Glossary
Field service glossary.
Plain-English definitions of the terms that come up when you run or buy software for a field service business. Bookmark or cite — each term has its own anchor link.
- Field Service Management (FSM)
- Software that helps service businesses run the workflow that happens outside an office — scheduling crews, dispatching them to customer sites, capturing work completed, and invoicing. FSM tools typically combine a customer database, calendar, mobile crew app, and billing system in one. ServeHub is an FSM platform built for small-to-mid-size service businesses.
- Service Estimate
- A written price quote a service business sends a customer before doing the work. A good estimate includes itemized labor, materials, applicable taxes, and a clear scope. Customers sign or reject it. In ServeHub, every estimate supports e-signature and can be converted to a contract or invoice in one click.
- Service Contract
- A signed agreement between a service business and customer outlining scope of work, price, terms, and signatures. For one-off jobs, a signed estimate often functions as the contract. For recurring work, a separate service agreement (sometimes called a maintenance contract) covers scheduled visits over a period (quarterly, annual, multi-year).
- Work Order
- An internal record telling a crew what to do on a specific job: location, customer, scope of work, materials needed, special notes. Some businesses call this a job ticket or service ticket. In modern FSM, the work order lives on the crew's phone and updates in real time as photos and notes are added.
- Dispatch
- The act of assigning a tech or crew to a job, on a specific day and time. Dispatching considers crew skills, location, customer schedule, and equipment. Good dispatch software routes by drive time, prevents double-booking, and lets dispatchers reassign jobs in real time. ServeHub does this for shops up to ~30 crews.
- Route Optimization
- Auto-ordering a crew's daily stops to minimize drive time. Critical for high-volume service businesses like landscaping, cleaning, pest control, and pool service where a crew might visit 8-15 customers in a day.
- Recurring Maintenance Plan
- A subscription-style agreement where customers pay regularly (monthly, quarterly, annually) for scheduled service visits — HVAC tune-ups, lawn care, pool cleaning, pest treatment, etc. Maintenance plans are the holy grail for service businesses because they convert one-time customers into predictable yearly revenue. ServeHub auto-renews these plans and generates recurring invoices.
- Job Costing
- Tracking the actual labor, materials, and overhead spent on a specific job versus what was quoted, to know whether that job (and that job type) was profitable. Most small shops don't job-cost rigorously, which is why they don't know which work makes money. Job costing is foundational to growing a service business.
- Deposit Invoicing
- Collecting a partial payment from the customer before work begins — usually 25-50% of the quote. Common for larger projects (HVAC installs, roofing, landscaping projects). Deposit invoicing protects the business from cancellations and funds the materials purchase. ServeHub supports e-sign + deposit invoice in one customer-facing flow.
- E-signature (Electronic Signature)
- A legally binding signature captured digitally on a document — typically via a customer typing their name, drawing a signature, or clicking 'I agree'. E-signed estimates and contracts are valid in the US (E-SIGN Act, 2000) and Canada (PIPEDA / provincial equivalents). ServeHub includes e-signature on every estimate and contract in the base plan.
- Customer Portal
- A web page where customers can see their history with a service business — past invoices, signed contracts, upcoming appointments, payment methods. A portal reduces back-and-forth and lets customers self-serve. ServeHub generates a customer portal automatically for every business.
- Proposal vs Estimate
- An estimate is a price for a specific scope of work, often itemized. A proposal is broader — it can include the price plus a narrative pitch (who you are, why you're the right fit, methodology). For small jobs, you send an estimate. For larger competitive bids, you send a proposal. ServeHub supports both.
- Service Area
- The geographic region a service business operates in — usually defined by zip codes, cities, or a radius from a base location. Defining a service area helps with dispatch (don't offer jobs you can't reach), local SEO (Google understands where you serve), and pricing (drive-time-based job pricing).
- Field Service Automation
- Software that handles the routine, repeatable parts of running a service business without humans — auto-invoicing after job completion, auto-renewing maintenance plans, auto-sending appointment reminders, auto-following-up on unsigned estimates. The more a business automates, the more it scales without hiring office admin.
- Service Ticket
- Another name for a work order — the document or record describing a specific service call or job to be performed. Some industries (HVAC, IT, telecom) more commonly use 'ticket', others (construction, trades) use 'work order'. ServeHub handles both terminologies.
- Mobile Workforce Management
- Software that gives crews in the field everything they need from a phone or tablet — their daily route, customer notes, scope of work, ability to capture photos, process payment, and mark jobs complete. ServeHub is mobile-first, with native iOS and Android apps.
- Field Service CRM
- A customer relationship management system specifically built for service businesses, combining typical CRM features (customer database, contact history, notes) with field-service-specific features (job tickets, dispatch, mobile crew app, invoicing). Distinct from generic CRMs like Salesforce — those aren't built for the dispatch-and-invoice motion.
- Tip Collection
- Letting customers add a tip on top of the invoice when paying for service. Increasingly common in residential service (cleaning, lawn care, HVAC service) — a small UX detail that materially increases tech compensation. ServeHub supports optional tipping on invoices.
All of this in one place.
ServeHub bundles every workflow above — estimates, contracts, invoicing, dispatch, recurring plans — into one flat plan with unlimited users. Free for 7 days.