New

Sometimes a street address just isn't precise enough to locate your job site. You may need to work in a housing development under construction, or you might need to indicate to your technician exactly where to go on a large property. Wouldn't it be nice to just grab that pin on the map and move it anywhere you want?

Now you can. When creating or editing a customer, just grab hold of the pin on the map and move it wherever you want.

You'll see 2 new fields underneath the address for latitude and longitude. They'll update when you move the pin around.

Once you hit Save, the precise latitude and longitude of the job site will be saved. The street address, however, will remain the same unless you edit that specifically. That way you can keep "street directions" separate from "job location". Latitude and longitude are not yet visible in the mobile app, but we're working on it.

Hope this helps you get to your job just a little bit more easily!

New

We get a lot of requests to integrate Kickserv with other business tools. One of the more popular requests is Mailchimp. Mailchimp helps you create, organize, and send messages to mailing lists. We use it ourselves. It's flexible, powerful, and free for up to 2,000 contacts.

And now, you can connect it to Kickserv and automatically sync all your Kickserv contacts.

To get started, head to Settings | Integrations and click the Mailchimp tab. You can connect your existing Mailchimp account or create a new one right there. You're minutes away from email bliss.

Read all the details in our User Guide.

New

In our quest to make the mobile app more useful, we just added a feature that you’ve been requesting for quite some time: estimate approval.

With the latest version of the app installed on your Android or iOS device, you can get your customers’ signed approval before you even leave the job site and win that project faster. Here’s how:

Let’s say you’ve just visited your prospective customer for an estimate and have added some charges to the opportunity. While you’re looking at the opportunity in your mobile app, tap on View Estimate underneath the “Charges” section.

You’ll see a view of your estimate that’s suitable for handing to your customer. The customer can view charges, notes, and terms (and you can edit them right there on the screen if you like).

Once the customer approves the estimate, tap on Collect Signature. The customer can sign the estimate right on your device’s screen and tap Approve Estimate.

If the customer would like a copy of the estimate, just tap on the Send Estimate button to send them a copy.

That's it. Now go close some business!

New

Ever since we first released our mobile apps, accepting credit card payments has been the single most requested feature by a mile. And now it's here.

If you have version 3.4 or greater of the app, and you have enabled online credit card payment (powered by Stripe) inside the web application, you're all set.

Ready to give it a try? Here's how to accept a payment right from your mobile app.

On the Payments section of any unpaid invoice, you'll see a new "Credit Card Payment" button.

Tap on it and enter details, just like any other payment.

Tap Scan Credit Card. No special hardware needed--the app securely uses your device's camera to scan the card and submit the payment.

Other payment types can still be recorded by tapping the "Other Payment Types" button on the payments screen.

This one was a long time in coming. We hope it helps you finally get rid of that glovebox full of checks you've been having to carry around.

New

This will make some of you very happy. The rest of you will say, "What's an API?" Either way, it's ok.

Kickserv's REST API is available at no extra cost to Kickserv subscribers. It lets you write your own custom code to interact with the Kickserv application. So if you've ever thought "Wouldn't it be nice if Kickserv could do (some custom thing)?", and you have some development experience--or know someone who does--you can make it happen with the API.

Unfortunately, our API documentation was sadly out of date for years. No longer.

Introducing the new API documentation.

This page contains detailed information and instructions on every function of our API:

• Required and optional parameters
• data types
• HTTP verbs
• Notes

What's more, all these details are generated directly from the source code, so everything will stay up to date.

We've saved the best part for last: you can try out every API call yourself right on the page. Click the Authorize button and enter your API token in both the username and password fields, and then close the dialog. Once you're authorized, click the Try it out button on any section of the documentation. Fill in the necessary parameters, and click Execute. You'll get back actual live data from your Kickserv account, along with the URL you used to get it. No more guessing or poking around your terminal.

IMPORTANT: This is your actual live Kickserv data, so think twice before you hit the Execute button. Anything you add, update, or delete will be immediately added, updated, or deleted in your Kickserv account. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

You'll find a link to the new documentation on your profile page, right next to your API token. Give it a try and let us know what you think!

Improvement

Check your Easter basket! We made two highly-requested changes to the Kickserv interface.

Job ordering

First, for everyone that asked "Can I please have my jobs listed in newest to oldest order?", we heard you loud and clear. Not so fast, though! At least as many asked to have jobs sorted from oldest to newest. So we took care of both.

Your job lists will now remember the last way you sorted them, whether it's oldest first or newest first.

Go ahead and try it. Click the Starts On column header in any jobs list to sort your jobs the opposite direction. Close your browser, reopen it, and then go back to the page. Your jobs will stay where you put them. Go to a different tab or page, and it will remember its order as well. This works on all opportunities, jobs, and invoices lists--even the QuickBooks™ or Xero ones. (It does not work on the job lists for an individual customer yet, but we're working on that.)

While we were at it, we also saved your dispatch and calendar view settings. If you choose the day view and only want to see 10am to 4pm every day (bankers' hours?), go for it. You won't have to reselect those options every time you visit the page.

Charge editing

We also heard from a great many people who were tired of losing their place anytime they needed to edit a job charge in a long list of charges. We agree that scrolling you all the way back to the top of the list to edit a charge at the bottom was pretty silly and frustrating. Now, adding or editing a charge takes place in its own little window.

We hope this saves you a few clicks and helps you get your work done with less friction.

Improvement

Knowing how a customer finds you can be just as significant to your business as the invoice they pay. If you know where they came from (Yellow Pages, radio and print ads, a referral from another customer), you know how your outreach efforts are doing. Knowledge is power.

You've always been able to store this information yourself in Kickserv. Just edit the contact and scroll down to the Additional Contact Information section.

Wouldn't it be great, though, if the customer could answer that for you? Now, they can. It's right on your Contact Form.

Do you have some customer sources that are for internal use only? Odds are you don't want your customer to be confused by seeing "Spring Ad Campaign #146" on the contact form. So we gave you the option to either show the source on the form or not. Go to Settings > Customer Sources and click the Edit button next to a source. You'll see an option called "Show this source on the Contact Form". Check or uncheck it. It's totally up to you.

Tip: If you don't mark any sources as public, the option will not be shown on the Contact Form, and all customers who fill out the form will be set to "Other". You can always change the customer source later if you want.

New

Journey back with us four years, to spring 2014. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. won the Daytona 500. Jimmy Fallon became the new host of the Tonight Show. America emerged from the grip of the Polar Vortex (but there was no escaping the Frozen soundtrack). And Kickserv changed its pricing.

Now, just in time for spring 2018, we’re introducing all-new pricing.

​

No limits

Business and Premium plans now come with unlimited employees. No more paying for additional user logins! You can even add, assign, schedule, and notify subcontractors. Everyone's invited.

We also want to help you remove the limits on your company’s growth. So Kickserv’s Starter, Business, and Premium plans now come standard with the following packages:

• Call and voice mail tracking integrated with your existing website
• Lead nurturing emails to help keep prospects from slipping away
• Free listing on up to 20 popular web directories
• Reputation management tools to track and respond to online reviews

If you’re ready to take your service business to the next level, Kickserv is ready to help you get there.

More add-ons and services

Want to become a digital marketing ninja? We’ve got you covered. How about:

• A customized marketing website that works seamlessly with all the features above
• A live chat interface that’s available 24/7 to your prospects
• Listings in up to 50 directories
• A managed reputation service that responds to online reviewers on your behalf
• Facebook, Yelp, and Google advertising

Save on accounting integrations and annual plans

Integration with QuickBooks™ Online or Xero is now included. That’s a savings of $10 a month. So if you were holding off on synchronizing Kickserv with your finance software, wait no longer. Also, just like before, you can get a 20% discount on any plan by paying annually.

Find all the details on our new pricing page.

Happy with your current plan? Keep it! No action is required for current Kickserv subscribers. However, you will no longer be able to change your add-ons (including additional users) on your old plan, and you won't be able to change to any of the older plans.

If you see something you like on one of our new plans, you can upgrade at any time, right from within Kickserv.

Let’s grow together in 2018.

New

Mobile performance improvements and bug fixes

• Previously, we used our built-in search engine to display job information in the mobile app. Since the search engine doesn't update immediately, this sometimes meant a delay before new job data was visible on mobile. We've re-engineered the mobile app to pull job info directly from the main database. Now, if it's on the web app, you'll see it in the mobile app.

• We also found and fixed some issues with saving dates on the mobile app. Go get the newest version for iOS or Android now!

Last service date

You can now see at a glance when you last completed a job for each customer, and what that job was. This will help identify customers you haven't reached out to in awhile, and maybe even bring you more business. Last service date has also been added to the standard customers report. (Protip: download the report as CSV, open in your favorite spreadsheet, and you can sort your customers by last visit.)

Note: we're backfilling the last service date for all customers in the system over the next few days, so if you don't see it on all your customers yet, check back later.

Dashboard changes

• The blue box at the top of the dashboard now shows your key business metrics for the current month to date only. Previously, it showed a running total of all won opportunities, completed jobs, and paid invoices. This was not nearly as useful (and much slower to load).

• The dashboard shows you a lot of information, but that came at a cost: heavy database operations and slow page loads. We've reworked the way we access dashboard data, and it should load much snappier now.

Fixed an iCal feed bug

Previously, a task with no end time would prevent your iCal feed from updating. This is now fixed.

More performance improvements (with more to come)

We've continued to hunt down and eradicate application slowdowns wherever we find them. Expect to see even more improvement throughout the rest of the year.

New

Pro Plus

New for September, we're offering another pricing plan. It includes all the same options as the Pro plan, along with unlimited users. No longer do you need to buy packs of 5--just upgrade your plan and get to work.

(If you've already purchased extra employees with your Pro plan and want to keep them, no worries. Those extra employees will remain as part of your subscription as long as you stay on your current plan.)

In addition to unlimited users, upgrading to the Pro Plus plan gets you free access to two of our most popular partner products: ReachEdge and ReachListings. That's a $188 per month value!

We're excited to offer you these products from ReachLocal. With them, you can:

• Capture leads via online form and voicemail
• Schedule and manage marketing campaigns
• Record all incoming calls to insure proper bookings
• Track delivery and performance of your promotions
• ...and much more!

We're calling this plan Pro Plus, and you can get it for $299 a month. If you choose to pay annually, you'll save 20%.

Double the annual savings

Did you catch that? Paying annually is now an even better deal. If you choose to be billed yearly instead of monthly, you'll save an additional 10%. All annual subscriptions are now 20% cheaper than the monthly option.

Current annual subscribers will automatically receive the new lower price on their next renewal.

From our friends at ReachLocal

Whether or not the Pro Plus plan is right for you, all plans can now add ReachEdge and ReachListings a la carte, plus the following ReachLocal services:

• ReachSites ($199/mo)
• Reputation Management ($99/mo)
• Chat ($99/mo for up to 1000 monthly visitors to your site)

Stay tuned for even more subscription options coming later this year!