How do I create and add a new Service to my service catalogue?


Custom services provide a powerful way to tailor and personalise your service offering to your clients.


Featuring automated communication and powerful scheduling as well as step tracking you'll never be left in the dark. From a monthly payroll that repeats on the last Friday of each month to a catch-up call with your client every year, you can compliment your service catalogue by creating services that are bespoke to your practice and to your clients.


This tutorial will walk through the steps required to creating a new service from scratch, and adding it to your service catalogue.


Getting started...


To get started, head over to the 'Settings' section of your practice:

  • From the menu on the left-hand-side of the screen
  • Select the 'Service Catalogue' tab of your practice
  • Click on the '+Service' link


You'll be transported to a page to define your new service, which will look like:



Step 1: What would you like to call your service?


Start by giving your service a name. For example, you could be offering a 'Monthly Payroll (Last Friday)' service, or a 'Call Client' service.


Note: By default, the service name will form the name of the jobs that are created when this service will be added to a client - although you can update this later, it's always good to have a descriptive name!


Step 2: What service are you offering?


As we're interested in customising our schedule we'll go ahead and select 'Create a new service from scratch'.


Step 3: How often will you provide your service?


As we've opted to create a new service from scratch, we are now offered the opportunity to customise how our service will be scheduled.



Click on the 'Update my service schedule' link to launch the dialog that allows you to define the schedule; it will look like this:




Your schedule can be defined in a number of ways:


  • on / before / after a date that you choose when you add your service to a client.

This is the default schedule that gives you the most flexibility if your service is not constrained by an external deadline, such as that imposed by HMRC. If you select before or after you'll also be able to set an offset in days, weeks, months, or years for when you'd like your first job to start.


  • on / before / after a date that is defined by an attribute associated with your client.

So, for example, if you would like to offer a bespoke service to a limited company, you can schedule your jobs using their 'accounting reference date'. Just select the attribute you'd like to use from the list.


Take note of the 'schedule description' at the top of the dialog. It will update as you configure the schedule for your service to help describe when your jobs will be created.


The next step is to choose how you would like your service to be repeated, if at all.


If your new service doesn't repeat then only a single job will be created as per your schedule. Just select "No" beside the 'and repeats' label and click 'save' and move on to the next step. Otherwise, select "Yes" and let's move on to the next part of the dialog to define the repeating schedule.


Your new service will repeat from the date that the first job is created. Customise one of the following repeating cycles:


Daily

  • Select whether you'd like to include or exclude weekends.


Weekly

  • Leave blank if you'd like your jobs to repeat on the same day each week.
  • Choose the days of the week for which you'd like your jobs to be scheduled.


Monthly

  • Choose the same day if you'd like your jobs to repeat on the same day each month.
  • Choose the day of the month (from the 1st until 31st) if you'd like your jobs to repeat on a specific day.
  • Choose from the first, second, third, fourth, or last day or weekday.


Yearly

  • Choose the same day if you'd like your jobs to repeat on the same day each year.
  • Choose the day of the month (from the 1st until 31st) if you'd like your jobs to repeat on a specific day within a specified month of your choice.
  • Choose from the first, second, third, fourth, or last day or weekday within a specified month of your choice.


Note: You can create a quarterly schedule by selecting a repeating cycle of every 3 months.


Once you have finished with your schedule, click 'save' to close the dialog and continue. The service schedule description will update on the page to match what you have defined.


Step 4: Do you need anything from your client before you can start?


This next step allows you to track the things that you may need from your client prior to starting their work. For example, before starting work on personal tax returns you may need your client to send you their bank statements, income, and expense for the period.


These requirements can be tracked alongside a message that can be sent to the client.


To add a requirement, click the 'add a requirement' link to launch the dialog from where you'll be able to specify:

  • what you need from your client.
  • when to send a message to your client.
  • if, and when you would like to send a reminder to your client.
  • the message that you would like to send your client.



Once you've defined your requirement, go ahead and click 'Save', or if you've got more requirements to add, feel free to use the drop-down menu beside the Save button and select 'Save and add another'.


Your requirements will be updated on the service page. Feel free to add a new requirement or edit, delete, re-order your existing requirements.


As you mark requirements as complete for a job, you'll see the requirement in your client's activity feed.

If a message or reminder was sent to your client, the activity feed will also show you those messages that were sent.


Step 5: Would you like to keep track of your work?


To put it simply, you can keep track of the steps that constitute a job. This may be useful, for example, if you have a team in which a job may be assigned to different members depending on the step that is being performed. It also provides a great way of tracking the progress of your work.


You can either track your steps internally within your team, or choose to let your client know what has been completed.


If you'd like to keep your client in the loop with the progress of their work, feel free to enter a message to send to them. Even if it's to say "thank you for sending in your documents"!


To add a step, click the 'add a step' link to launch the dialog from where you'll be able to specify:

  • the name of your step.
  • whether or not you'd like to send a message to your client when this step is complete.
  • the message that you would like to send your client (if any).



Once you've defined your step, go ahead and click 'Save', or if you've got more steps to add, feel free to use the drop-down menu beside the Save button and select 'Save and add another'.


Your steps will be updated on the service page. Feel free to add a new step or edit, delete, re-order your existing steps.


When you mark a step as complete for a job, you'll see what was completed in your client's activity feed.

If a message was sent to your client, the activity feed will also show you those messages that were sent.


Step 6: Keeping your clients informed


Last but not least, have a think about the messages that you would like to send your client when you start or finish their work.


Your service is capable of sending an automated message describing the job and whether it has started or completed. For example, if you're job is called 'Monthly Payroll' onkho will send a message to your client along the lines of "We have started work on your Monthly Payroll" or "We have completed work on your Monthly Payroll". You may find that these messages don't reflect the tone of your business so feel free to change them.


You'll also have the opportunity to personalise these message when you add your service to a client.


Remember that messages are only sent to clients if you've opted to enable client communications from your onkho account.


Once you've finished configuring your new service and are happy, go ahead and click on the 'Save Service' link at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. You'll be presented with a confirmation that your your service has been saved, feel free to either add another service or add your service to a client.