Creating Contracts

Adam Graetz
Adam Graetz
  • Updated

There are 2 primary types of Contracts in ServiceTrade: Default Contracts and Company Contracts.

  • Default Contracts define general pricing for jobs for which there is no Contract specific to the Job's customer or subcontractor. 
  • Company Contracts define pricing between your company and a customer or subcontractor. 

It's important to remember that Item Prices are stored in Contracts and NOT in the Item List. You can add an Item's Cost (the cost you pay, not the customer). We cover pricing in this Support Article.

Default contracts can be manually selected when building a quote or invoice. Company contracts apply automatically. 

Note: Addendum Contracts define prices that override prices on other contracts to which they are attached. Addendum Contracts are typically needed only in complex subcontracting situations and are a legacy feature and will be removed soon.

 

Creating a Default Contract

  1. Hover over Customers in the Navigation Bar.
  2. Click on Service Contracts to navigate to the Contracts page.
  3. Click the Create Contract blue link on the left-hand side.
  4. Click Create Default Contract from the pop-up menu that appears.
    ST-Office_Contracts_Menu.gif
  5. When creating a Default Contract the required fields are:
    • Contract Name: the searchable name for the Contract you are creating. 
    • Owner: the name of the User who is creating the Contract.
      (Vendor will auto-populate with Your Company's name unless otherwise specified.)ST-Office-Contract_Create_Default_Contract.png
  6.  Once all desired information has been provided, click the green Create button.
  7. You are now ready to begin adding pricing information, which is covered in Managing Prices with Contracts.

Note: When creating a Default Contract it is important to remember NOT to add info into the Job Type, Will Be Applied To Invoice For, and Parent Contract fields. These fields are only relevant for Company-Specific Contracts.

Only use At Locations Assigned to Office and At Locations Belonging to Region if the default contract is for locations for that specific Office or Region. These are discussed in the section below.

 

Creating a Company Contract

Creating a Company Contract follows the same steps as creating a Default Contract above.

Once the contract has been created, you can then define the exact cases wherein this contract will be used. 

ST-Office_Contract-Company_Contract.png
Below are the definitions of all of the available fields when creating a new Company-Specific Contract:

Field Name

Field Definitions

Contract Name

The searchable name for the Contract you are creating.

*required field

Description

A description of the contract

Contract Starts On

 The Date that the Contract goes into effect.

Contract Ends On

Expiration Date of Contract. This will be viewable on the Contract Status as "Valid Until."

Note: The ends on date does not invalidate the contract. You will still be able to assign the Contract to Quotes, Jobs, and Invoices. However, the expiration date will appear in red when this is the case.

Screen_Shot_2021-03-24_at_12.14.31_PM.png

Review On

 A date on which Your Company wishes to review the Contract and its pricing.

Service Vendor 

 By default this will be Your Company. If you subcontract work out, this may be changed to the subcontractor doing the Job.

Customer 

Bill To that will be attached to the Quotes, Jobs, and Invoices using this Contract.

*required field

Expected Revenue

 Revenue your Company expects the Contract to make throughout its life. This will be viewable on the Contract Status as "Expected Revenue."

Expected Margin %

The percentage margin in a decimal format that you expect this contract to achieve. Assigning an expected margin percentage value to a contract, allows you to see the expected vs actual margin for this contract in the Contract Status.

This information will let you see when a contract is achieving its revenue expectations but requires a larger resource investment (representing additional costs, and, therefore lower margins).

Owner

The Contract Owner. Defaults to the user that creates the Contract.
Payment Terms This sets the payment terms on invoices that have this contract selected.

Salesperson 

 The User will appear on Quotes and Jobs Page as the Salesperson. Useful if your Sales Team reviews their contracts.

Customer PO 

 A Designated PO number that will appear on all Quotes, Jobs, and Invoices using this Contract.
Will Be Applied to Invoices For

Determines which customers or locations the contract will be applied to:

  • All Locations - Will apply to all locations for the selected Customer.
  • All Locations for Customer -This is a legacy feature. If you do not already use it, ignore this option.
  • Single Location - This will apply to a single location. Must select the location from the new drop-down menu.
  • Multiple Locations (Location Filter) - This is a legacy feature. If you do not already use it, ignore this option. If you want multiple location contracts we recommend duplicating a Single Location Contract, and changing the location.

For Job Type 

 Specifies that this Contract is used only on Jobs of a specific type, i.e. Repair, Inspection, or Warranty.

At Locations Assigned to Office 

 Specifies the specific Office of your company that this Contract will apply to.

At Locations Belonging to Region 

 Specifies a Region within your account that this Contract will apply to.

Parent Contract 

 A Default Contract you would like for this Company Contract to inherit.
Addendum This is a legacy feature. If you do not already use it, ignore this option.

You will also notice a check box for the Template Contract. If you only want this Contract to be a template that you copy to create other Contracts from, and don't intend this Contract to apply to a customer directly, then you would check the box. 

When creating a Child Contract, you must specify which Parent Contract to inherit from. For more info on Parent and Child Contracts check out our article on Service Contracts and Inheritance.

 

Managing Prices with Contracts

Adding Prices for Items is a key component when creating contracts. Since this is so important we have dedicated an entire article on Managing Prices with Contracts.

 

Contract Status

The contract status section on the top right side of the page will give you an overhead view of the contract you are viewing and how it is performing.

mceclip0.png

  • Valid Until - Lists the contract's Expiration Date.
    Note: The ends on date does not invalidate the contract. You will still be able to assign the Contract to Quotes, Jobs, and Invoices. However, the expiration date will appear in red when this is the case.
  • Expected Revenue - Lists the contract's Expected Revenue your Company expects the Contract to make throughout its life
  • Invoiced Revenue to Date - Lists how much invoiced revenue to date, from invoices associated with this contract, your company has made.
  • Expected Margin - Lists the percentage margin that you expect this contract to achieve.
  • Actual Margin - Lists the percentage margin that this contract achieves. The actual margin is calculated by comparing the job item costs on completed jobs for that contract with the invoiced revenue for that contract.
    • The expected and actual margin of each contract are now also included in the contract list export:
      Screenshot_from_2021-06-29_08-27-23.png

Note: To view expected and actual margins, users must have permission to see both job labor and non-labor costs, permission to view invoices, and permission to view contracts.

 

FAQs

How do I Track Customer Purchase Orders on Company Contracts?

Read this article for more information on Tracking Customer Purchase Orders on Company Contracts.

 

Was this article helpful?

/