November 5th
This update includes new product codes for costs, additional subcontractor details, further improvement to scheduling from a mobile and fixes some permission issues.
Products / Services for Costs
Services has been extended to become Products / Services.
It is now possible to specify a product code, when selecting the ‘Product’ option under ‘Invoice Method’
Product codes will be available to be added to costs.
There is now a Description field in addition to the Product / Service field. This allows code values to be used and sent to Quickbooks, and a friendly description to appear on the drop down option for users.
A Product code drop down has been added to the costs form.
This will allow invoices to be generated and sent to Quickbooks with different Products / Service values on the detail line for the same work order.
It is an optional field that can be added to costs.
If it is included, when an invoice is generated, the invoice line with the cost will use the product code from the cost.
If it is not included, the service code from the work order will continue to be used.
Subcontractor Details
Contractor information has been extended to include the following optional fields:
WSIB – Yes / No field
WSIB Expiry – Date field
Liability Insurance – Yes / No field
Liability Expiry – Date field
The following fields are included on the Subcontractor report list.
Documents and Images can also be attached to subcontractors.
Scheduling
The scheduling option available from My Scheduled Work Orders and All Scheduled Work Orders has been enhanced to simplify operations from mobiles.
This function is available for the following roles
Admin users
Users that can access all work orders
User that can edit time for others (team leaders)
When accessing Scheduling form My Scheduled Work Orders and All Scheduled Work Orders on a mobile:
A list of all schedule rows for that work order will be displayed
Users can edit each row individually as well as adding a new schedule and deleting an existing schedule.
Permission Updates
Updates have been made to Edit Schedule and Edit Checklist to correct ‘Permission Denied’ error.
Help Centre
The help centre site has been updated and is available from the the Help & Support option.
The new site can be accessed at https://docs.maintenancecompanion.tech
If you have any questions, please get in touch.
October 13th
This minor update introduces a new report and a further improvement to scheduling.
Time Entered by Team
This new report for Admin users has been built to help you monitor your Team’s time.
- The report shows time entered by the Team
- The report is grouped by Team Member and Day and displays the last 90 days.
- The report includes custom filters for:
- This Month, Last Month,
- Incomplete Time,
- Work Orders Completed and Work Orders Not Completed
Scheduling
There is an updated view for Team Leaders to view all the team’s schedule on a work order, so that individual entries can be updated.
September 23rd
A new release of Maintenance Companion is now available.
This update introduces several new features and enhancements to improve scheduling, work orders and invoicing.
Streamlined time entry and scheduling – Edit Time
We still have the options for swiping to check in and out, but we are replacing the existing ‘Scheduling’ option on the mobile with more user friendly options.
A new option is available on My Scheduled Work Orders called Edit Time
Edit Time is available to team members. The simple form allows them to enter and edit their time for the current selected schedule row.
Team leaders will also have an option to apply the times they enter to all the team members the same work order.
On the form for mobile users, we have replaced the time scroller with a simple text box entry. This will support entry of values such as 2:15 PM, 1145am, 14:15, 0915. ‘N’ or ‘n’ will default to now.
The existing scheduling option will remain to allow full editing of each individual schedule row.
Invoice only work order type
To support scenarios where work packages are billed ahead of the work being delivered, there is a new flag available on Work Order Types. This will support a monthly property check fee being invoiced at the start of the month or a snow plough service invoiced at the start of the season.
The work order type flag is valid only with fixed price services.
Once created the work order is automatically set to completed.
Work orders with this flag set are not visible to property owners.
Example: If you invoice your customers at the start of the month for their property checks, but still want to schedule and track the individual property check visits, the following should be set up:
Create a ‘Property Check Package’ work order type. Set the flag for ‘Invoice Only’ on this work order type and link it to a Fixed Price service.
At the start of the month, create a work order using the Property Check Package work order type, this will be marked as completed on creation and be eligible for the standard invoicing processes.
Create a ‘Property Check’ work order type, that is linked to a Not Invoiced service.
During the month, create work orders using the Property Check work order type, schedule your team, allow them to enter time and complete checklists as normal. The owner will be able to view the work orders and see the checklist statuses. The work orders will not be included in invoicing.
With this set up, you will be able to separate the normal scheduling and tracking from the invoicing.
Work Orders – Entering Costs
The costs form has been updated for web and mobile access, and it now includes a option to make the image public at the same time as adding it to a cost
Work Orders – Scheduling Category
Updates to ensure the scheduling category written to the scheduling row is from the work order
Work Orders – Mark Completed
The Mark Completed work order action is now available as a Multi-Select option.
Services – Invoice Method
When setting up services, the ‘Hourly’ Invoice Method has been renamed to ‘Hourly / Subcontractor’, as this better reflects that work orders with this service use the hours booked by the team and / or the fees charged by subcontractors.
Menu Updates
The Checklist menu option has been moved from the Admin menu section to the Properties menu section, as this better reflects that many checklists are property specific.
If you have any questions, please get in touch
September 3rd
A new release of Maintenance Companion is now available. This update introduces several enhancements to improve company processes, work order management and invoicing.
Company Settings
A new Company Settings menu is now available for Admin users. From here, you can:
- Update contact information for your company.
- Set default payment terms for invoices.
- Customize the Google review request text sent to your customers.
- Billing : Access is now available to current and historic billing details from Maintenance Companion, you will be able to view the invoice totals and the properties billed against each category.
To access, select the billing widget on the Company settings page. - Latest Metrics : Quickly view performance insights using the Metrics widget.
Work Order – Edit
For scheduled work orders that have no time entered yet, you can now:
- Update the scheduled dates.
- Add or remove team members that have been scheduled against the work order.
- Coming soon: The ability to add contractors when creating or editing a work order.
Work Order – Mark Completed
It is now possible to mark a work order as completed when the status is still marked as scheduled.
- This is useful for work orders with Contractors, as it allows you to complete the work order before updating the contractor’s schedule row. The contractor’s schedule will still be updated accordingly.
Work Order – Costs
- Team members can now add costs directly to work orders while in the field.
Work Order – Scheduling
- Team members with permission to add time for others can now use “Check In All” and “Check Out All,” even if they are already checked in or out themselves.
Services
- There is now an additional option for services that are set to a fixed price. Fixed price services can be set to a fixed price per work order or per calendar month.
Work Order Types
- The Work order Type report now also displays the Invoice Method for its associated service.
Invoicing
- Work order notes are now visible on invoice details pages.
- Mark as Sent : There is a new workflow option on an invoice that allows an invoice and associated work orders to be updated as sent, which can be useful if an invoice has been sent outside of the app.
- When invoices are mailed to customers, your company email address is now also included as CC on the email.
Customer Emails
- Where email notifications are sent out, the Reply-To email field is now populated with your company email address, so customer replies will be directed back to you.
June 18th
Planned and Scheduled Work Orders
This release introduces new features to streamline how you create and manage work orders, giving you greater flexibility and efficiency.
What’s New:
Customer-Requested Work Orders: You can now easily identify work orders initiated by your customers and acknowledge their requests directly within the app.
Pre-Allocation Planning: Plan work orders in advance before assigning team members. This allows time for customer input and feedback.
Create & Schedule Work orders: Schedule your team at the same time as creating the work order, simplifying the workflow and reducing follow-up steps.
Bulk Work Order Creation: Create multiple work orders at once by using a property list, saving time and reducing repetitive tasks.
Details of the updates are below.
We also have a couple of videos to show you the updates
Video 1: Planned and Scheduled Work Orders
Video 2: Work orders with Property Lists
Work Order Types
When creating work order types there is an additional flag available to control whether property lists are available for the work order type.
Creating Property Lists
Under the Properties menu group there is a new option for Property Lists.
Where the work order type allows it, you can now create a work order against a property list.
This will create a work order for each property in the property list.
Once created each work order is managed as an individual work order.
The lists you create remember the order of the properties from the list. You can drag and drop properties in the list to change their order.
April 24th
Checklists
Some minors updates have been made to enhance the checklist functionality.
- When you add a note to a checklist item you can also add a picture.
- You have an option to make the note and the image public – if selected the note and image will be copied to a public note.
- When adding a note – you can also mark the checklist item as completed at the same time.
- You can also add a note or image to a checklist after the work order is completed.
April 7th
Maintenance Companion
The app has been updated to reflect the new brand name. This change brings in a new URL for the portal access via browser and new versions to the mobile apps.
All the functionality remains the same as before, this is just a branding change.
Adding Costs to Work Orders
Adding costs to work orders has been extended to allow an image or attachments to be attached at the same time. Any images or attachments added will be included with the Notes for that work order, the note will be Private, but can be changed to Public as with other notes.
Adding costs on a mobile device has been simplified to make the action easier to complete in the field.
Free Coffee Monday
A new page has been added to support the free coffee promotion taking place from 14th April to 2nd June
March 21st
Notes, Cancels and Quotes
To help users can find all information in one place on work orders, additional information is now being consolidated onto the notes section of work orders.
A note type has been added to the notes, existing notes will be set to Company Note or Owner Note.
Cancel and Quote notes will now also be written to Notes.
Work Order Types
Additional options have been added to work order types to give you more choices for your work orders, the following configuration choices are available to be switched on/off
Available to Property Owner – you can choose which work order types property owners can select. (At least one work order type must be available to property owners)
Allow Repeating Work Orders – you can choose if you want to allow users to create a repeating work order.
Work Order Edit
The edit option for work orders has been updated to allow Maintenance Company users to update the work order type, this can be useful for any work orders created by property owners.
Work orders created by property owners can have the additional details updated and a checklist added if one doesn’t exist.
Invoice Summary Page
One screen designed for you to be able to review all invoice details, along with the work order information that are included in the invoice.
For hourly work, you can drill down to all the work orders that may make up the invoice line along with being able to view the individual schedule rows and hours booked for each rate.
For fixed price work you can view all the work orders that make up the invoice line.
For costs you can view the work order associated with the cost as well as the cost details and description.
Never miss anything with your invoicing; any schedule rows with zero hours added or a zero rate will be highlighted so the entries can be reviewed and corrected.
Invoice Web Link (URL)
Once an invoice has been created, a unique link can be created to share with your customers, that will provide a list of the work orders included in the invoice.
The link is available to registered and non-registered users.
February 18th
Property Owner Notifications
Designed to improve customer communications, it is now possible for an email notification to be sent to property owners that haven’t yet registered for the app.
These work order notifications can be configured to be sent when a work order reaches one of these status : New, Scheduled, Completed and Cancelled.
The configuration can be completed by Admin users on the Property Owner form where the user isn’t registered and where an email has been entered.
[Note: Once a user registers, they can manage their own preferences and chose between In App and Email Notifications]
February 7th
Checklists
Checklists have been introduced in order to enhance work orders by providing clear instructions and ensuring tasks are completed efficiently. They help:
Define a clear set of expectations for work order completion.
Allow maintenance teams to track and check off completed items.
Checklists can be created on the fly or they can be created ahead of time and saved either as global lists or as a property specific list
When team members are completing work orders, they are able to mark the checklist items as completed
Property Owners are able to create a work order with a checklist, they can also view checklists created by their maintenance company, but they are not able to view who completed the list item, when it was completed or any notes with the list item.
Full details of the checklist functionality can be found here
Extracts – Including Additional Details
The following extracts have been extended to include the Additional Details field from work orders
All Work Orders
Completed Work Orders
Open Work Orders
January 27th
Menu Update
Admin users will see that their menu has been updated, it now looks like the following
Simplified User Set up and Management
We have simplified the team set up, so it can all be managed in one place. All existing users have been migrated to the new set up.
Simply set a Name and define the type of user and if they can be scheduled, which scheduling categories they can be scheduled against.
Note:
Only admin users and users with access to all work orders need to be registered.
All others can be invited to be registered, but even if they are not registered, they can still receive email notifications.
Admin users can also be set up so they can be scheduled onto work orders, by defining a scheduling category and rate.
Sub Contractors
Sub Contractors now have their own menu option, with the same set up as before.
Invoicing
Invoicing menu options are now available for admin users. Although all companies are currently not set up for invoicing
Against the Admin option, you will also see options for Service and Rates
The invoicing capabilities allow you to define work order types as :
Hourly Work – where we invoice the total hours booked per rate for those work orders
Fixed Price Work – where we invoice a fixed fee per work order for those work orders
Also on the invoice any work orders with Sub-Contractors and Costs will also be detailed.
Once created, it is possible for admin users to review invoices and add, update and delete invoice detail rows.
Once reviewed invoices can be emailed or sent to Quickbooks
Billed Flag
This will be updated to Invoice Status. Once invoicing is enabled, the field will have some additional values