workflow step bill them.

There is no notification when a balance becomes ready to invoice. After a milestone or a deposit is settled, the balance is drafted from the job's Billing tab when you go looking for it.

Monthly consolidated billing closes a whole route at once, which is how a nightly janitorial contract or a maintenance round is actually invoiced.

Switching to monthly has a floor. Work finished BEFORE you switched is never drafted by the close - the first close only reaches back to the switch. Invoice anything older by hand, or you will close the month with revenue silently missing.

On the per-job rhythm there is no batch draft: invoices are drafted one job at a time from each job's Billing tab. The only many-at-once path is the monthly close, which is a different rhythm and a per-location choice.

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Insurance work#

Restoration jobs stall waiting on an adjuster, so the adjuster gets their own link. It shows only the shop, the job, the claim reference, the loss address and the current status, with a name field and one Approve button.

Their typed name and the date become the job's approval record, and any work you gated on approval unlocks the moment they tap it. The link can only ever approve, the first approval wins, and the office can revoke it at any time. Clearing an approval stays an office action.