Contracts are a method of billing a client a flat rate periodically throughout the year for services. This is in contrast to a "pay per service" method, where the customer is billed only for the price of a service after work has been performed.
When to Use a Contract
Ex.1: You bill a customer $200.00 per month every month for a year and that covers 28 Mows, Spring and Fall Cleanups, and Fertilization and Weed Control for the year.
Ex.2: You bill a customer $2,000.00 in January to cover bi-weekly House Cleaning for the year.
Ex.3: You bill a customer $300.00 each quarter for Pest Control services.
Contract Overlay - Explanation
Contract Details
Client
When you create a Contract from a Client Account, the Client field is automatically filled. Use the Contract Name field to name your Contract. This field is useful if a Client has multiple Contracts.
Contract Start & End Date
Here you can enter a Start and End Date for the Contract. This is useful for keeping track of when the service agreement needs to be renegotiated with the Client. Note: these dates do not prevent Contract Invoices from being generated.
Invoice Description
Here you can enter the line items that will appear on Contract Invoices. In the Line Item field you can enter [month] and [year] as a part of the text so the current values will appear on the Invoice. Use the Invoice Line Items field to rearrange or remove items.
Invoice Details
Use the month table to add the amount that will appear on the Invoice each month. Any months with a value of zero will not Invoice.
The Bill 1 Month in Advance option will generate an Invoice a month before anticipated service on the Billing Day of Month specified. For example, the amount in the month of April would be Invoiced during the month of March. If this option is selected, the first month's Invoice will most likely need to be manually generated (even if Auto Generate) is selected.
The Active option is what determines whether or not a Contract will Invoice. If monthly values are added, the Contract will continue to Invoice regardless of Start & End Dates until Active is de-selected.
Services & Packages
This section determines which Jobs will be covered by the Contract Invoice. Any Services added here will be billed "under contract" even if they are part of a Package. You can also set overage alerts on any service so if only a certain number of services are covered under Contract, you can receive alerts when you approach or exceed these limits.
Other Details
In this area, you can designate the Client Source for the Contract, a Sales Person who sold the Contract, or a CSR who is responsible for maintaining the Contract.
Jobs Under Contract
This tab will display all currently scheduled Jobs that are covered by the open Contract. If the Client has multiple Contracts, the Jobs will be different on each one because only one Contract can be assigned to each Job.
Contract Notes
In this tab you can add internal notes regarding the Contract.