If you’re thinking about expanding your business to another city or area, it sometimes makes sense to have a separate company, with its own team, internal settings, templates, agreements, and automated communications. Some states even require inspectors to have a separate company from your home inspection business in order to do pest control or mold mitigation services.
Whatever your reasons for franchising your business, our Organizations tool can help you through the process of setting up and running your new company.
Step One: Creating Your Organization
Step One: Creating Your Organization
To create an organization, pop over to the Settings > Teams page and scroll to the bottom, where you’ll find a link to set up your Organization:
Click the Get Started button, opening up the option to name and create your new organization. Your organization will be the “umbrella” under which your current and new company fall.
Once submitted, you'll be dropped into the Organization Manager Role. (To switch back, select Change Role from the main dropdown. Learn more on changing roles here.)
Click "Settings"
Click "Team"
Click "Get Started"
Enter the name of your organization
Click "Create Organization"
Click "Add New Company"
Enter the public-facing name of your new company/location
Enter a description/internal name for the company (ex. city)
If you'd like to share assets from your existing company to the new company, select the existing company in the dropdown menu
Click "Save"
Note: Each new company will require its own additional subscriptions for each inspector. This includes inspectors utilized in multiple locations. The same rates apply: $99/mo or $999/annual for primary inspectors, and $89/mo or $828/annually for sub-inspectors.
Step Two: The Organization Manager
Step Two: The Organization Manager
The Organization Manager role allows you to manage all of the companies in your organization through a specific dashboard. Here’s what you can do from there:
Dashboard
Dashboard
The Dashboard tab displays metrics for all the companies within your organization. From here you can view and compare data between franchises. This includes panels like:
Company Revenues
Top Companies
Average Inspection Price
This feature is still under development - we'll update this article as we build out more functionality here.
Companies
Companies
The Companies tab shows all the companies in your organization. It allows you to set up additional franchises, edit existing company settings, and share assets between your businesses. Here’s what you can do:
Status
While companies are getting set up, you'll see red icons indicating what still needs to be done to get them up and running such as adding inspectors, setting up services & fees, filling out a profile, and initiating new subscriptions. Additionally, you will also see active inspectors and the number of templates for your companies.
Adding New Companies
Tap the Add New Company button to create another company. You can enter their public-facing name, their internal name (since often the public-facing name is the same for franchises), and a logo. You'll also be able to choose which company in your organization to copy assets from. This includes report templates, automation settings, email/text templates, and agreements.
Tip: You can create an unpaid "Corporate" or "Master" company that contains the master templates and settings, or you can use a flagship company as your base.
Editing Company Settings
Click on any company to expand your options. From here, you’ll have the ability to edit company basics, as well as links to further setup options such as Team, Profile, Services & Fees, and Schedule.
Naming Your Services & Staff
Once you've clicked on a company, you can decide what you would like your staff and services to be called. These names are reflected in the client portal. For example, if you prefer to use the terms "Service" and "Service Provider" instead of "Inspector" and "Inspections," the client will see those names in the portal like pictured below:
Note: Certain options will only be available once you set up your team members. Other options, like payment methods, subscriptions, and integrations, are generally handled at the company level and can be set up within that company's settings.
Sharing Assets
You may occasionally update your master templates and automation settings or add a new agreement and wish to push these updates to some or all of the companies under your franchise. The Share Assets button accomplishes this, allowing you to choose any combination of assets and companies.
Note: This will not overwrite existing templates and agreements, it will create new templates and agreements that are added to a company account. Automation settings and email/text templates, however, will overwrite existing ones.
Managers
Managers
Utilizing the Managers tab, you can view all organization managers, as well as add and remove additional organization managers. Note that adding an existing Spectora user will add the additional profile to their existing account. They can use the same Change Role button to toggle between company roles. Let us know about any additional tools you need to help you grow your empire!
Step Three: Accessing Your Companies
Step Three: Accessing Your Companies
In order to access each company on the ground level (ie., access Settings, Templates, etc.), you'll want to be sure you are added as either an inspector or support staff to the second location.
The organization manager role gives you more of an overview look into your companies but does not automatically give access to the day-to-day pieces.
To view each company individually, use the "change role" option!
If you're having trouble adding yourself or another team member to the second location (either as an inspector or as support staff), reach out to our chat bubble.
🔴 Note: 🔴
If an inspector wants to use the same email to log into all of their profiles, please reach out to the chat bubble! The email will need to be linked to the profiles, and this can only be done on the back-end by our support team.
If a support staff member wants to use the same email to log into all of their profile, follow the steps in our "Provisioning Staff Profiles" article.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I copy just one service to my second location?
Unfortunately not! In order to share services between 2 companies, you would need to use the "copy all assets" option, which copies all services & fees.
Can I share just one particular template or agreement between the two companies?
Absolutely! You can choose which template(s) and agreement(s) are shared.
I'd rather talk to someone over the phone or Zoom about setting up a new location, it seems complicated. Can I do that?
We can certainly help with this! Reach out to our chat bubble and we can get you booked with your Account Manager to help answer any and all questions.
If you have any questions or feedback, write into our chat bubble or email support@spectora.com!
