Run a storm and bill it
Open a storm, work the crew screen stop by stop, then close it with the snowfall to invoice per-push and per-storm customers in one go.
- Where
- Snow
- Who can do this
- Opening a storm needs the Schedule visits permission, logging stops Add notes & photos, closing and billing Send invoices & reminders.
Snow in the forecast
MakeHay watches the National Weather Service forecast for every property with an active contract. When the next 48 hours cross a contract's trigger depth, you get an email and a Snow coming card on Snow and the dashboard with the inches and how many contracts it triggers. Nothing opens on its own. From the card you can Open the storm, Tell customers (one email each: we'll be out once your trigger depth has fallen), or dismiss it. US properties only; the forecast comes from the NWS.
Open the storm
On Snow, click Open a storm. Every active contract becomes a stop, in route order with priority 1 stops first. Only one storm is open at a time. With more than one route, chips at the top switch between trucks; a crew member whose team has a route lands on their own truck.
The crew screen
The storm page is built for a phone in a truck at 3 AM: dark, one column, big buttons. Each stop shows the customer, the address and the contract's notes.
- Tap a service as you do it: Plowing, Shoveling, De-ice and so on. The first tap stamps your arrival time. For de-icing, pick Salt or Sand and enter the pounds if you track them.
- Set the depth on the ground with the plus and minus buttons, in half inches.
- Photo opens the camera; up to six per stop.
- Done here stamps the time you left. Skip records a stop you didn't do and why.
- If the signal drops, the stop says Will retry and saves itself when it's back. Keep going.
- With the Texting add-on and the Snow stop done text switched on under Automations, the customer gets a text when you tap Done here: what was done and when.
Close and bill
- Step 1: On the storm page, click Close and bill.
- Step 2: Enter the snowfall for the storm in inches. It picks the tier for per-storm contracts; the crew's depth at each stop is the record, not the price.
- Step 3: Check the list: one invoice per customer with a line for each clearing and each de-icing application. Seasonal customers aren't billed per storm.
- Step 4: Click Close and bill. Customers with a saved card or bank account are charged; the rest get the invoice by email.
Good to know: A storm can be closed before every stop is done. Stops with nothing logged bill nothing, and closing it again later bills only what's new.