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Recur - Residential MSP Automation with Kabuto

Recur is your "Residential MSP in a Box"

"This enables a whole new business model shift with 100% automation—which is required for this type of business."

What it can do

  • Fully automate your Residential MSP business by keeping Kabuto Policies in sync with a pricing plan in RepairShopr.
  • Never have to worry about chasing down a small recurring monthly payment again because of our auto retry, ability for the customer to update their credit card in the Portal, and if all else fails, auto shut off of paid add-ons for that Customer in Kabuto.
  • Always know in Kabuto & RepairShopr the billing status of all your Residential MSP Customers.
  • If you change a policy in Kabuto, or even add a new device for a customer - the billing gets updated automatically without you doing anything.

More Specifically

What it can't do

  • You still have to start installing it on computers. We can't do that for you yet! ;)

Table of Contents

  1. Overview Video
  2. Get Started with the new business model
  3. How to setup Recur
  4. Screenshot Tour of some of the screens
  5. Sample Flows - to get a new customer on a subscription as fast as possible
  6. Troubleshooting and FAQ

Overview Video


Get Started with the new business model

The five steps to a new business model are as follows.

  1. Start installing Kabuto on every machine that comes into your shop.
  2. Make marketing materials visible for people who come in-store.
  3. Start selling customers on paid upgrades.
  4. Join the community and take note of what works well for you.
  5. Get the word out via email & social media.

How to Set Up Recur

Extremely abbreviated version

  1. Go through the App Center to Kabuto, click through the wizard - you can use the defaults and just click next through every step.
  2. In Kabuto make sure your "Policies" are setup to match your MSP Plans as you sell them.
  3. In RepairShopr make sure the "Kabuto Packages" map to a product with the correct price.
  4. Done—You can start setting up subscriptions that are fully automated.

Setup/Use Videos

Detailed technical walkthrough

First go through the steps to set up the Kabuto Integration if you haven't already.

You can start the Wizard by navigating to More > Admin > Integrations - App Center > Recur app card:


 

Once you've gone through the Kabuto Integration setup you can then set up Recur. The App Card will have a button at the bottom where you can subscribe to Recur and begin the setup:

 

After you enter in the API key and sync, you will be presented with the initial map of your customers in Kabuto to your customers in RepairShopr. The integration will attempt to set them up by itself, and if it cannot you can manually map them as described below:

Note: If you are using "Default Customer" as a catchall, you should take the time right now to go through and move those all to real customers or this integration and power just won't work at all.

If you need to change the mapping to a different customer you can do so by clicking on the blue icon next to the customer name. The Customer Mapping pop-up will display the Kabuto customer name above and have a field where you can search for the corresponding RepairShopr customer:

Note: The integration will not create RepairShopr customers from existing Kabuto customers. The preferred method of customer creation is initially via RepairShopr, then later bringing them over to Kabuto by using the auto-complete feature in the "New Customer" form on the Kabuto side.

 

If the customer in Kabuto has Devices but they have not yet been created as Assets in RepairShopr, the mapping screen will display this:

 

You can click the green "Reset Mapping" button to correct this and assign the Assets to the proper customer in RepairShopr:


 

Once you've finished mapping your customers you can click either "Continue to Recur" which will continue on to setting up Recur, or you can click "Finish" which will bring you back to the Kabuto Integration App Card. After clicking the Finish button you can get back to Recur by navigating to the Recur App Card.

If you click "Continue to Recur" or come back to Recur via the App card, you will see this screen displaying the Kabuto Upgrades and their matching RepairShopr Products/Bundles. Recur automatically creates these products in RepairShopr the first time and you can modify them by navigating to the matching product in the Inventory tab. You can also map the upgrades to other RepairShopr Inventory products you already have, just search for the product in the related field:


 

Clicking on "Advanced - Fallback Settings" will bring up the fallback packages that you can set as well:


 

Important Note: These packages and policies must be mapped 1:1, so you cannot reuse an inventory package on more than one policy. This includes Fallbacks. Otherwise, you can get an error on the created invoices showing 0 quantity.

The next step in the Wizard is creating the Recurring Subscription Template. This is what every Recurring Subscription uses for default settings when created from Kabuto:

This is just the default - don't worry - you can always edit each one manually at the time of creation


 

The final step will be to configure two final settings that Recur has. The first is the ability to automatically downgrade customers that have an unpaid Invoice, and the second is to allow customers to configure their devices via the Customer Portal. You can turn these options on and off using the checkboxes on the left:


 

Once you have finished the Wizard you will be taken back to the Recur App Card, which will display all of your settings that you just set up. Here you can manage your products, adjust your configuration settings, re-run the wizard, or disable the Integration entirely:


 


RepairShopr Screenshot Tour

You can manage your mapped products by navigating to the Recur App Card after you have gone through the Wizard and clicking on "Fully Manage Your Products". You will be taken to the following page where you can manage your mapped products, and even toggle their presence in the Customer Portal:


 


 

You can also click on the 'Recur' tab to access the Recur Dashboard, an area of RepairShopr that collects and manages your Recur subscriptions and customers:


 


 

Installer Links on Customer Detail Page - use this to quickly get the right installer for the desired Policy in Kabuto


 


 

Customer Portal now has a place to manage stored credit cards (Note: you will need to be integrated with a credit card processor that support stored credit cards. Click here to view your options: Credit Card Processing)


 

Customer Portal now has a "subscribe flow" where the end customer can sign up for a subscription, add their credit card, and download Kabuto tied to the correct policy - all without you doing anything.


 


 


 


 

New Website embed code and public "Subscribe flow" that can be linked to or embedded in your website for your customers to sign right up without any intervention from you.


Kabuto Screenshot Tour

Once you have Recur set up, there will be a few places in Kabuto where you can check the billing status of your customers as well as manage the billing in RepairShopr. The first place you may notice changes is the Customer Index Page, where all customers who currently have billed devices will have a green checkmark:


 

The Customer Summary Page in Kabuto will also show you the total number of billed devices, un-billed devices, and past due devices as well:


 

The Customer Settings Page is where you will find the link to create the RepairShopr Kabuto Subscription:


 

Once clicked it will create the Recurring Invoice Schedule in RepairShopr and hide the link in Kabuto:


 


 

The Customer Devices Page will also display a green checkmark for all of that customers billed devices:


 

If you navigate to the Device in Kabuto and view the Device Activity Page, you will find the "View Asset in RepairShopr" button that takes you directly to the mapped Asset in RepairShopr:


 


Sample Flows

Here are a few of the super simple methods you can use to get Kabuto onto a computer and get the customer into a subscription in as few clicks as possible.

From RS Check in - they agree right at check in.

  1. RS - Make Customer
  2. RS - On Customer detail screen, click New > Kabuto Installer - and select the correct policy
  3. Install that file on their computer(s)
  4. RS - On Customer detail screen, click New > Kabuto Subscription - add their credit card - done
From Customer Portal - you want to send them a link to do it.
  1. RS - Send them the Customer Portal Packages link
  2. They will click the link, choose the plan, add their card, click to install - done

Troubleshooting

Prices are wrong.

  • Head to /kabuto_packages and double check all the products that are mapped and what prices they are set to

Quantity is displaying as 0 on the created invoice.

  • Please make sure that you pacakages and policies are mapped 1:1. This includes fallbacks. Otherwise, Recur will be uncertain which package to bill the customer.
  • You can double check to make sure the invoice is created properly by using the "Recalculate Quantity" buttons on the recurring invoice.

Deleted policies in Kabuto displaying in Recur and RepairShopr.

  • You can remove and add policies into Recur and RepairShopr by disabling both the Kabuto and Recur integrations. Then start the Kabuto Integration, and then the Recur integration wizards.
  • If you do not disable both integrations and enable them one at a time, this can cause issues with mapping packages and policies together, so please disable both before re-enabling/restarting the wizard.

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