Complete user guide

How to use S-Flow

A practical operating guide for setting up your workspace, managing daily jobs, following up with customers, sending invoices and reviewing business numbers.

First 30 minutes

Follow this setup order if you are opening S-Flow for the first time.

  1. Create or confirm your organization and default province in Settings.
  2. Upload your company logo if you want it to appear on public quotes and invoices.
  3. Add your first customer with email and phone.
  4. Schedule your first job from Agenda.
  5. Create a follow-up reminder if the job needs future action.
  6. Create and send an invoice when the work is ready to bill.
  7. Review Dashboard and Earnings weekly to keep work and money aligned.

Daily workflow

This is the recommended routine for keeping operations, follow-ups and invoices clean.

  1. Open Dashboard.
  2. Complete overdue reminders.
  3. Review today's jobs in Agenda.
  4. Update completed jobs with final price.
  5. Send invoices for completed billable work.
  6. Mark paid invoices once payment is received outside S-Flow.

1. Use the dashboard as your daily command center

The dashboard is designed for quick decisions at the start of the day. It combines operational work, money, reminders and recent changes in one place.

  1. Start with overdue reminders and open invoices. These are the items most likely to need action today.
  2. Check the revenue forecast for the next 7, 15 and 30 days to understand expected cash flow.
  3. Use Annual tax as a planning number, not as final filing advice.
  4. Review Recent activity to see which customer, job and employee changed recently.
  5. Click into the customer or module when something needs follow-up.
Good practice
  • If the dashboard feels noisy, complete old reminders and mark paid invoices as paid.
  • Recent activity is most useful for teams because it shows what changed without asking everyone.

2. Create and maintain customers

Customers are the base record in S-Flow. Jobs, reminders and invoices all connect back to a customer, so clean customer data makes the rest of the app easier.

  1. Open Customers and create a customer with name, email, phone and address.
  2. Use the customer profile to see service history, reminders and invoices in one place.
  3. Keep email addresses current if you plan to send invoices or reminder emails.
  4. Use notes for operational details your team should remember before a job.
  5. Use the client portal link when you need to share customer-facing information.
Good practice
  • Avoid duplicate customers. Search before creating a new record.
  • If a customer has multiple properties, include the service address clearly in the address or notes.

3. Schedule jobs and assign work

Jobs represent the work your business performs. They can be scheduled, assigned to employees, priced, completed and repeated with recurrence.

  1. Open Agenda or Jobs and create a job for the right customer.
  2. Choose the service date, start time, duration and assigned employee.
  3. Set service type, description and estimated price before the work happens.
  4. Use recurrence for repeated services such as weekly, monthly or yearly work.
  5. When the work is done, mark the job completed and confirm the final price.
  6. If a recurring job is completed, S-Flow can create the next scheduled job based on recurrence settings.
Good practice
  • Use assigned employees consistently if you want clean team-level reporting.
  • Use final price for what was actually charged. Estimated price can remain as the original expectation.

4. Use reminders for follow-up discipline

Reminders are for the work that should not be forgotten: customer follow-ups, recurring check-ins, pending decisions or future service opportunities.

  1. Create reminders from the Reminders page or from customer/job workflows.
  2. Choose a reminder date, optional time and a clear note.
  3. Use presets like 7 days, 30 days or custom recurrence for repeated follow-ups.
  4. Send a customer email manually when the reminder requires customer communication.
  5. Mark reminders done once the follow-up is completed.
  6. Recurring reminders create the next reminder when the current one is completed.
Good practice
  • Write reminder notes as actions, for example: Call customer about spring cleaning.
  • Do not leave completed reminders pending. The dashboard is only useful when the list is clean.

5. Create, send and track quotes and invoices

Quotes and invoices are connected to customers and calculate subtotal, tax and totals from line items. Quotes can be approved, declined or sent back with a change request before becoming confirmed work.

  1. Use the Quotes / Invoices switch to choose the document type before creating a new record.
  2. Choose the customer, province, due date and document status.
  3. Add line items with description, quantity and unit price.
  4. Review subtotal, tax amount and total before sending.
  5. Send the quote or invoice by email when ready.
  6. Use Email defaults on the Quotes / Invoices page to customize the template for the active document type.
  7. For quotes, use proposed service date and time when you want a tentative agenda hold.
  8. Review quote conversations when a customer requests changes from the public quote link.
  9. When the client pays outside S-Flow, mark the invoice paid and set the paid date.
Good practice
  • Quote and invoice numbers use separate numbering so estimates and final invoices stay clean.
  • The public invoice page is for viewing, approving or discussing the document, not paying online at this stage.
  • Set the paid date carefully because tax and financial reports may use it as the reporting basis.

6. Review earnings, invoices and tax reports

The earnings area gives you a financial view of completed work and invoice tax. It is useful for planning, reconciliation and conversations with an accountant.

  1. Use the period selector to review revenue for the date range you care about.
  2. Use Custom when you need to analyze an exact date range.
  3. Compare scheduled work, completed work and invoiced amounts.
  4. Open Tax Report to see accumulated tax for the selected period.
  5. Choose the date basis carefully: issued date for invoice creation, paid date for cash-style review, due date for collection planning.
  6. Export or share numbers with your accountant when needed.
Good practice
  • Tax numbers are for planning. Confirm filing rules and reporting basis with an accountant.
  • If tax totals look wrong, check invoice province, status, paid date and line items first.

7. Set up team access and roles

Roles keep your workspace organized and protect sensitive actions. Give each user the minimum access they need to do their job.

  1. Use Workspaces when your Business plan needs more than one business location or company file.
  2. Use Owner for the person responsible for the workspace and billing.
  3. Use Admin for trusted managers who can manage settings and team access.
  4. Use Staff for daily operations such as customers, jobs, reminders and invoices.
  5. Use Accountant for financial review without operational edits.
  6. Use Read only when someone needs visibility but should not change data.
Good practice
  • Review team access when an employee leaves or changes role.
  • Business plan users get more team and workspace flexibility.

8. Get support when something needs attention

The Support page sends a request directly to S-Flow with your organization, plan and app context so the issue can be understood faster.

  1. Open Support from inside the app.
  2. Choose the category: bug, billing, how-to, data/account or other.
  3. Write what happened, what you expected and which customer/job/invoice is involved.
  4. Submit the request. Business plan requests are marked as high priority.
Good practice
  • Include screenshots or exact names when possible.
  • For urgent billing access issues, choose the billing category.

Common questions

Can my customer pay invoices directly in S-Flow?

Not yet. Public invoice links can be used for viewing, but online payment is intentionally disabled for now. Payment stays between you and your customer.

What is the difference between price and final price?

Price is the estimate or planned amount. Final price is the amount actually charged after the job is completed.

Why does paid date matter?

Paid date can be used as the reporting basis for cash-style tax or revenue review. If you use paid-date reporting, keep it accurate.

Should I delete old reminders or mark them done?

Usually mark them done. That keeps a useful history while clearing the dashboard.

Who should have accountant access?

Use accountant access for people who need financial visibility but should not manage daily operations or change company settings.

Module reference

Use this as a quick map when you are unsure where a task belongs.

Dashboard

See what needs attention today before opening every module.

Use for: Overdue reminders, open invoices, revenue forecast, annual tax planning, earnings chart and recent job changes.
Check first: If numbers look off, check date range, invoice status, paid date and whether old reminders are still pending.

Agenda

Plan the day by date and employee.

Use for: Daily scheduling, job timing, employee assignment and short operational review.
Check first: If a job is missing, check service date, organization, assigned employee and filters.

Jobs

Control the full lifecycle of each service.

Use for: Scheduling, editing, completion, recurrence, final price and job change history.
Check first: If recurrence did not create the next job, confirm the current job was completed and recurrence still has a valid end date.

Customers

Keep all customer context connected.

Use for: Contact details, address, notes, service history, reminders and invoices.
Check first: If history looks split, search for duplicate customer records.

Reminders

Protect follow-ups that should not be forgotten.

Use for: Calls, renewal opportunities, pending decisions, recurring follow-ups and optional customer email reminders.
Check first: If the dashboard is noisy, complete old reminders instead of leaving them pending.

Invoices

Create clear quotes and invoices and track customer response or payment status.

Use for: Line items, tax, due dates, sending by email, public document links, quote conversations and marking payments received outside S-Flow.
Check first: If tax or totals look wrong, check province, item quantity, unit price, status and paid date.

Earnings and Tax Report

Review business numbers for planning and accounting conversations.

Use for: Preset and custom period reporting, tax collected, revenue review and comparing issued, paid or due date basis.
Check first: For fiscal reporting, confirm the correct date basis with your accountant.

Settings and Billing

Control organization, team access and subscription state.

Use for: Company details, logo, QuickBooks connection, workspaces, members, roles, employees, invitations and billing plan.
Check first: If someone cannot edit, confirm their role and whether the action is restricted to owner/admin/staff.

Troubleshooting

Before opening support, these checks solve most setup, reporting and visibility issues.

A customer, job or invoice is not showing

  • Confirm you are in the correct organization.
  • Clear or adjust filters and date ranges.
  • Check whether the record is connected to the expected customer.
  • For team users, confirm their role allows access to that area.

Tax report looks wrong

  • Confirm the selected period.
  • Confirm the date basis: issued date, paid date or due date.
  • Open the related invoices and check province, status, line items and paid date.
  • Remember that tax report is a planning tool; confirm filing rules with an accountant.

Recurring job or reminder did not create the next item

  • Confirm the current item was marked completed.
  • Check recurrence interval and unit.
  • Check recurrence end date.
  • Confirm a next item was not already created from the same parent.

A team member cannot change something

  • Owner/admin can manage organization settings, team and billing.
  • Staff can manage daily operations such as customers, jobs, reminders and invoices.
  • Accountant is meant for financial review.
  • Read only is visibility without edits.

Data quality rules

These habits keep dashboard, tax, invoices and team work reliable.

  • Use one customer record per real customer whenever possible.
  • Keep customer email current before sending invoices or reminder emails.
  • Always set final price when the completed job amount differs from the estimate.
  • Mark invoices paid only after payment is received outside S-Flow.
  • Set paid date carefully because financial and tax reports may use it.
  • Complete old reminders so dashboard alerts stay meaningful.
  • Review roles when employees join, leave or change responsibilities.
Best rhythm: review dashboard daily, clean reminders weekly, reconcile invoices monthly and confirm tax reporting basis before filing.

Need help from S-Flow?

Open the app and send a support request with your organization context attached.