At a glance
| Unit to report | Jobs, across every status: quoted, work order, completed, unsuccessful. |
| Where the count lives | Online Dashboard, Reports tab in the left menu, then the Jobs By Month report. Standard reports need no add-on; the Business Owner role sees them by default. |
| Typical years retained | Completed jobs stay on the account. The first month with jobs on the Jobs By Month report is your start year. |
| What usually makes it valuable | The whole chain from enquiry to quote to job to invoice, with the timing between each step, the notes and checklists on the job, and the client messages sent from it. |
| What stays private | Client names, addresses, phone numbers and emails. Photos with identifying detail. Staff identities. Anything your client supplied under their own terms. |
Paths checked against the ServiceM8 help centre: How do I generate Reports? and How to download a backup of your ServiceM8 data. Report names shift between releases, so check in your version.
Where the count lives
Nothing needs exporting. The standard reports answer it.
- Sign in to the Online Dashboard (the browser version, not the app) as the Business Owner, or as a role that has been given access to Reports.
- Open Reports from the left menu.
- Choose Jobs By Month. It lists job counts month by month. Add the months up, or read the running total if your version shows one.
- The first month with jobs is your start year. If you ran the business on paper or another app before ServiceM8, note that separately.
- Jobs By Status gives the same total split by quoted, work order, completed and unsuccessful. Completed jobs are the strongest part of the record; the unsuccessful quotes are valuable too, because they show what was declined.
The Job List Export (a CSV of every job) needs the Advanced Reporting Pack add-on, enabled under Settings, then ServiceM8 Add-ons. You do not need it for the intake.
What to put in the intake
| Field | What to enter | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Volume | Total jobs from Jobs By Month, rounded. | About 6,500 jobs |
| Years covered | First month with jobs to now, and any gaps. | 2019 to now, continuous |
| Estimate | Tick it if you summed months by eye or the report was filtered. | Ticked |
Estimates are fine. A trade business that knows it does roughly 25 jobs a week for six years can enter 7,500 and tick the box.
Why buyers value it
A ServiceM8 account is a record of how a trade business turns an enquiry into money, step by step. Each job carries the quote that was sent, whether it was accepted, when the job was scheduled, how long it took on site, what materials went on it and what was invoiced, so the gap between quoted and actual is on the record for thousands of jobs. Job notes and checklists capture what the technician found and did, in the plain language of the trade. Messages sent to the client from the job show how a small business books, confirms, chases and closes. This is operational data that does not exist on the open web: no one publishes six years of plumbing jobs with outcomes.
What stays private
- Client names, site addresses, phone numbers and email addresses are irreversibly removed before any buyer sees anything, with each removal written to the audit ledger. Street addresses are treated as identifiers, not locations.
- Photos are checked for faces, number plates, house numbers and documents; what identifies a person or a property is removed or the image is dropped.
- Staff identities, including technician names on jobs and timesheets, are replaced with role labels.
- Buyers receive a prepared, de-identified copy under licence, never a login to ServiceM8 and never the raw backup. The Trust and Security pages cover the full process.
If you want to export the full history
Only after an offer is accepted. Until then the intake runs on the counts you type in. In most engagements we connect read-only with your signature and you export nothing. This is ServiceM8's documented route if you would rather hand over files.
- In the Online Dashboard open Settings, then ServiceM8 Account. The Download account backup link is at the bottom of the page.
- Click Create Backup. ServiceM8 collects your jobs, clients, materials and documents into a single file. It can take minutes or several hours depending on the account; you get an email when it is ready.
- Download the file from the link in the email. A backup can be run once every 24 hours, and it is for reference only: it cannot be imported into another ServiceM8 account.
- If you only need the job list, the Job List Export under Reports (Advanced Reporting Pack add-on) gives a CSV of job details, without photos or PDFs.
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