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A tech finds a broken pump and leaves a note. Back at the office, someone copies that note into a work order, fixes an address that carried over from the last customer you added, then moves a stop to even out a busy day. None of it’s hard. It just eats up time.This set of releases takes those jobs off your plate. Tech notes carry over for you, addresses fill in as you type, and moving a stop takes one simple drag.🙌 See who added each work order Now you can see which techs are finding repair work and give them credit for it. Some of you even asked for this at the 2026 Skimmer Pro Summit, where owners and admins wanted this data to build a reward system for their techs.The Scheduled list now shows Added On and Added By Filter the list by who added the work order📝 Tech notes go straight into work orders and quotesNo more copying and pasting notes in the office, which means less admin work. Create a work order from a service note or issue, and the tech’s notes fill in Tech Instructions,

On November 10, 2026, OpenAI launched Businesses in ChatGPT in beta. The centerpiece is Business Hub, a free portal at chatgpt.com/business-hub where a company can claim its listing, edit how it appears, and see how often ChatGPT mentions it.For pool service companies, this is the first time ChatGPT has handed you the keys. Until this week you could influence what ChatGPT said about your company only indirectly, through reviews, your website, and third-party listings. Now there is a front door, a verification badge, and a dashboard.It is also the first time someone else could try to claim your company before you do. That alone is a reason to handle this in the next few days and not next quarter. What the ChatGPT Business Hub Actually IsBusiness Hub is ChatGPT's version of a Google Business Profile dashboard, at a much earlier stage. It does three things: it lets you prove you own the business, it lets you edit a short profile, and it shows you performance data.The profile is thin right

In episode 17, we cover how labor and pay are evolving in the pool service industry.We sat down with Brett Murdock of Murdock Pool Service and Flavia de la Fuente of FieldPay to discuss labor challenges, the complexities of employees versus contractors, and how faster, more flexible payments can help pool pros build better businesses. Watch the full episode on YouTube or listen here.

One question we hear a lot from owners running a crew: how's each tech actually doing? Until now, answering it meant pulling route history and reviews one tech at a time.Starting today, it's one report. The tech performance report shows how many stops each tech completes, how long their stops take, and how customers rate them, all next to your team average.NOTE: this feature is included in Scaling Up and Enterprise Compare stops, time per stop, and ratings against your team average.The summary page shows your team's totals compared to the previous period, plus charts for stops and average stop time by tech with a team average line. The table below lists every tech's numbers in one place, including skipped stops and their average start and finish times. Back up coaching conversations with real numbers.Click any tech's name to open their profile. You'll see their stops and stop time over time, why they skipped stops, and how their ratings break down from 5 stars to 1. You can open their

If you were in the room at Skimmer Pro Summit in San Antonio, you know this feeling. Getting energized by a group of your peers who get your world, who want to see you grow, who are ready to connect and share, and who are just as ready to learn something new as you are. Press play below to feel it for yourself. 👇  While this year’s event may be over, that community feeling doesn’t have to be. It’s still going strong every day right here in The Pool Deck 🙌So let’s keep the connections and conversations going as we all get ready to wrap 2026 and start strategizing and building our plans for 2027! Plus, stay tuned to register for upcoming virtual events. And be the first to know when registration opens for our next Skimmer Pro Summit.We’re very glad you’re all here 😍 

Pool pros, our latest Between Two Stops podcast episode is a must-listen! This one features California Pool Partners, who attended our Pro Summit as prospects. These guys gave up their lucrative careers in tech to make a splash in the pool business, and frame themselves as a different type of private equity rollup group.Listen, like, and subscribe! The podcast is available on all major podcasting platforms! Watch the full episode on YouTube OR Listen here:  

This month’s mobile update is about less typing in the field. Techs can snap a photo of an equipment dataplate and let Skimmer fill in the details. There are also sync improvements and a round of bug fixes. Smart capture for equipment No more squinting at a faded dataplate and typing serial numbers by hand. When you add equipment from a route stop, work order, or customer page, tap scan to add equipment. Take a photo of the dataplate or pick one from your photo library, and Skimmer fills in the “Add Equipment form” for you.That includes:Type Manufacturer Model Serial number] Manufacture date and specs like horsepower, voltage, and BTU.The scan works without a signal, but it’s more accurate when you’re online. It only fills empty fields, so it won’t replace anything you’ve already entered, and every field stays editable. Skimmer also saves the dataplate photo to the equipment record so anyone can double-check a value later. We recommend giving every field a quick look before you tap Sav

 October’s updates focus on cutting the busywork out of running your pool service business: new integrations, smarter marketing tools, cleaner invoicing, and a safer way to log in. Here’s everything that shipped this month.Integrations Marketplace Your Integrations Center now has two kinds of integrations in one place: the ones Skimmer builds and maintains, and the marketplace integrations that connect Skimmer to other apps you already use, with a guided setup wizard to get you going. New marketplace integrations this month include FieldPay, which sends completed route stops and work orders over automatically so you can approve payouts without entering each job by hand, and Google Calendar, which can send customers a calendar invite for new work orders and turn calendar events into work orders. Four CRM integrations, GoHighLevel, HubSpot, Nutshell, and Zoho CRM, also joined the marketplace, each one keeping your contacts and Skimmer customers in sync so you’re not entering the same per

Pool pros, we would love to hear your insights on the state of pool service! Fill out the confidential survey linked below and let us know what challenges and opportunities you expect in 2027. 👉 CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE SURVEYLast year, more than 1,600 pool pros told us how their businesses were doing, and their answers shaped the industry's biggest report.Now it's your turn. Take the 15-minute survey, then enter for a chance to win one of three Visa gift cards*:1st prize: $1,500 Visa gift card 2nd prize: $1,000 Visa gift card 3rd prize: $500 Visa gift card*No purchase necessary. Open to U.S. pool service pros 18+ (19+ AL/NE, 21+ MS). Ends 11/18/26, 11:59 p.m. CT. Official Rules here.

We shipped a lot this year, and this is your chance to catch up on everything that’s new and a sneak peek at what’s next. Watch as ​@nikiacosta  and ​@Amanda D walk through the biggest launches of 2026 and share an early look at the 2027 roadmap, plus a live demo of reports, AI Insights, and Marketing Suite.  Key takeaways:Built from your requests. You sent in 2,000+ feature requests over the last two years. Everyone at Skimmer reads them, and they shape what gets built next. Know about problems before your customers do. Alerts and issues, service feedback, and the new readings report flag low water, out-of-range chemistry, and unhappy customers early. Some pros have caught leaks with the readings report. Price with confidence. Service rate benchmarking shows how your rates compare to others in your zip code, metro, or state. Get answers without digging through reports. Ask AI Insights a question, like “Which pools have CYA over 100?”, and get a list back in seconds. Books closed in 5

Most of you run your business on more than one tool. A CRM for leads. Payroll for your techs. A supplier account or two for parts and chemicals. Getting those tools to work with Skimmer used to mean a support ticket or a workaround.As of today, owners and admins can do it themselves. 🔗 Integration Marketplace Integration Marketplace lives inside Skimmer. Browse the integrations available to your account, see what each one does, add it, and set it up without leaving the app.New integrations you can connect:PoolCorp: Connect your Pool360 account, bring PoolCorp products into your catalog, and get price updates every night—learn more below.  CRM: Send customer info from Skimmer to HubSpot, GoHighLevel, Nutshell, or Zoho so you're not entering it twice. FieldPay: Connect FieldPay to pay your techs instantly for completed work. Google Calendar: Send calendar invitations to customers when a new work order is added in Skimmer.Some are included in your plan. Others are paid add-ons you can bu

Since Marketing Suite launched, the question we've heard most is "can I customize this?" Starting today, you can.Campaigns now has a Create button. Describe your campaign idea the way you'd explain it to your office manager. Campaigns asks a few follow-up questions about who should get it, when it should go out, and whether it's an email or a text. Then it builds the audience and drafts the message for you, turning a manual custom email automation build into a quick-and-easy conversation with AI.  🎯  What you can targetYour segments run on the data you already keep in Skimmer:Bodies of water: pools, spas, and water features Latest CYA and TDS readings Equipment, like salt systems and filters Work orders by type and completion date Route stops, invoices, service locations, and customer tagsSegments stay current on their own. When a customer attribute matches, like a new CYA reading over 100, they move into the segment and the automation goes out. 📤  A few ideas to try  What you type

Hey, Pool Deck — Skimmer is preparing our 2027 State of Pool Service report, and we need your input!  🏊 Fill out the anonymous survey linked below and let us know what challenges and opportunities you expect in 2027.Last year, more than 1,600 pool pros told us how their businesses were doing, and their answers shaped the industry's biggest report.Now it's your turn. Take the 15-minute survey, then enter for a chance to win one of three Visa gift cards*:1st prize: $1,500 Visa gift card 2nd prize: $1,000 Visa gift card 3rd prize: $500 Visa gift card👉 CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE SURVEYAlso, if you haven’t yet, check out last year’s report to see insights on:Pricing and chemical billing: How service businesses approach pricing, margins, and chemical charges. Business growth and operations: Strategies for efficiency, customer growth, and profitability. Technology and AI: How pool pros use digital tools and emerging technology in their businesses. Industry trends and ownership: Developments a

Setting your rates usually comes down to gut feel, what a neighbor charges, or a number you picked years ago. And if you’ve taken over someone else’s pricing, it’s hard to tell whether it holds up. Either way, you haven’t easily been able to tell if you’re charging what the market supports.The new service rate benchmarks report gives you a reference point. It shows how your rates compare with what other pool businesses charge in the areas you already service, right inside Skimmer. ⚙️ Here are some things to note before getting started:Area rates refresh on the 1st of each month, using rates as of the last day of the previous month Only service locations with a rate type and a rate above $0 are included, so check that your service rates are set up - See this interactive video on how to get that set up! Find it in Reports > Service Rate Benchmarks 📊 Make informed pricing decisionsCompares your median rate with the area median for each ZIP code you service, split by rate type (per mon

A few days late, but here’s how day two of Pro Summit went.Friday was hands-on training. Saturday was the business side: strategy, people, and learning from the pros around you.Morning:Hal Denbar kicked off the day on stage. He went from a single route to a national operation, and he’s now on our board. His message was that being in the room makes you better at what you do.  The Skimmer Stations were open in the Alamo Foyer too. Five stops covered routes, jobs, and field ops; customer management and marketing; reporting and analytics; billing, payments, and financials; and integrations and the marketplace.  J.B. Sauceda gave the keynote on why culture is an advantage no competitor can copy, and how to make it part of how you run your business.  Then came the pool industry panel with Ryan Marcinik (Happy Pool and Spa), Keith Johnson (Pool Works), Mark Warshaw (Heritage Pool Supply Group), Jack Nelson(Skimmer), and moderated by Niki Acosta(Skimmer). They covered connected data, practical

Day one of Pro Summit in San Antonio is done. If you couldn’t be there, here’s how it went.Morning Registration opened at 7:45 am. Our customer success team spent the morning sitting down one-on-one with pros who booked a time, going through their actual Skimmer setups. The Product Discovery Showcase also opened in the Alamo Foyer, with Heritage Pool Supply Group, Jack’s Magic, AquaStar, RevDup Apparel, Carecraft, and Azuga. AquaStar added a bonus session on pump and filter sizing, hydraulics, and programming variable speed pumps. Our customer advisory board met with us. Nothing beats a room full of pros who tell it like it is. Their honest feedback helps us decide what to build, so thank you.  Afternoon Champion training. Laptops open, learning by doing, and six sessions that ran in three rounds:How to turn work orders into the backbone of your business How to set up your full service and repair workflow in Skimmer Get more out of Skimmer’s communication tools Know your numbers: repo

Huge congratulations to our two winners of The Pool Deck Birthday Giveaway! Thomas from Float On Pools and Spas and Abraham from West Coast Chemical Company are coming with us (all expenses paid 💸) to San Antonio for the Skimmer Pro Summit.Both of our winners, ​@FloatOn ​@Abraham are Pool Deck members and represent the spirit behind our collective efforts here to keep growing this knowledge hub and creating moments to bring our community together 🤝Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway!!And I am SUPER pumped to share that the Pro Summit 2026 is officially SOLD OUT, with hundreds of pool pros from 27 states gathering in San Antonio October 16 & 17!! However, we do get cancellations, so if you still want your chance at getting a free pass, join the waitlist:👉Skimmer Pro Summit waitlist👈 Congrats again, Thomas andAbraham!The entire Skimmer team is looking forward to meeting you both in San Antonio!!