Switching from ServiceM8

Your ServiceM8 clients and materials, brought across.

Both exports are read by their own column names. Every column is shown to you and every row is counted before anything is saved.

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The client list

The client list comes in through Import in Settings, as Customers from ServiceM8. A file without a Name, Contact First, Contact Last or Company Address column is refused, naming the column. It can still come in as Another spreadsheet.

A new customer’s Company Address becomes their first site. For a customer already here, an address they do not have yet is added as another site.

  • Name as the customer
  • Contact First and Contact Last joined into one contact name
  • Mobile Number as the contact’s phone, with a leading 0 or + put back where a spreadsheet dropped it
  • Company Address split into the address lines, the town and the postcode
  • Any other column matched when the import knows its name

The materials export

The materials export comes in the same way, as Parts from ServiceM8. The file needs an Item Number, a Name and a Price column.

Where the file has a Price Includes Taxes column, each row’s Yes or No says whether its Price includes VAT. Without that column, every Price is read as including VAT.

VAT included in a Price is taken off at the rate chosen under VAT the prices include. When you are not registered for VAT, the price is kept as written. The Tax Rate column is not read.

  • Item Number as the part’s code
  • Name as what the part is
  • Purchase Cost as what the part costs you
  • A blank or zero Price made up as Purchase Cost plus Markup on cost where the price is blank. Without a markup, or a Purchase Cost above zero, that row is not brought in.

Checked first

Under Which column is which, each column is shown with its first row’s value, and any match can be changed. A column left unmatched is listed as not used.

What this would do counts the rows that are new, added to what is already here, already here, left out as archived, or not brought in. Rows not brought in are listed first, each with its reason.

The check runs the same rules as the real thing and then undoes them, so the report is what Bring it in will do. A run cut off halfway writes nothing.

  • A CSV or tab delimited text file only, with an Excel workbook refused until it is saved as CSV
  • Up to 2,000 rows at a time

Open balances, labour rates and appliances

None of these has a ServiceM8 layout. Their files come in as any other spreadsheet does, with the columns matched by name. Labour rates come in with what an hour is charged at and what that hour costs you.

Each open balance becomes a sent invoice under its own number and date, for what is still owed including VAT. Its customer must already be in your book. Where the number is in your own invoice sequence, your next invoice is numbered after it.

A balance comes in as one figure with no VAT split out, so it adds no VAT to your figures here. Under standard VAT accounting, its VAT belongs to the period the invoice was raised in. Under the cash accounting scheme, that VAT is due when the customer pays.

  • Appliances, where your kinds of work include them, each against a customer and address already in your book
  • Each appliance’s make, model and serial number, where the file gives them
  • The next service date, from the file or worked out from the last one, where the appliance’s kind has a service schedule

Made for work in the UK

Prices and totals are held in sterling, to the penny. UK VAT at 20%, 5% and zero is set up the day you sign up.

CIS deducted by a customer whose type is Principal contractor is recorded as Tax withheld at source, a payment on the invoice and never a discount.

For a site in England, Scotland or Wales, the nation is asked for under Which nation and never guessed from the postcode.

Questions, answered.

Do my ServiceM8 jobs and invoices come across?
No. Jobs, quotes and paid invoices are not brought in. An invoice still owed comes in under Open balances.
Can I keep using ServiceM8 while I move?
Yes. The office reads only the files you bring in and never connects to your ServiceM8 account. A later export adds only what is new. A customer already here is matched on the email, the phone number, the address or the name alone. A part you already have keeps its price. A balance under an invoice number you already have is left alone.
How is a ServiceM8 address in one cell split?
It is split at its commas and line breaks. A postcode is filed as the postcode. Of the rest, the first part is the first line, the last is the town, and anything between is the second line. England, Scotland or Wales named at the end is not kept. How the file was read counts the addresses split and the nations not kept.
Is the ServiceM8 billing address brought in?
No. Billing Address, Billing Contact First and Billing Contact Last are not read. A new customer is billed at their Company Address. Another address can be set under Billing address when the customer is edited.
Will my customers be emailed when balances or appliances come in?
Nothing is emailed as they come in. An invoice already overdue is then chased like any other, with one email in place of the reminders it missed. While Remind a customer a service is due is on, one email goes out about a service already overdue.

Read next.

Exports

The accountant’s ledger, invoices and credit notes as ZIPs, even after you stop paying.

Invoices and getting paid

Invoices emailed with the PDF, paid by card or transfer, and chased by email when late.

Service reminders

The yearly service on each appliance with a schedule, and an email three weeks before.

CIS

CIS deductions recorded on the payment and totalled by tax month.

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