ServiceM8
ServiceM8 can do variations. You have to build them first.
There's no variation screen in ServiceM8 out of the box. What it has is Forms — an electronic-forms engine — and ServiceM8's own help centre teaches you to build a Contract Variation Form out of it. Here's the whole setup, what it costs, and where it still leaves a gap on site.
Forms from the Growing plan Build it once in Settings Runs from the job's To Do tab
Where we stand: we build ScopeLock, a variation-approval tool for Australian trades, and we say where that creates a bias. Every ServiceM8 fact on this page comes from ServiceM8's own pricing page and help centre, read on 24 August 2026, and both are linked at the bottom — check them yourself.
01 — The short version
It's a proper feature, once someone builds it.
ServiceM8's help centre has a lesson called “Creating a simple Contract Variation Form”, and the result is genuinely useful: a form that captures what changed, an estimated price, whether tax is included, and the client's signature, completed on site from the job's To Do tab. The catch is in the word “creating”. The form doesn't exist until you build it in Settings, and building your own forms needs the Forms add-on, which ServiceM8's pricing page lists from the Growing plan — A$79 a month.
On Free and Starter you can't build your own forms at all. What you can do on any plan is buy a pre-made form from the Form Store — so it's worth a search there first. But the build-it-yourself path ServiceM8 documents is a Growing-plan-and-up feature, and that's the one the rest of this page walks through.
02 — The setup
Six steps, once, in Settings on the desktop.
Settings → Forms → add Form
Name the form and give it a badge name. The badge — say “Variation” — then appears as a job task beneath the check-in button, which is how staff remember it exists.
Question 1 — Variation Detail
Multi-line text, mandatory. This is the description of what changed.
Question 2 — Estimated Price
Number type. ServiceM8's own lesson leaves this one optional.
Question 3 — Tax inclusive?
Multiple choice, mandatory — whether the price above includes tax.
Signature
A special question type. Make it mandatory and the form can't finish without the client's signature.
Save, then switch the badge on
Enable the form badge on the job card from the Dispatch Board so it surfaces as a task on the job.
03 — On site
To Do tab, form icon, customer standing there.
In the app: open the job, go to the To Do tab, tap the form icon, and fill it in with the customer — what changed, the estimated price, tax, and their signature on your iPhone or iPad. Saved forms sit in the job's Diary and generate as a professional PDF.
The honest friction is the last metre: someone has to remember to tap the icon while the customer is still standing there, the price lives in a form field as an estimate rather than as an agreed figure against the job, and the customer signs on your device. Remote signing exists in ServiceM8 — but as a quote feature, not for the variation form.
04 — The gap it leaves
The form records the variation. It doesn't chase the approval.
None of this is a criticism — Forms is a general engine doing a specific job well once it's configured. The gaps are structural: setup before the first variation, a plan gate in front of the setup, on-device signing, and a form diagram of the job rather than a standalone record carrying both signatures and the time on each.
That's the corner we work in, so read this with the bias declared above. ScopeLock does one moment: you price the extra work on your phone, the customer gets a link and signs on their own phone — no account, no app, no forms to build, and it works alongside ServiceM8 on any plan including Free and Starter, where building your own forms isn't available at all. Under A$500 it costs nothing. Most people who use one, use both: ServiceM8 runs the job, ScopeLock signs the extras. The full feature-by-feature comparison is on our ServiceM8 page.
Straight answers
Questions people actually ask.
Does ServiceM8 have a variation feature?
Yes, through the Forms add-on — ServiceM8's help centre documents building a Contract Variation Form with a variation detail field, an estimated price, a tax question and a client signature. Building your own forms requires the Growing plan (A$79/month) or higher; on any plan you can buy pre-made forms from the Form Store. There is no built-in variation screen separate from Forms.
Can I do variations on ServiceM8 Free or Starter?
Not the build-it-yourself way — creating your own forms is a Growing-plan feature. Free and Starter plans can still buy and use pre-made forms from the Form Store, so check whether a variation form there suits you. A plan-free alternative is to run variations through a separate approval tool alongside ServiceM8 — ScopeLock's free tier (under A$500 per variation) works with any ServiceM8 plan.
Does the ServiceM8 variation form capture a signature?
Yes. Signature is a dedicated question type in Forms, and making it mandatory means the form can't be completed without the client signing — on your iPhone or iPad. Signing without your device in the customer's hand is covered by a different feature, Remote Client Signature, which applies to emailed quotes rather than forms.
Where do completed variation forms go?
Into the job's Diary, where they can be viewed and generated as a PDF. The form is a record attached to the job — it isn't a separate record carrying the variation's own approval trail, both signatures and timestamps the way a dedicated variation approval is.
Method
Where these answers came from.
Vendor screens and features are taken from each publisher's own website or help centre on the date shown. Nothing here is sponsored and no vendor has reviewed this page.
If something's changed, tell us and we'll fix it — an out-of-date guide is worse than none.
The next one's coming
The next “can you just” is already on its way.
Price it on your phone, they sign on theirs, you both keep the PDF. Under A$500 it costs you nothing, ever.
No card, no trial clock. Your customer doesn't need an account.