Services#

A service is anything behind a client that has an owner, a cost, or a renewal: the domain, the DNS, the hosting, the SSL certificate, email, a CMS plugin, analytics, a payment processor, a CDN, a code repository, a CRM – or a plain “other” for the odd one out. (In the code and your exports these are called assets; in the app they’re services.)

Adding a service#

A service belongs to a client, so there are a few ways in, and they all open the same Add service form:

• On a client’s Services tab, choose Add service (the client’s Overview also has a quick + Add service link on the Upcoming renewals card).
• On the Services screen, choose Add new service and pick which client it’s for.
• From the search palette, type /new service and pick a client (see search).

Providers and their websites#

The Provider box suggests providers for the type you’ve picked, so a domain offers registrars and DNS hosts rather than every provider you’ve ever used – change the type and the list changes with it. Yven starts with a built-in set for every type (GoDaddy, Namecheap, and Cloudflare for domains; SiteGround and WP Engine for hosting; Stripe for payments; and so on), plus any provider you’ve entered on your own services, which shows up for the types you used it on. Type a name that isn’t listed and it’s remembered for next time.

Choosing a provider also fills in its Provider URL – the built-in set knows it, and so does anything you’ve entered a URL for before. A URL you’ve typed or saved is never replaced. Services whose provider has a known website link to it on the service page even if you never entered a URL on that service.

Service types#

When you add a service you pick a type, which tells Yven how to treat it – grouped roughly from infrastructure to software to business tools:

Domain & DNS · Hosting & Infrastructure · CDN & Edge · SSL / Security Certs · Email Services · Website Platform / CMS · CMS Plugins & Extensions · Framework / App Stack · Database Services · Code Repository · CI/CD Provider · Payment Processing · E-Commerce Platform · Analytics & Tracking · Advertising Platform · SEO Tool · CRM System · File Storage (Cloud) · Backup Services · Monitoring Service · Auth / Identity Provider · Other

Domain & DNS and SSL / Security Certs services get an extra URL field with an expiry lookup – every other type skips it. For a domain, the lookup also fills in the registrar as the Provider, and the registrar’s website as the Provider URL.

Who manages it, who pays for it#

Two fields capture the arrangement, and they drive your Money and Renewals views:

• Managed by – me, the client, or a third party.
• Paid by –
  • I re-bill the client (me_rebilled) – you pay the provider and pass it through; this counts toward your recurring revenue.
  • I absorb it (me_absorbed) – your cost, not re-billed.
  • Client pays directly (client_direct) – straight between the client and the provider.

Markup on re-billed services#

When a service is set to I re-bill the client, you can add a Markup % (internal) – your margin on top of what the provider charges you. The percentage and your underlying cost are private to you: the client only ever sees the final marked-up price, and the markup never appears on a shared work log. New re-billed services pre-fill the default margin you set on the client, so you don’t retype it each time.

Example. You host a client’s site on WP Engine at your cost, $35/month, and you set a 20% markup. The service re-bills at $42/month – you invoice the client $42, pay WP Engine $35, and keep the $7/month difference. Over a year that’s $504 billed, $420 paid out, and $84 profit – which is exactly what shows up as the annual figure on the Money screen.

Why set a markup at all, rather than passing the cost straight through? It compensates you for the ongoing work re-billing represents – you’re the one who keeps the account current, notices when a renewal is about to lapse, and deals with the provider if something breaks. A markup turns that into a small piece of recurring revenue instead of unpaid overhead.

When you mark a re-billed service renewed, Yven records that renewal as an invoiceable charge at the marked-up price, ready to drop onto the client’s next invoice – so passing a renewal through never slips through the cracks.

Renewals#

Give a service a renewal date, a period (monthly, annual, custom – any number of years, for things like a 3-year domain – or none for something that doesn’t renew), and a cost, and it’s automatically watched by Renewals and surfaced on Today as the date approaches. Leave the date blank for things you don’t need reminding about.

Credentials: pointers, not passwords#

This is the rule that keeps you safe: a service stores a pointer to where its login lives – the name of the entry in your password manager, like “1Password → ABC Dental → cPanel” – and never the password itself. Yven is a book of record, not a vault; secrets stay in the tool built to hold them, and they’re never in your exports either.

A service can also record an account identifier – the login email or username, never a password – and, optionally, a site it belongs to (or leave it client-level if it doesn’t tie to one specific site).

Other actions#

• Duplicate – clone a service when you’re setting up several similar ones for the same client.
• Mark replaced – record that a service has been superseded (status becomes Cancelled), for when a client moves providers rather than lapsing entirely. A service’s status is one of Active, Lapsed, Transferred, or Cancelled.

Where to next#

• Watch dates before they bite in Renewals.
• See how re-billed services feed recurring revenue.