Productized service software: what runs one from order to invoice

What software runs a productized service?

It runs on software for four jobs, in order: taking the order, gathering the details, doing the work and getting paid. Look at each job on its own before you look at a tool. Then ask each seller how their tool handles that job.

The order page

The client picks what to buy here and pays or signs up. Ask a seller:

• Can a client buy without a call or a long email thread?
• Can the page show the scope in plain words, with what's in and what's out?
• Does a new order land in the work queue on its own?

Intake

Right after the order, the client sends the details the work depends on. A form does this job, and its questions matter as much as the tool that sends it.

The delivery queue

Your team works the orders here, one step at a time. Ask a seller:

• Can you see every open order in one list, with who has it and when it's due?
• Can you save the steps for one offer, so each new order starts with the same checklist?
• Can you tell at a glance which orders are stuck?

Billing

The money side runs here, once or each month. Ask a seller:

• Does it charge once per order, or on a set day each month, to match how you sell?
• What happens when a card fails? Look for a reminder to the client and a flag for you.
• Does each invoice show what the client's books need?

How you bill rests on how you price, so settle the price model before you pick a billing tool. For the pricing models side by side, see agency pricing models.

Before you pay for anything, run one real order through every step, start to end. Count each time you had to type the same detail twice. Each one is a gap between two jobs.

What onboarding tools does a productized service need?

It needs one intake form that asks every new client the same questions, and a place to keep the answers next to the order. When each order starts the same way, the form does a lot of the work.

Ask these of any intake or onboarding tool:

• Does the form go out as soon as the order is paid?
• Can you make a field required, so the work never starts with gaps?
• Can the client upload files and share access in the same place?
• Do the answers land on the order in your queue, or in a separate inbox someone has to check?
• Can it remind a client who hasn't finished the form?
• Can you change the questions for one offer without changing them for all?

The tool only carries the questions. What you ask decides how smooth the work goes. For the questions to ask a new client, see the onboarding questionnaire.

How do you manage a productized service as orders grow?

Keep one queue, give every order a clear status, and write the process down once the same steps keep coming back. Software can't fix a process nobody wrote down, but it can make a written one easy to follow.

• One queue. Every order from every offer sits in one list. Two lists means two places to miss something.
• Clear statuses. Use a short, fixed set, such as new, waiting on client, in progress, in review and done. Everyone reads them the same way.
• A written process. After you've delivered an offer a few times, write its steps down. Then anyone on the team can run it the same way.
• A weekly look at the queue. Find the orders that sit too long in one status. That status is where the next fix goes.
• A list of steps that still need you. Each one puts a ceiling on how many orders you can take.

We think an added service is worth building when it earns without taking your own hours. Tools help with that only when the steps are set and the work can move without you in the middle.