Using CommitCRM for tracking AYCE MSP Contracts

[AN-Tech]

Re: Using CommitCRM for tracking AYCE MSP Contracts

I think we're close but there is still the issue of some labor is not covered under the contract. Lets say we have a maintenance contract that includes software updates/installs but does not include hardware installation. I would like to be able to assign a maintenance contract to the account to handle this.

A tech goes onsite to perform software maintenance on a system and also install a new video card on several other systems. He performs the maintenance then adds a labor item called maintenance to the ticket with his time, which is not billable. Then he adds a hardware install item to the ticket for the video cards which should be billable.

I'm trying to find a way for the contract to be created where the contract will define what is billable or not billable. I know we can tell the tech to change the contract to something else like global or mark the charge as billable when adding the hardware install.If we rely on the tech to make these decisions they will not always happen properly.

[Support Team]

Re: Using RangerMSP for tracking AYCE MSP Contracts

I see what you mean... Sounds like you would want some advanced contract customization options (per-item customization) which we may look into in the future. At the moment, the charge behavior is determined according to the contract type. This does provide quite flexible options, and I believe that in the case you are describing, you should probably just use a different contract for the charges which are not covered by this contract.

Thanks for your interesting feedback on this.

Doron

[ajgyomber]

Re: Using CommitCRM for tracking AYCE MSP Contracts

I finally got a chance to read through this thread as there are issues being discussed I haven't come across yet. The one thing I'm unsure about is - Can you make an item under a block of money contract billable if the labor isn't? Is it as simple as checking it as billable?

If that is the case, I think this is a technician process/training issue. There is no way I would want to have to go through each contract and modify whether a part/item is billable or not under that particular contract.

I think this may be why the somewhat tedious individual invoicing process you go through in CommitCRM is a good thing. It forces you to review your charges prior to invoicing.

--AJ

[Support Team]

Re: Using RangerMSP for tracking AYCE MSP Contracts

AJ - yes, you just need to check the charge as billable in order make an item under a block of money contract billable.

Doron

[lpopejoy]

Re: Using CommitCRM for tracking AYCE MSP Contracts

I have the same problem. I am constantly double checking people to make sure that parts or "non-contract" labor didn't get stuck under a "AYCE" contract. It would be better if you could force a user to CHOOSE a contract every time instead of having the system try to figure out what you want to use.

This is an area that would be great to see some improvement in.

Luke

[mcbsys]

Re: Using CommitCRM for tracking AYCE MSP Contracts

Luke,

I think if you add a second contract to an account, and then set Default Contract = "The system will automatically recommend", the user will be forced to choose.

Mark

[lpopejoy]

Re: Using CommitCRM for tracking AYCE MSP Contracts

Mark,

But then that means that I have to create a second "dummy" contract for all of my managed serices clients. So it would mean a new "dummy" contract every month. That's not very efficient and it is also very "cluttering."

Plus, once you choose the contract for the ticket, the same contract populates to the charges for that ticket, if I'm not mistaken!

See what I'm saying? Am I missing something?

Luke

[AN-Tech]

Re: Using CommitCRM for tracking AYCE MSP Contracts

Seems to me that most MSP's have a contract with their clients similar to the following. I understand this isn't the exact for everyone but it's a starting point.

Maintenance Contract Includes:
System maintenance (Temp file cleaning, defrags, etc.)
Operating system updates
Remote Support related to the above

Does not include:
Software installations (Labor)
Hardware installations (Labor)
Software (Parts)
Hardware (Parts)
Onsite Support (Labor)



I like some parts of the suggestion from CommitCRM to use the Block of Money contract because I can easily see how profitable a contract was or if we took a loss. What I don't like is that by default every charge gets marked as not billable and just counts towards what we set at the block value. In reality though this is doing exactly what that type of contract is for.

What I think we need is a contract where we can add a list of items that are included as part of the service. If a charge is created with one of these items it will not be marked as billable. If a charge is created with an item not on the list it will be marked billable. This way the contract is defining what is billable and what is not. All the tech has to do is create a charge for the item and move on. This would be similar to the custom pricing tab but you would be defining non-billable items instead of a custom price. We don't want to have to constantly switch what contract is on a ticket or charge.

It would also be helpful if we set it could have some of the features of the Block of Money contract. On the block of money contract you can define the value of the contract and easily see how much was used. It would be nice to see something similar where we can define a value for the MSP Contract and see the dollar amount of non-billable items that were attached.


Thoughts anyone?

[lpopejoy]

Re: Using CommitCRM for tracking AYCE MSP Contracts

It would also be cool to be able to say what quantity of the specified item was included in the contract. For instance, if you were doing all the maintenance, patching, backups, etc plus two hours of remote support or something like that... It doesn't really make sense to do a block of time, because you are doing more than just "time." You are providing other services, but including a set amount of time (or perhaps other items) with those services.

Luke

[AN-Tech]

Re: Using CommitCRM for tracking AYCE MSP Contracts

To other MSP's:

Does what I am describing above sound like what you need? Have you found a way of doing this?

[mcbsys]

Re: Using CommitCRM for tracking AYCE MSP Contracts

Luke,

I must be missing something. You first asked, "It would be better if you could force a user to CHOOSE a contract every time." But then you say you don't want to link multiple contracts to the account. What are they supposed to choose from, if not from multiple contracts on the same account? I'm still new to Commit, but is it really more work to copy two contracts forward at month end rather than just one?

I can see the attraction in more flexible contracts. Maybe we're moving towards a concept like a "super-contract" with any number of subordinate contracts of different types?

Mark

[lpopejoy]

Re: Using CommitCRM for tracking AYCE MSP Contracts

Mark,

It sounded like what you were saying was creating a "dummy" contract so that there would be two contracts for the date range - thus forcing CommitCRM to not choose a contract automatically.

My point is... That's a hack, not a fix. Yes, that works, buy why do I want to have dozens of "dummy" contracts filling up my contract list? That seems like it would be very confusing. Sure, you could label them so you would know, but it is still ugly. Maybe I'm too much of a perfectionist.

It wouldn't be hard to for CommitCRM to add the feature of "forcing a user to choose a contract." That's what I'm proposing. In the mean time, we can work with it!

Thanks for your help!

Luke

[lpopejoy]

Re: Using CommitCRM for tracking AYCE MSP Contracts

ascendnet,

You are right on. I think that's more or less what we are all looking for!

Luke

[Support Team]

Re: Using RangerMSP for tracking AYCE MSP Contracts

Hi Guys,

Just to let you know that we are following this thread and collecting valuable info. Thanks.

The RangerMSP Team

[AN-Tech]

Re: Using CommitCRM for tracking AYCE MSP Contracts


Commit,

Does that mean you have nothing more to add in regards to a solution we can use now? I only ask because I have been holding off on creating and applying contracts because I could not find a way of doing it and was hoping you or another user would have a good way of doing it.

Thanks