In eAutomate there are various ways you can set up a contract and ensure it remains active and the appropriate coverage for the term that you and your customer have determined.
Below we list four options to set up a service contract for the coverage period, and the key differences.
How to set up automatic contract rate increases in EA
Additional CEOJuice reporting options around contract renewals
ID560 reports on low profit contracts coming up for renewal, ID472 meter contract report performance sent out prior to renewal, ID670 low revenue/volume over a period
Option #1 Evergreen Contracts (no expiration date set) is the most common practice we see companies using. The thought process is why set an expiration date, whether it's yearly or the term of the lease, keep the service contract going unless it's cancelled. Recommend setting up automatic contract rate increases on the contract.
Option #2 Set a contract up with the same end date as the lease date, for example, if equipment is on a lease for 60 months / 5 years, the service contract in EA would match with the same date. We have seen clients using this instead of option #1, a) if the equipment is nearing the end of its life expectancy, and you don't want to keep servicing it after the 5 years, b) if the signed service agreement specifically states the end date is a certain time period and can't be extended. Recommend setting up automatic contract rate increases on the contract.
If your company wants to retain the process of having an annual end date each year on a contract, you will have to manually review contract profitability, and calculate contract increases and add changes as needed, you would use either option 3 or 4 below. We would recommend option #3 as it limits the number of contract records created in your EA database, and you just maintain the one contract only. Option #4 requires more manual work (creating a new contract, and ensuring you terminate the old contract).
Option #3 If you want to have an annual expiration date on a contract, but don't want to create a new instance of a contract each year (per below #4 option). You can just extend the expiration date each year on the same contract.
The below example
Year 1 expired 1/1/2021, bumped expiration to 1/1/22
Years 2 expired 1/1/22, bumped expiration to 1/1/23
Year 3 expired 1/1/23, bumped expiration to 1/1/24
Year 4 expired 1/1/24, bumped expiration to 1/1/25
and you would keep extending as long as needed on the anniversary date each year.
Option #4 Create a new instance of a contract each year via renewing a contract (this is the least popular option). It keeps the same contract # but adds -02, -03 etc on the new contract record created for the new period. It requires you to manually terminate the old contract. Downside is it requires a lot of manual maintenance, increases the number of contract records in EA and overtime can have a substantial impact on your DB size.
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