Setup and data import, by chat

Onboarding Hub for Field Service Software

The Onboarding Hub is where a new Field Ascend account gets set up and your old data comes in. You work in a chat with an assistant, next to a board of cards that shows what's finished and what's waiting on you. Upload a spreadsheet and the assistant imports it. Ask for a setting, a price list or a new user and it makes the change after you say yes. There's no setup fee.

Field Ascend is field service management software that's priced per user, and the Hub is part of that price. Everything stays in writing, on the card it belongs to, so you can come back tomorrow and see exactly what was agreed.

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Field Ascend Onboarding Hub board showing cards for a customer import and a price list setup with progress bars, and a Needed from you list at the top — The board: a card for each piece of work and a list of what's waiting on you

What shows up after you sign up

After you sign up, a short setup wizard asks the basics about your company. Once it's done, an Onboarding item shows up in the menu. That's the Hub.

The page is a board. A chat sits at the top, and you ask for things in plain words. Under it, a list called Needed from you pulls together every step that's waiting on you, so it's easy to see whether a delay is on your side or ours. Under that, every piece of work on your account, like importing customers, setting up price lists or building an invoice template, gets a card with its steps and a progress bar.

Everyone in your office who can open the dashboard sees the cards, apart from cards about payroll, which are limited to people allowed to see staff pay. Chats are private to each person. Account masters can see all of them, and so can anyone you give that permission to. The board covers work on your account. It isn't a project plan for your whole business.

See the onboarding hub at work

This six-minute video walks through the board, the Needed from you list and the progress bar. Then the assistant adds a job status, imports a spreadsheet of customers, sites and contacts, and sends a feature request it can't handle yet to our team, all in writing. You'll find more walkthroughs on the training videos page.

How a spreadsheet import runs

Upload a CSV or Excel file in the chat. The assistant reads the columns and tells you what it sees in plain words: how many customers, how many job sites, which dates look off, which rows are missing a ZIP code. After that it asks only what it can't work out on its own, usually two or three things, like which column is the site name or what your old statuses should map to here.

Then you get a plan and a preview with the numbers. Nothing goes in until you say yes to that plan. By default it then imports the first 20 rows and stops, so you can open your account and look at real records. Reply "do the rest" and it finishes the file in the background. If you'd rather skip the pause, say so when you approve the plan.

A row it can't place, like a site with no address, is parked and listed on the card instead of guessed at. If some rows already exist in your account, it asks whether to fill in their blanks or leave them alone. It never overwrites anything you typed.

Chat with the onboarding assistant showing the plan for a customer spreadsheet import, with the numbers, two questions and a prompt to approve the first 20 rows — The plan and preview the assistant shows before it imports anything

What it can import, and what it can't

Customers, sites, contacts, equipment, work order history and stock are the usual starting set. The assistant also handles suppliers, quotes, vehicles, tools, PM contracts and invoice history, and one file can hold several kinds of record. Dates follow your company's date format. A status or category it doesn't recognize comes back to you as a question instead of becoming a new record on its own.

A messy file gets fixed before it's imported. If the headings start on row 4, names and phone numbers share a column, or the workbook has several sheets, the assistant builds a cleaned copy for you to download, tells you what it changed, and runs that copy through the same plan and preview. Your original file stays as it was.

It can only read spreadsheets. A PDF, or a scan of a paper log, goes to our team in writing, and they reply with what can be done.

A completed import card in the Onboarding Hub showing the records created, the parked rows and how to undo the import — The finished import card, with the check and the undo

Checking the result, and undoing it

Once the last row is in, the import reads your account back and compares it to the plan you approved. The card then lists what was created, which existing records had blanks filled, and which rows were parked and why. When a number doesn't add up, the card says so instead of reporting success.

Changed your mind? Say "undo that import." It removes the records the import created. Anything you've started using since stays, and blank fields it filled on records you already had are left as they are. The card reports what went, what was kept, and how many blank fields it had filled, by kind.

Can it pull customers from QuickBooks or Xero?

Yes. If your books are in QuickBooks Online, Xero or Zoho Books, the assistant can read the package for you instead of asking for a file. Connect it first under Setup, Accounts Integrations, then ask. It reports how many customers, parts and past invoices it found and how many are already linked, and it waits for your yes.

It only reads. Nothing is written back to your accounting software. A customer that matches exactly is linked, one that isn't in Field Ascend yet is created, and similar names are left for you to settle on the import page instead of being guessed. QuickBooks locations come in as sites under their customer. Past invoices arrive as read-only history. The pull works through them a year at a time, and its progress shows on a card of its own. Day to day, posting and syncing are covered on the accounting integrations page.

What else it sets up for you

Ask it to add a job status, turn a setting on, add a custom field, invite a user, change a price list or reword an email, or to start from a ready-made starter pack. It works the same way every time: it reads your account, tells you what it would change, waits for your yes, makes the change, then reads it back to you. Ask why something works the way it does and it looks up which setting, or which person's permission, controls it.

Documents get a card of their own. Say "make our invoice look like this" and attach your old PDF, a photo or a description, and a designer builds the template. The card shows a printed version, you ask for changes in the chat, and nothing goes live until you approve it.

New users get the usual email to choose their own password. Nobody types a password into the chat, and the assistant never asks for one. Some things stay with you: connecting your accounting software or Stripe, buying text message credits, accepting terms, creating API keys, and adding paid extras or users. When one comes up, the assistant names the page and the button.

What does field service onboarding cost?

Before you sign with any vendor, check three things about onboarding: whether it costs extra, who migrates your data and how many files that covers, and whether the help is live and billed by the hour or written.

There's no setup fee at Field Ascend. The assistant handles the import and everything stays in writing. The Hub is included in the standard price of $13 per user per month, with a three-user minimum, a 30-day free trial and no annual contract.

No fee doesn't mean no work. You still export your data from the old system, and you still answer the assistant's questions about what your columns mean. What you don't need is a separate onboarding invoice or a slot on someone's calendar. If you're looking at field service software for small business, the whole move can be this: export what you have, drop it in the chat, answer the questions. Larger rollouts that need tailored onboarding are what the Custom plan on the pricing page covers. And if you're still working out what you need, what FSM software covers is the place to start.

Questions people ask before they upload a file

Is there a charge for onboarding?

No setup fee, and the Onboarding Hub is included in the standard price of $13 per user per month (three users minimum). If you're a larger organization that wants tailored onboarding or rollout planning, the Custom plan on the pricing page is the place to ask.

Which files can it import?

Spreadsheets: CSV and Excel. A messy one is cleaned into a separate copy first, so the original isn't touched. PDFs and scans can't be imported. Those go to our team, who reply in writing.

Will an import overwrite what's already in my account?

No. If a row matches a record you already have, the assistant asks whether to fill in that record's empty fields or leave it untouched. Either way, anything you typed stays, and the card reports how many existing records had empty fields filled.

Can I undo an import?

Yes. Tell the assistant to undo it and it removes whatever the import created. Records you have worked on since are kept, and any blanks it filled on records you already had stay as they are. The card reports what was removed, what was kept and how many blanks it had filled.

Do you onboard on calls, or in writing?

In writing. The work happens in the Hub chat and on the cards, which leaves a record of what was agreed and changed. Training videos cover the product itself, and anything the assistant can't answer is handed to our team, who reply in that same thread.

What if the assistant can't do what I need?

It says so and hands the request to our team in the same chat. Our team checks bug reports, and a confirmed bug gets a card you can follow. A feature request also gets a card, with our answer and reason and a workaround if there is one.

Start with one spreadsheet

Sign up, finish the wizard, then upload your customer list in the Hub chat and look at the plan before anything is imported. $13 per user per month, three users minimum, 30-day trial, no setup fee.

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