We’ve all been there. It’s a wet Tuesday in February, and you’re sat in the van or the office trying to prep for the spring rush. You’re looking at a spreadsheet of five hundred maintenance contracts, knowing that with inflation and rising fuel costs, your margins are thinning. The thought of manually updating every single service price (one by one) is enough to make any business owner head back out into the rain.

This exact headache was raised recently by several members of our community. They told us that while they love the "boots on the ground" side of pond building and filtration, the sheer weight of administrative friction was slowing their growth.

Why "Admin Friction" Hits UK Pond Pros Harder

Running a pond business in the UK isn't like standard landscaping. We deal with biological systems that don’t wait for us to fix our paperwork.

Between the logistical nightmare of "cherry-picking" customers (who only want the summer visit but skip the vital winter prep) and the technical requirement of tracking work history across different property owners, the margin for error is slim. When your software doesn’t talk to your accounting package properly, or a customer accidentally unsubscribes from a service reminder, it doesn’t just cost a few minutes; it costs a relationship.

Driven by You: The Business Liferaft Update

In direct response to these conversations, we’ve rolled out a series of updates to Business Liferaft designed to strip away that friction and keep your focus on the water.

1. Simple Price Updates

• Batch Price Updates: You can now apply a percentage increase (e.g., +5%) across hundreds or thousands of maintenance plans instantly. No more manual data entry; just protected margins. You can even set the rounding you want so you don't get awkward prices like £79.17. Choose to round to the nearest whole pound or down by, for example, 5p (£90 or £89.95 if you prefer being under a price band).

• Maintenance "Invite" Logic: To help increase acceptance rates, the system now defaults to selecting all scheduled visits. This encourages customers to commit to the full seasonal cycle rather than skipping the essential maintenance that keeps their systems healthy. You can also require a customer to accept all visits for the year or allow them the freedom to select only the visits they would like. If you want, you can offer discounts to those customers who accept every visit. Simple maintenance management, with all the flexibility you need!

2. Pond Site History

• Previous Occupant History: You can now view the history of previous occupants at a specific address. If you worked on a bespoke filtration system for a client three years ago and the house has since sold, you have the full "medical record" of that pond ready for the new owner.

3. Seamless Financial Sync

• Xero & Sage Enhancements: We’ve squashed the bugs affecting contact and invoice exports. We’ve also added a new Invoice Status Selector, giving you granular control over exactly how invoices appear in your accounting software (pending, so you can make changes, or issued, ready for payment).

4. Keeping in contact with your customers

• The "Accidental Unsubscribe" Guard: Unsubscribe links are available in a clean link below your message. Customers can pick the types of messages they want from your business (rather than using the sledgehammer that is spam reports!). You will now receive a notification when a customer unsubscribes. A quick call to follow up after an unsubscribe (to request feedback) can be a great source of information about how you run your business. And we have found with our users that more than half of the unsubscribes are accidental, and the customer quickly re-subscribed after realising their mistake!

The Result: More Time for the "Wet" Work

These updates aren't just about "features"; they are about headspace.

By automating the tedious price adjustments and providing a clearer visual window for maintenance scheduling, you’re not just managing a database; you’re protecting your time. It means less time squinting at a screen and more time ensuring your projects are delivered to the highest standard.

We believe software should evolve based on the reality of the job site, not a boardroom. Thank you to everyone who shared their "bottleneck" stories with us over the last few months; this update is the direct result of your feedback.

For the pond and lake specialists out there: When it comes to seasonal maintenance, what is the biggest administrative "time-sink" that currently takes you away from the tools?

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