Service Types Overview

Service Types help you organize the work your firm does and control how it’s billed.

Examples:

• Accounting
• Tax Preparation
• Bookkeeping
• Consulting

They help you:

1. Organize work across jobs and time entries
2. Set default billing rates for each type of work

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Why Service Types Matter

Service Types sit between your work and your billing.

They determine:

• How work is categorized in reports
• Which hourly rate is applied to time entries
• How WIP and realization are calculated

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Where to Set Up Service Types

Go to:

Settings > Services

From here you can:

• Choose Hourly, Fixed fee or Non-billable billing and set the applicable default rate or fee
• Add descriptions for proposals and Service terms for engagement letters
• Choose a Job template to create delivery work when a proposal is accepted
• Group services into optional categories
• Delete a service type you no longer need

If you use QuickBooks Online, you can also import service types from QuickBooks Online. See the Importing from QuickBooks Online section below.

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Set service billing and Job defaults

In Settings > Services, create or edit a service and choose its Billing type:

• Hourly uses the Default Rate for hourly work.
• Fixed fee supplies a Default Fixed Fee for new Jobs and proposal lines. You can edit the fee for the individual Job or proposal.
• Non-billable tracks time for cost and profitability without billing it hourly or including it in WIP.

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

Set proposal 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 on the proposal’s pricing section and PDF.
• Service terms contains service-specific conditions, such as client responsibilities and deadlines. It appears inside the engagement letter below its service schedule, provided the selected letter template contains {{service_schedule}}.

Link the service to a proposal line to include these details. An unlinked custom line has no service description or Service terms to import. See How to send an engagement letter for how the letter combines these terms with proposal fees.

Change shared defaults or customize one proposal

Open the linked Service menu on a proposal and choose Edit description for this proposal to tailor its optional scope description for one client. This only changes that proposal’s detailed description. It leaves the Service’s shared Description and Service terms unchanged.

Use Settings > Services, or Edit service defaults in the proposal’s service menu, to change the shared service. A draft imports the current service name, description and terms when it is next saved. Any description customized for that proposal takes precedence over the shared Description. Changing a default rate or fixed fee does not reprice existing proposal lines; edit their prices directly.

Changing service defaults does not rewrite sent or accepted proposals. Their imported service details remain fixed. Review the assembled result with Preview as client before sending; see Proposals overview.

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Organize services with categories

Categories are optional groupings for your services, such as Tax, Bookkeeping, or Advisory. Services work exactly the same without them, and nothing about categories appears until you create your first one.

To set a category, create or 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:

• Settings > Services groups services under their category headings
• The service pickers on proposals and time entries group services the same way
• 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 just become uncategorized. Renaming a category to the name of an existing category merges the two.

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Integration with QuickBooks Online

Importing from QuickBooks Online

If QuickBooks Online is connected, you can import your existing QuickBooks Online Service Items into Tidyflow as Service Types.

To import:

1. Go to Account > Integrations > QuickBooks Online
2. Open the Services tab
3. Select the QuickBooks Online services you want to import
4. Click Import

What gets imported:

• The Name from the QuickBooks Online Service Item
• The Default rate from the QuickBooks Online unit price

Important notes:

• Already imported services are greyed out to prevent duplicates
• The import is a one-time manual action, not an ongoing sync
• Changes made in QuickBooks after the import will not automatically update in Tidyflow
• Changes made in Tidyflow will not sync back to QuickBooks

There is no automatic real-time linking between Service Types and QuickBooks Online Service Items.

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How Service Types Map to QuickBooks Online on Invoices

When you create an invoice in Tidyflow and sync it to QuickBooks Online:

• Each invoice line is mapped to a QuickBooks Online Service Item
• If the Service Type was originally imported from QuickBooks Online, it maps to the matching QuickBooks Online item
• If no mapping exists, Tidyflow uses your configured default QuickBooks Online item

There is no separate interface to manually link existing Service Types to QuickBooks Online items after import. If alignment is important, the recommended approach is to import from QuickBooks Online first and use those imported Service Types going forward.

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Where Service Types Are Used

1. Jobs

Each job can have a Service Type assigned.

When time is logged against that job, the Service Type automatically carries over to the time entry. This keeps reporting and billing consistent.

A job’s Service Type can also decide which statuses it offers. On the Pro plan you can limit a job status to particular Service Types, so tax work and bookkeeping each track through their own statuses. See Job Statuses.

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2. Time Logging

When logging time:

• There is a Service Type dropdown
• If a job is selected and it has a Service Type, it auto-fills
• You can manually change it if needed

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3. Billing and WIP

Service Types determine the hourly rate applied to time entries.

The rate is calculated in this order:

1. Default service type rate (set on the Service Type)
2. The team member’s billable rate saved on the entry, when the service has no default rate

You can filter unbilled time by Service Type when reviewing WIP. See How WIP works for how rates roll up into WIP and invoices.

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4. Reports

Service Types appear in:

• Time Summary
• Time Entries
• Realization reports

You can:

• Filter by Service Type
• Group by Service Type

This helps you see how time and revenue break down across different types of work.

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Service Types vs Tags

Both Service Types and Tags can categorize work, but they serve different purposes.

Use Service Types when:

• You want to control billing rates
• You want reporting by type of service
• The type of work affects revenue

Service Types directly impact billing and WIP.

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Use Tags when:

• You want flexible labeling
• The label does not affect billing
• You want to filter or group work in a different way

Tags are for organization only. They do not change rates.

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Example service setup

Set a client’s agreed proposal price on their proposal line. The shared service editor does not provide a separate rate table for each client.