Setup guide
Connect Scout to Housecall Pro
Scout's team connects Scout to your Housecall Pro account with you on a setup call, using an API key from your account. Once it's connected, Scout reads your book and books and reschedules jobs directly in Housecall Pro.
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Before you start
- Someone with admin access to your Housecall Pro account, free for the setup call.
- Your team list, with each tech's mobile number as it appears on their Housecall Pro profile.
- Which kinds of jobs Scout may book, and which techs take them.
- Keep the API key out of email and text. Scout's team enters it straight into your Scout's settings with you.
Steps
Create an API key for Scout
On the setup call, the person with admin access creates an API key for Scout in your Housecall Pro account. Scout's team may also ask for your company ID.
Enter the key in your Scout
Scout's team types it into the CRM connection in your Scout's settings. The key is saved only in your own Scout and isn't shown again once saved.
Test the connection
The test reads your live customer count from Housecall Pro with exactly the key that was typed. A count back means the key works.
Save it and let Scout load your book
After the connection is saved, Scout switches to it on its next restart, then loads your customers, jobs, estimates and invoices and keeps them up to date on its own.
Set your booking rules
Pick the job types Scout can book and the techs who take them, then teach Scout your shop rules in Scout Chat by saying "remember that".
Test calls, then go live
Before go-live, Scout's team makes test calls with you, checks each call in Scout, checks any resulting booking in your software and removes the test jobs. While you test, Scout's texts go only to a test phone, except when Scout is answering a customer who already texted in.
What Scout reads and writes in Housecall Pro
- Reads
- Customers and their addresses
- Jobs and the schedule
- Estimates and invoices
- Your techs
- Writes
- New jobs Scout books from calls and new leads, and from a campaign when you turn booking on for it. Scout creates the job, then adds the visit time and tech
- Reschedules, when a customer calls to move a job
- Changes your team asks for in Scout Chat, like adding a customer, when your shop has those switched on
- Payments
- Scout texts a reminder for the open invoice, and customers pay from the Housecall Pro invoice
- Doesn't do
- Send quotes or invoices to customers from Scout Chat: drafts wait for your review
- Merge duplicate customer records
- Build membership lists: those use ServiceTitan memberships
- Close out jobs
What changes for your team
- Your team keeps working in Housecall Pro as today, and jobs Scout books land on the same schedule.
- Replies to Scout's texts land in Scout's inbox, where the office can read a conversation, take it over and hand it back.
- Your techs can use Field Support on their phones to ask Scout about the job in front of them.
Disconnect Scout from Housecall Pro
Tell Scout's team, and we remove the saved connection from your Scout. Someone with admin access can also delete the API key Scout uses in Housecall Pro; after that, Scout can't read or change anything there.
Jobs Scout already booked are ordinary Housecall Pro jobs, so they stay on your schedule.
Troubleshooting and common questions
A job in Housecall Pro has no time or tech on it.
Scout books in two parts: the job first, then the visit. If Housecall Pro turns down the visit, Scout treats the booking as not done, saves a follow-up request for your office, and tells the caller the office will call them back. The job can sit there unscheduled: schedule it, or delete it if the office rebooked the customer.
The connection test fails.
Check that the whole key was copied, with nothing cut off, and that it comes from the Housecall Pro account your shop runs on. The test uses exactly what was entered, so re-enter the full key and run the test again. If it still fails, tell Scout's team.
A tech shows up twice in Scout.
Scout matches each tech to their Housecall Pro record by the record's ID or by the mobile number on their profile. When neither matches, the tech can appear twice: send us the mobile number exactly as it is on the tech's Housecall Pro profile.
Still stuck? Talk to us or email [email protected].
See what's sitting in your book.
We'll walk through how Scout gets jobs booked and invoices paid.
