Services

Retainers, fixed prices and quotes, set up once

Most service businesses already know how they charge: a monthly retainer for the clients who stay, a fixed price for the onboarding package or the strategy session, and a quote for everything that doesn't fit a box. A service in Zendo is that offer written down once, with its price, its extras and the request it opens when someone buys. Clients can order it on their own, or your team orders it for them and gets straight to work.

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Three service types

Price the work the way you already do

Some work has a price the day you start, some runs every month, and some you can only price once the client has explained what they want. Most firms juggle all three, often with a different tool for each. In Zendo they're three types of the same thing, so the retainer, the fixed-price job and the quoted project all become requests in the same portal, and each one leaves the same record behind, an order showing what was bought, what was paid and when.

One-off

Fixed-price work with room for extras

An onboarding package for $2,400, a strategy session for $900. List what's included as line items, let the client choose quantities, like two extra workshops, and offer add-ons with their own prices and limits. Then choose which payment methods it accepts and whether Zendo issues the invoice on its own the moment the client pays.

Subscription

Retainers that bill themselves

One subscription service can hold several packages, each with its own price, and the client picks a billing cycle anywhere from weekly to yearly. Add a free trial, let clients pause instead of cancelling, and cap how much work each month includes, so the retainer stays a retainer and not an open tab.

Custom

Quoted work that still starts in the portal

For the project nobody can price from a form. A custom service has no price: the client submits a request with their brief, you send a quote from that request, and the order appears once the quote is approved. Whether the client pays with the quote, gets an invoice after approving it, or pays in parts on separate invoices under the same order is your call, quote by quote.

Retainers

Put the limit in the retainer, not in an awkward email

Everyone running retainers knows the month when one client sends twelve requests on a five-request plan and somebody has to write the email about it. Zendo keeps the limit inside the subscription instead. The client sees how much of the month is left before submitting anything, your team stops keeping count in a spreadsheet, and the talk about upgrading starts from a number you can both see.

Five requests a month means five

Northwind Retail's Growth plan includes five requests a month, two in progress at a time. When Dana opens a new request, she sees that three of the five are used and when the count resets, before she has typed a word of the brief. The limit resets with every billing cycle, so nobody has to remember to start counting again on the 24th.

Three sizes of retainer, one service

Starter, Growth and Pro don't have to be three separate offers. Packages live inside one subscription service, each with its own price per billing cycle, so the client compares them side by side and picks one at checkout. Highlight the package most clients should choose, show what yearly billing saves, or put a sale price next to the regular one.

And the rest of a retainer

Cap what your plan actually counts

Some retainers limit how many requests get done in a month, others how many run at the same time, and some both. Set the numbers that match the plan you sold, and leave a field empty when there's no cap at all.

A trial before the first invoice

Let a new client try the retainer for two weeks before paying anything. The first payment comes when the trial ends, and in the meantime the client works in the portal like any other subscriber.

Pauses instead of cancellations

The bakery goes quiet in August. Let clients pause the subscription themselves, or pause it for them, instead of cancelling in summer and setting everything up again in September.

Before the invite

Let clients order it, or order it for them

Front Desk is the obvious home for a service: a page in your portal where clients browse what you offer and buy it on their own. Plenty of firms never show it, though. They set up the client, order the service on the client's behalf from the client's profile, and send the invite once there's something to look at. Both paths use the same service, so the price, the questions and the request it opens stay the same either way.

See how Front Desk works

Lumen Bakery

Picks a service and checks out on their own

Halden & Co

Ordered by Priya before the client is invited

After purchase

Set the table before the client sits down

The first login decides if a client returns. If they see a blank dashboard, they close the tab and email you instead. Teams on Zendo work the other way round: they set up the client, add the work, and send the invite only when there is something worth logging in for.

Automatic request creation

Order form

Unlock request types

Customize portal

The request it opens

Each service names the request type it creates, so an onboarding package bought on Front Desk arrives as a New project request with its own statuses and whatever automations that type runs. Your team starts from a request it already knows how to handle.

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A short checkout, then the full brief

Ask the few things you need at checkout with an order form. The request form can then wait for the client inside the request, or be skipped when the order form already said enough.

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Request types that open after buying

A purchase can unlock request types for that one client, so whoever bought the quarterly review can send a Document request with the files it needs, while clients who never bought it don't see that option.

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A link for every service

Every service has its own order page. Drop the link into a proposal or a chat and the client lands on that one service, whether or not you show a Front Desk at all.

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After purchase

See what a purchase sets off before anyone buys

The worst time to find out a service is set up wrong is right after the first client pays and nothing shows up in Requests. So the service editor keeps an After purchase timeline next to the form, in the order things happen: the client orders and pays, the order and its invoice appear, the request opens with its first status, the onboarding card shows up and new request types unlock. It updates as you edit, before you save, and anything that would break the chain appears as a gap with a button that fixes it.

The timeline follows the service type. A subscription ends in a loop, where every billing cycle the payment is collected, the invoice goes out and the request limits reset, and a custom service starts with the client's request and your quote instead of a checkout. Request types get their own version, so you can check what happens when a client submits one without placing a test order.

See how requests and request types work

Your Questions Answered

Services questions

What kinds of services can I set up in Zendo?

Three types. One-off services have a fixed price, line items, quantities and optional add-ons. Subscriptions bill on a cycle and can include packages, free trials, pauses and request limits. Custom services have no set price; the client submits a request and you send a quote.

Can a retainer limit how many requests a client sends?

Yes. A subscription can cap how many requests are completed per period, how many are active at the same time, or how many are in the queue in total. The client sees the count and the reset date when submitting a new request, and the limits reset with every billing cycle.

What are packages?

Packages are the tiers inside one subscription service, such as Starter, Growth and Pro, each with its own price per billing cycle. The client picks one at checkout. You can highlight one package, show the discount for yearly billing and set sale prices.

Can I add add-ons to a subscription?

Add-ons belong to one-off services. For extra work on top of a retainer, offer a one-off service the client can order alongside it, or send a quote from the request.

Do clients have to buy through Front Desk?

No. Your team can order a service for a client from the client's profile, you can send the service's own order link, or you can skip services entirely and open requests for clients directly. Front Desk can be hidden for any client.

Does buying a service create a request automatically?

Yes, of the request type you choose on the service, and you decide whether its request form waits for the client inside the request or is skipped. A service can open more than one request, and you can also set it to open none and track delivery on the order yourself.

How do clients pay, and does Zendo take a cut?

Clients pay by card through your own Stripe account, or by bank transfer, PayPal or any other method you describe, which you mark as paid by hand. Zendo charges no transaction fees; Stripe charges its usual processing fee.

Set the offer up once, then get back to the work

Put your retainers, fixed-price jobs and quoted projects into Zendo, and let every sale open a request your team already knows how to run. Free for 3 clients.

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