Coming Soon: ST-82
Overview
Minimum spacing keeps two related services on a service agreement a required amount of time apart. You set the rule once between two visit templates, and every new agreement built from them follows it. ServiceTitan moves visit dates when it can, and flags a visit for review when it can't.
Who uses this feature
Administrators, dispatchers, and office managers
Primarily benefits Residential Recurring Service business types
Primarily benefits Pest, Lawn Care, and Water Treatment/Pool trades
Feature configuration
This feature is currently in Early Access and available for specific accounts. It is subject to change.
Account configuration is required to use this feature. Please contact Technical Support for details.
Minimum spacing
Many property care programs include treatments that can't happen too close together. A pre-emergent weed treatment needs time before overseeding, or the seed won't germinate. A termite soil treatment needs time to bond before landscaping disturbs it.
A service agreement can carry several visit series, each on its own schedule. Because those schedules might repeat at different intervals, two visits that start safely apart can drift too close together months later. Without minimum spacing, office staff have to check every agreement's schedule by hand to catch a conflict.
Minimum spacing checks this for you, for every visit, for the life of the agreement. Administrators set up relationships on the Visit Template Relationships tab. Office staff and dispatchers see the results in the agreement's Scope of Work, on the agreement's Visits tab, and in Follow Ups > Service Agreement Visits.
What you need to know about minimum spacing
Relationships are set between visit templates
A relationship names a first visit template, a second visit template, and the minimum time between them. Every new agreement that uses both templates inherits the relationship automatically.
You can't edit or remove a relationship on an individual agreement. If one customer needs different spacing, build their agreement from a visit template pair set up that way.
Relationships apply only to agreements created after the relationship exists. Agreements you already have don't get relationships added.
Relationships can chain across more than one pair, for example A before B, and B before C. ServiceTitan won't let you create a loop with no valid order, such as A before B, B before C, and C before A.
How ServiceTitan keeps visits spaced
When an agreement's visits are generated, ServiceTitan checks each visit of the second template against the nearest earlier visit of the first template.
Where spacing is measured from: ServiceTitan uses the best information it has about the first visit. Before a job is booked, it uses the end of the first visit's window. Once a job is booked, it uses the scheduled date. Once the job is completed, it uses the completion date.
How a visit moves: If the second visit is closer than the configured minimum spacing, its visit window start date moves later to meet the spacing. The window's end date stays the same, so the window gets smaller. The visit doesn't shift as a whole.
One visit at a time: Each visit is checked on its own. Moving one visit doesn't move the visits after it in the same series. Because of this, two visits in a series can end up closer together than their recurrence suggests.
Seasonal date ranges: If a template repeats only during set date ranges, a visit is never moved past the end of its range. If the spacing can't be met inside the range, the visit keeps its full window and is flagged.
Every location and every pair: The rule applies at each location on the agreement, to every pair of matching visits on that location. If more than one relationship applies to a visit, the latest required date wins.
Note: ServiceTitan never moves a visit earlier than its originally generated date. When you edit a visit's window and confirm the change, the date you set becomes the new starting point.
When the first visit changes
Minimum spacing keeps checking after the agreement is active. When a first visit is completed, rescheduled, deleted, or dismissed, ServiceTitan rechecks the visits that depend on it. What happens next depends on the second visit:
If the second visit is… | What happens |
|---|---|
Not booked yet | Its window start date is recalculated. If it still fits, nothing else happens. If it doesn't fit, the visit is flagged. |
Booked, but not completed | If the spacing is still met, nothing happens. If not, the visit is detached from its job and flagged so you can rebook it. If the job is left with nothing on it, the job is canceled using your minimum spacing cancel reason. |
Booked, and the job's invoice is posted, exported, or paid | The job isn't detached or canceled. The visit is flagged for review. |
Already completed | If the spacing wasn't met, the visit is flagged so you can follow up with the customer. Nothing moves. |
Dismissed or deleted | Nothing happens. |
When the first visit moves earlier, or is deleted or dismissed, a second visit that isn't booked yet can move back toward its original date. A second visit that's already booked keeps its date.
Changing the date of a booked job for the second visit doesn't trigger a recheck. Booking a date is treated as a decision someone made on purpose.
Flags and what to do about them
A flag marks a visit that needs a scheduling decision. It's a signal to review, not an error. Flagged visits can still be booked, and booking a visit into a job clears its flag, even if the date you book doesn't meet the spacing.
Note: The exception is Detach blocked: the job's invoice is posted or exported, so it needs manual resolution.
On the agreement's Scope of Work, flags appear in red. On the agreement's Visits tab and in Follow Ups > Service Agreement Visits, flags appear in yellow. Red on Scope of Work is a preview before the sale, when no job exists yet. Yellow on the other screens means the visit needs a scheduling decision but can still be booked.
Every flag shows Minimum spacing violation under the visit window. Hover over it to see why:
Reason | What the hover text says | What you can do |
|---|---|---|
The visit window is too narrow | Visit window is narrower than minimum spacing relationship. Widen this visit's window, or ignore. | Widen that visit's window, or ignore the flag. |
The seasonal date range is reached | Minimum spacing cannot be met within the configured Repeat During seasonal band. Widening the window will not help. | Ignore the flag. |
The job was detached | Job detached due to spacing violation. Re-book within the updated visit window. | Rebook the visit within its updated window. |
The job couldn't be detached | Minimum spacing can no longer be met. This job could not be detached because its invoice has been posted or exported. | Settle the invoice and pull the job, or accept the conflict. |
The visit was completed out of order | Minimum spacing was not met and this visit is already completed. Review with the customer. | Talk with the customer. The flag stays on the visit as a record, because there's nothing left to rebook or widen. |
To find flagged visits across all agreements, filter Follow Ups > Service Agreement Visits by flag. Bulk booking uses the visits you've filtered, so you can review flagged visits before you book them.
What's locked on a spaced series
If a series is built from a visit template with a relationship, you can't change its recurrence or its visit window length. This is true before and after the agreement is activated, and when you add a visit from a template to an active agreement. For example, Locked to maintain the minimum spacing relationship. To change this, select a different visit template or create a manual visit
You can still edit an individual visit's window. As you edit, any spacing effect shows right away. Nothing is saved until you confirm. Editing a visit's window is how you resolve most flags.
You also can't switch a visit to a different visit template after it's added. Delete the visit, then add it again from the correct template.
Renewals
When an agreement renews, its relationships carry forward. Renewal shifts the previous term's visit dates forward instead of recalculating them from the recurrence. Any date that was moved for spacing carries into the next term, and the relationships are then applied to those dates.
Want to learn more?
Visit ServiceTitan Academy and enroll in Creating & Managing Service Agreements