The theme of this release is “Improving Quality of Life.” We’ve focused on both functional and aesthetic improvements throughout the system as we continue working to make Service Autopilot a better experience for you. Many of these changes are based on Member feedback.
This release also debuts important features in the Client Portal and Client Portal app:
- Tickets can be created from the Client Portal.
- New settings let you further customize the Client Portal for your clients.
- Prepayments can be made in the Client Portal app.
Keep reading to learn more!
Accounting Enhancements
- To save time creating Installment Plans, you now can choose to Auto-Fill fields below the currently selected one.
- The Payment Edit screen is now responsive on smaller devices.
- When you are adding a credit card or replacing a card on file on the Payment Edit and other screens, you’ll see we re-styled the Add Card/Bank Account options for consistency.
- On the Payment Edit screen, you now can select the services that the prepayment is for, similar to V2.
- The Invoice and Installment Plan screens now retain the choices you make under Advanced Options. You’ll see your changes the next time you open those screens.
Client Portal Enhancements
With this release, your clients can have the option to submit and work with Tickets in the Client Portal. Clients can:
- Open a new Ticket.
- Read and send replies to your company messages.
Note: Clients see only emails, not internal notes, calls, or calendar events.
- See the message history between the client and your company.
- Add attachments to a Ticket.
- See a list ofopen or closed Tickets.
- Use the Search Bar in the Tickets list to search for a Ticket number, category, subject, or other identifier.
Tickets
- Clients can create a Ticket from their Client Portal home page by clicking Open a ticket in the Open Tickets or Contact Us section, or by clicking the message link at the bottom right corner.
- When creating a Ticket, clients can choose from a dropdown list of Ticket categories (which you can customize), type in their question, and add attachments.
- You’ll be able to see open Tickets for the client in the SA Tickets List for the account and respond through SA.
- The Your Service History section now lists the employees who worked on a service. It can be useful for clients to know who worked certain services and reference them when they submit a Ticket.
- Clients can see a list of open or closed Tickets on the Client Portal “Tickets” tab.
Clients can click any of these to look at the email correspondence.
Note that the Client Portal displays only those Tickets containing emails to clients, not internal notes or calls. You can choose to turn off this permission in Settings.
- Clients will see an unread message icon next to any Ticket containing an email from your company.
- Clients can contact your company from the navigation bar if they want to send a regular email or give you a call.
Note: Tickets make it possible for your clients to do most communications with you through the Client Portal, but it still displays your company’s email address and phone number for quick reference. If your company chooses to turn off Tickets functionality, the client can easily see your contact information to reach you.
New Settings for the Client Portal
These settings let you customize the Ticket functions your client can access.
- The setting Allow Clients to submit a Ticket was previously labeled “Allow Clients to ask a Question.”
It lets you specify whether clients can see or create Tickets. This check box is a “master” setting, so unchecking it will disable all Tickets functions on the Client Portal.
- Ticket Categories Shown to Client lets you select which Ticket Categories display on the Client Portal when they submit a Ticket.
- View Open Tickets lets you specify whether your clients can see their Open Tickets in the Client Portal.
This applies to the Tickets List as well as the Open Tickets section on the Client Portal Home page. - View Closed Tickets lets you specify whether your clients can see their closed Tickets in the Tickets List.
- Custom Fields lets you specify any custom fields you want to display on the Client Portal and Client Portal app.
- There is now a Display Order for Ticket Categories that you can choose in Settings > Ticket Categories. This setting lets you customize the order in which Ticket Categories appear for clients in the Client Portal and Legacy app.
Client Portal App Enhancements
Prepayments Are Here!
- Now, your clients can add Prepayments on the Client Portal app. This is based on new settings that you control, including the client’s ability to make a prepayment, and the maximum amount.
Credit Card Messages
- Client Portal app users will now see more user-friendly error messages for things like card expired, invalid expiration date, etc.
Service Autopilot Enhancements
We’ve made many general improvements to help you get around in SA:
Activity Stream
- To simplify the Activity Stream, we removed Job Comments from the list of Past Events. You can still see the Job Comments by clicking the airplane icon on the record.
- The Account Activity Stream for V2 and V3 now shows a small, expandable preview of Notes and Calls from the Activity Stream. The full screen design caused some Members to lose the context of the Ticket, so same information, but new look and feel.
Audit Trail
The Ticket Review Audit Trail lists when any of these are created or updated:
- Ticket
- Ticket Status
- Note
- Call
- Event
- Email
V3 Calendar Events
- To expedite creating a Calendar Event, we updated the time inputs so you can type directly in the fields if you prefer.
Dialog Screens
- We’ve simplified closing dialog screens. You now can click anywhere outside the dialog, and it will close.
Dispatch Board
- You now can add an “Event Category” column to the Dispatch Board. Click the Columns dropdown list and select the Event Category check box. Save the view (Dispatch Board > Save) and the new column will continue to appear on your Dispatch Board in future sessions.
Invoice Edit and Review Screen
- Billing Notes now display for all invoices in V3. Previously, only those invoices with a "Need to Review" flag would appear.
- Billing Notes now display as a field instead of in the banner at the top.
Payment Edit Screen
This screen has several improvements for ease of use:
- You now can tab through input fields (and tab backward with Shift+Tab).
- We added a Save & New button to help you quickly add payments and make new ones.
- Account Balance details are now displayed to let you quickly reference this information.
Search Bar
- In SA, you now can immediately choose a tab to search on after you click the Search Bar in areas like Invoices and Tickets. Previously, you had to first do a search before you could see the tabs.
Quick Add
The Quick Add in V3 Accounts has some new improvements including:
- You now can tab through fields.
- When doing a Quick Add, data like Display Name, Name on Invoice, and Property Name auto-populate to speed up the process.
- You now can see the full address on the Quick Add, so you can tell what City and State was set.
- When doing a Quick Add from either an Account or a Ticket associated with an Account, SA now auto-selects the Account.
- The Event Category field has been added to the V3 Quick Add.
- There are now more fields available when using Quick Add to add a lead or client. For leads, the only required field is First Name.
- The Account Quick Add now honors the Validation Rules you’ve set up. (Settings > Validation). Fields that you set as required will display for your company to fill out.
- The Account Quick Add now has a Save & Edit button that saves the Account and takes you straight to the Edit screen to fill in more details.
- While we were at it, we spruced up the Quick Add screens by refining spacing, grouping related fields together, and bolding required fields.
Team and Legacy Apps Enhancements
- A disclosure message now appears the first time a user logs in after installing the Team or Legacy app. The message says that the app does location tracking. This applies to both iOS and Android devices.
Updates to Correct System Issues
Accounting
- We fixed a problem with the Charts of Accounts not saving expenses due.
V3 Accounts
- On the V3 Property Edit, users were unable to add a Linear Measurement within a new Area Measurement. This now works as expected.
Activity Stream
- Text Messages were not appearing on the Activity Stream for V2 and V3 Accounts screens. This is working now.
- Some Email records were not displaying correctly in the Account Activity Stream for a Member in the UK. This has been corrected.
Automations
- Some automations were not loading properly in Firefox. This has been fixed.
- Avatars for Resources weren’t appearing correctly for the merge tag (replacement field) in Automations Emails. This has been corrected.
Calendar Events
- Calendar Events created from Automations that had B. Hrs entered would have the “Appointment Time” selected when opened from V3 Tickets. This has been corrected.
Client Portal
- Some Members had trouble registering clients for the Client Portal, and we have made some updates to address this. However, if you still have problems with clients not being able to access their account after registering, do not try to have your client re-register; instead, re-send them their username and have them click “Forgot Password” to reset their password. If you still have problems, please contact Member Support.
- Some clients saw a “Valid amount required” error when making payments in the Client Portal. This now works as expected.
- In some cases, there was a rounding error in which payments made on the Client Portal were generated in SA with an extra decimal, causing it to appear as 1 cent less than the actual amount. (The correct amount was actually charged to the credit card processor.)
Email Activity
- On the Email Activity screen, some bounced emails were showing blank errors. This has been fixed.
Estimates
- On the View My Proposal screen, the Subtotal was occasionally not accounting for package item totals. This has been corrected.
V3 Forms
- Some dropdown fields mapped to Custom Fields were using the number of the option selected instead of the dropdown value. This has been fixed.
V2 Forms
- We fixed a problem with V2 Forms Internal or Confirmation Emails not saving inserted documents.
Legacy App
- Previously, signatures were not appearing on the PDF for Estimates on the Legacy app. This now works as expected.
Master Schedules
- We fixed an issue with not being able to export clients on the Master Schedule.
Member Websites
- Members who had an old website were unable to save changes. This has been fixed.
V3 Package Jobs
- If a Member deleted Package Rounds after renewing a package, V3 Jobs would still display the deleted rounds as blank line items. This caused an error, which also prevented the user from adding an Installment Plan to the job. This has been corrected.
- Package Jobs in V3 no longer display rounds that have been deleted from the main package.
QuickBooks Desktop
- In QuickBooks Desktop, credits in the Amount field (which equals Rate x Quantity) were incorrectly populating the Rate field in SA. This now calculates correctly in SA.
Route Sheets
- When there was a Calendar Event on the route, the last job was not printing correctly on route sheets in Work Order formats. This now works as expected.
- Trying to email a route sheet with the culture set to English (United Kingdom) caused an error. This has been fixed. Jolly good!
V3 Tickets
- In the V3 Ticket Review, you may not have been able to scroll past 10 items to see all the Ticket details. This screen now lets you scroll through additional records correctly.
Waiting List Jobs
- On the Waiting List, if you tried to view allJob Notes for a Waiting List job that’s a Work Order, you would see an error. This now works as expected.
Updates to Correct Issues with Mobile Apps
Legacy app
- A few Legacy app users saw the error “String Or Binary Date Would Be Truncated. The Statement Has Been Terminated.” This has been fixed.
- Australian Legacy app users were sometimes unable to map Calendar Events. This now works as expected.
Team app
- Dropdown list options were not generating when a field was set to map to "Custom Field Text." This has been fixed.
