The Jobs module in BlueSuite lets you manage work from start to finish. You can track job progress, schedule appointments, log expenses, convert jobs to invoices, and monitor profitability. Jobs can also be linked to quotes and requests so everything stays connected.
To create a job:
The job is created when you save. Until then nothing is stored, so you can back out without leaving a half-finished record behind.
Every job page has a progress panel down the side that walks you through the work in order: set a contact and property, build and price the job, schedule the work, do the work, create the invoice, and complete. The panel shows you which step you are on and gives you the button you need for it.
Steps tick themselves off as things actually happen. Booking an appointment completes the scheduling step, marking visits complete progresses the work step, and so on. If a step does not apply to a particular job, click Skip this step and the panel moves on.
Every job has a status showing where it is in its lifecycle. You do not set it. BlueSuite works the first three out from the job’s own appointments and keeps them current, so the status always describes what has actually been booked and done rather than what somebody last picked from a menu. Completing and cancelling are the two real decisions, and those stay yours.
Because the status follows the appointments, it corrects itself. Cancel every visit on a scheduled job and it goes back to Unscheduled. Book a follow-up visit on a job that is already underway and it stays Ongoing, because work has happened either way. BlueSuite records a timestamp every time the status changes, so you always have a record of when things happened.
Completed and cancelled are the exception. Once one of them is set, it stays put and nothing recalculates it. If you need the job live again, click the badge and choose Reopen. The appointments take over from there and the job lands on whichever of the first three statuses fits.
You do not have to remember to close jobs out. A job completes itself as soon as all of the following are true:
There is no waiting period. Marking the last invoice paid closes the job right then, and so does completing the final visit if the money is already in.
A recurring job is the exception, and deliberately so. It stays open for as long as its schedule is still producing visits, which is what you want for ongoing service. It closes on its own once the schedule has ended and the last visit is completed and paid.
Two consequences are worth knowing about. A job you never invoice will not close on its own, and neither will one the customer never pays. Both keep showing up in your open work until you deal with them, which is usually what you want. For no-charge visits and warranty callbacks, use Mark job complete on the job page to close it out by hand.
None of this depends on the job ever being scheduled. If you invoice a job without booking a visit, which is common for supply-only work and callouts you never put on the calendar, it still shows Awaiting payment, still goes Overdue if the invoice runs late, and still closes itself once the invoice is paid.
On top of the lifecycle status, BlueSuite flags jobs that need someone to look at them. When a job has a flag, the badge on the jobs list shows that instead of the status, so you can scan a long list and spot the problems straight away.
Only one flag shows at a time. If more than one applies you see the most pressing, in this order: Missed, Overdue, Action required, Needs invoicing, Awaiting payment.
These are worked out from the job’s own appointments, invoices, forms, and change orders. You never set them by hand and they clear themselves the moment the situation behind them is resolved. Submit the last outstanding form and the Action required flag disappears, usually completing the job in the same moment.
Sometimes you already know, and you do not need the reminder. Click the badge and choose Dismiss. The flag clears without changing the job’s status, and dismissing a Missed flag also lets the job finish closing rather than being held open by a visit that is never happening.
Dismissing is deliberately narrow. It mutes that one flag and nothing else, so a job with Missed dismissed still raises Overdue if an invoice goes past due. It also only covers what was true at the time: miss another visit next week and the flag comes back. While a flag is showing it is the only option on the badge menu, so deal with it first and then complete or cancel the job if you still need to.
The lifecycle status is still there underneath. When the overdue invoice is finally paid, the job goes back to showing Ongoing rather than losing its place. You can filter the jobs list by these flags the same way you filter by status, which makes it easy to pull up every job with a missed visit or everything waiting to be invoiced.
Each job includes a Products and Services section where you define the scope of work.
You can:
For full details, see the Products and Services Guide.
You can schedule one or more appointments for each job. Each appointment includes a date, time, duration, assigned team members, and location. Appointments show up on the calendar and can be marked as completed or cancelled as work progresses.
Completing appointments is what drives the job forward, so it is worth getting your crews into the habit. Visits also drive billing on recurring jobs, and a visit whose date passes without being completed is flagged as missed on both the appointment and the job.
Visit the Scheduling Guide for full details on adding and managing appointments.
If you provide ongoing service to a customer, set the job’s Schedule Type to Recurring. You set up the appointment schedule after creating the job, using the Schedule Appointments button on the job page.
Recurring jobs bill per visit. Instead of creating a batch of invoices in advance, BlueSuite creates and sends one invoice each time an appointment is marked complete, built from the products and services on the job. That way you only ever bill for work that actually happened.
On a recurring job you can set:
Once a schedule is running, the job page gives you two controls for it. Edit Appointments changes the pattern going forward without touching visits that already happened. End Schedule stops it when the customer cancels, either clearing every upcoming visit at once or running through a date you pick, and always keeping completed visits and their invoices.
With auto invoicing on, the job watches that every completed visit actually produced its invoice and raises Needs invoicing if one did not. With auto invoicing off it does not, since you may well be covering several visits with a single invoice of your own.
For more details, see the Recurring Appointments, Jobs, and Invoices Guide.
Track costs associated with a job by logging expenses. This is useful for calculating profit margins and understanding where your money goes on each job.
To add an expense:
Expenses feed directly into the job analytics so you can see real-time profit and margin calculations.
Change orders let you formally track and approve scope changes on a job that is already in progress. Instead of editing line items directly, you create a change order that documents what changed, get approval if needed, and then merge the updates back into the job.
Change orders are an optional feature. To turn them on:
Recurring jobs are left out of change orders by default, since their scope is the same work repeated. If you want them included, turn on Enable change orders for recurring jobs in the same settings screen.
To create a change order, open a job and find the Change Orders section. Click the Change Order button. A new change order is created in Draft status and you are taken to the change order detail page.
On the change order page, you can:
The change order tracks what is different from the original job. New items, modified items, and deleted items are all highlighted so it is easy to see exactly what changed.
Only one active change order can exist on a job at a time. You need to merge or reject the current one before creating a new one. An open change order also holds the job open, so a job with work finished and money collected will wait on it rather than closing.
If you need customer approval before proceeding, click Send to Customer on the change order page. You can send it three ways:
When sent, the change order status automatically updates from Draft to Sent.
Your customer receives a link to a page where they can review the change order details, see what line items were added, changed, or removed, and view the updated total.
To approve, the customer provides their signature (typed or drawn) and clicks Approve Change Order. They can also leave optional comments. Once approved, the change order is automatically merged into the job, and a signed PDF copy is generated and emailed to the customer.
If the customer rejects the change order, they must provide a reason. The status updates to Rejected and the job line items remain unchanged.
You do not always need customer approval. If you want to approve a change order yourself, click Approve and Merge on the change order page. This merges the updated line items directly into the job without sending anything to the customer.
Once work is complete, you can convert a job into an invoice. Click Convert in the top right corner of the job page and select To Invoice. This creates a draft invoice using the products and services from the job, and links the two together so you can always trace the invoice back to the original job.
A single job can have multiple invoices if needed. On recurring jobs you generally will not do this by hand at all, since an invoice is created automatically each time an appointment is completed.
You can upload files and attach documents to any job. This is a good place to store contracts, photos, plans, or any other files your team needs to reference while working the job.
Each job has an internal comments section where your team can leave notes, ask questions, and tag other team members with @mentions. Comments are a great way to keep everyone on the same page without cluttering up the job details.
See the Comments Guide for more details.
If you need to track information that is not covered by the standard job fields, you can add custom fields to your jobs. Custom fields are configured at the workspace level and appear on every job.
See the Custom Fields Guide for setup instructions.
You can attach forms to a job for checklists, sign-offs, and site details your crews need to record. Forms can be attached to the job itself or to individual appointments.
If a form is marked required, the job will not complete until it has been submitted, and it will show the Action required flag once the work is done so you know what is holding it up. See the Forms Guide for setup details.
Each job includes a live analytics panel that helps you understand profitability and progress at a glance.
Financial metrics:
Appointment metrics:
Recurring jobs add a Next 12 Months (Projected) block showing the visits, revenue, and profit the schedule is on track to produce. It is worked out from the repeat pattern itself rather than from what is currently on the calendar, so an open-ended schedule forecasts a full year rather than stopping at the last booked visit. Schedules that have already ended do not forecast.
These numbers update in real time as you log expenses, complete appointments, and collect payments.
The main Jobs page gives you an overview of all your jobs with quick stats across the top. You can see:
You can search jobs by name, contact, or property, and filter by status, contact, quote, or request. The status filter also includes the attention flags, so you can pull up every job with a missed visit or everything waiting to be invoiced. Sorting is available by status, name, contact, salesperson, total, or creation date.
Team members can log hours against a job using the timesheets feature. Time entries are tracked per user and feed into the job analytics, giving you revenue-per-hour calculations and employee time breakdowns.
See the Timesheets Guide for details on submitting and managing time entries.