How Jobber works with Protiv: Complete Integration Guide

1. Connecting Jobber to Protiv

To connect your account:

1. Sign in to Protiv.
2. Go to Settings.
3. Select Integrations.
4. Find Jobber and select Connect.
5. Sign in to Jobber when prompted.
6. Approve Protiv’s access to your Jobber account.

2. How Often Jobber and Protiv Sync

Protiv checks Jobber for updates automatically, typically about once every hour.

This means that changes made in Jobber may not appear in Protiv immediately. For example, there may be a short delay after you:

• Create a new job
• Add or change a scheduled visit
• Update the job price
• Enter a labor budget
• Add a line item
• Log employee time
• Update an employee’s wage

When reviewing a change you just made, allow up to one hour for it to appear in Protiv.

When information is needed sooner, contact your Protiv representative or the Protiv Support team to request a manual sync.

3. How Jobber Information Appears in Protiv

Jobber and Protiv sometimes use different names for related information.

In Jobber	In Protiv	How it is used
Client	Included in the property name	Helps identify the customer connected to the job
Property	Property	Provides the job address and location
Job	Job	Supplies pricing, scheduling, job type, and other job details
Visit	Milestone	Determines when work is scheduled and how ProPays may be created
Line item	Cost line within the milestone	May contribute to the labor budget and cost reporting
Team member	Crew member	Connects employees and their wages to the work
Timesheet entry	Logged milestone time	Supplies the hours used in labor cost and bonus calculations
Job custom field	Labor budget or estimated hours setting	May supply the job’s labor budget, depending on your account setup

4. Understanding the Labor Budget

Every ProPay calculation begins with a labor budget.

The labor budget represents how much labor a job is expected to require. Depending on your company’s setup, this may be measured in:

• Labor dollars
• Estimated labor hours
• A percentage of the contract price

Protiv compares the labor budget with the actual cost of the employees who worked on the job.

When the actual labor cost is lower than the available labor budget, the difference may become the available bonus pool, based on your company’s incentive program settings.

Your account is normally configured to use one of the following labor budget methods.

Option 1: Percentage of the Contract Price

Your company establishes a labor percentage, such as 30%.

Protiv reads the eligible price from Jobber and applies the percentage.

For example:

• Eligible Jobber contract price: $4,000
• Labor percentage: 30%
• Protiv labor budget: $1,200

If the crew completes the work for less than $1,200 in labor cost, the remaining savings may contribute to the bonus.

Option 2: Estimated Labor Hours

A custom field is added to the Jobber job to store the estimated labor hours.

For example:

• Estimated Hours field in Jobber: 80 hours
• Protiv labor budget: 80 hours

Protiv uses the employees’ wage information to calculate the dollar equivalent of those hours.

Option 3: Labor Budget in Dollars

A custom field is added to the Jobber job to store the expected labor cost.

For example:

• Labor Budget field in Jobber: $2,500
• Protiv labor budget: $2,500

Important: Complete the Field Before Work Begins

When your account uses a Jobber custom field for estimated hours or labor dollars, the field should be completed on the job before employees begin working.

5. How Jobber Line Items Affect the Budget

The way Protiv uses line items depends on your labor budget method.

When Using the Percentage Method

Protiv may review the job’s line items and identify which items represent labor or service work.

For example, a job may contain:

• Labor: $500
• Paint and materials: $300
• Total job price: $800

If the account uses a 30% labor percentage, Protiv may apply the percentage to the $500 labor portion instead of the full $800 total.

In this example:

• Labor-related price: $500
• Labor percentage: 30%
• Labor budget: $150

This helps prevent material, equipment, or supply charges from incorrectly increasing the labor budget.

Clearly Name Labor-Related Line Items

Protiv uses the line-item name to help determine whether the item represents labor or a material expense.

Clear examples include:

• Labor
• Installation
• Maintenance service
• Repair labor
• Painting hours
• Cleanup service

A line item that only contains a product code, abbreviation, or unclear name may not be recognized as labor.

For the most accurate budget calculation, use clear and descriptive names for labor and service items.

When Using an Hours or Dollar Field

When the labor budget comes from a Jobber custom field, line items do not normally change the budget value. Protiv uses the number entered in the designated field.

The line items may still appear in reporting and cost breakdowns.

6. One-Time Jobs and Recurring Jobs

One of the most important parts of the Jobber integration is how a job is classified.

This classification affects how Protiv creates milestones and ProPays.

One-Time Jobs

For example, a painting project may require:

• Visit 1: Preparation
• Visit 2: Priming
• Visit 3: Painting
• Visit 4: Final touchups

When the job is configured as one-time in Jobber, Protiv generally combines all of those visits into one milestone and one ProPay for the entire job.

The ProPay is reviewed once the overall job is complete.

Recurring Jobs

For example, a recurring lawn maintenance agreement may include:

• Week 1 visit
• Week 2 visit
• Week 3 visit
• Week 4 visit

Each visit may create its own milestone and may be eligible for its own ProPay.

7. How Budgets Are Divided Across Recurring Visits

The budget calculation for recurring jobs depends on both the budget method and how the job is billed in Jobber.

Recurring Job with One Flat Total

 

For example:

• Total recurring job price: $3,000
• Labor percentage: 30%
• Total labor budget: $900
• Number of visits: 3
• Labor budget per visit: $300

Recurring Job Billed Per Visit

When each visit has its own price and the account uses the percentage method, Protiv may calculate the labor budget separately for each visit.

For example:

Visit	Visit Price	30% Labor Budget
Visit 1	$600	$180
Visit 2	$600	$180
Visit 3	$900	$270

Because the third visit has a higher price, it also receives a higher labor budget.

Accounts Using an Hours or Dollar Field

When the budget comes from an estimated-hours or labor-dollar field, Protiv may divide the field value across the recurring visits.

The Jobber billing type does not necessarily change the field-based budget method.

8. Where Employee Wages Come From

Protiv needs each employee’s wage to calculate the actual labor cost of a job.

By default, Protiv imports employee pay-rate information from Jobber.

When employees log time, Protiv uses their wage and hours to calculate the labor cost associated with the job or visit.

For example:

• Employee wage: $20 per hour
• Logged time: 5 hours
• Labor cost: $100

Wage Changes

When an employee receives a raise, update the wage in Jobber as you normally would. Protiv should receive the updated wage during a future sync.

Manual Wage Overrides in Protiv

This can be helpful when your company needs Protiv to use an adjusted labor cost, such as:

• A burdened wage
• An internal labor cost
• A temporary corrected rate
• A rate that Jobber does not track

However, once a wage has been manually overridden, future Jobber wage changes may not automatically replace it.

When an employee’s wage looks different between Jobber and Protiv, contact your Protiv representative to confirm whether a manual wage override is active.

9. How Employee Time Is Used

Those hours are used to calculate:

• Actual labor hours
• Actual labor cost
• Budget remaining
• Job efficiency
• Potential employee bonuses

Accurate clock-ins in Jobber are important because Protiv’s calculations depend on the job and visit connected to each time entry.

10. How Drive Time and Unassigned Time Work

Jobber may include employee time that is not connected to a specific job. This may represent:

• Drive time
• Shop time
• Loading time
• General time
• Internal or non-billable work

Protiv can allocate this unassigned time across the jobs the employee worked that day.

For example:

• 5 hours logged to a customer job
• 1 hour of unassigned time
• Protiv recognizes the additional hour as non-billable or drive time and may allocate it to the day’s jobs

Include Drive Time

When drive time is included, it increases the labor cost of the related jobs and may reduce the available bonus.

This is appropriate when your job budgets already include expected travel time.

Exclude Drive Time

When drive time is excluded, Protiv may still track the time for reporting, but it does not increase the job’s labor cost or reduce the bonus.

This is commonly used when job estimates only include time spent working at the customer’s location.

The setting is managed in Protiv under:

Settings → Jobs → Non-Billable Allocation Rules

11. Rescheduling Jobber Visits

Protiv will generally recognize the updated visit and adjust the related milestone during the next sync.

Whenever possible, reschedule the original visit instead of deleting it and creating a new one. Creating a replacement visit may result in an additional milestone or require a manual review.

After a major scheduling change, review the job in Protiv to confirm that the visit and milestone are still aligned correctly.

12. Cancelling Jobber Visits

When a visit is cancelled:

1. Mark the visit as cancelled in Jobber.
2. Notify your Protiv contact or Protiv Support.

Cancelling a visit in Jobber may not automatically remove or cancel the corresponding milestone in Protiv.

Without a manual review, the cancelled visit may leave an extra milestone or ProPay visible in Protiv.

Do not approve a ProPay connected to a cancelled visit until the Protiv team confirms that it has been corrected.

13. Routes and Crew Grouping

Jobber does not provide the same fixed route structure available in some other field-service platforms.

However, Jobber customers can still use Protiv’s Routes feature.

Routes can help your company:

• Group work by crew leader
• Review crew performance
• Organize ProPays
• Compare results across teams
• Create route-level reporting

Routes are optional. Jobber can connect and calculate ProPays correctly without them.

14. What Should Be Updated in Jobber?

As a general rule, information about the job and the crew’s work should be maintained in Jobber.

Update the following in Jobber:

• Job name and details
• Property address
• Job pricing
• Line items
• Labor-related custom fields
• Estimated labor hours
• Scheduled visits
• One-time or recurring status
• Visit billing structure
• Employee time entries
• Employee wage information
• Rescheduled visits
• Cancelled visits

Because Jobber is the original source of this information, correcting it there helps keep both systems aligned.

15. What Should Be Managed in Protiv?

Information related specifically to your incentive program and bonus calculations is managed in Protiv.

Manage the following in Protiv:

• Labor budget method
• Labor percentage
• Manual wage overrides
• Non-billable and drive-time allocation
• Routes
• Eligibility settings
• Bonus distribution settings
• Disqualifiers and penalties
• ProPay review and approval
• Employee statements

The simplest way to remember the difference is:

19. Recommended Workflow

For the most accurate Jobber and Protiv results, follow this workflow.

Before Work Begins

1. Create the job in Jobber.
2. Confirm the job price and line items if used.
3. Complete the estimated-hours or labor-budget field, when applicable.
4. Confirm whether the job is one-time or recurring.
5. Schedule the correct visits.
6. Confirm that the assigned employees have current wages.

While Work Is Being Completed

1. Have employees clock in and out in Jobber.
2. Make sure employees select the correct job or visit.
3. Update schedule changes directly in Jobber.
4. Correct inaccurate time entries in Jobber.

Before Approving a ProPay

1. Confirm all expected hours have synced.
2. Compare the Jobber job with the Protiv milestone.
3. Confirm the labor budget is correct.
4. Confirm the correct employees are included.
5. Review wages and labor cost.
6. Review any drive-time allocation.
7. Make sure cancelled visits are not included.
8. Approve the ProPay only after the information is complete.

---