Contract 'conflict': how to use for block of time AND for project?

Hi all!

CommitCRM is set up to for us to be able to use CONTRACTS for managing PROJECTS - with the advantage that the contract then acts as the 'container' enabling us to group all TICKETS for this project by associating them with the particular contract. (See here)

However, what do we do when a project - as well as other work for the customer - is being paid for via a BLOCK OF TIME, i.e., some of this block of time will be used on the project and some will be used to pay for other work NOT related to this project?

What is 'best practice' in CommitCRM for handling this situation? As I understand CommitCRM now, we can set up a contract for a BLOCK OF TIME or for the PROJECT - but we can't do both or make one contract serve both purposes (because, remember, the block of time may be used on the project but also on other tasks).

An important related issue here is how the method(s) chosen here impact QB ie., we use QB Pro 2007 along with the QB Connector, so when you set out best practice per our question above, would you also flow through the impacts of using the approach you recommend, to QB and how it will impact recording of receipt and 'drawdown' of block of time funds?

I look forward to some help/wisdom on this one, as we come up the learning curve with shoehorning our biz into CommitCRM and VV:-)!



/dwv
David W. Vaughan
www.A-1techsupport.com
Wired: 305-672-4374
Skype: a1techsupport
Cell-Tech Emergencies: 786-200-6703
Making Technology Work

Hi David,

Thank you for your question. Managing projects in RangerMSP is best done by using Contracts, as you mentioned. This allows you to track the tickets, appointments, tasks and charges all under a single contract, use custom pricing for this project (you can define custom pricing in the contract level), etc.

I believe that usually it will be best to manage all charges (for the work performed and other expenses) under this project contract, and use the contract's payment terms for all charges. If you wish to add charges which are not related to the project payment terms, you can select the relevant contract for this charge when creating the charge (you can manage as many active contracts for a single customer as needed). You can still manage the ticket under the project contract, and only the charge will be logged under the other contract (block of time for example). This will allow you to track all activity under the project and charge some of it under another contract (i.e. the Tickets will be opened under the project contract while several charges under these tickets will be logged under another contract).

It's basically up to you and the way you manage the contract terms with your customer. As mentioned, we recommend on using a single contract for all project-related activity. On the invoicing side, this helps since you can easily generate charge reports by contract in order to list all activity performed for this project, under a single report. It also helps when creating the invoice in QuickBooks - when using the Invoice Creation Wizard, you can easily choose to create the invoice in the contract level, select the project contract, and have all charges for the project listed in a single invoice in QuickBooks.

I hope this helps!

Sherry

Sherry!

This is TERRIFIC news, thanx!

We will experiment here, esp with how having tix under one Contract and charges under another, affects invoicing, as it is pulled through to QB.

I tell you, we REALLY like have all tix for a project under a separate contract.

Off for further adventures in our 'getting of wisdom' withCommitCRM. And thanx too Sherry for your and your team's terrific tech support here. (I hope that one day soon, you will break out the one newsgroup/forum into sev by subject area, and we could certainly give you some suggestions as to suggested subject areas for the sep forums.)

Good Friday to all!

/dwv
David W. Vaughan
www.A-1techsupport.com
Wired: 305-672-4374
Skype: a1techsupport
Cell-Tech Emergencies: 786-200-6703
Making Technology Work!