Route Contracts: Billing Types

In MYOB Advanced, you can create service contracts with different billing types. When you create a service contract, you specify the billing type that corresponds to your company needs. In this topic, you will learn in more details about available billing types.

In the following sections of this topic, these capabilities are described in detail for service contracts created on the Service Contracts form. The capabilities work similarly for a route service contract created on the Route Service Contracts form.

Service Contracts Billed at the Time of Service

You can create service contracts to be billed at the time of service, and perform the contract billing based on what was done in appointments when each particular appointment took place, or based on what was estimated in the service order. For this type of a service contract, on the Summary tab of the Service Contracts (FS305700) form, you select At Time of Service in the Billing Type box.

On the Schedules tab, you create a schedule for generating appointments or service orders. On the table toolbar, you click Add Schedule, the system opens the Service Contract Schedules (FS305100) form. On the Details tab of this form, you specify the services or inventory items (or both) to be included in the appointments or services, and on the Recurrence tab, you set up schedule settings. Then, you save the schedule and close the form. The system returns you on the Service Contracts form, and adds a line with the created schedule on the Schedules tab.

Then you click Activate on the More menu to assign the service contract the Active status.

Service Contracts Billed at the End of the Period

You can create and process service contracts that are billed at the end of the billing period. This billing type assumes that at the end of the billing period, for the service contract, you generate an invoice, which includes a fixed price for a service or services (for example, for a fixed number of hours or visits) specified in the contract plus an amount for an overage number of hours, visits, or materials that has been added to the service document (an appointment or service order) during the billing period but has not been covered by the service contract.

For this type of a service contract, on the Summary tab of the Service Contracts (FS305700) form, you select End-Period Plus in the Billing Type box, and in the Billing Type Settings section, specify the billing period (Week, Month, Quarter, Half a Year, or Year) in the Period box.

On the Services per Period tab of the Service Contracts form, you add a line for each service to be provided during each billing period. In each line, you select a service or non-stock item. For each item, you specify the quantity in the Value column, and the price that is paid for the specified quantity of the items in the Recurring Item Price column. You also specify the price to be used when the specified quantity has been exceeded during the period in the Overage Item Price column.

On the Schedules tab, you create a schedule for generating appointments or service orders. On the table toolbar, you click Add Schedule, the system opens the Service Contract Schedules (FS305100) form. On the Details tab of this form, you specify the services or inventory items (or both) to be included in the appointments or service orders, and on the Recurrence tab, you set up schedule settings. Then, you save the schedule and close the form. The system returns you on the Service Contracts form, and adds a line with the created schedule on the Schedules tab.

Besides appointments and service orders generated from a schedule or schedules, a service order or an appointment can also be created on the fly, and assigned to the service contract.

At the end of each billing period, you generate an invoice for a service contract. The invoice includes a fixed number of hours or visits at a price predefined in the service contract. If the number of hours or visits defined in the service contract has been exceeded during the billing period, the price that has been specified for overage items is applied. The items that are not covered by the service contract but have been used in appointments or service orders during the billing period are also included in the invoice generated at the end of the period.

Service Contracts with Beginning-Period Fixed Billing

You can create and manage service contracts with fixed billing at the beginning of the billing period. This billing type assumes that at the beginning of the billing period, for a service contract, you generate an invoice that includes a fixed price specified in the contract. This fixed price covers all services and inventory items listed in the contract, and provided to the customer during the billing period. If any additional services or materials are used in appointments (that is, are added to service documents) during the billing period, these items are not billed—once you have run billing for an appointment or a service order, the generated invoice will have a zero total amount specified. For this type of a service contract, on the Summary tab of the Service Contracts (FS305700) form, you select Beginning-Period Fixed in the Billing Type box, and specify the billing period (Week, Month, Quarter, Half a Year, or Year) in the Period box. On the Services per Period tab of the form, for each service to be provided during each period, you add an item (for example, a non-stock item that represents a contract deposit) and specify the flat-rate price that has to be paid at the beginning of each billing period.

On the Schedules tab, you create a schedule for generating appointments or service orders. On the table toolbar, you click Add Schedule, the system opens the Service Contract Schedules (FS305100) form. On the Details tab of this form, you specify the services or inventory items (or both) to be included in the appointments or service orders, and on the Recurrence tab, you set up schedule settings. Then, you save the schedule and close the form. The system returns you on the Service Contracts form, and adds a line with the created schedule on the Schedules tab.

Note that for a service contract with the Beginning-Period Fixed billing type, you can either generate appointments or service orders based on a schedule, or create a service document (appointment or service order) on the fly, and associate it with the service contract by specifying the service contract reference number in the Service Contract box on the Summary area of the Appointments (FS300200) or Service Orders (FS300100) form.

You can set up the deferral of the invoice amount by specifying the code in the Deferral Code column so that after the service contract invoice has been released, the system creates a deferral schedule.

At the beginning of each billing period, on the Run Service Contract Billing (FS501300) form, you generate an invoice that contains the fixed contract price.

When you run billing for a service order or an appointment during the billing period, the system generates an invoice with the total amount set to zero because the items specified in the service order or appointment linked to the service contract are covered by the contract price.

On occasion, a service may be needed that is not covered by the fixed contract price. If this happens, you can edit the appointment or service order by clearing the Free Item check box in the needed detail line on the Details tab of the Appointments (FS300200) or Service Orders (FS300100) form, so that the system updates the total amount of the appointment (and thus updates the related billing document).

Service Contracts with Beginning-Period Plus Billing

You can create and manage service contracts with fixed billing at the beginning of the billing period for the items specified in the service contract only. This billing type assumes that at the beginning of the billing period, for a service contract, you generate an invoice, which includes a fixed price specified in the contract. This fixed price covers all services and inventory items listed in the contract, and provided to the customer during the billing period. If any additional items (those that are not included in the service contract) have been used in appointments (that is, have been added to the service document) during the billing period, these items are billed separately.

For this type of a service contract, on the Service Contracts (FS305700) form, you specify the Beginning-Period Plus option in the Billing Type box. On the Services per Period tab, you add an item (for example, a non-stock item that represents a contract deposit), and specify its flat-rate price that have to be paid at the beginning of each billing period. On the Billing Type Settings section of the Summary tab, you specify the length of the billing period.

On the Schedules tab, you create a schedule for generating appointments or service orders. On the table toolbar, you click Add Schedule, the system opens the Service Contract Schedules (FS305100) form. On the Details tab of this form, you specify the services or inventory items (or both) to be included in the appointments or service orders, and on the Recurrence tab, you set up schedule settings. Then, you save the schedule and close the form. The system returns you on the Service Contracts form, and adds a line with the created schedule on the Schedules tab.

For a service contract with the Beginning-Period Plus billing type, you can either generate appointments or service orders based on a schedule, or create a service document (appointment or service order) on the fly, and associate it with the service contract by specifying the service contract reference number in the Service Contract box on the Summary area of the Appointments (FS300200) or Service Orders (FS300100) form. Note that if you need certain predefined services to occur periodically, on the Service Contract Schedules, create a schedule or schedules, and on the Details tab, add these services, and in the detail lines, specify None in the Billing Rule column.

You can set up the deferral of the invoice amount by specifying the code in the Deferral Code column so that after the service contract invoice has been released, the system creates a deferral schedule.

At the beginning of the billing period, on the Run Service Contract Billing (FS501300) form, you generate an invoice that contains the fixed contract price. During the billing period, for an appointment or a service order (depending on the option specified in the Schedule Generation Type box on the Service Contracts box), you generate additional billing document.