When a customer has a Deposit Based/Time Block Based contract with you, they pay up front for a selection of services. eAutomate has the ability to offer discounts on labor and materials if necessary. Deposit based/Time Block Based contracts can only be reduced through service calls. When providing parts or supplies through the sales module eAutomate determines whether to deduct the charges from the contract balance based on the service code assigned to the inventory item. If the item’s service code is listed on the bill code as an included service code, eAutomate deducts the charges for it from the contract balance. If the item’s service code is not listed on the contract’s bill code as included, eAutomate charges the item to the customer accounts receivable account.
Deposit Based Contracts - when customer pays dollar amount up front for services included
Time Block Based Contracts - when customer pays up front for specific amount of time for services
**Use Contract Record for initial billing amount. DO NOT USE Sales Invoices for this transaction.
Deposit Based/Time Block Based Contracts are differentiated in eAuto via the Contract Type. It must reflect "deposit based":
AND the Bill Code linked to this Contract Type should reflect the actual bill rate for labor (and parts if they apply). This is different from standard parts and labor inclusive contracts. A labor rate must exist so eAuto knows what dollar amound to deduct from the contract. The selection of "deposit based billing" tells eAuto to NOT bill for labor via the Service Call but do deduct from contract. So that means the Service Call MUST be linked to the Contract Record.
Once you have these built in eAuto you can begin creating Contract Record(s).
For Deposit Based Contracts (for Time Blocked contracts see below):
Step 1: Select Billing Method of "Deposit"
Step 2: Enter Initial Dollar Amount to be billed
Step 3: Determine your re-bill settings
Re-bill when balance is below: If the deposit contract balance goes below this amount, the customer is billed the dollar amount in the Billing amountfield during the contract billing process. If the contract has the Time block based checkbox checked, e-automate displays the Hours field.
Re-bill to zero if balance goes negative: If you allow negative values on deposit based contracts, when or if the contract goes negative, e-automate bills the contract back to zero.
Re-bill on cycle: When selected, you can specify on which cycle you want this contract to re-bill. After selecting Re-bill on cycle, do the following.
a. In the Billing cycle field use the Lookup to select the desired billing cycle.
b. In the Billing period field, enter the date you want the want the billing cycle to begin. The date the billing period ends displays after through.
Do not re-bill: When selected this contract does not re-bill.
For Time Blocked contracts:
Step 1: Select Billing Method of "Deposit" AND check off "Time block based"
Step 2: Enter Initial HOURS to be billed (note the dollar value of these hours is the hours entered * hourly labor rate listed in Bill Code assigned to Contract Record)
Step 3: Determine your re-bill settings
Re-bill when balance is below: If the deposit contract balance goes below this amount, the customer is billed the dollar amount in the Billing amountfield during the contract billing process. If the contract has the Time block based checkbox checked, e-automate displays the Hours field.
Re-bill to zero if balance goes negative: If you allow negative values on deposit based contracts, when or if the contract goes negative, e-automate bills the contract back to zero.
Re-bill on cycle: When selected, you can specify on which cycle you want this contract to re-bill. After selecting Re-bill on cycle, do the following.
a. In the Billing cycle field use the Lookup to select the desired billing cycle.
b. In the Billing period field, enter the date you want the want the billing cycle to begin. The date the billing period ends displays after through.
Do not re-bill: When selected this contract does not re-bill.
Here is a sample of a Deposit Based Contract already in place:
Of the $2000.00 initially billed, there is still a balance of $1375.25 left for customer to use. And this contract will automatically rebill when the balance falls below $444.00.
**Please these CEO Juice alerts to help manage these contracts:
ID313 - To alert you when the balance on a deposit based contract drops below thresholds via variables
ID687 - Deposit Based Contract History Detail report for customer reconcilliation
**Some eAuto users don't use the Time Block feature in eAuto because it is a "use it or lose it" Contract. However, our recommended work around is:
To bill the hours monthly directly from the contract, but take note of the remaining hours before you do the monthly bill. Once you bill the hours through the contract for the month, then use the pencil edit to adjust the hours to include the remaining hours from the previous month. This way the monthly revenue is directly tied to the contract and the remaining hours will be correct and continue to record service calls against the contract so it will deduct the proper hours automatically. This will make the profitability report accurately for this type of contract on the profit reports.
***Here is a suggested workaround to bill in advance for a block of copies/prints and once reached to auto rebill for another block:
Since bases have to bill on a cycle, this is the only work around I could come up with. Set up your base and set the billing cycle to something extreme, like 5 years. In the expiration copies field input the total of the BW and Color copies combined. Then in your meter groups make sure to check the box that says include this meter group in calculating expiration copies. Set the included copies copies for each group BW and Color separately. Once X% of the copies is used it will show on your expiration report when filtering it by % of copies used. It will also throw a flag up in dispatch when a service call is placed when the included copies have been used. Once the copies are used, adjust the billing cycle date to a date within the range to allow it to be pushed through the billing queue. Then bill it for the next block of copies. This is a work around but it should get you what you need.
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