Billing

Commit is a complete software solution for managing computer services businesses, targeted at small to mid-sized IT service providers. Commit manages your service processes using Tickets management and Intelligent Dispatching

In this document, you will learn about Items, Charges and Contracts in Commit, what they mean, how you use them, and the impact they can have on your business work flow while using Commit.

Glossary

• Accounts in Commit can be customers, vendors, business partners, friends, leads, and so on. Each Account holds related data which is any other information related to the Account, such as scheduled Appointments, open Tasks, Tickets/incident history, Assets, Charges, linked Documents and so on.

• Tickets in Commit are used to represent any incident, problem, or job you handle for a given Account (customer). While viewing Ticket information, you can see all data-related to the Ticket. This includes scheduled technician visits, open tasks, special service notes, the Account’s service Contract (see below), linked documents, Charges for labor (see below), expenses and parts, etc.

• Items in Commit are where you define each individual service and product you offer. The Items list in Commit acts as your price list. In Commit there are three types of Items: Labor, Expenses and Parts.

• Contracts in Commit are the service agreements you have with your customers, that determine how you will charge your customer for services, and track the status of the agreement.

• Charges in Commit are work/parts replacement completed for the customer, and the cost of that service or product. A charge may be used to bill the customer later, but it can also be used for documentation purposes.

• Custom Pricing lets you set special prices for selected Accounts or Contracts. Once you set custom pricing for an Account or Contract, all Charges created for those Accounts or Contracts will be based on the custom price.

• Billing is how you can report to customers on activities performed for them, and the outstanding charges. A Charge in Commit can be set as Billable or not-Billable. Billable Charges can be marked as Billed, upon which they become read-only.

Overview

As a computer services business, it is essential that you control customer debts, and keep track of services provided to each specific customer according to their service contract.

Commit helps you do this by managing three types of entities (see Glossary):

1. Items
2. Contracts
3. Charges

Tracking Charges is a key factor for running your service business efficiently and improving its performance. Using the Contracts/Charges/Items in Commit simplifies the important task of tracking Charges.

Work Flow

The following is a common work flow which may be used in your business when working with CommitCRM:

I: Log a problem
When a customer reports a problem, open a Ticket in CommitCRM

->

II: Solve the problem
Handle the Ticket remotely (e.g. by the phone or remote control) or by dispatching a technician for an onsite visit

->

III: Log the work done (Charging)
Log Charge records for the time spent, work performed or parts used in order to solve the problem (resolve the Ticket)

->

IV: Billing
Bill the customer for the relevant Charges recorded (unless covered by a contract)

The work flow explained in this document focuses on the Charging phase (III) and the Billing phase (IV).

Alternative Work Flows

The flow above assumes you will be working with Tickets in order to report on a customer issue.

Alternatively, it is possible to add Charges for an Account (customer) directly in the Account or Contract (see Using Contracts). This can be helpful in certain cases, such as, when a customer visits your office/repair shop and purchases products or parts, or where you offer consulting services and need to track the time spent on consulting.

Using Items

Items in Commit are a catalog of all the services and products you offer and their prices. The Items list in Commit acts as your price list. Note that setting the price for an Item is optional; they can be set ad-hoc when using the Item for adding a Charge. For further details see Using Charges.

There are three types of Items in Commit:

• Product/Parts Items: hardware, software, or any other items you ship to your customer. These items have fixed-prices.
• Labor Items: services you provide to your customers, such as server installation, network installation, on-site technician visits, etc. These Items can be priced according to the employee hourly-rate, a fixed hourly-rate or by a fixed-price for the service.
• Expense Items: used to charge expenses, such as travel and special deliveries. Expense Items can have a fixed-price per unit or a fixed hourly rate.

Pricing Methods for Items

It is possible to use different Pricing methods for Items as follows:

Hourly Rates

• Employee Hourly Rates
  The hourly rate for labor or expenses can be based on the rate set for each employee. When using this method, the employee rate is automatically used for all labor or expense charges added. The hourly rate of each employee should be determined by their skills and role. These rates are set in the New Employee window or on the Employee tab when viewing employee details.

Note that you may use Custom Pricing to set fixed hourly rates for specific employees, all employees, for specific Accounts or Contracts. You can read more about custom pricing in the Custom Pricing section.

Fixed Price Items

• Fixed Labor/Expense Prices (by units, not hourly)
  Use fixed labor rates when charging for labor or expenses on a per-service basis rather than on an hourly basis.

For example, you can have fixed-rates for specific services, such as $50 for printer setup, $60 for PC examination, $1,000 for server installation, etc. In these cases, time does not affect the final charge.

Use the following settings when you want to charge a fixed price for Labor Items: Price Source='Fixed Price' and Price='Per Unit'.

Note that in addition, you can set fixed prices for Items using Custom Pricing, which defines the custom pricing for specific Accounts or Contracts. You can read more about custom pricing in the Custom Pricing section.

• Fixed Hourly Rates (regardless of the employee)
  When you need to charge a fixed hourly rate regardless of which employee has performed the work, you should use labor or expense Items with the following settings: Price Source='Fixed Price' and Price='Per Hour'.
  When adding new charges with these settings, the hourly rate which was set for the Item will be used for the Charge.

Note that you can also use Custom Pricing to set a fixed hourly rate for specific employees for specific Accounts or Contracts. You can read more about custom pricing in the Custom Pricing section.

Items Fields

Field	Description
Code (mandatory)	The Item Code is a unique ID for each Item. It can contain numbers, letters and special characters. The Item Code can be used in order to sort and find the Items (e.g. HP-P4200TN).
Name (mandatory)	Contains a short description of the Item (e.g. "Hp LaserJet Printer 4200 Network Support").
Type	The Item Type is a customizable field which allows you to define a list of possible types. For example Labor Items may include the following types: Consulting, HW Installation, Maintenance etc., while Expense Items may include the following types: Travel, Parking etc. The Item Type list for selection is determined according to the Item group (Labor, Expense or Parts).
Pricing Settings	Pricing settings vary based on the Item Group (i.e. Labor, Expense or Products/Parts), and the pricing method which is selected (fixed-price or employee-rate). Products/Parts: The pricing for Parts is simple and consists of the Price and the Cost. The cost is the price you pay for the Item when you purchase it from your Vendor. Expense: The Price Source field for Expense Items determines if a fixed-price or employee-rate should be used. The Price may be per unit or per hour. For example, you can charge your customer for Parking expenses with a fixed price per parking event or with hourly parking expenses. The Cost is the price you originally paid for the Expense Item. Labor: The Price Source field for Labor Items determines if a fixed-price or employee-rate should be used. If using fixed-price, it can be per unit or per hour.
Suspended	Items can be Active or Suspended. A suspended Item cannot be selected when adding new charges (it is not available in the list of Items for selection). Existing Charges which are using this Item will not be affected. Suspend an Item when you do not want to sell it anymore or when it's temporarily out of stock.
Tax Fields	Using taxes in Commit is optional. By default, the tax option is not activated. To begin using taxes, you first need to set the taxable Accounts and taxable Items. You can read more about taxes in [[Billing#Charging Using Taxes|Charging Using Taxes.