mHelpDesk Glossary

The words you'll commonly see when you use mHelpDesk and what they mean

Mike Bempah avatar
Written by Mike Bempah
Updated over a week ago


New to mHelpDesk or just setting up your account? Here are the words and terms you'll commonly see as you use mHelpDesk or hear from our Customer Service team. 

Administrator
Administrators are users with additional privileges to manage and customize mHelpDesk. Administrators can be assigned tickets like staff members but may also do the following:
• Access all tickets (not just the tickets they are assigned to)
• Edit company information and payment processors
• Access and edit all appointments
• Access and edit all customer information
• Create and edit reports
• Make financial transactions
• Access settings pages
• Access estimate and invoice tabs
• Add and manage staff
• Create staff teams
• Assign user roles
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Add Ons
Add Ons are features that you can enable and disable in your account based on your business needs. Some add ons are at an additional cost. To access, navigate to Settings > Add Ons.

Auto Update Rules
These rules update your jobs when certain conditions are met. When an issue type, status or priority is assigned to a job, an email or text can be sent to a specific user based on the rules you have in place. Navigate to Settings > Auto Update Rules to add an Auto Update Rule.

Approved
An ‘approve’ button can be added to your estimate or estimate email, allowing customers or leads to approve the associated estimate.

Calendar
The calendar is a way to view all your jobs (either assigned or unassigned) and allows you to schedule your staff accordingly. From here, you can create events, assign jobs, and even color code staff and teams.

Combined Invoice
You can combine multiple invoices into one invoice for emailing, printing, and billing. From the Invoices screen, click on the drop-down arrow next to “Add” and then click “Combine Invoices” to choose which invoices you’d like to combine.

Contact
Contacts are individuals within an organization you can send emails, text messages, estimates and invoices to. To search for a contact, navigate to People > Contacts.

CSV
mHelpDesk organizes contact information as comma-separated values, a common data storage format that can be accessed in Excel and other similar applications. To import your customer contact information, you can generate a CSV file and use our bulk CSV import tool. Navigate to Settings > CSV Import.

Tip: When saving CSV files in Excel, make sure to check the “tab delimited” option.

Customer
Customer profiles are used to define who a job was created for. Customers can be searched by name, email address or service location.

Customer Equipment
Customer Equipment is a way to track any appliance or piece of equipment that your customer owns and you may service.  There is a barcode in mHelpDesk that autopopulates for each piece of equipment you enter. The barcode can be printed and attached to the equipment for tracking. For example, if you’re a computer repair shop, the customer’s computer information should be saved in the Customer Equipment tab in mHelpDesk, and you can print a label for this equipment as well. Capture additional information such as make, model, and serial number by creating custom fields under Customer Equipment Types. Turn this feature on by navigating to Settings > Add Ons > Customer Equipment.

Customer Equipment Types
Customer Equipment Types are the different types of equipment that you are tracking. For example, if your business performs auto repairs, your types would be listed as: “Computer, Laptop, HVAC, Water Heater etc.”

Customer Terms
Customer terms are payment conditions and agreements made between you and your customer before a job is performed. To define your standard customer terms, go to Settings > Customer Terms. To add your terms to each printed job, estimate or invoice, go to Settings > Templates and add your terms directly to the desired template. You can also specify terms for individual customers under their customer profiles.

Customer Types
Customers can be labeled so they can be grouped by type. For example, a customer can be grouped as “Commercial” or “Residential”. To add a new Customer Type, go to Settings > Customer Types.

Customer Portal
Our online customer portal allows your customers to sign in to their own mHelpDesk portal to check the status of their job, submit requests and even pay for invoices online. To set it up, copy and paste the customer portal code anywhere on your own website. You can find the code specific to your account by navigating to Settings > Website Integration and grant access to individuals under Customers > Contacts.
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Custom Fields
You can capture more information in each job using custom fields. Under “Other Information” in each job, you can have fields in the form of text, read only text, check box or drop-down menu to help your staff members keep track of helpful or required information when creating a new job. Either click “Customize” in your job, or go to Settings > Custom Fields.

Custom Forms
If you’d like, specific fields can auto populate for each job depending on the type. For
example, when choosing “Installation” for a job, custom forms allows you to create a customized form of specific fields associated only with the “Installation” job type, like “Installation Checklist”, “Maintenance Checklist” and so on. To start creating custom forms, create your fields first by navigating to Settings > Custom Fields. Once those fields are created, navigate to Settings > Add Ons to turn on Custom Forms. Now that Custom Forms are turned on, you can go to Settings > Custom Forms to choose the job type you’d like to assign specific fields to.


Dictionary
The mHelpDesk Dictionary allows you to rename various elements in the application to make them match the terminology you use in your own business. To adjust those terms, just navigate to Settings > Dictionary.

Email Alerts
This is an emailed reminder a user will receive to notify them an appointment assigned to them. When creating the appointment, you have the option to send the scheduled user an email alert for their appointment 15 minutes, 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week etc. beforehand.

Email Notifications
Notifications can be emailed whenever a job is submitted, changed or closed. Common notifications include status change, reassignments and new jobs. You can customize who and when each group of users receive email notifications by navigating to Settings > Notifications.

Email to Ticket
This is a feature that allows you to set up mHelpDesk as a forwarding email account for your jobs. Any new email thread that gets sent to the email address you provide will go directly to mHelpDesk and create a new job. This feature also allows for all replies that are sent out in reply to emails sent from within a job to be attached to that same job.

Estimates
Also known as a quote, will allow you to generate a list of products or services to give your customer an idea of what they will be billed. This can be printed, saved as a PDF or emailed directly to your customer for review. To add or remove information from your customer-facing Estimate, navigate to Settings > Template > Estimate Template.
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Events
Events are appointments or blocks of time scheduled that are not attached to a job. This is useful if your techs go on designated breaks, scheduled meetings, or specific times of the day where you call to follow up with your customers. To create an event, click on a block of time in the
Schedule > Enter Event Details > Create Event Only.

Invoices
This is a list of products and services that need to be billed for a job. This can be printed, saved as a PDF or emailed directly to your customer for review. To add or remove information from your Invoice template, navigate to Settings > Template > Invoice Template.

Jobs
Also known as a work order or ticket. A job contains information necessary for your technicians to complete service requests. To change what you want a Job to be called, go to
Settings > Dictionary.

Job Timer
Our job timer tool allows you to track the amount of time spent on a job. This amount of time shows as “Total Time” in your invoice, and can be added as a line item on your invoice with a price.

Job Types
Job type applies to the type of job performed. In your job, you can choose from a list of predetermined Job Types from a drop-down menu. If you’d like to add a new Job Type, go to Settings > Job Types.

Keywords
Keywords are used in templates within mHelpDesk. When selecting a keyword on the right-hand side of the template screen, it pulls the information over from your account and populates it onto the PDF or email. To access this, navigate to Settings > Templates.

Leads
Leads are used at the beginning of the workflow to track potential customers for your business. If you are a HomeAdvisor customer, your leads can automatically import into your mHelpDesk account.

Mapping
Mapping is a feature within mHelpDesk used to view all jobs on a map. We use well-known third-party mapping tools to generate accurate maps for your team’s use.

Manager
Managers are users with additional privileges within mHelpDesk. Managers have access to Calendar settings, Staff Permissions, and the Price List.
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Messages
This is a tab in your job history where you can send an email to your customer. You can also attach files to these messages, and send it to multiple email addresses by separating each address with a comma (and no space). Access this tab on the right-hand side of your job screen.

MHD
An abbreviation for mHelpDesk.

Notes (Logs)
These are non-deletable, time-stamped messages and notes that are seen only by staff members (and administrators) assigned to that particular job. Customers cannot see these messages. Access this tab on the right-hand side of your job.

Numbering
Numbering allows you to start your jobs, estimates and invoices at a specified number. For example, if you’ve previously used QuickBooks to create invoices, you can enter in the number of the last invoice created, so the next invoice you create in mHelpDesk will be in order with your invoices in QuickBooks. Navigate to Settings > Numbering to start your invoices at a certain number, or to add a prefix or suffix to your estimates or invoices.

Online Booking
Our online booking allows your customers to make an appointment with you according to your schedule in mHelpDesk. Choose a staff member you’d like to manage online booking for, choose their hours of availability and generate the online booking code by going to Settings > Online Booking.

Online Request Form
Our online request form allows you to add a form on your website to capture job requests. When a customer fills out the form, their submission will automatically generate a job in your mHelpDesk account.

Payment Processing
This is a company (third party) integrated with mHelpDesk to process credit or debit card transactions for your business. Our payment processors include: mHelpDesk Payments, Stripe, Authorize.net, and PayPal.

Price List
This is a list of all the products, services, discounts and other charges that can be applied to an estimate or invoice. Here, you can define the item’s default rate, cost, tax and description. These items will auto-populate once you begin typing them into the “Add Item” screen your estimates, invoices and jobs. To begin entering your list of products and services, navigate to Settings > Products and Services.
Note: Already have products and services from QuickBooks? To import your products and services from QuickBooks, go to Settings > Import from QuickBooks.
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Push Notifications
This is a notification you would receive about a lead, job or appointment on your mobile device if you have the mHelpDesk mobile app installed.

QuickBooks Desktop
This is a version of QuickBooks, an accounting software from Intuit, that is installed onto your computer to help you track your financial information with ease. mHelpDesk is integrated with QuickBooks Desktop to reduce double data entry.

QuickBooks Online
This is a version of QuickBooks, an accounting software from Intuit, that is cloud-based and accessible from any connected device to help you track your financial information with ease. mHelpDesk is integrated with QuickBooks Online to reduce double data entry.

QuickBooks Import
During an initial import, this is where the information in your QuickBooks is synced to mHelpDesk. The QuickBooks Import must be done before you can start exporting your
invoices from mHelpDesk into QuickBooks to prevent any errors. The information that comes over includes:
• Products and Services
• Customer Lists
• Sales Tax Lists
• Sales Terms Lists
• Customer Type Lists (QuickBooks Desktop only)

QuickBooks Export
Before doing an export, it is required that you run your import first - please refer to the definition above. During a QuickBooks export, the items below created in mHelpDesk will be sent over to QuickBooks.
• New Customer Type (QuickBooks Desktop only)
• New Invoices
• New Estimates (QuickBooks Desktop only)
• New Payments
• New Customers
• New Products
• New Sales Tax
• New Sales Terms

Recurring Invoice
This is an automatically generated invoice that can be sent to a customer every week or month throughout a designated time period. To set up a recurring invoice, from within an invoice, click “make recurring” at the bottom of the screen.

Recurring Jobs
This is an automatically generated job that is scheduled for a customer every week or month throughout a designated time period.
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Reminder Rules
Reminder rules are used to automatically create appointments that can serve as a reminder to follow up on a certain action step in your workflow. Reminder rules are only created for jobs that have been assigned to someone.

Recurring Appointment
This is an automatically generated appointment that is created for a user every day, week or month throughout a designated time period. To create a recurring appointment, click “Add Appointment” in the job screen, and check the “Repeat” box and fill out the necessary details.

Reports
mHelpDesk generates reports as tables, pie charts or bar charts that display Source Performance, Sales, Job Volume, Hours per Staff, and more. To generate a report, click on the Reports tab.

Scheduling
Scheduling is a way to assign your technicians and yourself to jobs and check availability within mHelpDesk from either the Calendar or a specific job or lead. We also integrate with Google Calendar.

Sourcse
These are the ways your customers found you, either through a door hanger, an online ad, Craigslist or another source. To add more sources to select from, navigate to Settings > Sources.

Staff
Staff members are users that can log in to mHelpDesk with their email address, but may not have as many permissions as an admin or manager to view or access certain information. To allow or disallow Staff Permissions (such as access to financial transactions or view of all jobs), navigate to Settings > Permissions.

Staff Permissions
Staff permissions allow or prevent Staff members from viewing or changing certain information and settings in mHelpDesk. The following permissions can be allowed or restricted for users designated as Staff:

• Access to Reports
• Access to all appointments
• Update appointments created  for other user/team
• Access financial transactions
• Access Estimate tab on Tickets
• Access Invoice/Payment tab on Tickets
• Access to Leads
• Access to files tab in customer view

Status
A job status can define whether a job is New, Open or Closed. You can add new statuses (ex: New: Assigned, Open: Responding, Closed: Purchased) by navigating to Settings > Job Statuses.
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Teams
Teams are groups of multiple Staff members that will show under the “Assign/Appointment” drop down menu. Create a team (ex: Billing Team, Cleaning Team, Technical Team) to be able to easily assign a job to multiple staff members at once. To create a team, navigate to People > Teams.

Templates
Use templates to add or remove certain information from your printed Invoices, Estimate, Jobs or Emails. To customize the way your templates look, or to add and remove information, go to Settings > Templates.

Timesheets
You can use our Timesheets feature to record punch-ins and punch-outs for your staff members using the mobile app, and review them as a manager or admin. This is separate from “Job Timer” on your jobs and invoices.

User
A user is either a staff member, manager, or administrator that can log into mHelpDesk. Each of these roles come with different permissions and restrictions.

Website Integration
Our website integration options are the online request form, online booking, and the customer portal. These integration options that can be added to your website to simplify communications with your customers.

Did we miss a word or term or need more clarification on something? Chat or call our Customer Support team! 

  • Chat: Click the little blue chat icon in the bottom right of the screen 

  • Phone: (888) 558-6275, Ext. 2

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