Managed Services Contract

[samrobert]

I have been using CommitCRM for a while, but only for ticketing up until now. I have recently started to move towards Managed Services and I was wondering what is the best way to setup contracts geared towards Managed Services?

I haven't used the Contracts feature at all and have only been using the System Default Contract up until now and reading up about it seems a little bit overwhelming. I don't see a way to be able to do this with 1 Contract per customer. Just like everyone else, my offering is all-in single price contract for everything, and all-in remote only with on-site hours charged. I guess I can do the all-in with a single contract, but how do I do the ones where remote is all-in but on-site is charged?

At this point, I am not even sure how to handle projects. Any ideas on that front would be great as well, meaning using Contracts maybe or some other way so that they are tied to the customer but can be billed at a fixed rate / hour or fixed rate / project irrespective of the hours.

Any and all help is appreciated. Thanks.

[Support Team]

Re: Managed Services Contract

The Contracts feature in RangerMSP does indeed include many options in order to support different requirements. The best way to introduce yourself to the different features is probably by reading the different articles and guides about it. I will try to provide a short summary of one option that you should explore but depending on your exact requirements it is possible that a variation would work better for you.

First some useful links:

Contracts

Billing for your Contracts

Recurring Contracts

You may also want to explore some of the Billing Videos


In regards to what you described:

First - a customer can have several different Contracts that run in parallel, so in case you would require more than one or find it better for whatever reason - that's totally fine and common.

Next - You probably want to use the Global Contract type in this case.

The Contract monthly fee is determined by the Contract-Price Charges you add under the Contract-Price Charges tab. Such Charges are automatically added as billable when the Contract is renewed for next month/year/etc..

For example, if you have a 'Monthly Managed PC Coverage' Item, then you can add such a Price Charge under the Contract and have its quantity represent the number of PC devices covered by your MSP contract. If you have a 'Monthly Managed Server Coverage' Item then you can add another Contract Price Charge line under the very same Contract and that line will represent the number of server covered and the price, same for backup services, managed email mailboxes, etc. All such price-charges will then be listed in the Invoice you send to QuickBooks as an Invoice Line. So in short - all these represent the price of the contract and such charges will be automatically created when the contract is renewed.

Next is how the everyday managed support provided under this contract is billed (or not) -
All support activity (remote or on-site) should be logged under the Contract as Charges (labor/expense/parts).

Now, the key here is to use the (Global) Contract 'Custom Settings' tab.
Using this tab you will be able to configure which Charges will default to Billable and which to Not-Billable.

From what you described Not-Billable Charges in your case is any remote work. So - verify you configure the relevant remote work Labor Items to default to Not-Billable, so when technicians select them to document the work they've performed such charges will be set as Not-Billable without any user interaction. You'll have the work documented, you will be able to show it to the customer (if needed) but you will not ask the customer to pay anything for it as it is covered by the monthly contract.

Next, I get that you do want to bill customers for on-site work. In that case - using the very same tab verify that the Labor Items that represent on-site work are selected to be Billable. Then, when technicians will log their on-site work under the Contract such Charges will be Billable and when invoicing the customer the customer will be billed for such work and will be asked to pay for it.

This might sound confusing initially, but once you 'get' what each Contract tool should be used it usually becomes straight forward.

Hope this helps!

[Seankubin]

Re: Managed Services Contract

This is how you make an contract with AYCE remote support, and billable onsite.
Global Contract- all time defaults as billable.
Custom Price for Remote support - $0/hr (billable, so it shows on the invoice, but free)
Custom price for Onsite - $100/hr
Add charges for your AV, Firewall, monitoring, etc.
done.

This is how the block contract SHOULD operate:
Block contract - 10 hours
Custom Price for Remote - $85/hr (as an overage rate)
Custom Price for Onsite Support - $100/hr (as an overage rate)
Add charges for AV, firewall, monitoring, etc.
Done... but wait no. not done. The hours are all marked as Not Billable because a feature request made 8 years ago hasn't been implemented. The request is for the first N hours of the block to be marked as Not billable and the for subsequent hours to be defaulted as billable. Note: I would prefer the block hours to still be billed, but at $0 per hour so they show up on the invoice.

[Support Team]

Re: Managed Services Contract

Thanks!

Re the Block - we've provided some additional details and background as a reply to your other post in this thread.

BTW, you CAN send unbillable Charges to QuickBooks when invoicing as $0. Please visit Tools > Options > QuickBooks tab to select this option.