Work that repeats

Mist has four ways to handle work that comes round again. They do different things, so it is worth picking the right one.

• Repeat job: the same visit on a cycle, put in your diary for you. No money changes hands by itself.
• Repeat monthly invoice: the same bill every month, sent for you.
• Service plan: a membership the customer joins, paid by their saved card, with the visits booked for you.
• Maintenance nudge: a text every so many months asking a past customer if they are due for a check-up.

Repeat jobs

Open a job and, under After the job, choose Repeat this job: weekly, fortnightly, every 4 weeks, quarterly, or any number of weeks up to 52, from a starting date. Mist puts each visit in your diary a week before it is due, as a scheduled job, and tells the person it is assigned to.

Your repeating jobs are listed under Schedule, where you can change how often, stop one for a while and start it again, or delete it. Deleting stops new visits; the jobs already made stay.

A job has one repeat at a time: while it is on, pressing Make recurring again on the same job, or on a visit the repeat made, is refused. No visit is made on a day you have closed; the next one comes round as usual.

Repeat monthly invoices Pro and up

On an invoice, tick Repeat monthly. Each month, on the same day of the month, Mist makes a fresh copy with a new number and emails it to the customer with a link to pay. If the customer has no email address, the copy waits in Invoices for you to send.

• Repeat until sets the last month. Leave it blank to keep going until you stop it.
• If the customer has saved a card with you, you can have each month's copy charged to it instead, and they are emailed a receipt. If the charge fails, the invoice is emailed as normal and you are told.

Service plans Pro and up

A service plan is a membership: a price per month, quarter or year, what it includes, and how often you visit. Set one up from Service plans on the Customers screen. You need card payments switched on in Connections first, because members pay by saved card.

• To sign a customer up, send them the invite from their record. They get a link by text or email, read what is included, agree, and save their card.
• Each billing date, Mist raises the invoice and charges their saved card, and emails them a receipt. If the card cannot be charged, they are emailed the invoice to pay, and you are told.
• Visits are put in your diary a week ahead, on the plan's cycle. A visit that falls on a day you have closed is not made.
• Cancelling a member stops future billing. Invoices already raised stay.

Maintenance nudges

On a finished job with the customer's phone or email, under After the job, Nudge them to re-book every 6, 12 or 24 months, counted from the job. When it is due, Mist texts them that it has been that long since the job and asks if they are due for a check-up, with your number to book. With no mobile, or after a STOP, it goes by email.

It waits while the customer has a repeating job or a service plan with you, counts again from any later job of the same service, and stops if its job is cancelled.

Nothing is booked for them: it is a reminder to call you. The nudges are listed under Schedule, where you can stop one.

Which one to use

• Mowing, cleaning, a pool every fortnight, paid when you invoice: a repeat job.
• A fixed fee every month, like a contract or a retainer: a repeat monthly invoice.
• Customers paying a regular fee for regular visits, like a yearly service: a service plan, which does both the billing and the visits.
• A one-off job that should come back some day, like a hot water service or a smoke alarm check: a maintenance nudge.