Block of Hours- Defaults a NB even after block exceeded.

[Seankubin]

I have a block of hours contract with 4 hours. If I make a time entry of 5 hours, I would expect to see 4 hours Non Billable, 1 hours billable. Instead, I see 5 hours non billable.
Further, any subsequent hours entered also default as non-billable.

How can I get the block hour contract to mark as billable, time entries that are in excess of the block?

[Seankubin]

Re: Block of Hours- Defaults a NB even after block exceeded.

I found a related thread.

The answer from that thread seems to be "run a report and change them by hand". Which is really going to be impossible for 50+ contracts a month. Is this still accurate?

[Support Team]

Re: Block of Hours- Defaults a NB even after block exceeded.

Thank you for posting. The way RangerMSP works is that it does not decide, on itself, what's billable and what is not.

It helps you configure the system to default to different billable options based on the service you provide and the agreement with the customer - block of time considers time entered as covered, etc.

With the Global Contract you can also configure your own default billable flags.

And yet - RangerMSP won't decide for you that the extra 15 minutes or work - or - 2 hours of work - are billable and won't auto decide that the customer should pay for it, e.g. set it to billable.

Instead, what RangerMSP does is display a live warning message as soon as overages occur (e.g. when Charges are logged). You get a warning message and then you decide whether, in this case, the extra time is billable or not.

True, in some cases this approach might mean that you need to perform a few more clicks (e.g. click to copy the charge to another and then set the reamaining time on the new charge as billable). We see it as the "cost" of having control on what's customers are being asked to pay for.

True, besides the live warning (e.g. when charges are entered) you can also generate reports to detects time overages.

You can also add a 'box' to the Live Data pane on the right that will show you whether or not there are contracts with overages (use the query item 'Number of over-used Block of Money ' and 'Block of Time Contracts filtered by start date' for this) - then, clicking on the Live Data box will open the Contracts window display only the list of overage Contracts.

In addition, you can also simply Filter the Contracts window (use the 'New from Template' for this) to display Contracts with overages. This is live, and when you see such a Contract you'll find all related Charges just there - under its Charges tab.

Having said that, we do not try to say that this is perfect but rather that there's a reason for why things work as they do and there are pros and cons for each method.

Hope this helps.

[Seankubin]

Re: Block of Hours- Defaults a NB even after block exceeded.

The way CommitCRM works is that it does not decide, on itself, what's billable and what is not.

I can understand imperfect software, but this is a core feature to PSA. Contract management is a core feature. That is the distinction between a PSA and a ticketing system. It's like saying you have a hotdog but then you hand me a bun with ketchup and mustard but no hotdog.

The *cost* is is not having to extra clicks. The COST is losing billable hours. The whole value proposition, again, is that a PSA captures this revenue and pays for itself. I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but from your (3) suggestions I think you feel that this need is met. This need is not met. I am telling you this isn't a hotdog and you are telling me is a vegan hotdog or something. Dashboard is not acceptable, reports are not acceptable, and asking the engineers to manually tick a box based on some pop-up message is not acceptable.
what is really needed is an entirely new contract type that doesn't require hacky solutions like copying it 24 times for a 2 year contract or running reports each month to see if you should reconcile any hours.
/rant. Thanks for you help, it seems like good software and well priced. But I am really hungry and this soggy bread is just not hitting the spot.

[lpopejoy]

Re: Block of Hours- Defaults a NB even after block exceeded.

@Seankubin

I get it, trust me. I hear your frustration.

Here’s a couple thoughts.

1- First, I think the intent from support is to say “here’s what’s available today.” Um, yes, today’s limitations were perhaps unnecessarily pitched as a feature, but whatever.
2- Good or bad, for an MSP, that billable flag means everything. It’s the way you track profitability on MSP contracts. All you are doing with a contract is a). Automating the monthly charges with a batch copy function. B) controlling that billable flag.
3- the reason what you are asking for can’t be done with the current logic is this: let’s pretend that engineer1 enters a charge for an OVERUSED block hour contract. Let’s pretend that CommitCRM had some way to mark a part of that charge billable or unbillable, so a few hours of engineer1’s time was marked as billable because it overused the block of hours. Now, what happens when someone else edits a time entry or deletes one, for some reason. Nothing would correct the other charge.

At the end of the day, as your correctly note, CommitCRM is a very affordable on premise PSA. While certainly not guilty of feature overload - those features come with a price both in terms of financial cost, but more importantly ease of use of the application.

Running a quick report at the end of the month before you close out your contracts is dead simple. Entering in, even 50 charges for overages, is also pretty simple, really. In fact, you could automate this with the APi, if you really wanted to.

Hope all that helps. I’m not dismissing your concern here - just adding my perspective as a long time user!