How to use this page
Search this page (Ctrl+F or ⌘F) for the word you saw on screen. Each entry says where the term appears and what it means for your business.
Jobs and scheduling
- Job — one visit or one multi-day project for a customer. Every job belongs to a customer and a service location.
- Needs Crew — a job that is scheduled but has no crew assigned yet. Save a job as Needs Crew and assign it later from the Dispatch Center or the job itself.
- Available anytime — the job can happen at any time within its window; the crew picks the best time on the day of service.
- Arrival window — the time range the customer is told to expect the crew (for example Morning, 8 AM to 12 PM). Shown in confirmation and reminder messages.
- Recurring series — a set of repeating visits created from one job or one service agreement. Editing one visit creates an exception; editing the series changes future visits.
- Exception — a single visit in a series that was moved, skipped, or changed without changing the rest of the series.
- My Work — the owner's own field view. Choose Assign to me on a job when you are doing the work yourself; it then appears under My Work and in your timesheet.
- Field execution plan — the checklist items, required photos, equipment, and training modules attached to a job from its services.
- Closeout — the last step of a job in the crew app. Blockers such as missing photos or unlogged materials must be cleared before the job can be completed.
- Handoff packet — the summary the crew app builds at closeout for the office and customer: what was done, photos, notes, materials, and time.
- Field issue — a problem the crew reports from a job (with an optional voice note). Owners review these on Schedule → Field Issues.
- Day sheet — a printable page of a crew's jobs for one day, from the Calendar.
Routing and dispatch
- Route — the ordered list of stops one crew drives in one day. Built or optimized from Schedule → Routing.
- Route build / auto-optimize quota — the number of route builds (25 per day) and automatic optimizations (5 per day) included in your plan. The counters show on the Routing page.
- Dispatch readiness — the checks the Dispatch Center runs before crews leave: crew assigned, address present, equipment ready, customer contact present, arrival window set.
- Route template — a saved stop order you can reuse for regular days.
Quotes, invoices, and money
- Quote — an estimate the customer can approve online. Approving creates a job that stays linked to the quote and the final invoice.
- Multi-option quote — a quote with Good / Better / Best packages; the customer picks one when approving.
- Payment schedule — how a project is billed in stages: deposit, fixed milestone, progress draw, final balance, or retainage.
- Deposit — money collected before work starts. A deposit set on a job becomes its first billing milestone and the customer is emailed the deposit invoice.
- Progress draw — an invoice for a percentage of work completed so far on a project.
- Retainage — a portion of the contract held back until the project is fully complete.
- Change order — an approved change to the scope or price of a job after the quote was accepted. It is billed with the job.
- Readiness (invoice) — the checks the invoice builder runs before sending: customer, services, total, delivery. Needs: Customer means that item is missing.
- Payment terms — when an invoice is due: Due on receipt, Net 15, 30 (default), 45, 60, or 90 days.
- Past due — an invoice that crossed its due date unpaid. Zentive flips the status automatically and continues the reminder schedule.
- Autopay — a customer's choice to have invoices charged to their saved card on the due date. Requires Stripe and a card on file.
- Cash discount — an optional percentage off for customers who pay in full by cash or check. Applied when you record the payment.
- Customer credit — a balance a customer can apply to a future invoice, for example after an overpayment or a goodwill credit.
- Write-off — closing an unpaid balance you will not collect. It is not a payment and does not sync to QuickBooks as one.
- Void — cancelling an invoice that should never have been sent. Voided invoices stay visible for the record.
- Statement — a PDF summary of a customer's invoices, payments, and balance for a date range.
- CAI number — the invoice number customers see (for example INV-0054). It is the customer-facing identifier used in emails, texts, and PDFs.
- Member badge — shown on jobs for customers with an active service agreement that includes a member discount.
Service agreements
- Service agreement — the record that defines recurring work for a customer or company: services, visit frequency, price meaning, billing cadence, and renewal.
- Per service visit — the price is charged for each completed visit and combined into an invoice on the billing cadence.
- Fixed fee per billing period — the same amount every period regardless of how many visits happened.
- Total contract, split into payments — the full contract value divided evenly into the number of payments you choose.
- Custom payment stages — the contract billed by deposit, milestones, and final balance you define.
- Auto-schedule after signing — visits are created automatically once the customer signs.
- Fully automatic billing — generated invoices are approved and sent without review; saved-card customers with autopay are charged.
People and access
- Owner — the account that created the business. Full access, including billing.
- Co-owner — a second office user with owner-level access, added from Settings → Team.
- Crew (employee) — a field user of the crew app. Financial visibility is controlled per employee in Settings → Financial Permissions.
- Foreman — the crew member who leads a crew and gets extra controls on a job, such as On my way and closeout approval.
- Customer portal — the customer's own view for quotes, invoices, payments, agreements, messages, and service requests.
- Portal invite / portal link — the two ways to get a customer into the portal, from the customer record.
Messaging
- Automated messages — the texts and emails Zentive sends around visits, quotes, invoices, and reviews. Managed in Message Center → Automated Messages.
- Broadcast — a one-time message to many customers at once.
- Inbox — two-way chat with customers who use the portal.
- On my way / Arrived — buttons in the crew app that text the customer an ETA or an arrival notice.
- Review request — the automated message that asks a customer to rate the service after a job closes.
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