Stage 2 of 6: Create your first Job

Welcome to your second step with NextMinute. In this stage you'll create your first Job, learn how Tasks break it down, add charges as the work happens, and capture photos and notes from site. We'll go through it in the same order as the video.

1. Get your head around Jobs and Tasks

Get your head around Jobs and Tasks → Jobs and Tasks – how to add

Before you dive in, it's worth understanding the difference between a Job and a Task — it trips a few people up.

A Job is the big picture: it's the overall piece of work, with the job name and everything living inside it. Tasks are a breakdown of that Job. You might use them for the different phases or zones of the work (handy if you want to back-cost), or simply to schedule the day-to-day activities that need to get done within the Job.

2. Create a Job

Create a Job → Create a Job – Desktop · Create a Job – Mobile

Log in and go to Jobs → All Jobs, then hit Add. All you actually need to create a Job is a title — that's the bare minimum. So if you're on site and need a Job quickly so the team can start timesheeting to it, just add a title and press Save.

There's plenty more you can add now (or later by hitting Edit):

• Start and end day and time
• Job status, job type and pricing type — these are 100% customisable to your business and industry. Adjust them under Admin → Settings to match how you work.
• Customer — if you connected Xero or imported your contacts in Stage 1, they'll all be here to select. Choosing one auto-fills their address and details.
• Description, priority, and who it's assigned to.
• Display on job planning — tick this if you want the Job to appear in job planning.
• Timesheet to tasks — tick this if you want the team to timesheet to specific Tasks rather than the whole Job. Just make sure the Job actually has Tasks, or it'll cause issues for your team.

Save, and your Job now carries far more detail, making it easy to see exactly what stage it's at.

💡 Tip: Assign a customer to the Job as you create it — that way everything you do is linked back to the right client when it's time to invoice.

3. Break the work down with Tasks

Break the work down with Tasks → What are tasks and how are they best used?

There are two ways to create Tasks:

Manually — open the Job and add a Task (for example, a "clean up"). Give it a specific day and time so the team knows exactly when it needs doing, and add any details they'll need so they're not calling you to check. It auto-fills the address, Job and customer from the Job. Tick Send notification to push it to whoever you assign it to — it'll also appear on their chart.

From a quote — if you've added a quote with multiple sections (we call these parts, with line items underneath), you can turn those sections straight into Tasks. With the quote open, hit More → Create task from quote for all the sections. A little link shows the Tasks came from that quote, which then flows nicely into your back costing — what you thought it would cost versus what it actually did.

Over in Job Planning, you can open the Job, see all its Tasks, drag them onto different days, and even make them dependent on each other.

4. Add charges to the Job

Add charges to the Job → Adding Charges to a Job – Desktop

Charges — labour, materials, and other costs — can go on a couple of ways.

Via timesheets (easiest for labour). The team goes to Timesheets, hits the + next to the day, selects the Job (and the specific Task, if you've enabled that), picks their hourly rate, and enters their hours and a description. Basic users only see the rate name, not the buy or sell price — only admins see those. From Save and add, they can also attach photos or add charges like materials (e.g. 10 of one item, 15 of another).

Back on the Job, those entries show under Charges — the logged hours and materials, including who logged them and when.

Manually. You can always open the Job, click Charges, and add items yourself. Use the Materials button (or Labour, Disbursements, Other) and enter the quantities — it works the same for each type.

5. Capture photos, scribbles and notes from site

Capture photos, scribbles and notes from site → Attach photos, scribbles and notes to your jobs – Mobile

Open the Job and you'll see a row of bubbles up the top for photos, files, notes and scribbles.

To add a photo, click Photos → Add. On your phone you can upload from your gallery or take a photo on the spot. Files work the same way — hit Add and upload anything you need attached. Notes and scribbles let you quickly write or draw something.

Anything you add, the team can open and view from their own devices — and anything they add shows up for you. It syncs smoothly between the mobile and desktop apps, so communication with your team stays clear at all times.

✅ You're done when...

You've got at least one live Job with a customer attached.

Next step → Stage 3: Get your team up and running for timesheeting