There are essentially two main goals with Approvals:
Have the customer "Approve" and 'sign off' on various actions during the job process ('documented customer agreement')
Keep the customer involved in the job process (which they often prefer)
Approvals can be sent throughout the job process:
Before - pre-job inspection photos, documents, pricing, schedule
During - have customer sign off on add ons/upsells
After - post-job photos, satisfaction agreements
What is automatically included on an Approval?
Each and every Approval automatically contains the job details, line items, pricing and totals.
In addition, there are three (3) main things you can attach to an Approval to have the customer "Approve" and sign off on:
Schedule
to have your calendar appear on an Approval go to Preferences > Calendar > External and under "Online Booking" click on "Approval"
once your customer clicks "Approve" on an Approval, the calendar will present to them, and they will select a day/time
once they select a day/time a signature box will appear and they will be required to sign off on everything on this Approval (see screenshot below)
Documents
to have documents available for selection on an Approval go to Preferences > Job > Documents and upload them there
you can also upload documents into a specific job and have them available for selection on an Approval for that job
documents can include Liability Waivers, Terms & Conditions, etc.
Inspection Photos/Video
to have inspection photos available for selection on an Approval go to the job and upload them in the "Inspections" tab
you can also include inspection video(s) on an Approval if you subscribe to the Enterprise plan
**NOTE: You can include one item per Approval, various combinations of each, or attach all three to one Approval (see screenshot).
*Scheduling on an Approval (sequence of steps for the customer):
To collect a payment method in an Approval:
go to Preferences > Approval
toggle on "Collect a customer's payment method when approving an approval"
once a customer receives the Approval, clicks "Approve" and signs off, they will also be prompted to put a default payment method on file
this will not charge the customer and will only come up if the customer does not already have a payment method on file
To include 'add ons' in an Approval:
go to a job and click ADD > Approval
scroll down to the very bottom of the window and click 'Select add ons'
here you can include suggested 'add ons' within a customer's Approval
while the customer looks over the Approval, they'll be prompted to add on a few extra services
when customer receives the Approval they would just toggle "on" any 'add ons' they would like to include with the job (see screenshot)
anything toggled "on" would move this service up into the main part of the line item section and its value added to the total
Once the Approval with 'add ons' is submitted:
an alert message will appear at the top of the job screen ("One or more 'add ons' have been selected by the customer")
the 'add ons' the customer selected will appear at the bottom of the job
click the "Apply" buttons to add the 'add ons' to the invoice
NOTE: since adding more services to a job will impact the duration of that job, we wanted to give you the opportunity to accept these add ons and click "Apply" or deny them and leave them where they are
if you choose to add them you will see that will apply them into the main part of the line item section and the total will be reflective of the new additions
To attach documents to an Approval in a Workflow:
documents can be added to any Approval request sent out via a workflow
because workflows attach to each job regardless of the services, the documents attached will be whatever you have as your default documents in Preferences > Job > Documents
just toggle on "Include Documents" under the "Send Approval Request" action in a Workflow template (see screenshot)
To collect/charge the payment method in a Workflow through an Approval:
when sending an Approval request to the customer in a Workflow, we now know it will include the ability to acquire and save a default payment method on file for the customer
further down in the Workflow, after the job is completed and it arrives at "Send Payment Request," you now have a drop-down where you can change this final step to "Charge default payment method"
this will cut out another step for the customer and you will get paid right away
NOTE: this is just one example of how to use this feature, feel free to get creative
To collect a customer's signature on an Approval:
Once a customer receives an Approval, reviews the information and clicks "Approve" they will be presented with a signature box and language alerting them that by signing they are agreeing to the Terms & Conditions (the T&C's are linked right in the signature box) and any other attached documents (see screenshot)
