As a computer services business, you probably use service contracts that describe the service terms you provide to your customers. Use Commit's Contract records to manage your service contracts and track their status.
Note that using the Contracts tool is optional. If you don't have special contract terms with your customers and you bill according to the activity performed (such as labor, expenses, and parts), you can use the default system contract that is automatically created for each Account, and avoid creating and managing contracts yourself.
Each Contract record you open in Commit is linked to a selected Account, and has a unique Code, Start and End Date, Type, and Status.
Commit Contracts are categorized according to type: Standard, Block of Time, Block of Tickets and Block of Money. The contract type is set when you create a new Contract, and the system automatically tracks the status of contracts according to their type.
You can create and manage several contracts for each Account and use them concurrently; for example, one contract can be for phone support, another for a one-time network installation project, and another for managing warranties.
Every Ticket and Charge in Commit is created under one of the Account Contracts. When you create a Ticket under an active Contract, the system will warn you if the contract terms are obsolete – e.g. if the block of time allocated has already been used, if the end date has passed, etc.
You can easily generate QuickBooks invoices from Commit based on Charges logged in Commit. You can generate an invoice at the Contract level where all unbilled billable charges related to that contract will be included in the invoice regardless of the Ticket records they are related to (you can also generate invoices at the Ticket level).
When a contract has terminated, change its status to Completed. You can also use the status to indicate that a contract has been suspended or canceled.
Here's a screen shot of the Contracts main window:
