This integration will sync contract invoices from Autotask to e-automate. This process is still in beta.
Jump to: Overview | Samples | Setup | Testing | Variables | Alert Functionality | Best Practices & Tips | Related Alerts
Overview
Overview
This process will sync contract invoices from Autotask to e-automate. The trigger for the sync is the contract invoice from Autotask, which triggers a process to pull the information from Autotask and update our background tables. The sync then updates or inserts a contract into e-automate that matches the billing from Autotask. Services and charges billed in Autotask will sync as serviceable line items on the contract in e-automate.
Contracts are created based on templates, you'll have one contract template for each contract category in Autotask. When a new contract is created the sync will copy the coding from the matching contract category template to create the new contract. Items in e-automate are also created based on templates, the item templates are based on the billing codes in Autotask, specifically the material and service codes. When the sync creates a new item it will find the matching billing code template and copy the coding to create the item.
Once the contract is created or updated in e-automate, you'll need to cycle the contract through the billing queue to generate the invoice in e-automate.
Run Schedule: Every 15 minutes
Type of Output: Sync
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Sample
Sample
Jump to: Contract Header | Contract Item Details Tab | Contract Billing/Contact Tab | Contract Message
Contract Header
Contract Header
1. The contract number will be the next number from e-automate, combined with the optional prefix from variable 9.
2. The customer on the contract will match the account from Autotask.
3. The contract type is copied from the contract template used to create the contract.
4. The contract bill code is copied from the contract template.
5. The status of the contract will be set to active unless the start date of the contract is in the future.
6. The billing method will be copied from the contract template.
7. The start date of the contract will be the start date from Autotask.
8. The expiration date will match the end date from Autotask.
9. The billing cycle on the contract will match the billing cycle from Autotask.
10. The sync will set the billing period on the contract to match the billing dates on the Autotask invoice.
11. The contract base distribution code will be copied from the contract template.
Contract Item Details Tab
Contract Item Details Tab
Details to come
Contract Billing/Contact Tab
Contract Billing/Contact Tab
1. The bill to customer will match the bill to account from the contract in Autotask.
2. The contact name will match the contact name from Autotask.
3. The branch is pulled from the customer record in e-automate.
4. If you have checked the option to Group invoices on the contract template, this option will be checked on the contract created by the sync.
5. The billing group will be pulled from the contract template.
6. The tax code on the contract will be pulled from the customer record.
7. The terms on the contract will pull from the customer record.
8. The report group will be pulled from the contract template.
9. The invoice number from Autotask will sync to the PO field on the contract. You do have the option to post the invoice number to the contract remarks if needed.
Contract Message
Contract Message
1. The sync automatically adds a billing queue message with the next billing date from the Autotask contract.
2. This message is set to require acknowledgment in the billing queue.
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Setup
Jump to: EA Settings | AT Settings | Subscribe to Alerts | Testing Setup
EA Settings
1. Verify that the option to add items to service calls and contracts is enabled. Details on that are here.
2. The sync requires a termination code to be used when items are removed from the contract.
Autotask Settings
1. Determine the different types of contracts that you will need to create, you will have one template in e-automate per contract category from Autotask. You want to have one contract category for every "flavor" of billing.
2. Determine the GL accounts that you want revenue to post to in e-automate. You'll need to make sure that you have material and service codes in Autotask for each of the GL accounts that you will use.
Subscribe to Alerts
1. Once you have the settings in Autotask and e-automate determined, subscribe to ID913 on our website. If you don't have a login to our subscription site, you can email help@ceojuice.com to have us set you up with a login.
Testing Setup
1. API Keys in Autotask – These may already be in place if you are using other portions of the Autotask sync. New keys do not need to if they already exist for other Autotask integrations.. Details on creating API keys here.
2. Autotask test Database – If using a test Autotask database, you’ll need to create a set of API keys for that database. Details on creating API keys here.
3. e-automate test Database – A test database is required to sync calls initially for review. See this link for notes on creating a test e-automate database.
4. CEOJuice test database – If you have previously tested other parts of the Autotask integration, you may already have this in place. If not, see this link for notes on creating a test CEOJuice database.
Once these setup steps have been completed, please let us know and we will install the process and run the preflight process to create the item and contract templates.
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Testing
There are two steps to the testing of the contract sync, the first step is to update the coding on the item and contract templates. Once the coding on the templates is updated, the second step is to push contract invoices to the test database to check contract creation.
Jump to: Contract Templates | Item Templates | Testing Checklist
Contract Templates
Contract Templates
You will have a contract template for each contract category that exists in Autotask. To see the existing contract categories, go to the Admin menu, then Contracts and Un-Posting, and click on Contract categories:
Click on the New button to create a new category or click on the edit button next to an existing category to change the name.
As part of the preflight process, we will create one contract template for each contract category, you'll then need to update the coding on each contract template in e-automate.
The contract templates are non-billing contracts with a specified contract number that the sync uses to determine the default coding for each contract created. When the sync creates a new contract, it will check the category from Autotask and then find the matching template in e-automate and copy the coding from that template to the newly created contract.
For each template, you'll need to update the following codes:
1. Contract Type - Determines if the contract is installment-based or deposit based.
2. Contract Bill Code - Used to determine what is covered and what is billable for service calls applied to the contract.
3. Contract Status - Status is a required field.
4. Contract base distribution code - Required field, will only be used if the item added to the contract does not have a contract base distribution code set.
**Leave the billing cycle blank on the contract template.
On the Billing/Contact Tab of the contract:
1. Billing Group - optional, but recommended to segregate the contracts created by the sync into their own billing group.
2. Tax code - each template will need to have the tax code field updated, this is only because e-automate requires this field to be filled in. The tax code entered on the template WILL NOT be copied to the contract created by the sync. The tax code assigned to the customer on the contract will be used.
3. Report Group - The report group indicates the invoice format that is used for the contract invoices in e-automate and is a required field.
In addition to the templates created for each agreement type, you will also see the default agreement template that is used when there is no matching template that can be found in e-automate. We recommend creating a new contract type for the default contract that you can easily search on and see that the contract was created from the default and needs to be updated.
Item Templates
Item Templates
The item templates are based on the billing codes in Autotask. You'll have one item template for each material code and one for each service code. To see the codes that currently exist in Autotask, go to the Admin menu, then Finance, Accounting & Invoicing, and click on Billing Codes:
This will bring up all the billing codes section, the two tabs of codes that will create templates are Material and Service:
Add new codes by clicking on the New button or edit existing codes by clicking on the edit option next to the code. As part of the preflight process, we will create the item templates for you in the test database. You'll then need to update each template with the proper coding for item creation.
Updates needed on each template:
1. The default description will be ID913 Item Template, you can change this to whatever you would like or leave it as is. When an item is created, the sync pulls the description from Autotask for the item.
2. Category: The category will default to the first category in the list, you can change to an existing category or create a new category for the item templates.
3. Unit of Measure: The unit of measure will default to EA, you can change as needed.
4. Contract base distribution code: This code drives where the revenue is posted when the item is used on a contract.
Item type, inventory code, sales code and service code will all copy over when a new item is created but are not required to add an item to a contract.
**If you have items already set up in e-automate that match a product or service in Autotask, please review these items and verify that all have the correct contract base distribution code in place. If the sync finds a matching item already in e-automate, it will use that item on the contract. If the distribution code is not set on the item, the revenue from that item will default to the GL account used on the contract distribution code (code set on the contract template).
In addition to the templates based on material and service codes, there will be one default template that will be used in the event that the sync can't find a matching template to the code on the product or service from Autotask.
Testing Checklist
Testing Checklist
Once the templates have been updated, you're ready to begin syncing invoices to the test database for review. Verify the following are all working as expected:
- Review the contracts that were created, checking dates, base rate amounts, and item amounts.
- Preview the next invoice, confirm that the totals match and that the tax status is in line.
- Invoice contract and review the GL entries to verify that the amounts all posted to the correct accounts.
After confirming that everything is syncing properly, we will move the templates to your production e-automate and repoint the sync to production to push in the contract invoices.
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Variables
Variables
Variable W:Serviceable Item - Enter the item number to be added to the contract that will be used on all service calls generated by service ticket integration. This item will be added to all contracts created by the sync. **Required, the default value is AT-Service.
Variable 4: Default Contract Template - the name of the default contract template in e-automate. This template would be used if there is no matching contract template for the contract type from Autotask. The default is **ATContract. **Required**
Variable 9: Contract # Prefix - If you would like the contracts created by the sync to have a specific prefix (AT, MNS, IT, etc) enter that here. When the contract is created by the sync, it will add the letters from this variable to the beginning of the contract number. Leave blank to use the default contract number.
Variable 5: Default Item Template - the name of the default item template in e-automate. This template would be used if there is no matching item template for the item in Autotask. The default is **ATJuiceDefault. **Required**
Variable 11: Autotask Credentials - If you have more than one set of API credentials entered on the CEOJuice website, specify which credential set to use.
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Alert Functionality
Alert Functionality
The sync is triggered by the contract invoice from Autotask. As the contracts are updated throughout the month, those changes will not sync across to e-automate.
**This alert is still in Beta, information in this section is updated as it becomes available**
Jump to: Serviceable Items | AT-Service Item | Customer Mapping | Contract Number | Contract Type | Contract Bill Code | Contract Status | Contract Dates | Contract Billing Period | Billing Cycles | Base Distribution Codes | Bill To Customer | AT Invoice # | Billing Groups | Report Groups | Invoice Samples | Contract Message | Contract Tax | Terminating Items
Serviceable Items
The sync process will add the products and services from the Autotask contract invoice to the e-automate contract as individual line items. In order to add these items to the service contracts in e-automate, you will need to enable the option to Allow items to contracts and service calls.
This option is located in Tools\Options:
Click on Contracts (1) and then check the option for Allow items on contracts and service calls (2). You will need to close e-automate and reopen to see the change.
AT-Service
AT-Service Item
The sync adds a default placeholder item to every contract created. This item is added to the contract at a rate of $0.00 and is used in conjunction with the service ticket integration. This item will be created by the preflight process and only needs to have the option for serviceable as item checked:
The item will show on the contract:
This item is suppressed on the customized invoice formats that we'll install for you so that invoices sent from e-automate will not show this item.
Customer Mapping
Customer Mapping
Customer mapping is based on the e-automate customer number existing on the matching account in Autotask.
Contract Number
Contract Number
The sync will use the next contract number from e-automate, this is set in Options:
You do have the option to add a prefix to all contracts created by the sync, which we do recommend doing. This allows for easy filtering in the contracts screen for the contracts created by the sync. This prefix is set in variable 9. In the example below, variable 9 is set to AT.
Contract Type
Contract Type
Contract types in e-automate are used to set the defaults used when a contract is created, these are similar to contract categories in Autotask, though you do not need to have the contract types match exactly to the agreement types.
When creating a contract type in e-automate, go to Lists and Codes then Contract Types.
There are four fields required on the contract type:
1. Contract type - The name of the contract type.
2. Description - A description of the contract type.
3. Base distribution code - The default distribution code used at the contract level when this contract type is used on a contract.
4. Billing method - The contract type determines if the billing method will be Installment based or Deposit based.
The remaining fields are optional when setting up the contract type, you may want to set a default bill code (5) or a report group (6).
**When setting the contract type on the contract templates, you can override the defaults for everything except the contract type name and the billing method.**
Contract Bill Code
Contract Bill Code
The contract bill code will determine what is billable and what is covered for service tickets applied against the contract. When the sync creates a new contract it sets each item added to the contract with the contract bill code on the template.
Depending on how you are billing for service, you may need to set up advanced bill codes so that what's billable in Autotask is also billable in e-automate. See here for more details on setting up advanced bill codes. See the documentation here for more details on how the bill code functions in relation to the service call sync.
Contract Status
Contract Status
The sync will set the e-automate contract status to equal the Autotask agreement status, anytime that the status exists in both systems. If Autotask has a status that doesn’t exist in e-automate the sync will use the template’s status for inserts and just leave the status alone on updates.
If a contract is created in e-automate where the start date is in the future, the status will be inactive when the contract is created. To bill the contract, you'll need to manually change the status to active.
Contract Dates
Contract Dates
Autotask allows for contracts to start billing any day during the month, though a best practice is to start the contract on the first of the month.
The contract created in e-automate will match the start and end dates from the Autotask contract.
Contract Billing Period
Contract Billing Period
The sync will match the billing period on the contract to the billing period from the Autotask contract. It's very important to bill the contract in e-automate prior to the next invoice from Autotask getting generated, as the sync will reset the billing period with each sync.
Billing Cycles
Billing Cycles
The contract period type from Autotask (Monthly, Quarterly, Semi-Annual, Yearly) will need to have corresponding billing cycles in e-automate that match by name so the sync can set the billing cycle on the contract properly. To find the billing cycles in e-automate go to Tools - Lists and Codes - Billing Cycles
Base Distribution Codes
Contract Base Distribution Codes
The base distribution code determines if the contract will accrue and sets the GL account that revenue will post to; the distribution code is set on the contract type and will automatically update when you update the contract type.
1. The check box Use accruals needs to be checked if the contract should accrue.
2. Revenue account - The GL account that the revenue will be posted to.
3. Revenue department - The GL department that the revenue will be posted to.
4. Revenue distribution - The percentage of revenue to be posted to the account. You can split the revenue among several accounts, the total distribution needs to add up to 100%.
When posting revenue, e-automate checks for the distribution at the item level, if no code is found there, the code at the contract level is used.
The contract base distribution code on the item template is copied to each item created by the sync, and therefore will be used at the item level of the contract (1). You'll want to check for any existing items in e-automate where the item number matches a product/service from Autotask and verify that these items all have a base distribution code set.
Bill To Customer
Bill To Customer
The bill to customer on the contract will match the bill to account set on the contract in Autotask.
AT Invoice #
AT Invoice #
The invoice number from Autotask will post in the PO field on the contract in e-automate:
You can search by the PO field and see this column in the contracts screen in e-automate, making it easy to search for the invoice number and use this field to verify that the contract has been updated by the latest invoice from Autotask.
You do have the option to instead post the invoice number in the remarks field if you have customers that need to populate the PO field. You'll need to email help@ceojuice.com to have this option enabled.
Billing Groups
Billing Groups
If you want IT contracts to have a separate billing group, you can add one to the contract templates. It is not required, just a way to segregate the IT contracts into a separate group and something we recommend doing.
To create a billing group in e-automate, go to Lists and Codes and select Contract bill groups from the drop-down list:
Assign the bill group to the contract templates and it will then be copied over to contracts created from that template.
Report Groups
Report Groups
The report group on the contract determines what invoice format is used when printing/viewing the invoice in e-automate.
Invoice Samples
Invoice Samples
Samples to come
Contract Message
Contract Message
The sync will populate a message on the contract with the next billing date from Autotask (1). This message is set to require acknowledgment in the billing queue (2).
The message is intended to be used as a way to confirm that the contract has been updated by the sync prior to invoicing the contract in e-automate. If the next invoice date in the message matches the billing period date, the invoice has not been updated by the sync and should not be billed.
Contract Tax
Contract Tax
Details to come
Terminating Items
Terminating Items
Details to come
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Best Practices & Tips
Best Practices & Tips
Custom Property Set Up
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Related Alerts
Related Alerts
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