What Zaras does and how it is laid out

Zaras runs the office and the field side of a service business. Work usually moves in one direction: a Contacts record for the customer, an estimate for the work, a job with one or more visits once the estimate is accepted, an invoice when the work is done, and a payment against that invoice. Alongside that sit the calendar, timesheets, team chat and reports.

On the web

The sidebar is grouped into sections. Work holds Contacts, Jobs, Estimates, Invoices and Calendar. Messages holds Team Chat, SMS Inbox and Communications Log. Time & Team holds Timesheets (it reads My Hours if your role cannot approve other people's time) and Reports, which appears only for roles that can view reporting — owners and admins by default. Personal holds My Tasks and Assistant, which both open as a panel over whatever you are looking at rather than a separate page. Create at the very top starts a new record (it is hidden if your role cannot create any kind of record), and Home sits below it, above the sections.

If you are the only member of your workspace, Team Chat reads Notes, Time & Team reads Hours, and Timesheets always reads My Hours, in both apps — see Working on your own.

In the Zaras app

The app has five tabs: Home, Schedule, Work, Contacts and More. Work is where jobs, estimates and invoices live. More opens over the page you are on. At the top is your account card — tap it for your own profile — and a search across everything More and Settings can reach. Below that: Settings, then Personal with My Tasks and Assistant, Messages with Team Chat, SMS Inbox and Communications Log, Time & Team with Timesheets (My Hours if you cannot approve other people's time) and Reports, then Diagnostics and Sign out. Every More row shows for everyone; a screen such as Reports checks your role when you open it.

What each area is for

• Contacts — customers and the people and addresses attached to them. Contacts have no status; the lists offer segments such as Estimate awaiting reply and Overdue balance instead.
• Estimates — quotes you send for approval. A customer accepts or declines from the link you email them.
• Jobs — the work itself. A job carries visits: the scheduled appointments a technician runs.
• Invoices — what the customer owes, and the payments recorded against it.
• Calendar / Schedule — visits and estimate appointments, as a day, week, month or schedule view.
• Timesheets — technician hours, and an approval queue for the people whose role allows it.
• Reports — revenue, outstanding money, pipeline and team numbers, for roles that can view reporting.
• SMS Inbox — two-way texting with customers is still in pilot, so this screen currently says it is not available yet, on both the web and the app.

Asking for help

The assistant answers questions about how Zaras works and about your own workspace's records, in the language your Zaras app is set to. On the web, press ? anywhere outside a text field to open it, or choose Assistant under Personal in the sidebar; in the Zaras app open More, then Assistant. For a first walk through the whole flow, see Your first job, start to finish. It only reads: it can point you to a record or a screen, but it never creates, edits or sends anything, and it only shows what your role can already see.

Roles

A new workspace starts with three roles: owner, admin and technician, plus any custom roles your workspace has created (a workspace created before September 2026 may also have a dispatcher role). Most teams never need more; if you want a role in between — an office dispatcher who can manage message templates but not settings — an owner or admin creates a custom role on the Roles tab. Roles decide what you can see and do. By default technicians can work with contacts, jobs, estimates, invoices and the calendar; approving timesheets, seeing costs and profit, changing settings and inviting teammates are owner and admin capabilities. If a screen or action is not available to you, ask an owner or admin to grant it to your role.