Services overview

Services are the work your firm sells, such as tax preparation, bookkeeping or advisory. Each service sets how it is billed (Hourly, Fixed fee or Non-billable) and its default rate or fixed fee. A service can also hold terms that are added to a proposal’s engagement letter whenever that service is included.

Services are used on Jobs, time entries, proposals, WIP and reports. Manage them in Settings > Services.

Add or edit a service

1. Go to Settings and open Services
2. Click New service, or click an existing service to edit it
3. Enter a Name and, if you want, a Category
4. Choose a Billing type and enter its default price
5. Add a Description and Service terms if you use the service on proposals
6. Choose a Job template if accepted proposals should create delivery work
7. Click Add, or Update for an existing service

Service billing types

Each service has one Billing type:

• Hourly bills time at the service’s Default Rate.
• Fixed fee supplies a Default Fixed Fee for new Jobs and proposal lines. You can change the fee on the individual Job or proposal.
• Non-billable tracks time for cost and profitability without billing it or including it in WIP.

There is no separate rate table for each client. Set a client’s agreed price on their proposal line.

How a service’s hourly rate applies to time entries

A time entry’s rate comes from its service’s Default Rate. If the service has no default rate, Tidyflow uses the billable rate saved for the team member on the entry. See How WIP works for how rates roll up into WIP and invoices.

Service descriptions and engagement letter terms

The service editor has two separate text fields:

• Description explains what the client receives, such as deliverables, scope limits and timing. It appears under the service in the proposal’s pricing and on the PDF.
• Service terms holds conditions for that service, such as client responsibilities and deadlines. When a proposal includes the service, these terms are added to the proposal’s engagement letter.

Service terms appear where the engagement letter template contains {{service_schedule}}. All starter engagement letter templates include it. A custom proposal line that is not linked to a service adds no description or terms. See How to send an engagement letter for how the letter combines terms with proposal fees.

Create a Job when a proposal with this service is accepted

A service’s optional Job template supplies delivery work when the service is sold on a proposal. In the proposal line’s Billing setup, choose Create from Service template, Link existing Job or No Job. Billing On completion requires a Job, either created from the template or an existing Job for the same client and service. See How proposal invoicing works.

How service changes reach proposals

To change a service everywhere, edit it in Settings > Services, or choose Edit service defaults from the service menu beside a proposal line.

• A draft proposal picks up the current service name, description and terms the next time it is saved.
• A description customized with Edit description for this proposal takes precedence over the shared description and only affects that proposal.
• Changing a default rate or fixed fee does not reprice existing proposal lines. Edit their prices directly.
• Sent and accepted proposals keep the service details they had when sent.

Check the result with Preview as client before sending. See Proposals overview.

Organize services with categories

Categories are optional groups for your services, such as Tax, Bookkeeping or Advisory. Nothing about categories appears until you create the first one.

To set a category, edit a service in Settings > Services and use the Category field. Pick an existing category, or type a new name and choose Create category.

Once at least one category exists, the services list and the service pickers on proposals and time entries group services under their category. Services without a category appear under Uncategorized.

To rename or remove a category, open the menu next to its heading in Settings > Services. Removing a category never deletes its services; they become uncategorized. Renaming a category to the name of an existing category merges the two.

Where services are used

• Jobs: set a Job’s Service in the Job’s details. Time logged on that Job takes the same service. On the Pro plan, you can limit a Job status to particular services, so tax work and bookkeeping each use their own statuses. See Job statuses.
• Time entries: the Service field fills in from the selected Job, and you can change it.
• WIP: you can filter unbilled time by service.
• Reports: the Time Report can group by service, and the Time Entries Report and Billing realization report can filter by service.

Services compared with tags

Use services when the type of work affects billing rates, WIP or revenue reporting. Use tags for flexible labels that do not affect billing. Tags never change rates.

Import services from QuickBooks Online

If QuickBooks Online is connected, you can import its service items as Tidyflow services. See QuickBooks Online integration.