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Skimmer training, tips & tricks

Tips, tricks, & hacks for using Skimmer to its fullest potential!

  • 43 Posts
  • 82 Replies
43 Posts
Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
JustineThe Pool Deck Community Team
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
REGISTER NOW: Don't miss this live Skimmer training workshop

If your company still documents services with "cleaned filter, added chemicals, everything looks good," you're setting yourself up for callbacks, liability issues, and potentially frustrated customers. The data shows that most customer complaints and callbacks stem from poor service documentation. But here's the good news: this is COMPLETELY FIXABLE by setting up the right work order management system in Skimmer. To help you protect your business and make this operational transformation, we're hosting a live training workshop led by Skimmer’s Director, Customer Success ​@Amanda D on July 9 at 3 PM CT 🎯 What You'll Learn: The 4 work order types – How to categorize and prioritize every pool service situation for maximum efficiency The SPLASH documentation method – The proven framework that reduces customer complaints and liability claims  The POOL-PREP planning system – Pre-service preparation that eliminates most return visits Professional templates – Review of ready-to-use work

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Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
Amanda D
Team Skimmer
Amanda DTeam Skimmer
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Work order documentation can transform your pool service business

In the hustle of daily pool routes, it's easy to think of work orders as just another task on the list—a box to check, a form to fill out. But for pool service business owners, a well-documented work order can be one of the most powerful tools in your operational toolkit. Whether you're a solo operator or managing multiple technicians across the region, clear and consistent documentation can be the difference between accelerated growth and operational chaos.Let's break down why this matters. Clarity and Accountability From Day One Have you ever had a customer call and ask, "Did your technician even clean the filter last visit?" With a clear work order in hand, there's no guesswork. You have time-stamped notes, service details, and a photo showing the clean filter. That kind of accountability reduces confusion and ensures everyone—technicians, office staff, and customers—stays on the same page. Skimmer Tip 💡 Make the photo of the cleaned filter a required checklist item in your Filter

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Amanda D
Team Skimmer
Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
JustineThe Pool Deck Community Team
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Keep the birthday vibes going—show us your Skimmer hacks!

Skimmer already does a lot to help you run your pool business smoothly, but like all software, there are always some clever hacks that help users do even more!  So, let’s keep the birthday party vibes 🥳 rolling with another contest: Share your favorite Skimmer hack to help others save time, streamline their workflows, or whatever you’ve figured out so that our user community can have a better day overall because you showed them something new! Share your go-to hack to help members do even more with Skimmer and WIN!Drop your Skimmer hack in the comments below, and the post with the most likes by Friday, June 20 👍 wins this prize pack (VALUED AT OVER $600): PoolRx prize bundle – Keep pools crystal-clear and algae-free (with way less chemicals!)​​​​​​ Yeti Panga® 50L waterproof duffel – To keep your gear 100% dry for whereever your work and life adventures may take you The Pool Deck swag pack – premium branded gear to help you stay (and look) cool  Need inspiration? Check out this am

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J
New Member
alex
Team Skimmer
alexTeam Skimmer
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Understanding the differences in payout reports

If you don’t use the QBO Payout Sync and you've ever looked at your Skimmer payout reports and wondered why the payout received summary report doesn’t always match the payout received detail report, you’re not alone. Let’s break down why that happens and what you need to know.What happens when Stripe sends out a payoutWhen a payout is sent, Stripe (our payment processor) also sends Skimmer a follow-up with a list of payments they believe are tied to that payout. The keyword here is believe; this part of Stripe’s system isn’t 100% exact. It’s their best estimate based on timing and other factors, but it’s not perfect, especially when transactions are close to the edge of a payout window. What the two reports show: Payout summary report:  This uses the actual payout amount sent by Stripe. It’s the same amount that gets deposited into your bank account, so you can trust that this will always match what hits the bank. Payout detail report: This breaks down the individual payments that St

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alex
Team Skimmer
Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
JustineThe Pool Deck Community Team
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Introducing Feature Focus: Learn how to GET more out of Skimmer

We know you're busy, and staying on top of new feature releases and enhancements can be challenging. It's also hard to switch workflows when you don't have much time and are already comfortable with your current process, plus, you might not even know what's possible with Skimmer to support your business automation. That's why we're launching this new series, Feature Focus, to bridge the learning gap and help you unlock the full potential of your Skimmer investment 🚀Our Director of Customer Success ​@Amanda D will regularly post quick Skimmer video demos, tips, and best practices she knows will save you time, streamline workflows, and improve your customer experience and communication.We're starting the series with ​@Amanda D showing you the three new Skimmer tools you can choose from to schedule and manage your recurring work. You will learn when to use which tool and how to set these up to automate your entire recurring work schedule—from monthly filter cleans to seasonal equipment m

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Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
nikiacosta
Team Skimmer
nikiacostaTeam Skimmer
posted in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Skimmer Quick Tip: Adjust your start times!

The start time in the route dash and app has always had a default of 8am, which is not always ideal for many of you who might like to beat the heat or have a better idea of what your schedule might look like in the future. You can now update your company start time, which will reflect on the route dash and in the app! Here’s how: 

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RR Pool Pros
Specialist
nikiacosta
Team Skimmer
nikiacostaTeam Skimmer
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Skimmer Quick Tip: Ensuring mobile app versions are up to date!

If you or a member of your team is experiencing a mobile app issue, the first thing you’ll want to do is ensure the mobile app is up to date. Admins can now view device type and app version for every member of your team in the web app. Here’s how!  If issues persists, let us know by contacting support, and we’ll be glad to help. :) 

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nikiacosta
Team Skimmer
Gabriel
Team Skimmer
GabrielTeam Skimmer
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Time-Saving Tip: How to use Skimmer in multiple browser tabs 💡

When I share this tip with our customers, they are so grateful to discover this is possible, as it fundamentally changes how they do their daily work in Skimmer. So,  I wanted to post it here so all of you can learn this trick to save you time ⏳Check out this short video for all the details on how to quickly open multiple Skimmer browser tabs to work simultaneously in different feature menu options. This way, you don’t lose any of your work and can easily switch between Schedule, Customers, Routes, or whatever you need to work on that day.     

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Gabriel
Team Skimmer
Chlorine King
Skimmer Verified Partner
Chlorine KingSkimmer Verified Partner
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Are Clients Blaming You For EVERYTHING? With Skimmer, Here's How You Can Mitigate That!

 How many times have you been blamed for something you DIDN’T do? All the time right? Well, I thought of a way to help mitigate that complaint. In the video above, I mention the situation that we didn’t do, then by using Skimmer show you a quick and simple way to create a photo required check list item that will prove you weren’t the only one on site. You’ll see we have two different verbiage’s for the checklist item, but ultimately settled on “Other Workers on Property During Visit” because that essentially covers everyone!  Here are some screenshots from the check list item. All of these people left issues that we got a complaint from the client for, but because we took these, stopped them dead in their tracks. Toodaloo client! Go complain somewhere else. I hope this helps you all out!   

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Chlorine King
Skimmer Verified Partner
C
Rookie Member
coltrane5000Rookie Member
asked in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
What's your work order list? - Weekly Techs...

Would you all mind sharing the list of work order types you let your weekly techs add?I need to cleanup my list!!!

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RR Pool Pros
Specialist
Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
JustineThe Pool Deck Community Team
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
UPCOMING RELEASE: Skimmer schedule

We’re so excited that we couldn’t wait to share this with you until next month! So, here’s a sneak peek of Skimmer’s upcoming schedule feature release. This new tool gives you a clear weekly view of technician workloads, drag-and-drop scheduling, and optimized route planning to improve your organization, maximize your team’s time, and keep customers happy.Watch and let us know below if you want to join our early access group 👇*Available on the Scaling Up and Owning the Market tiers.  

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Chlorine King
Skimmer Verified Partner
RR Pool Pros
Specialist
RR Pool ProsSpecialist
posted in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Quote/Invoice Status

Just noticed that there are dates for quotes and invoices under the status that shows when the quote was opened. I didn’t even know this was coming out. Great improvement to the quote and invoice dashboard. Now we have a better idea if people are even looking at their quotes. It’s great that you can see them all on one page. 

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RR Pool Pros
Specialist
Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
JustineThe Pool Deck Community Team
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Back by popular demand: Live Skimmer Billing webinars

Starting March 4th, our billing and payments team is rebooting their two-part live webinar series, as there have been many updates to Skimmer Billing.  They will overview the latest feature functionality and bust these common misconceptions:"I bill ahead, and bill customers in arrears for chem usage - so Skimmer Billing won't work." "Skimmer's processing fees are more expensive than QBO." "I use QBO for accounting, so I can't use Skimmer for billing."  "You don't have a way for me to collect my customer's payment information." "Skimmer billing is the same as QBO, so I don’t need both."Register for one or both webinars to learn how customers save 20 hours a month and eliminate manual tasks by using Skimmer to process invoices and collect payments while still using QuickBooks Online for their accounting software.Or, you can also click here to book a 1:1 meeting with our billing and payments specialists. Skimmer Billing 101: Configuring Account SettingsWhat you’ll learn:Connecting Stripe

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Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
RR Pool Pros
Specialist
RR Pool ProsSpecialist
posted in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Job Costing Hack

Here’s a way that I have figured out to get an idea on profitability on certain jobs. It’s a process so it probably will work best to choose certain jobs to audit until job costing is built into the platform. As with most processes they are only as good as the information you put into them. Skimmer allows you to add your product costs into the quote but that’s the end of the road after the quote is approved. I’ll show you a way to see the final job costs with some work arounds. Feel free to comment on ideas on how to make this more streamlined. Starting from an approved quote, add your related work order:After saving your work order, add all line items to the items needed area of the work order: Once the job is complete or you have purchased the parts, edit the price of each item in the items needed field. You can also do this from the shopping list tab. The price field needs to be used as your cost of the product and not the price to the customer. This only works if you create the inv

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RR Pool Pros
Specialist
RR Pool Pros
Specialist
RR Pool ProsSpecialist
posted in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Skimmer Hack

Just wanted to let everyone know about a work around to text quotes and invoices. We use this all the time and it works great. Open any invoice or quote and go to the preview tab.Next go to the url and copy everything but “preview=true” at the end of the address This link will take the user to a mobile friendly preview of the invoice with a payment link or link to accept the quote.   

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RR Pool Pros
Specialist
Travis
Team Skimmer
TravisTeam Skimmer
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
🤑 See Service Rates in Your Area 💰

Looking for insights on pool service pricing in your area? You’ve come to the right place!Skimmer’s interactive Service Rate Index is built from anonymous data gathered from over 30,000 users who service more than 700,000 pools monthly.With this benchmark data, you can view the average price ranges across the country, broken down by state, region, and type of rate (per stop, per month, plus chemicals, and including chemicals).Click here to access Skimmer’s Service Rate Index Share with us what your pricing plans are for 2025 👇

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Travis
Team Skimmer
Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
JustineThe Pool Deck Community Team
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Don’t Leave Money on the Table in 2024

This is a friendly year-end reminder to invoice your customers with outstanding balances before December 31. Start 2025 with a clean slate, and your accountant will thank you for wrapping up the year when they prepare your taxes!If you have not already enabled Skimmer’s automated invoice reminder emails, use the Broadcast Emails feature to quickly send a reminder notification to all of your customers that have an outstanding invoice (NOTE: Available on the Scaling Up & Owning the Market tiers) HOW TO USE BROADCAST EMAILS 💡The Pool Deck Community Tip - To streamline this process moving forward, ensure you’ve enabled Skimmer’s automated Invoice Reminder Emails. HOW TO SET UP INVOICE REMINDER EMAILS    

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Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
jcmedrano
Team Skimmer
jcmedranoTeam Skimmer
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Who Sees What? A Guide to Using Notes in Skimmer 📝

"Who sees what 🤔?"  This is one of the most common questions I get asked on using all of our Notes sections. You likely have important details your techs need to know but don't want your customers to have visibility. Or there's information meant only for office staff.  To help you confidently use these useful features, I'm going to explain where to add notes and who can see them. This will help you keep communication flowing and everything running smoothly! Customer Code The Customer Code can be used to warn your tech of a dangerous dog or to let them know the service level to complete for the customer. This note will be visible right next to the customer's name before the tech even taps to start their route.  Who will see it?✅ Admins✅ Technicians    ❌ Customers How will it look for my tech?How to add:Go to Customers Click Edit on the Customer you want to add a Customer Code for Click Edit one more time in the white box next to the Customer's name Enter the note in the Customer Code f

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jcmedrano
Team Skimmer
Chlorine King
Skimmer Verified Partner
Chlorine KingSkimmer Verified Partner
posted in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Using Skimmer to Store Employee Records. Short, Sweet & Simple!

If you start building your company to where you have lots of employees it can be hard and a lot of extra work to maintain records of performance, write ups, etc. We figured out a way to use Skimmer to do this for us. It’s very simple and you can document on the fly whether if it’s to identify weaknesses in performance (like if they ask to be trained on the same item repetitively), an official record of conversion or even things like write ups. I think if you guys and gals watch this it’ll open up a whole new way of utilizing Skimmer to not only manage your customers, but also your employees.  

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Chlorine King
Skimmer Verified Partner
Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
JustineThe Pool Deck Community Team
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Marketing tip of the week: Paid marketing landscape - Facebook & Instagram ads

Our final post in this 6 part marketing series focuses on social media channels. We like to say that Facebook / Instagram ads are the new direct mail, but on steroids. They are one of the best exclusive lead sources in 2024 for pool companies in most markets around the country. Ad CreativeWhen you advertise on Facebook / Instagram, you compete with many other posts for your consumers’ attention. That’s why it’s important to try out different creative to see what resonates and converts. According to Pool Monopoly, images and videos both work, but generally, images work best for their clients since they’re more succinct and to the point. According to the experts at Pool Monopoly, using an image of Skimmer’s service report email in ads is effective because it shows the homeowner that they will always be kept in the loop. This is probably the most important thing that people searching for pool service want: strong customer communication and the knowledge that the job will get done well. Ad

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Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
JustineThe Pool Deck Community Team
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Marketing tip of the week: Paid marketing landscape - Google Ads 101

Google AdWords search campaigns are the top way to get in front of potential clients who need weekly pool service. Building up your organic SEO results on Google can take years, and this essentially lets you buy your way to the top of Google (if it’s done correctly). In this post, we’ll explore the basics of Google and how to maximize your investment here. Keyword ResearchA big part of being successful with Google is understanding keyword research. Google’s Keyword Planner tool allows you to forecast and see what people are searching for on Google regarding the services that you offer.One of the biggest components of a successful Google campaign is keyword research. You always need to dig into which keywords will apply to your campaign.Check out these videos to learn more about how to conduct keyword research:[VIDEO] Local Keyword Research [VIDEO] Local SEO Keyword Research with Semrush  [VIDEO] 6 Ways To Use Google Keyword Planner for Keyword ResearchAd CopyGoogle ads copywriting is e

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Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
JustineThe Pool Deck Community Team
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Marketing tip of the week: Paid marketing landscape - online directories

This next series of posts is a paid marketing cheat sheet that reviews the industry’s main channels and explains how to maximize each one. We’re going to start with a guide for online directories.YelpYelp is one of the best-known directories for consumers, and many folks will consult it for company reviews before making a buying decision. However, there are a few things to note before you commit to running ads on Yelp.Ad structure and fees Yelp ads work on a pay-per-click basis. You set a daily budget, and they charge you per click on your profile. They sponsor your profile and put it at the top of Yelp or on a display page. However, it can be difficult to maintain this placement. If you’re going to advertise on Yelp, you must be able to respond to new leads in under 5 minutes since Yelp prioritizes companies with quick response times. As a side note, this is also a great sales best practice – being responsive to customer inquiries will help engage them while they’re paying attention t

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SWMCLR
Conversation Starter
jcmedrano
Team Skimmer
jcmedranoTeam Skimmer
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
The 50 Most Popular Tags Skimmer Pros Use—Are You Missing Out?

When talking about Tags with pros, the most common question is, “I want to start using Tags, but I don’t know which ones to use. Can you give me examples of what other people are using?” Well, the results are in!Here are the 50 most commonly used Tags:1. Repair-only2. Full Service3. Weekly Service4. Salt System5. Cartridge Filter6. Salt Pool7. Residential8. Seasonal9. Sand Filter10. Cartridge11. Maintenance12. DE Filter13. Chlorine14. Chlorine Pool15. CS- Priority New*16. Commercial17. Bi-weekly18. Pool19. AutoPay20. BLAST-August 2024 Light Promo**21. VIP22. Spa23. Thursday*** 24. Sand25. CART26. Heater27. Active28. Standard29. Salt Cell30. Monthly31. Basic Service32. Chem Only33. Caged Pool34. Weekly Service Invoice35. Agreement36. Hot Tub37. Check38. ST-Premium39. Chlorine Feeder40. Pre-Auth41. Year Round42. Open/Close43. Chem Plus44. IG - In Ground45. CCOF - Customer Card on File46. No extra clean-up services47. Filter Cleaning Recurring  - Dec48. Plaster49. Recurring Credit Card50.

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jcmedrano
Team Skimmer
cshalli
Team Skimmer
cshalliTeam Skimmer
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Start Using Custom Work Order Types to Streamline Repair Assessments

My favorite thing about Skimmer's Work Order Feature is that it is fully customizable. So, when a pro recently reached out looking for guidance on how their technicians could report issues found during service using Work Orders, I was excited to brainstorm!Here's the scenario: A cleaner technician finds an equipment issue during service and wants to report notes and pictures back to the office to schedule a follow-up assessment with a repair technician or send a quote.Here's the solution: Watch this short video to discover how your cleaner can report issues in Skimmer and how you can action them with a new Work Order Type: I'd love for you to share any clever ways you're using Work Orders to streamline your repair processes. Or, if there are any workflows you're hoping to optimize, let me know, and I can try to brainstorm a solution for you! Please share in the comments! 👇

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R
New Member
Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
JustineThe Pool Deck Community Team
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Marketing tip of the week: Crafting a website that converts - part 3

To close out our series on website optimization this post covers the importance of including customer reviews,  images, and mobile optimization. 3 rules for using customer reviews Social proof is one of the most important components in getting a prospect to convert into a new lead. They want to see real proof that others find your services top-tier and that you’re easy to work with.Use real screenshots OR embed directlyIt shouldn’t need to be said, but never fake your reviews. If you’re going to use reviews on your site, it’s critical that they’re real. You can embed reviews directly from sites like Google or Yelp on your site or create a mockup of your favorite ones to add to your site.Provide at least 4 minimum, ideally moreThe more reviews, the better! If you have a bunch of amazing reviews, embed at least 6-8 of them on your hero page in a “customer reviews” section.Choose specific, relevant reviewsWhen it comes to choosing which reviews to include on your site, it’s good to use on

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Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team

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