ServiceM8 recurring jobs, explained: the two add-ons, how to set one up, and what they don't do for maintenance agreements

Published September 2, 2026 · Help-center quotes verified on September 2, 2026

• Every step and limit on this page was checked against ServiceM8's help center, add-on pages and US pricing page on September 2, 2026, with links at the bottom. Where a line comes from a ServiceM8 user, I say so and link the thread.
• I build Deepsel, a maintenance-agreement tool that runs beside ServiceM8. That's relevant to exactly one section of this page, and it's labeled.

ServiceM8 recurring jobs are included on every plan, Free up, through two add-ons: Simple Recurring Jobs (one to four weeks, from a job card) and Recurring Jobs + Reminders (any pattern, built on job templates, created only in the online Dispatch Board). Both schedule visits. Neither holds a plan price, a renewal date or a count of visits owed.^{1, 2, 4}

That's the answer for the search box. The rest is the setup, the rules that bite after you've saved, and the line between a recurring job and an agreement.

Which ServiceM8 plans include recurring jobs, and which add-on do you need?

Every plan, including Free. The US pricing page lists Recurring Jobs on all five plan cards, its comparison table marks "Recurring Jobs & Maintenance Scheduling" as available in all plans, and the feature blurb reads: "Create a job once and set it to re-create and schedule itself over time, automatically. If the booking isn't confirmed, you can set reminders instead."¹

What the pricing page skips is that "recurring jobs" is two different add-ons, and the help center is careful to keep them apart: "there are two add-ons which help with managing repeat work," namely "the Simple Recurring Jobs Add-on, and the Recurring Jobs & Reminders Add-on."² You switch either on yourself under Settings, and neither costs extra.¹⁰ Here's how they differ, from ServiceM8's own pages as of September 2, 2026:

For a maintenance program, the second one is the add-on you want. It's the one the rest of this page walks through.

How to set up a recurring job in ServiceM8

Build the template first, switch the add-on on, then create the recurring job from the Dispatch Board. Eight steps, with the menu names as ServiceM8 spells them.

1. Build a Job Template. Activate Job Templates under Account > Features & Integrations, then go to Account > Settings > Job Templates, name the template and preset the description, checklist, documents and materials you want on every job.⁹ There's no shortcut through an existing job here: recurring jobs "are always based on a Job Template," because otherwise they "would quickly become filled with irrelevant information from previous jobs."^{2, 8} One template per visit type.
2. Switch on the add-on. Settings > ServiceM8 Add-ons, scroll to Recurring Jobs + Reminders, click the switch.¹⁰ A New Recurring Job button appears in the top-left of the Dispatch Board.²
3. Click New Recurring Job and pick the client. Search, select, and the recurring job card opens.^{2, 6}
4. Select the Job Template. Or a Service, if you run the Services add-on; a Service carries the duration and which staff can do the job, which lets ServiceM8 pick the time and tech for you.¹² Anything typed in the description box is added to the template's text.²
5. Choose the Recurring Type. Three options: "Job should be automatically scheduled" books the job to chosen staff at a fixed time of day; "Job should be automatically allocated" drops it into an allocation window instead (needs the Job Allocations add-on); "Reminder should arrive in the Inbox" books nothing and reminds you to call the client.² For tune-ups ServiceM8 points at the third, "for longer-term recurring work where a specific time and staff member needs to be confirmed closer to the date, such as 6-month or 12-month service intervals."²
6. Set the time, duration and staff. Durations include 15 and 45 minute options, and you can add more than one team member from the dropdown.¹⁷
7. Set the pattern, the start date and the end. The docs' worked example is weekly, every two weeks, Friday ticked; the Frequency dropdown has a Custom option for finer control.^{2, 6} Watch the start date. It's "the date after which jobs will be automatically created," so a job set to recur on the first Monday of October with a start date of October 31 won't fire until next October.¹⁴ Then the end. The help center's own example is the one you'll use: "This is a 12 month maintenance contract, so we will set the end as one year from now."⁶
8. Save and check the Bookings pane. The right-hand pane lists future dates in yellow marked TBC and past bookings underneath.² Every recurring job lives in the Recurring Jobs tab of the Dispatch Board, searchable by service type, client name or recurrence pattern.^{2, 17}

The simple path, for a weekly pool run or a monthly filter route, is shorter. Open the job card, click Recurrence, set one to four weeks, done. "The job is now set to recur once completed," scheduled to the same staff member at the same time as before; a job that was never scheduled goes to whoever completed it, at your opening time.³

What you can and can't change after a recurring job is created

You can change everything about the schedule, from the Online Dashboard only. The jobs it has already created are separate objects that you edit one at a time. Those two rules explain most of the surprises.

Start with where the controls live, in ServiceM8's words:

"Recurring Jobs can only be created online in the Dispatch Board."²

"While individual job cards created under a recurring job can be opened & managed anywhere in the app and online dashboard, you can only manage the settings of a recurring jobs here in the Online Dashboard."²

So a tech can open today's tune-up on the phone, add photos and complete it. Setting up next year's schedule for that customer waits until someone is at a computer. A pool tech on a free trial said it in February 2026: "a fair amount of its features are actually locked behind the desktop version which doesn't overly help a field tech business."¹⁹ A three-star App Store review from August 2026 agreed: "if you want access to the full capabilities, that's only possible through the browser."²⁰

Activation. Recurring jobs "activate (i.e. automatically create and schedule themselves) a default of 1 week before their recurrence date," adjustable up to 12 weeks in Settings > Preferences > Recurring Jobs.⁷ Reminders reach the Inbox on the same lead time.¹⁵ Until then a future booking is a yellow TBC block, and the help center lists what that means:

"Inactive future bookings: Do not have a job number. Cannot be opened. Can be activated manually (before their auto-confirmation date) by double-clicking them. Can be cancelled without activation e.g. if a client wants to skip a future booking."²

Cancelling a TBC booking is how you skip a visit, and it's clean: right-click > Cancel Booking in the recurring job's settings, or double-click it on the Staff Schedule.² Note what it doesn't do. Nothing records that the customer was owed that visit.

Moving one visit vs all of them. Drag an activated recurring job on the Staff Schedule and ServiceM8 asks "whether you wish to reschedule it for this booking only, or all future bookings."² Time, day and staff can all be changed this way.¹⁷

Changing the template. This is the part that cuts both ways. Because every recurring job is built on a template, editing the template changes every future job made from it, which ServiceM8 suggests for exactly one case: "makes it easy to change a group of recurring schedules by changing one template. I.E When your pricing goes up."⁸ Client-level changes don't flow the other way. A facilities director on a legacy plan put it this way on Capterra: "updating a client doesn't update the recurring job - you need to also update the template...double handling."²¹

What settings changes never touch. From the auto-routing rules: "Changing the settings for a recurring job will never have any effect on the jobs that have already been created."¹¹ Same list: a fixed time or a named staff member locks the job to that slot "even if it would cause double bookings."¹¹

Stopping it. Open the Recurring Jobs tab, double-click, and "view, modify or cancel."² The jobs it already created stay put. ServiceM8 doesn't delete jobs at all; you set a job's status to Unsuccessful and it drops off the Dispatch Board after 48 hours.¹⁸

How recurring jobs bill in ServiceM8

Each activated booking is a normal job card with a normal invoice, which you send and collect the way you do for any other job. Nothing charges a stored card, with one legacy exception.

Three things follow from "normal job card." It spends a job credit ("every time you create a new job card, it uses a job credit"),¹ and 150 agreement customers at two visits a year is 300 credits bunched in spring and fall; the plan-cap math is on the ServiceM8 pricing page. Reminders are free until converted.¹⁵ The invoice lines come pre-filled from the template's items, so the visit price is set once.⁹ And collection is the standard flow, with the Automated Payment Follow-ups automation, on all plans, chasing whoever doesn't pay.¹

The exception is Auto-Pay for Recurring Jobs, which the pricing page lists from Starter up. A client paying a recurring-job invoice online can tick "Pay future invoices automatically," after which the saved card is charged on each later invoice's due date, provided the job is complete and the invoice sent; a failed charge adds a "Payment Failed" note, emails the billing contact, and retries "every 24 hours up to 3 times."¹³ Then the footnote: "Auto-payment for Recurring Jobs is only supported with the Stripe Payments add-on (not available to new customers)."¹³ A shop on ServiceM8 Pay doesn't get it; the detail is in the Auto-Pay section of the pricing page. For everyone else a declined card is an unpaid invoice, and the help center describes no retry.

Recurring jobs vs a maintenance agreement in ServiceM8

A recurring job is a schedule. A maintenance agreement is one payment, several visits, a renewal at the end, and a discount in between. Here's what each add-on holds of that.

None of this is a defect. ServiceM8 says "repeat work, contracts or maintenance" and means the scheduling of it.¹ The five fields that sit outside the schedule are laid out in how to track HVAC maintenance agreements.

When recurring jobs are enough, and when they aren't

They're enough when the visit is the product and each visit is billed on its own. A weekly pool run or a monthly filter route fits Simple Recurring Jobs to the letter. A quarterly commercial PM contract on a fixed day, invoiced per visit, is what "Job should be automatically scheduled" was built for, and on a dense route Services plus Auto-Routing will pick the tech and the order.¹¹ A solo plumber running ServiceM8 and Xero described his book in January 2026 as "recurring strata plus residential call-outs," and for that shape the add-on is the whole system.²²

They aren't enough when the customer paid up front. A prepaid plan year means money you already collected for visits you still owe, and nothing in the schedule counts those visits down. Seasonal tune-ups are the second gap: the Inbox reminder tells your office to call, and 150 calls each spring is a week of someone's time. Renewals are the third: the end date passes, the recurring job stops, and unless someone is watching the Recurring Jobs tab, agreements lapse silently and you find out on an emergency call in July. The member discount is the fourth. A tech quoting a repair has nothing on the job that says this customer gets 15% off, unless you badge the client and train everyone to look.

The workaround shops on ServiceM8 run

One Reminders-type recurring job per agreement visit, a badge on the client card with the tier in its name, Asset Management for the covered unit, and a spreadsheet with one row per agreement: plan, price, renewal date, visits owed, visits delivered, last visit, card status. The Inbox becomes your who's-due list, the badge tells techs who's a member, and the sheet holds everything else. The full five-step version, with the job-credit budgeting, is in the maintenance-plans section of the pricing page, and the sheet with those columns and a visits-at-risk filter is free here. Two paid third-party add-ons, Service Plan Pro and PPM Service Contracts, sell the missing membership piece for ServiceM8 accounts; both are covered on the same page.

Running the agreement ledger beside ServiceM8

This is the part I have a product in, so weigh it accordingly. Deepsel is maintenance-agreement software for US shops that works beside ServiceM8. It owns the fields in the spreadsheet above and leaves the schedule alone: the agreement ledger (plan, tier, covered equipment, visits owed vs delivered, card on file, renewal date), renewal billing on a card on file with retries and a flag when a card fails, and a reminder email to every member who's due each spring and fall (a text on Pro) that carries your ServiceM8 online-booking link or your phone number.

There's no ServiceM8 integration, and I'd rather say that plainly than imply one. You import your client and agreement list from a ServiceM8 export or from your sheet. When a member books, your office creates the visit in ServiceM8 as a normal job, recurring or not. Deepsel is $79 a month on Starter with unlimited users, $159 on Pro (coming soon), no percentage of your membership revenue, 14-day trial, no card; details on the pricing page, and the cross-platform picture in the best HVAC maintenance agreement software roundup.

Frequently asked questions

Does ServiceM8 have recurring jobs, and on which plans?

Yes, on every plan including Free. As of September 2, 2026 the US pricing page lists Recurring Jobs on all five plans and marks "Recurring Jobs & Maintenance Scheduling" as available in all plans.¹ The feature comes as two separate add-ons you switch on yourself, Simple Recurring Jobs and Recurring Jobs + Reminders, and neither costs extra.^{2, 10}

What is the difference between Simple Recurring Jobs and Recurring Jobs + Reminders in ServiceM8?

Simple Recurring Jobs is a Recurrence button on a job card: set the job to repeat every one to four weeks, and when it's marked Completed a duplicate is created at that interval for the same staff member at the same time.^{3, 4} Recurring Jobs + Reminders is built on Job Templates, is created from the Dispatch Board online, supports daily, weekly, monthly, yearly or custom patterns, creates future bookings as inactive TBC placeholders that activate a set time ahead, and can send a reminder to your Inbox instead of booking a time.^{2, 5} ServiceM8 pitches the simple one at cleaning, pool and lawn work and calls the fuller one its core feature for repeat service and maintenance work.^{4, 17}

Can I create a recurring job from the ServiceM8 app?

Not with the Recurring Jobs + Reminders add-on. The help center states that recurring jobs can only be created online in the Dispatch Board, and that while the job cards they create can be opened and managed anywhere in the app, the settings of a recurring job can only be managed in the Online Dashboard.² The simpler Recurrence button is also documented on the online job card.³

When do ServiceM8 recurring jobs activate?

One week before their recurrence date by default. Until then a future booking is an inactive TBC placeholder with no job number that can't be opened.² You can change the lead time to a maximum of 12 weeks in Settings > Preferences > Recurring Jobs, activate a booking early by double-clicking it, or cancel it before activation if a client wants to skip a visit.^{7, 2} Reminder-type recurring jobs land in the Inbox on the same lead time.¹⁵

How do I change or stop a recurring job in ServiceM8?

Open the Recurring Jobs tab of the Dispatch Board and double-click the recurring job to view, modify or cancel it.² Moving one of its bookings on the Staff Schedule prompts you to apply the change to this booking only or to all future bookings.² Changing the Job Template it's built on changes every future job created from it, which ServiceM8 suggests for price rises.⁸ Settings changes never affect jobs already created,¹¹ and individual jobs are never deleted; you set them to Unsuccessful instead.¹⁸

Do ServiceM8 recurring jobs bill the customer automatically?

Each activated booking becomes a normal job card with its own invoice, which you send and collect as usual. The only automatic charging is Auto-Pay for Recurring Jobs: a client ticks "Pay future invoices automatically" when paying online and the saved card is charged on each later invoice's due date, with three retries 24 hours apart if it fails.¹³ The help center says this only works with the Stripe Payments add-on, which is not available to new customers, and the pricing page covers why it isn't supported on ServiceM8 Pay. Nothing prepays a plan year or renews an agreement.

Can ServiceM8 recurring jobs run a maintenance agreement?

They can put the visits on the calendar, and for fixed-interval work billed per visit that's enough. They don't hold a plan price, a card on file, a renewal date, a member discount or a count of visits owed against visits delivered, and the Inbox reminder asks your office to contact the client rather than letting the member book.² Shops that sell prepaid agreements pair recurring jobs with a client badge, Asset Management and a spreadsheet, or add a third-party membership add-on or a ledger tool beside ServiceM8.

Does Deepsel integrate with ServiceM8?

No. Deepsel has no ServiceM8 integration and is built for US shops. You import your client and agreement list from a ServiceM8 export or a spreadsheet, Deepsel keeps the ledger, bills renewals on a card on file and emails members a booking reminder each season, and your office creates the visit in ServiceM8 as a normal job. ServiceM8 stays your system for scheduling, dispatch and invoicing.

Sources

1. ServiceM8 pricing page (US): "Recurring Jobs" on the Free, Starter, Growing, Premium and Premium Plus cards; comparison table "Recurring Jobs & Maintenance Scheduling... All plans"; add-on blurb "Simplify repeat work, contracts or maintenance. Create a job once and set it to re-create and schedule itself over time, automatically. If the booking isn't confirmed, you can set reminders instead. Available in All Plans"; "Auto Routing... Available in All Plans"; "Auto-Pay Recurring Jobs... Starter"; "Automated Payment Follow-ups... All plans"; "Asset Management" gated by plan; FAQ "every time you create a new job card, it uses a job credit." servicem8.com/us/pricing, retrieved September 2, 2026.
2. ServiceM8 help center, "Recurring Jobs + Reminders Add-on - Overview": the two kinds of recurring work; "there are two add-ons which help with managing repeat work"; Settings > ServiceM8 Add-ons; "Recurring Jobs can only be created online in the Dispatch Board"; "Recurring jobs are always based on a Job Template"; Frequency > Custom; the Bookings pane; the three Recurring Types and the "longer-term recurring work" and "You can then contact the client to confirm" wording; "you can only manage the settings of a recurring jobs here in the Online Dashboard"; the inactive TBC list; Cancel Booking; "reschedule it for this booking only, or all future bookings." support.servicem8.com, retrieved September 2, 2026.
3. ServiceM8 help center, "How do I use the simple recurring jobs feature?": the Recurrence button on the job card; "The job is now set to recur once completed"; recreated and scheduled to the same staff member at the same time; an unscheduled job schedules to the staff member who completed it at opening time. support.servicem8.com, retrieved September 2, 2026.
4. ServiceM8 add-on page, "Simple Recurring Jobs": "With literally two clicks a job can be set to recur every one to four weeks"; the Recurrence button "at the top of a job card in the Online Dashboard"; "When the job's Job Status is updated to Completed, a duplicate of that job will be created at the set time interval, scheduled to the same staff member at the same time"; "works great for cleaning, pool and lawn industries with basic repeat scheduling requirements." servicem8.com, retrieved September 2, 2026.
5. ServiceM8 add-on page, "Recurring Jobs + Reminders": "repeat work which recurs on a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly basis"; Job Templates or Services; Reminders "3, 6 or 12 months after completion of a job"; Follow-Up Badges. servicem8.com, retrieved September 2, 2026.
6. ServiceM8 help center, "How do I create a recurring job?": the every-second-Friday walkthrough; "you will need to have at least one job template created"; "This is a 12 month maintenance contract, so we will set the end as one year from now"; the Recurring Jobs button. support.servicem8.com, retrieved September 2, 2026.
7. ServiceM8 help center, "When do recurring jobs activate?": "a default of 1 week before their recurrence date. You can change this setting to a maximum of 12 weeks before their recurrence date, in Settings > Preferences > Recurring Jobs." support.servicem8.com, retrieved September 2, 2026.
8. ServiceM8 help center, "Can a recurring job be created directly from an existing job?": "only using the simple recurring system"; "recurring jobs would quickly become filled with irrelevant information from previous jobs"; "makes it easy to change a group of recurring schedules by changing one template. I.E When your pricing goes up." support.servicem8.com, retrieved September 2, 2026.
9. ServiceM8 help center, "What are Job Templates?": activate in Account > Features & Integrations > Job Templates; build in Account > Settings > Job Templates; "pre-filled job requirements, checklists, documentation & materials"; applied from the iOS app and online. support.servicem8.com, retrieved September 2, 2026.
10. ServiceM8 help center, "How do I turn on the recurring Jobs add-on": Settings > ServiceM8 Add-ons > Recurring Jobs + Reminders > switch. support.servicem8.com, retrieved September 2, 2026.
11. ServiceM8 help center, "How the Recurring Jobs Auto-Routing Add-on works": works only with recurring jobs that have a Service applied; the Recurring Job Confirmation timeframe; "Rules and limitations": never moves a job outside its recurrence date, a fixed time or named staff member is locked "even if it would cause double bookings," "one opportunity to choose the scheduled time/staff" at activation, "Changing the settings for a recurring job will never have any effect on the jobs that have already been created... adding new recurring jobs will never rearrange existing bookings." support.servicem8.com, retrieved September 2, 2026.
12. ServiceM8 help center, "How do I use Recurring Jobs with the Services Add-on?": applying a Service instead of a template means "the duration of the job and which staff are capable of performing the service are known," so ServiceM8 can schedule or allocate time and staff automatically. support.servicem8.com, retrieved September 2, 2026.
13. ServiceM8 help center, "How automatic payment for Recurring Jobs works": "Pay future invoices automatically"; charged on the invoice due date "only... if the job has been marked complete and the invoice has been sent"; "Payment Failed" diary note, email to the billing contact, "re-attempt payment every 24 hours up to 3 times"; "Auto-payment for Recurring Jobs is only supported with the Stripe Payments add-on (not available to new customers)." support.servicem8.com, retrieved September 2, 2026.
14. ServiceM8 help center, "What is the Start Date when creating a Recurring Job?": "the date after which jobs will be automatically created and scheduled"; the first-Monday-of-October example where a start date of 31 October pushes the first job to the following year. support.servicem8.com, retrieved September 2, 2026.
15. ServiceM8 help center, "When do reminders appear in the Inbox?" ("once the reminder date is inside the activation period. The default is 1 week") and "Will I be charged for reminders that go into the inbox?" ("No, you will only be charged for reminders that are converted to jobs"). support.servicem8.com, retrieved September 2, 2026.
16. ServiceM8 help center, "How to make a reminder using follow up badges": a Follow-Up Badge activates when the job is marked Completed and adds a follow-up to the Recurring Jobs list that arrives in the Inbox; ServiceM8 suggests adding the badge to a Job Template. support.servicem8.com, retrieved September 2, 2026.
17. ServiceM8, "September 2022 Update," Recurring Jobs Improvements: "a core scheduling feature if your business manages repeat service and maintenance work"; search the Recurring Jobs tab "by service type, client name or recurrence pattern"; schedule to more than one team member; 15 and 45 minute durations; the Suburb column; double-click to activate a TBC booking; drag-and-drop updating "as a one-off, or to all future bookings"; Skip Future Bookings via Cancel Booking. servicem8.com/us/september-2022-update, retrieved September 2, 2026.
18. ServiceM8 help center, "How do I delete/remove jobs in ServiceM8?": "In ServiceM8, you never remove or delete jobs"; set the status to Unsuccessful and the job "will remain on your dispatch board for a further 48 hours." support.servicem8.com, retrieved September 2, 2026.
19. r/Contractor, "ServiceM8 vs. Jobber vs. ???," comment by the original poster (a solo pool tech on a ServiceM8 free trial), February 16, 2026: "a fair amount of its features are actually locked behind the desktop version which doesn't overly help a field tech business, but I guess I'll just have to set aside a couple of hours each week to use a desktop for both finances and this." reddit.com.
20. Apple App Store, "ServiceM8 - Field Service App," US customer review titled "Inconsistent Processes and functionality," 3 stars, August 9, 2026: "it is inconsistent as to what you can do in the app vs the desktop browser version... if you want access to the full capabilities, that's only possible through the browser." apps.apple.com, retrieved via Apple's public reviews feed September 2, 2026.
21. Capterra, ServiceM8 reviews, Danielle A., Director, Facilities Services, used 2+ years, February 11, 2021: "updating a client doesn't update the recurring job - you need to also update the template...double handling"; "we're on a legacy pay per job plan." capterra.com, retrieved September 2, 2026.
22. r/Plumbing, "Solo plumber doing ~$200k/yr - trying to systemize before hiring," January 15, 2026: "I'm using ServiceM8 + Xero, and most of my work is recurring strata plus residential call-outs." reddit.com.