Google said on Oct. 30, 2026 that Gemini in Google Slides can now edit multiple slides or a whole presentation from one prompt, including restyling a deck to match another file, rewriting content based on Google Drive files, and condensing or adding slides. The feature began an extended rollout on Oct. 29 to Business Standard and Plus, Enterprise Standard and Plus, and Google AI Pro and Ultra plans, in English only, with promotional higher usage limits through at least Dec. 1, 2026, after which per-user limits apply.

Most trade shops build only a few decks a year and can ignore this. It matters to firms that send decks often: agencies, accounting firms doing quarterly client reviews, contractors pitching larger bids. Example: an 18-person accounting firm moves 40 quarterly client-review decks to a new template. Assume 30 minutes each by hand, or 20 hours. If one prompt plus a 10-minute check finishes each deck, that is about 7 hours, a saving of roughly 13 hours, or $650 at $50 an hour. Those numbers are our assumptions, not Google's, so time a real deck before you count on them. There are two catches. Business Starter is not on the list of eligible plans. There is also no admin control, so staff on eligible plans get the feature whether you want it or not. Gemini's edits are recorded as if the user made them, so undo and version history are how you check or reverse its work. Usage limits tighten after Dec. 1, and Google has not said what the new limits will be.

ServiceTitan's pricing page, updated this week, lists three per-technician packages (Starter, Essentials and The Works), each with a "Request Pricing" button and no published price. All three list dispatching, scheduling, call booking, invoicing, pricebook, mobile estimates, advanced reporting, commission tracking and customizable memberships, and The Works lists "Configurable Payroll" where the other two list "Payroll Management."

The page tells you the tier names and that you pay per technician. It does not tell you the price or what separates Starter from Essentials, because their feature lists are word-for-word the same. The snapshot also does not show what changed from the previous version, so editors should confirm before publishing. The practical effect is that your rep sets the number. Take a 20-person HVAC shop with 9 techs. Assume a quote of $300 per tech per month, which is our assumption and not a ServiceTitan figure. That is $32,400 a year. A 5% increase at renewal adds $1,620. You cannot check that against a public list, so get the package name, the per-tech rate and the feature differences in writing. Who should care: current ServiceTitan customers renewing in the next 90 days, and shops comparing it with Housecall Pro or Jobber. Who can ignore it: anyone mid-contract with no plans to switch.

Google's Workspace Updates blog said in its Oct. 30, 2026 weekly recap that Google Sheets now supports compact form layout for pivot tables. Google says the layout keeps multi-level pivot tables readable while reducing excessive horizontal scrolling.

This is a display change, not a new feature for calculating anything. Take an 18-person remodeling contractor that logs every cost in one sheet with columns for Job, Phase, Cost code, Vendor and Amount. A pivot table grouped by Job, then Phase, then Cost code usually spreads those labels across three columns before the dollar figures start. With a few months of data, the office manager scrolls right to see totals and loses track of which job a row belongs to. Compact form is designed to stack those levels so the table stays narrow, which should make the report easier to read on a laptop or to screenshot for a weekly job review. The effect is small. Expect a few minutes saved a week, not a better margin. Care if you build multi-level pivots in Sheets for job costing, crew hours or schedules. Ignore it if your job cost reports come from QuickBooks, Buildertrend or JobTread, or if your pivots have only one row level. The recap does not say which Workspace editions get it or when rollout finishes, so check the linked post.

Zapier's pricing page, changed Oct. 30, 2026, says AI steps, code and its SDK now follow the same task-based pricing as Zap workflows, all drawing from one shared task pool per account. How many tasks an action uses now varies with the AI model tier, code runtime and connector type, while plans still start at $0 (100 tasks a month), $19.99 a month for Professional and $69 a month for Team.

If you use Zapier only to move data between apps, little changes. A plain action is still one task, and Filter, Formatter, Paths, Tables and Forms still cost nothing. If your Zaps include an AI step or a Code step, your monthly task count can rise even though your plan price does not. Example: an 18-person plumbing shop runs one Zap on 600 jobs a month. A new job in the field app triggers an AI step that summarises the tech's notes, then creates an invoice in QuickBooks, then texts the customer. If each step costs 1 task, that is 3 tasks per job, or 1,800 a month, inside a 2,000-task tier. Now assume the AI step on a stronger model costs 3 tasks. This is an assumption; Zapier's rate table has the real figure. The same Zap then uses 3,000 tasks. Over the tier, Zapier switches you to pay-per-task billing at a higher rate, or pauses your Zaps if that is turned off. Shops with no AI or Code steps can ignore this.