A solid understanding of how your data is organized in Uptick is the key to using the platform effectively. This guide explains the fundamental data relationships, from the clients you bill to the individual assets you service.
What You'll Learn
The hierarchical relationship between Clients, Properties, and Assets.
The difference between Client Contacts and Property Contacts and their roles.
How Routines and Billing Contracts connect to your properties to drive scheduled work and invoicing.
Data relationships in Uptick Video
The Core Hierarchy: From Client to Asset
Uptick organizes your data in a logical hierarchy that mirrors your real-world operations. At the highest level are your Clients, followed by the Properties you service for them, and finally the individual Assets at those properties.
1. Clients: Your Customer Accounts
A Client is the legal entity or organization you bill for your services. Think of them as the primary customer account under which all work is managed. This could be a property management firm, a building owner, or a national retail chain.
Client Contacts: These are the people you deal with at the client's organization, such as an accounts manager or a regional director. The Primary Contact is the default recipient for all official correspondence like invoices and quotes, unless specified otherwise. You can add other contacts for reference, but they won't receive automated communications by default.
Client Groups: For larger customers with multiple divisions or locations, you can use Client Groups. This allows you to group related clients under a single parent organization, which is useful for reporting and providing senior managers with portal access to view all properties across their portfolio.
2. Properties: Where the Work Happens
A Property represents the physical site or address where you perform services. Every property must be linked to a Client. It acts as the central hub for all site-specific information, including its assets, maintenance schedules (routines), and billing agreements.
Property Contacts: Unlike client-level contacts, Property Contacts are individuals tied to a single, specific location, such as an on-site facilities manager, a tenant, or a building security guard. You can assign them specific roles and communication preferences, ensuring the right people on-site receive notifications, reports, or site access requests. These contacts are visible to technicians in the mobile app.
Property Hierarchies: For complex sites like shopping centers or multi-tenanted office buildings, you can create Parent/Child Properties. This allows you to manage a central "parent" building while keeping distinct records for individual "child" tenancies, streamlining both servicing and invoicing.
3. Assets: The Equipment You Service
Assets are the physical items or defined areas at a property that require inspection and maintenance, such as a fire extinguisher, an HVAC unit, or an emergency exit light.
Asset Types: To ensure consistent servicing, assets are grouped by Asset Types (e.g., "Portable Fire Extinguisher"). The asset type defines the applicable maintenance standards, testing requirements, and data to be collected during a service.
Driving Your Operations: Routines and Billing
Once your core hierarchy is established, Routines and Billing Contracts bring it to life by defining the work to be done and how you get paid for it.
Routines: Your Maintenance Schedule
A Routine is a scheduled maintenance program for a property, built from the various legislative and servicing standards you need to meet. Routines automatically generate tasks at set frequencies (e.g., monthly, quarterly, annually), ensuring that all required asset servicing is scheduled and completed on time. The routine calendar gives you a long-term view of all planned maintenance for a property.
Billing Contracts: How You Get Paid
A Billing Contract is an agreement on a property that dictates how and when you invoice your client. Each property requires its own contract to ensure accurate invoicing, even if the terms are identical across multiple sites.
Uptick offers two primary contract structures:
Fixed Contracts: Perfect for recurring maintenance agreements. You charge a flat fee at a set frequency (e.g., a fixed price per quarter). This provides predictable revenue for you and a simple, fixed budget for your client.
Do & Charge Contracts: Ideal for work that is billed upon completion. Pricing can be configured per asset serviced or as a flat fee per visit. This structure is highly flexible and often used for call-outs, repairs, or services where the scope can vary.