Pool service estimates and invoices, from the weekly visit to the green pool.

Say exactly what a weekly visit includes.

Pool service software starts with the visit, because "weekly service" means different things to every customer. Spell it out: test the water and record the readings, brush the walls, steps and tile line, empty the skimmer and pump baskets, vacuum as needed, and check the equipment. Say how often: weekly, every other week or monthly.

The customer's real question is whether the water will be clear every week without them thinking about it. A visit spelled out on the estimate, with the readings recorded on each invoice, answers it and shows them what they pay for.

In Jobkore every line has its own unit. The weekly service is a visit, openings and closings are each, repairs are each or by the hour. Load the Specialty Services trade pack and your catalog starts with weekly pool cleaning, seasonal openings and closings, pump repair and replacement, heater installs and liner replacement. Change the prices to yours once, and every estimate starts from your numbers.

Chemicals: included, capped or itemized.

Chemical prices move, and a flat weekly rate that includes unlimited chemicals is how pool companies lose money in a bad year. Decide how you bill them and put it on the estimate: included up to a normal amount, itemized per visit, or passed through at cost plus a markup. Say which chemicals are covered (chlorine, pH, alkalinity, stabilizer, calcium) and which are extra.

Put the readings on the invoice in the line description: chlorine, pH, alkalinity. It is a record for you and a report for the customer, and it answers the "what are you even doing" question before it is asked.

If the customer has a salt system, a cartridge filter or a heater, name them on the estimate so their maintenance cycles are part of the plan rather than a surprise.

Openings, closings, filters and green pools.

The seasonal jobs are their own scopes and their own prices. A spring opening removes the cover, fills and balances, starts the equipment and troubleshoots winter damage. A fall closing lowers the water, winterizes the plumbing and covers the pool; in a freeze zone, skipping the line blowout is how you pay for cracked pipes in spring.

Filter cleaning runs on its own cycle, cartridge every few months and DE a couple of times a season, and a dirty filter is the cause of many "cloudy water" calls. Put it on the estimate as a line with its interval.

A green pool is not a weekly visit. Recovery can take several visits and several times the normal chemicals, so price it as its own job and say how many visits it includes. Photos help: up to 20 on the document, and a before and after of the green pool does the selling.

Repairs, and the rules for public pools.

Pumps, heaters, salt cells, liners and plaster are repairs, not maintenance. Flag them during a visit and quote them separately. When the customer approves, the repair can go on an estimate they sign online, or as a change order on an invoice that is already open.

If you service pools at HOAs, apartments or hotels, those are public pools, and federal law sets rules for them. The Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act requires each public pool and spa to have anti-entrapment devices or systems meeting the national standard, with additional protection where there is a single main drain that can be blocked. Check drain covers on those pools and note them on your paperwork.

If you hold a Certified Pool Operator credential, put it on the estimate; it is a reason to choose you.

Bill by the month from one link.

Jobkore does not run automatic recurring billing, so here is how pool companies use it. For a season, put the service on one invoice with a payment schedule: a row per month, each with its own due date. The customer's Pay button offers the next month due first (they can also pay ahead), so they pay each month from the same link, and payments fill the rows in order. A schedule holds up to six rows, so a season longer than six months goes on two invoices.

If you prefer to bill after the visits, send a monthly invoice with the visits as the quantity. The customer pays by card or bank transfer on their phone. Stripe charges its standard rate and Jobkore adds nothing on top, and late payments get reminders at 1, 7 and 14 days.

Invoices and payments sync one way to QuickBooks Online. More on what to do when a client will not pay.

Hank knows the pool service traps.

Jobkore includes Hank AI™, an assistant that knows the trade you picked at signup. Tell him the job by typing or with a voice memo: weekly service for a 20,000-gallon plaster pool with a salt system and cartridge filter, chemicals itemized, spring opening and fall closing, freeze zone. He drafts the estimate with the visit, the chemical policy, the filter cycle and the seasonal jobs, priced from your catalog first.

Turn on a review before sending and he checks it against a pool service list: chemicals with no cap or itemizing, no filter cleaning cycle, a green pool priced at the weekly rate, no winterization in a freeze zone, no plan for logging readings. He can add the missing line and never changes your prices in a review.

Jobkore does not do route planning, dispatch or chemical dosing. It does estimates, change orders, invoices and payments, on your phone, in English or Spanish. Related trades: plumbing, electrical and landscaping. See the pricing page.