Service and maintenance: track the work after handover

What is the Service module in stipt?

Service is the module for everything that happens after a record has been delivered: maintenance visits, breakdowns and RMAs, the returns to the manufacturer or supplier. A service can come one or ten years after completion, and a record can have zero or ten of them.

The key principle: a service has its own status from its own status flow, fully separate from the record's status. A completed project therefore stays completed in every overview and report, even while a service is running on it.

Every service automatically gets a service number, such as S‑00000001, counting up per company.

How do I turn on the Service module?

Service is off by default. An admin installs the module from the Module center and then sets it up under Settings > Modules > Service.

First pick the service status flow that services move through. That can be an existing flow, or the default flow in one click: Registered, Scheduled, Carried out and Completed, plus the fixed drop‑out status. After that you manage the statuses with your other status flows.

Next, in the CRM builder, switch on the Service block for the record type services occur on, usually the project type. Finally, tick which appointment types are a service visit. That asks for confirmation, because existing status hooks into the record flow are cleared.

Service is not an add‑on and has no price of its own: it is part of the regular price per member.

How do I create a service on a completed project?

The service block appears once the record is in management: in an end status that is not the drop‑out status. While a project is still running you do not see the block. If services already exist, their history always stays visible.

Click the plus on the service block. The service starts in the first status of the service flow. You record a description and a free‑form note, any RMAs, the products of this service (from the catalog or as a free line with a quantity) and the links: the service appointments and quotes that belong to this service.

You change the status with the status pill on the service itself. Transitions follow the flow's rules, just like record statuses: allowed transitions, an override for admins and a required reason for the negative status. Everything that happens to a service shows up on the record's timeline, with a wrench icon.

How do I see whether a service is running on a record?

As soon as a record has an open service, a second pill with the service status appears next to the regular status pill. The record status does not change because of it: Completed stays Completed. Close the service and the second pill disappears. With several services open at once, the pill shows the most recent one.

On the timeline the service is a node of its own, with an open dot and the service number in front of the status name. Once the service reaches an end status, the record picks its own status back up with a new node, for example “resumed after S‑00000222”. If another service is still running, that resume waits until every service is done.

In the CRM you can build a view with service statuses, such as “In service” with every record that has a running service. Records count there without disappearing from their own view. Through Columns you add Service status, Service number and Service count, and global search finds services by service number, case number or RMA number.

How do I schedule a maintenance or service visit?

For that you use a service appointment type. Such a type can only be scheduled on a record with a running service, and it links itself to that service. You schedule it from the service with the Schedule appointment button under Links, or in the agenda, where the planning sidebar only lists records with a running service under that type.

On a record without a running service, stipt refuses such an appointment, also via the API or an import. In the appointment window, stipt then blocks saving until you create a service on the spot.

Per moment you set which service status the service moves to: when the appointment is scheduled, en route, carried out, no show or cancelled, and when the form is submitted, accepted or rejected. The record status never changes because of this. If smart planning is on for the type, you pick at which service status the customer automatically receives a booking link.

How do I record RMAs and returns to the manufacturer?

An RMA is a row under the service, with a serial number, product, case number, RMA number, a note and three checkboxes: serial number changed, labour fee invoiced and product returned. Two inverters going back at once are two rows under the same service. An RMA is settled once product returned and labour fee invoiced are both ticked.

An RMA comes from two entry points, which both write to the same row. Back office fills it in on the service block when the RMA is known before anyone goes out. The technician fills it in on site through an RMA block in their form; on submit, the rows land under the service automatically.

The labour fee invoiced and product returned checkboxes are deliberately absent from the form: the technician cannot know them on site. The RMA number often comes back from the supplier days later, and back office adds it then. An empty field on the form never overwrites a value back office already filled in.

What does the technician see on the work order for a service visit?

When the technician opens a form with a product table for a service appointment in the portal, that table shows only the products of that service. Not the full installation from years ago.

The order: first the product list on the service itself. That works without a quote too, for example for work under a contract. If that list is empty, the table shows the lines from the linked accepted service quote. For a service you simply create a quote on the record and link it to the service.

The form belongs to the appointment, and the appointment to the service. That is also how RMAs filled in by the technician end up under the right service. If that link is missing and the record has no services or several, the answers stay on the form and stipt creates no RMA row, because that would be guesswork.

How do I get insight into services and RMAs?

In Lists, Service is a source of its own, with one row per service: service number, status, phase, visits, RMAs, reported at and resolved at, among others. Resolved with 0 visits means fixed without a visit; with 1 visit it is a first visit fix. Lists is available to every internal member, except those with the Field worker work profile.

With the Analytics add‑on you can also ask dot: services per month, the RMA percentage, how many RMAs are still open, lead time, and services per record or per product type. Analytics costs €20 per user per month with yearly billing (€24 with monthly billing); admins have it included.

Because the record status stays untouched, all your existing numbers, such as completed projects, pipeline and cycle times, stay correct with services in the mix.