Book a visit
On Dispatch, start a booking. You can begin with the caller (Who's calling?: pick or add the customer, then one of their addresses or a new one) or with the address. Then fill in:
- a title, and details if you like;
- when;
- the technician, or Unassigned.
Tap Book visit. When you type an address, Pipr suggests matches from Google Maps; with no signal you can save it anyway and it's checked later.
In the Day view you can also tap an empty time to book there.
Change, reassign or cancel
Open the visit, then More → Edit booking. Change the time or the technician, or set the status to Cancelled, and tap Save changes.
A visit is always at one address for one customer. If it should be somewhere else, cancel it and book a new one.
The calendar
- Day: an hour-by-hour grid. In the web app on a computer, each technician has their own column side by side, with Unassigned first.
- List: the day by technician, unassigned visits first.
- Month: the month at a glance.
- Week (web app on a computer): one row per technician, seven days across.
- Map (web app): see below.
Today jumps back to today. Days other than today need signal.
Drag to move a booking
In the web app's Week view, drag a booking to another day or person. In the List view, drag it from one person's group to another's to give it to them at the same time. In the Day view, drag it up or down to a new time (in quarter hours), across to another technician's column, or both at once. On a tablet, hold the booking a moment before you drag. It keeps its length, saves at once and offers Undo. Only a visit nobody has started can move, and never onto a day before today. Click an empty time in someone's column to book a visit there for them.
When a booking moves to another technician, it shows on their schedule the next time their phone syncs. Once texting from your shop's number is switched on, they also get a text saying when and where, a couple of minutes after the last move, as long as you've added their mobile number on their page under Settings → Users. Moving only the time sends them nothing. You can turn these texts off with Visits given to technicians on the Texting card.
The map of the day
In the web app, Map shows the chosen day's visits as pins, a colour per technician, numbered in order. A pin is ringed while the visit is under way and faded once it's done; tap it, then Open visit. Addresses Google can't find are listed underneath.
On today's map, anyone who has tapped On my way shows as a truck in their colour, updated about every 30 seconds, until they arrive.
What technicians see
Technicians see today's visits on their Today tab. If you'd like them to see what's coming, turn on Technicians see days after today under Settings → Technicians. They then get a Calendar tab showing only their own visits, which they can't change.
Work requests from customers
Customers can ask for work from the customer portal: which address, what they need, how soon and good times. The request appears under the bell and on the customer's page, with three choices:
- Write an estimate, when it needs pricing first;
- Book a visit;
- Mark handled, when it's dealt with some other way (with Undo).
An emergency request puts Book a visit first. A request stays open until a visit is booked or it's marked handled.
Bookings customers make online
The owner sets up online booking in the web app, under Settings, Online booking: the arrival windows and how many bookings each takes a day, the days, the jobs customers can pick, and whether to take a deposit. Once it is switched on, a customer signed in to the customer portal sees Book a visit and picks a job, an address and an open time. The visit then appears on the schedule in that window with nobody assigned.
With Ask for a deposit to book a visit off (it starts off), the customer books with no card and the visit is booked as soon as they tap Book this time; its description says there was no deposit. To cancel or change the time, they call you. Turn it on and set the amount, and the customer pays that deposit by card on Stripe's page before the visit is booked; its description then says the deposit was paid. Card payments must be set up to take a deposit. Assign or move it like any other visit. If the customer has one approved estimate at that address with no visit yet, the visit takes it, and their open request there is closed as booked.
New customers can book too. The same settings page shows Your booking link with Copy link: put it on your website or in an email. Anyone who opens it types their address first, then picks a job and a time, types their name, phone and email, and pays the deposit if you take one. Once it's booked, they're added to your customers with that address, and the visit is booked the same way. A customer who already uses the portal is asked to sign in instead.
To take online bookings only where you work, list your zip codes under Service area on the same page (leave it empty to take them anywhere). You don't need to type them one by one: pick how far you go, from 5 to 100 miles, and tap Add nearby zip codes to add every zip code within that distance of your shop, then take off any you don't serve. The list holds up to 500 zip codes; if a big distance has more, the nearest ones are added. New shops see the same choice while setting up. A customer at any other zip code is told you don't serve that area and given your phone number before any time is shown. Customers also see the times on days you already have a visit within 5 miles of them first, under We're already in your area; the other times follow, so no time is hidden.
Every online booking shows under Notifications for the owner and dispatchers: "name booked a visit online", with the time, the job and the deposit paid, or No deposit. A booking from someone new says New customer, and if their phone number matches a customer you already have, it says Same phone as and names them, so you can spot a duplicate. Pipr never merges customers for you.
The deposit comes off the visit's bill for you. The visit's page says the deposit is paid, and when the visit is billed the bill shows its total, the deposit, and what is left to pay. Collect payment, the payment link and the customer's own pages ask only for what is left. If the deposit covers the whole bill, there is nothing to collect and the bill is marked paid. With QuickBooks connected, the deposit goes in as a sales receipt held in a Customer Deposits account (Pipr makes it if you have none), and the bill takes it back out of there. A second bill on the same visit is charged in full.
When a booked visit is cancelled, the office decides what happens to its deposit. On the visit's page, under More, the owner or a dispatcher taps Refund the deposit to send it back to the customer's card, or Keep the deposit for a late cancel or a no-show. If the bill comes to less than the deposit, the same two choices are offered for what is left over. Pipr asks before doing either; neither can be undone, and both need a signal. A refund goes back through your Stripe account; with QuickBooks connected, a refund comes out of Customer Deposits as a refund receipt, and a deposit you keep moves from there into your income. A refund you make in your Stripe Dashboard instead is recorded too, but refund deposits from Pipr where you can.
Maintenance due
If you sell memberships, Maintenance due (from the Dispatch calendar) lists members whose included visit is coming up, from 30 days before. Book opens the booking form for them. Memberships help.