AI Guides / Pest Control
Pest control is the trade where the repeat visit is written into the standard: AS 3660.2 recommends termite inspections at least every twelve months, warranties require them, and commercial contracts run on quarterly cycles. Every job you completed last year is a booking due this year — the only question is whether your software reminds them before a competitor's letterbox flyer does.
Start at step one. Stop whenever you like — nothing below is needed for anything above it to work.
Prices checked by hand 27 July 2026 · nobody pays to be listed here
The whole page, in order
Load every past termite inspection and treatment into recurring jobs at its proper interval — twelve months standard, six for treated or high-risk properties. This list is your next year's revenue.
Software: ServiceM8 or GorillaDesk recurring jobs
Switch on the reminder and quote follow-up automations in your job software, so anniversaries chase themselves and treatment proposals don't go quiet.
Software: ServiceM8 or GorillaDesk reminders and quote follow-ups
Move the inspection report onto the phone — a ready-made AS-aligned form that generates the PDF on site, filed against the job.
Software: ServiceM8 Forms inspection report
Count anniversaries reminded versus rebooked, treatment proposals followed up, and reports delivered same-day. Only then decide whether anything needs building.
Software: ServiceM8 or GorillaDesk reports
Step one · start here
On ServiceM8, these are settings, not another subscription — check your plan includes them. On something else, search its help centre for the same feature name.
Extra software cost
$0*
if included in your plan
Hours back per month
≈20
Why it matters
The annual-inspection engine: create the job once against the property, set the interval, and it re-creates itself on schedule — twelve months for standard inspections, six for treated properties. Included on all plans, and most pest operators still run the due list from memory.
What to do
Open the official guide below. In ServiceM8, find “Recurring jobs on every plan”. Follow the guide once, switch it on for one real job or customer first, and check that it did exactly what you expected before using it everywhere.
Check the official pricing and plan details ↗1 day to load history · $0 extra if included in your current plan
Why it matters
Ready-made pest control forms — inspection reports and compliance documents completed on site as a question flow, generating a branded PDF filed to the job. Purchased forms work on every plan, including Free.
What to do
Open the official guide below. In ServiceM8, find “Form Store pest inspection and compliance forms”. Follow the guide once, switch it on for one real job or customer first, and check that it did exactly what you expected before using it everywhere.
Open the official product page ↗Half a day · $0 extra if included in your current plan
Why it matters
The treatment proposal that follows an inspection is a considered purchase — a barrier system or bait program is real money. Automated follow-ups at your cadence, stopping when the client replies, off until activated in Settings.
What to do
Open the official guide below. In ServiceM8, find “Quote follow-up automation”. Follow the guide once, switch it on for one real job or customer first, and check that it did exactly what you expected before using it everywhere.
Open the official setup guide ↗1 hour · $0 extra if included in your current plan
Different software? The same switch usually exists under another name.
Step two · first workflow to implement
The standard recommends not more than twelve months between termite inspections, and warranty cover usually depends on it. A reminder sixty and thirty days out, citing their last report date, rebooks the year's revenue before anyone else's flyer lands.
Do this in order
Typical size
≈40 anniversaries/mo
Setup
1 day
What to use
ServiceM8 or GorillaDesk recurring jobs
Buy or build: Already paid for
How you know it worked
Count it in week one, then count the same thing again in week four. If the number did not move, stop spending.
Keep this implementation simple
Use the steps above with the software you already have. Test the workflow on your own phone before adding another product or paying someone to build around it.
Step three · keep going without adding complexity
One at a time. Finish it, test it on real work, then start the next.
When live termites are found, the mandatory Termite Management Plan doesn't close the file — it opens ongoing management: treatment, follow-up inspections at six months, then annual. Price it as a program, not a one-off, because the standard already frames it that way.
Setup effort: 1 week
A homeowner quoted for a barrier system is comparing dread against dollars for a fortnight. Follow-ups at day 3, 10 and 21 — with the inspection photos re-attached — convert the ones who were persuading a spouse, not saying no.
Setup effort: 1 hour
Cafés, food manufacturers and strata blocks need documented pest programs on fixed cycles for their own audits. A per-site proposal — schedule, reports filed, evidence exportable — wins the contract from the operator selling single visits.
Setup effort: 2 days
Step four · only once the first three are running
The first point where paying for a build makes sense — once the earlier steps are running.
One property manager controls dozens of doors needing end-of-lease flea treatments and routine pest work. A standing arrangement with clean per-property reporting beats forty individual homeowners for the same revenue.
Setup effort: 1 day
Does this look familiar?
Rebook every inspection at its anniversary
Convert the treatment into a monitoring relationship
Chase the proposal that went quiet
Package the commercial compliance cycle
Ask the property manager for the rent roll
Generate the report before you leave the driveway
After thirty days
Number one
Write down the current monthly number before you switch anything on. Compare it with the same number after thirty days.
Number two
Count it the same way in week one and week four. Do not change the definition halfway through.
Number three
Use the history inside your existing software to count how often the automation actually ran.
Number four
Ask the person doing the work now. They will know before a dashboard does.
Every other figure here is a typical size. These four are yours.
Reference
All 11 jobs for pest control, in order of what they return.Open ↓Close ↑Wins work
01
02
03
04
05
Saves hours
06
The inspection form completed as a question flow on the phone — findings, conducive conditions, recommendations — produces the branded PDF on site, filed to the job and emailed from the kerb.
07
Product, concentration, quantity and site per job, captured in the same form flow — the licence recordkeeping that otherwise gets reconstructed before an audit.
08
Pest visits need someone home and pets inside. Confirmation at booking, reminder the day before, on-my-way with an arrival window — all included, all off by default.
09
Reminders at 7, 14 and 30 days, with your commercial and strata accounts excluded because those need a phone call.
10
Mud leads, frass, damage, treatment points — photographed into the job record with time and place, feeding the report and the follow-up proposal from one capture.
11
Safe re-entry times, pet precautions, what the warranty covers, service areas — one place the office and the phone can ask, loaded from your own documents.
The stack
| Tool | What it is for | Price | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Job managementServiceM8 | Recurring jobs, forms, quoting, reminders and job history — with pest control one of its named core industries. | $29–79/mo flat ↗ | The best fit in this trade because recurring jobs are on every plan and the Form Store already stocks pest forms. iOS-first — Android techs get the cut-down Lite app — and building your own custom forms needs the $79 Growing plan; purchased ones don't. |
| Pest-specific job managementGorillaDesk | The US pest-focused alternative with routing and subscription-service billing. | From ~$49/mo ↗ | Worth a look if recurring residential subscriptions are your model — but for an AU operator already on ServiceM8, the switching cost buys nothing the recurring-jobs engine doesn't already do. |
| Phone & messagingOpenPhone | A business number with shared inbox and missed-call text-back. | $19/user ↗ | Useful for a solo operator whose phone rings under a house. Skip if ServiceM8 Phone (from $19/mo, with after-hours routing) covers you inside the platform you already run. |
| AI answeringRosie | Answering overflow calls and booking straightforward jobs. | $49/mo ↗ | Forbid it from quoting termite work — no number exists before an inspection, and a phone price becomes a doorstep argument. General pest bookings at set prices are fine. |
| AccountingXero | Invoicing, reconciliation, and the overdue-payment reminders nobody enables. | $35/mo ↗ | You almost certainly have this already, and it syncs with ServiceM8. Reminders are free and off by default. |
| AutomationMake.com | Anniversary sequences and commercial evidence packs beyond the built-in recurrence. | $9/mo ↗ | Only needed for the gaps — ServiceM8's recurring jobs cover the core. If a scenario is doing what a recurring job could, delete the scenario. |
| Job documentationCompanyCam | Photo trails beyond the job software's own capture. | $29/mo ↗ | Probably redundant — ServiceM8's branded, time-stamped photos cover inspection evidence. Only worth it for large commercial sites with multi-visit photo histories. |
| AssistantChatGPT Team | Office and field questions from your own documents — precautions, warranty terms, service areas. | $25/user ↗ | Loaded with your real documents it earns its keep. It never writes an inspection finding — the report carries your licence, and the findings are what the client paid a human to make. |
Do not bother
The standard's whole sequence is inspection, then plan, then proposal — because the treatment depends on what's found, where, and what construction you're dealing with. A phone or photo price is a guess you'll wear, and it cheapens the inspection that is your actual product.
The report is a regulated document your licence signs. Forms should move your observations into the template — the moment a tool drafts a finding you didn't make, you've certified someone else's guess.
The inspection is the product and the renewal engine — discount it and you've repriced your entire recurring book while signalling it's a formality. Compete on the report quality and the reminder discipline, not the price.
Sources
Nearby trades
Common problems this covers
How every other industry fixes the same thing, and what they pay.
Price rechecks only. Leave any time.
Do it yourself
Use the official links, do one card at a time, and count the result after thirty days.
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