Customer Sync

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Operation:

• Creating a customer in VEND creates the customer in ServiceM8

  • Contact details are created as a billing contact in ServiceM8. When the first job for this client is raised ServiceM8 defaults the job contact from the billing contact details                                                                                                

• Creating a customer in ServiceM8 creates the customer in VEND

  • The client’s Billing contact details are created as a customer in VEND

  • Job address and Billing address become the physical and postal addresses in VEND

• Editing customers in either system will update the customer in both systems

 

Notes:

VEND and ServiceM8 have differing methods of tracking customers. In Vend there is a single customer record with a physical and a postal address. In ServiceM8 a customer can have multiple contacts, including a job contact and a billing contact.

 

ServiceM8 uses Client Name as the unique client ID and VEND has Customer Numbers. These are therefore the fields mapped when connecting the two systems. As a result, in most businesses ServiceM8 Client Name fields will often appear as Alpha-Numeric/Numeric.

• AppIntegrate syncs ServiceM8’s Billing contact with the Customer record in VEND.

• ServiceM8’s job address will default to VEND’s physical Address and ServiceM8’s Billing address will default to VEND’s Postal Address

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Address Fields

ServiceM8 and VEND have differing approaches to the capturing and maintenance of address fields, and AppIntegrate works to continually improve the validating of addresses before updating the appropriate fields in each system. We are generally pleased with the outcome, we hope you are too, but please feel free to let us know how this may be improved.

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Trading Terms

VEND and Xero synchronise trading terms from the general settings in Xero. Details on this are available from VEND here. All invoices going from VEND to Xero inherit these terms, and not the terms applied to individual Customers in Xero.

For payment due dates to go accurately from ServiceM8 to VEND and then to Xero, ServiceM8’s trading terms should be set to be the same as the default trading terms specified in the invoice settings in Xero.

 

 

 

Product Sync

Operation:

• Creating a Product in VEND creates that material in ServiceM8

• Creating a Material in ServiceM8 creates that product in VEND

• Editing products in either system will update that product in both systems
   

Notes:

Stock Updates

• VEND is the ‘owner’ of inventory; ServiceM8 is not an inventory system and does not track stock movements. However, ServiceM8 does have both a field for Stock Quantity and (live VEND) the option to nominate if an item is inventoried.

• The ‘item is inventoried’ switch is mapped to VEND

• ServiceM8’s Stock Quantity is only occasionally updated but currently only under limited circumstances. i.e. when a product is first added or updated in VEND the stock quantity comes across to ServiceM8; and when a product is invoiced out of ServiceM8 AppIntegrate manually reduces the Stock Quantity in ServiceM8

 

 

 

 

 

Invoice Sync

ServiceM8 offers extensive flexibility for its invoice template designs as well as automations to assist with sending invoices and integrated payment options.

 

Currently many users creating account sales are generating their invoices in VEND however printing/transmitting them to clients from the Xero/QB accounting package as this offers invoice layout, design and integrated payment options nearly on par with ServceM8

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• Invoices generated out in the field are available in ServiceM8’s Invoicing function to check and approve and send these.

• When an invoice is checked and Approved in ServiceM8 > Invoicing > Awaiting Approval, it will be created in VEND as an ‘On Account’ register transaction. This includes fully paid, zero balance invoices.

• Customers and Products are re-validated in VEND prior to creating the on-account sale

• Any payments already applied in ServiceM8 are also created in VEND

• Once invoices are approved in ServiceM8, VEND and Xero/QB, edits to the invoice cannot be made to the invoice in any of the 3 systems. As is currently the case with invoices created in VEND to Xero/QB.

• Payments against this invoice can now be taken in VEND or Xero, with payments applied in Xero now automatically being applied in VEND. At this stage these payments made to invoices in VEND are not applied to the invoice in ServiceM8. This functionality is in development planning at the moment.

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[Note: ServiceM8 recently deprecated the Preferences configuration for payments being made in other systems (and not in ServiceM8). Now this option is gone the ‘Awaiting Payment’ and ‘Paid’ tabs always appear on the Invoices page. However, as there is no significant follow-on Debtors functionality or reporting provided in ServiceM8, and this is all managed in VEND and Xero/QB, tracking of payments to invoices in ServiceM8 is not critical for most/all users at this time]

 

 

 

 

 

Bulk Imports

(and API Volume Limits)

 

WARNING: When using the Synchronise Historical Data, or when doing bulk record updates in either system, in instances where a large number of records i.e. greater that a total of 150 to 200 records (products and customers), are to be synchronised at once things slow down quite considerably.

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VEND and ServiceM8, like all other app’s API’s, commonly impose data volume or data rate limits. These limits are quite reasonable for general use or even with modest volume updates, however, in some instances attempting to synchronise more than a few hundred records at once (customers and products) can result in long processing times.

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If you could use some assistance with this please email us at info@appintegrate.com before proceeding.