From two-way texting and a better scheduling calendar to cleaner checklists, automated payment reminders, and more, here's what we built during Q3 and where we're headed next.

We've been busy at Allison.

Over the last three months, our team shipped dozens of improvements across the platform, including some of the most requested features from cleaning business owners.

Some were major releases that introduced entirely new capabilities. Others were smaller improvements designed to eliminate unnecessary clicks, make everyday tasks easier, and give owners more control over their operations.

But they all had something in common: They were built to make running a cleaning business a little easier.

As we close out Q3 2026, we wanted to look back at what we've shipped, highlight some of our favorite improvements, and share what we're thinking about as we head into Q4.

Let's get into it.

1. A Better Way to Manage Your Schedule

Your schedule is the heartbeat of your cleaning business. When something changes, whether it's a customer rescheduling, a cleaner calling out, or a job running longer than expected, you need to be able to adjust quickly.

That's why we invested heavily in improving Allison's calendar experience this quarter.

A redesigned calendar experience

We rolled out significant updates to the calendar throughout July and August, making it easier to see your schedule, manage jobs, and make changes.

One of the biggest additions was drag-and-drop scheduling.

Need to move a job to a different day? Instead of navigating through multiple screens, you can drag it directly on the calendar.

We also introduced color-coded cleaners, giving you another way to visually distinguish who's assigned to jobs.

More scheduling flexibility

We made several additional improvements:

• Duplicate a job: Quickly create a copy of an existing job without starting from scratch.

• Adjust job scope: Make changes to the work associated with a job.

• Change service types: Update the service associated with an existing job.

• More precise job durations: Adjust job durations in five-minute increments with improved controls.

• Cleaner-based duration settings: Configure duration based on the number of cleaners assigned.

• More recurring frequencies: Added 10-week and 12-week scheduling options.

• Better visibility into canceled and skipped jobs: Make it easier to understand what's changed on your schedule.

All these improvements are aimed at giving you more flexibility without making scheduling more complicated.

2. Two-Way Text Messaging Is Here

This was one of our biggest releases of the quarter.

In September, we introduced two-way SMS messaging for customers and cleaners.

Previously, Allison could send automated notifications and reminders. Now, you can also have conversations directly from the platform.

Need to confirm something with a customer? Send a text.

Have a quick question for a cleaner? Message them.

Need to follow up on a schedule change? Keep the conversation in Allison.

The goal is simple: Reduce the number of different tools you need to use to manage communication throughout the day.

More control over your customer communications

Alongside two-way messaging, we shipped several improvements to how businesses communicate through Allison:

• Customizable SMS and email notifications: More flexibility over the messages your customers receive.

• Branded customer communications: Make emails feel like they're coming from your business.

• Improved message tracking: Better visibility into outgoing communications.

We've always believed that software should help you deliver a better customer experience, not get in the way of it.

These improvements are another step in that direction.

3. Cleaner Checklists: More Consistency, Less Guesswork

One of the biggest challenges in growing a cleaning business is maintaining consistency.

As you add cleaners, teams, and customers, it's important to have a reliable way to communicate expectations for every job.

In July, we released Cleaner Checklists.

With checklists in Allison, cleaning businesses can create structured tasks and instructions for their teams to follow on jobs.

Checklists can include:

• Tasks cleaners need to complete

• Questions that need to be answered

• Photo requirements

• Organized sections for different parts of the job

You can also require certain items to be completed or explicitly skipped before a cleaner finishes clocking out of a job.

This gives cleaners clearer expectations while providing owners and managers with better visibility into the work being performed.

We also added a new permission that allows cleaners to add or edit notes within job details.

It's all about helping teams stay aligned, especially as your cleaning business grows.

4. Better Invoicing and More Control Over Payments

Getting paid shouldn't require constantly chasing customers or manually tracking every outstanding invoice.

This quarter, we introduced several improvements focused on helping cleaning businesses manage invoicing and payments.

Automatic unpaid invoice reminders

In August, we shipped Automatic Invoice Reminders.

You can configure Allison to automatically follow up with customers who have unpaid invoices.

Instead of remembering to send each reminder manually, you can establish a reminder schedule and let Allison handle the follow-up.

Cancellation and skip fees

Last-minute cancellations can be expensive for a cleaning business.

You've reserved time on your schedule, allocated cleaners, and potentially turned down other work.

In September, we introduced the ability to create cancellation or skip fees from canceled or skipped jobs.

Businesses can configure their cancellation policies, including timeframes and fee structures, to better reflect how they operate.

More improvements to payments

We also shipped:

• Failed card hold notifications: Receive alerts when a card hold fails so you can address potential payment issues.

• Automatic hold cancellation after payment: Reduce unnecessary holds when a customer completes payment.

These improvements are designed to help protect your revenue while reducing the administrative work involved in collecting payments.

5. Better Visibility Into Your Business

Running a cleaning business requires making decisions every day.

How much revenue is on the schedule? Which jobs were canceled? What are we paying cleaners? Where are our customers coming from?

Throughout Q3, we continued expanding the information available inside Allison.

See your future revenue

One of our July additions was the ability to see future revenue in reporting.

Instead of looking only at revenue from completed work, you can get visibility into revenue associated with upcoming jobs.

This is especially valuable for recurring cleaning businesses, where the schedule provides an important view of what's ahead.

Track canceled and skipped jobs

We also introduced a dedicated Canceled and Skipped Jobs Report, giving owners another way to understand schedule changes and their impact on the business.

Drive time and mileage in payroll reporting

In September, we added drive time and mileage to payroll reporting.

For businesses managing multiple cleaners and jobs throughout the day, these are important details to have available when calculating and reviewing compensation.

Better customer source tracking

We also added the ability to record customer source information, helping businesses capture where customers are coming from.

Together, these reporting improvements help owners move from simply managing the day's work to having a clearer picture of how their business is performing.

6. Improvements to Quotes, Pricing, and Lead Management

We also made several improvements to the process of turning a prospective customer into a booked job.

Quote approval and visibility

In August, we introduced Quote Approval along with visibility into whether a quote has been viewed.

This helps businesses better understand where prospective customers are in the quoting process.

More flexibility in hourly pricing

We expanded our hourly pricing capabilities to support pricing based on labor hours.

For businesses whose pricing depends on the total time worked by cleaners, this provides another way to configure services in Allison.

More ways to manage leads

Other improvements included:

• Zapier write access for leads and quotes: Expand the ways external tools can create information in Allison.

• Hide and unhide leads and quotes: Keep your workspace organized.

• Dirt Code support in the Add Job Form: Capture additional job information during the booking process.

• Job scope warnings: Surface missing property information that could affect job pricing or scope.

These are the kinds of improvements that help businesses build a more consistent process from the initial customer inquiry through the actual cleaning.

7. And Plenty of Smaller Improvements

Not every important release needs a big announcement.

Throughout the quarter, we also shipped improvements to everyday workflows, including:

• Better customer property address editing and manual entry

• Improved customer search infrastructure

• The ability to configure a Google Review link in company settings

• Additional guidance for employee onboarding

• Continued improvements to messaging, reporting, and invoicing infrastructure

Some of these changes might not be immediately noticeable.

But collectively, they help make Allison faster, more reliable, and easier to work with.

And that's just as important to us as shipping the next big feature.

Looking Ahead: What's Next for Allison in Q4?

If Q3 was about adding more flexibility and control to the daily operations of a cleaning business, Q4 is an opportunity to build on that foundation.

We're continuing to listen closely to cleaning business owners, especially around the workflows that consume the most time or require workarounds.

A few areas we're particularly interested in improving include:

Making invoicing even easier

We've made meaningful progress on payments and reminders, but there's more opportunity to simplify the entire invoicing workflow.

We're exploring improvements around batch invoicing and invoice scheduling to help businesses handle larger volumes of jobs with less manual work.

Giving customers more ways to interact with your business

We're also continuing to explore how a customer portal could make life easier for both cleaning businesses and their customers.

The goal would be to make common customer interactions more convenient while reducing the amount of administrative work owners and office teams need to handle.

Continuing to improve everyday operations

We'll keep focusing on the small but meaningful improvements that make a difference when you're managing a busy schedule, coordinating cleaners, communicating with customers, and getting paid.

These are areas of focus, not a committed release schedule. As always, we'll continue prioritizing based on what we hear from the businesses using Allison.

Built With Cleaning Business Owners, for Cleaning Business Owners

One of the things we're most proud of this quarter isn't any single feature.

It's how much of our development continues to be shaped by real conversations with cleaning business owners.

A significant number of the improvements we've shipped started with a customer showing us how they run their business, explaining what's frustrating, or simply asking:

"Could Allison do this?"

Those conversations matter.

We're not interested in building features just to have a longer feature list.

We want to build software that makes it easier to operate a great cleaning business, whether you have a small team today or you're managing dozens of cleaners across hundreds of jobs.

To everyone who has shared feedback, reported an issue, requested a feature, or trusted Allison with their business: Thank you.

We're excited about what we accomplished in Q3.

And we're even more excited about what's ahead.

Haven't Tried Allison Yet?

If you're running a residential or commercial cleaning business and looking for an easier way to manage scheduling, cleaners, customers, quotes, invoicing, and payments, we'd love to show you around.

Schedule a Demo of Allison and see how everything works together.