Service Areas

Service areas let you define where your business operates and how geography affects pricing. You can set up travel fees, mark areas as requiring a phone call for pricing, or exclude regions you do not serve.

Area types

ServiceCortex supports three methods for defining a service area:

Type	How it works
Postcode Prefix	Match locations by the leading characters of their postal code. For example, prefix "SW1" covers all postcodes starting with SW1.
Polygon	Draw a geographic boundary on a map. Any address within the polygon is matched.
Global	A catch-all area that matches any location not covered by a more specific area.

Areas are evaluated in priority order. If a location matches multiple areas, the area with the highest priority value takes precedence.

Creating a service area

Navigate to Settings > Service Areas and click New Area. Configure the following fields:

Field	Description
Label	A descriptive name for the area (e.g., "Central Auckland", "North Shore").
Type	The matching method: Postcode Prefix, Polygon, or Global.
Prefixes	For postcode areas, the list of postcode prefixes to match.
Polygon	For polygon areas, the boundary coordinates drawn on the map.
Priority	Determines which area wins when a location matches multiple areas. Higher values take precedence.
Active	Whether the area is currently in effect.

Service modes

Each area has a service mode that determines how the business handles requests from that location:

Mode	Behaviour
Standard	The area is fully serviced. Travel fees (if configured) are applied automatically.
Call for Pricing	The area is serviced but pricing requires a manual quote. Customers are prompted to call.
Not Serviced	The area is outside your coverage. Customers are informed that you do not serve their location.

Travel cost configuration

For areas with Standard service mode, you can configure travel fees that are automatically calculated and added to quotes:

Fee Setting	Description
Base Fee	A flat fee charged for travel to this area (in cents).
Per Km	A per-kilometre rate for distance-based travel charges (in cents).
Per Minute	A per-minute rate for time-based travel charges (in cents).
Minimum Fee	The minimum travel fee applied regardless of distance or time.

How travel costs are calculated

When a customer provides their address (via postcode or coordinates), ServiceCortex:

Matches the location against your active service areas by postcode prefix or polygon boundary.
If a match is found with Standard service mode, calculates the travel cost using the area's fee settings and the provided distance and duration.
Returns the cost along with the matched area label and service mode.

If no area matches the location, no travel cost is applied and the service mode defaults to null.

Managing service areas

Editing areas

You can update any service area at any time. Changes take effect immediately for new quotes and evaluations. Existing jobs and invoices retain the travel fees that were calculated when they were created.

Deactivating and deleting

Set an area to inactive to temporarily remove it from matching without losing its configuration. Delete an area to remove it permanently.

Outside area policy

In Settings > Organisation, you can configure the global policy for locations that fall outside all defined service areas:

Policy	Behaviour
Allow	Accept requests from any location, even outside defined areas.
Block	Reject requests from locations not covered by a service area.

What's Next

Set up pricing modules for dynamic pricing based on service inputs.
Manage your catalog of products and services.
Create proposals with automatic travel fee calculation.

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