P01Dispatch
Whiteboard allocation
Urgent jobs were allocated by phone from a whiteboard, with no shared view of who was free or near.
CASE 01 / 04ServiceM8
Every job closed is a job invoiced.
A facilities services group with five operating companies and 180 field staff ran dispatch on whiteboards and spreadsheets, and invoiced from paper job cards. ServiceM8 became the single job system, with each company posting to its own Xero organization and intercompany work settled on a schedule.
ServiceM8Job queuesBadgesAdd-onsXero
Worked example on representative data.
01 // Context
Five companies, one field operation
Planned and reactive servicing for offices, health, education, transport and data-center sites, under service-level contracts.
The group operates through five companies: facilities, mechanical, electrical, fire and safety, and a shared-services company that employs the office team. Each has its own Xero organization and its own contracts.
Most jobs come from a short list of key accounts with response targets by priority. Crews are shared across companies, and a good share of work is subcontracted, so who did the job and who bills it were often different questions.
Business profile
BusinessFacilities and field services
Size180 field, 40 office
Entities5 companies, 5 Xero orgs
VolumeAbout 330 jobs a week
Primary toolServiceM8
AccountingXero
02 // Problem
Fast in the field, slow on paper
Crews responded well. Everything after the job was slow, manual and different in each company.
P02Job cards
Paper back to the office
Completed job cards came back days later, so invoices waited on handwriting and missing materials.
P03Compliance
Checklists by memory
Fire and safety checks needed photos and sign-off, collected inconsistently.
P04Entities
Wrong company billed
Shared crews meant work was invoiced from the wrong company and corrected later.
P05Intercompany
Month-end tie-out by hand
Charges between companies were reconciled in a spreadsheet, often with timing differences.
P06Visibility
No SLA view
Response times against contract targets were estimated after the fact.
03 // Approach
ServiceM8 runs the job, Xero holds the money
The job is the unit of work from request to invoice. Each company keeps its own ServiceM8 account and Xero organization, so billing always lands in the right ledger.
FIG. 01 / DATA FLOWCASE 01
- The job is the record Request, allocation, checklist, materials and sign-off all live on the ServiceM8 job.
- Queues before people Jobs land in priority queues, so dispatch works from one list rather than a phone.
- Right company, first time Each company has its own account and Xero connection, so invoices never cross ledgers.
- Intercompany on a schedule Shared services and crew hire between companies run as repeating Xero invoices.
04 // What was built
ServiceM8 and Xero, set up for scale
What was configured and why, by module. The detail is about decisions, not a click path.
ServiceM8M01Job queues by priority
New jobs enter P1, P2 and P3 queues with response targets. Dispatch allocates from the queue on the dispatch board, and late jobs surface automatically.
- P1 / P2 / P3 queues
- Dispatch board
- Job categories per service line
ServiceM8M02Badges for handling rules
Badges flag key-account, after-hours, compliance and quote-required jobs, so crews and office staff see the rules on the job itself.
- Key account badge
- Compliance badge
- Quote-required badge
ServiceM8 add-onsM03Forms and checklists
A forms add-on holds the fire and safety checklists with required photos and sign-off, attached to the job before it can be completed.
- Checklist forms
- Required photos
- On-site sign-off
ServiceM8M04Templates and recurring jobs
Planned servicing runs as recurring jobs from job templates, with standard materials and labor items already on them.
- Job templates
- Recurring planned jobs
- Standard materials list
XeroM05One organization per company
Each ServiceM8 account syncs invoices, payments and contacts to its own Xero organization, with tracking categories for service line and key account.
- Invoice sync per company
- Service line tracking
- Key account tracking
XeroM06Intercompany and bank
Shared services and crew hire are billed by repeating invoices between companies. Bank rules match routine receipts, and a monthly tie-out flags differences.
- Repeating intercompany invoices
- Bank rules
- Monthly tie-out report
05 // The stack
One job system, five ledgers
0Xero organizations
0Priority queues
0Job badges
0Record per job
05 // Outcome
What the setup delivers
The behaviors the configuration is built to produce. They describe the design, not measured results.
O01Invoicing
Invoices raised the same day the job closes
A completed job with materials and sign-off is invoiced from the right company without paperwork.
O02Dispatch
One queue, sorted by priority
Dispatch works from P1 down, with late jobs visible before they breach.
O03Compliance
Checklists complete before close
A job flagged compliance cannot close without its form, photos and sign-off.
O04Entities
Billing lands in the right ledger
Separate accounts per company keep invoices out of the wrong organization.
O05Intercompany
Month end ties out
Repeating intercompany invoices and a tie-out report leave only timing differences to review.
O06Reporting
SLA and debtors in one view
Response against target and debtor days by company read from live jobs and Xero.
SLA met, all companies12 wks
0
First-time fixOct
0
Jobs by queue
P1 Critical40
P2 Urgent109
P3 Standard182
Intercompany tie-out (Xero, US$)
| Entities | Billed | Difference | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| ENT-A → ENT-E | 58,192 | 0.00 | MATCHED |
| ENT-B → ENT-A | 66,059 | 0.00 | MATCHED |
| ENT-B → ENT-D | 11,463 | 0.00 | MATCHED |
| ENT-B → ENT-E | 42,320 | 310.00 | REVIEW |
| ENT-C → ENT-A | 38,172 | 0.00 | MATCHED |
| ENT-C → ENT-B | 59,403 | 0.00 | MATCHED |
It shows what the setup reports, not measured results.
06 // Before/After
Same crews, different back office
How the main tasks ran before and after the ServiceM8 and Xero setup.
| Area | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Intake | Phone and email into a shared inbox | Requests become ServiceM8 jobs in a priority queue |
| Dispatch | Whiteboard and phone calls | Dispatch board allocating from the queue |
| Job cards | Paper returned days later | Staff app with materials, photos and sign-off on the job |
| Compliance | Checklists collected inconsistently | Forms add-on required before the job can close |
| Invoicing | Typed from job cards each week | Invoiced from the completed job into the right Xero org |
| Intercompany | Spreadsheet tie-out at month end | Repeating invoices and a tie-out report |
| Reporting | SLA estimated after the fact | SLA, first-time fix and debtors in one view |
07 // Scope
Phased delivery, one phase at a time
Each phase ships on its own and is reviewed before the next begins.
Phase 1Jobs + dispatch
ServiceM8 core
- Queues, categories, badges
- Job templates and recurring jobs
- Dispatch board and staff app
Phase 2Forms + Xero
Close and bill
- Checklist forms add-on
- Xero sync per company
- Tracking categories
Phase 3Intercompany + view
Group finance
- Repeating intercompany invoices
- Bank rules and tie-out
- SLA and debtor dashboard
Typical scope
US$4,000-5,000per phase
Typical scope for this kind of project: US$4,000-5,000 per phase. Not included: tax filing or payroll.
Talk through the first phase
Field-service and accounting systems, designed and set up so each job runs from request to paid invoice without retyping.