Subcontractors collecting payments and closing jobs

In this article, you'll learn how your subcontractors take payment on a job and close it out from their crew portal. That way the money and the status are right in the CRM before they've even left the driveway, and nobody has to call the office to report back.

Note: Subcontractors is a feature you switch on first, in Features. Your subcontractors don't log in to the CRM itself. They use the crew portal, which only shows them the jobs you've assigned them to.

To open a job in the crew portal:

  1. Your subcontractor signs in to the crew portal with their phone number and password. After their W-9 is signed, they get a text with the link. In the phone app, they type their phone number where it asks for an email, and the same portal opens.
  2. Under Upcoming work, they tap the job.

A job has three tabs along the top: Job, Images and Payments. Status changes are on the Job tab, and payments are on the Payments tab.

The Subcontractors page, where you manage the people who use the crew portal
The Subcontractors page, where you manage the people who use the crew portal

Collecting a payment

The Payments tab shows Still owed in big numbers, with the job total and anything already paid under it. Your subcontractor can see the balance but can't change it.

Cash or a cheque

  1. Tap Payments.
  2. Tap Cash or Check.
  3. How much fills in with the full balance. Change it if the customer paid less.
  4. For a cheque, type the Cheque number.
  5. Tap Record.

A card

  1. Tap Payments, then Card.
  2. Type the customer's card into the form. The card goes straight to Stripe and never passes through the phone or the CRM.
  3. Tap Charge.

If you don't have card payments set up yet, they'll see a message telling them to take cash or a cheque instead.

Every payment shows up under Paid so far with the date and who took it. It's saved to the job just like a payment you record in the office, so the job's balance, its invoice and your reports all update right away. If the job didn't have an invoice yet, one is made for it.

Changing the job's status

On the Job tab, the Status box sits right under Navigate. Tap it to pick a status:

  • On my way (listed under In progress): texts the customer that your crew is on the way. Your subcontractor's location is never shared, so the text doesn't include a tracking link. If the customer already got an on-the-way text in the last six hours, the portal asks Text them again? first.
  • Pending: puts the job back to Pending.
  • Done: closes the job (see below).
  • Canceled: asks Cancel this job? first. Tapping Yes, cancel it cancels the job, and any invoice with nothing paid on it is voided.

Closing a job

  1. Tap the Status box and pick Done.
  2. The portal asks Send the customer a review request?
  3. Tap Yes, send it to close the job and send the review request. Or tap Done, no review to close it without one.

Even with Yes, the request won't go out if the job's tags or your review settings say to skip it. The portal tells your subcontractor when that happens.

Warning: If a customer is set up so a job can't be marked done until it's paid, the same rule applies here. Your subcontractor will see how much is still due, and they need to collect it before they can pick Done.
Note: There's no setting to stop a subcontractor from taking payments or changing a job's status. Anyone you assign to a job can do both, but only on their own jobs.

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