Invoicing Through Service Agreements

The Invoicing Screen in Service Agreement Entry essentially replaces the Invoice Code style of invoice setup used in previous versions. You will now be able to place individual line items on the invoice and choose exactly as they will appear on the invoice generated for the customer, even setting up items to appear on the invoice but not print when the invoice is printed, which is especially handy to record items such as inventory parts without showing the customer each and every part that was used as part of the agreement. In addition, items placed on the Estimates screen can be brought directly to this screen for invoicing purposes, although it is not necessary for an Estimate to be created in order to set up your service agreement invoices. The Invoice screen itself appears very similarly to the normal Sales Invoicing screen, with notable exceptions listed below.

In order to create the invoice schedule for the customer, just enter the Description you would like to print on the invoice next to the SA Product, with the dollar amount that you wish to charge per SA invoice. The Description itself is modified by double-clicking the Description box. This brings up the Edit Invoice Notes field, which allows you change the Description, as well as use the Insert function to insert the customer’s address, beginning and ending dates, and agreement number. In the Month to Post field, you can now choose which month you wish to have the invoice created, including an option “with dispatch”. When With Dispatch is chosen, the invoice is created each time the service agreement creates a dispatch for that dollar amount. In order to fill the schedule with the remaining months desired, for an agreement charged on a monthly basis for example, simply choose the Fill Invoice Schedule button at the bottom of the screen. This will ask you which schedule type you would like to base it on (Bi-Annual, Quarterly, Monthly), and the system will duplicate the information you have entered in the remaining months. The series of examples below help illustrate this functionality.

Note that the Contract Period will determine when the invoice will be generated. For example, if a customer has a 4-year contract period, then ESC will not create an invoice for the customer until 4 years after the last invoice was created. A 1-year contract, on the other hand, will generate an invoice each year.

First Service is offering a maintenance plan that bills $300 per year, broken into monthly billings. The service covers routine maintenance with any additional repairs conferring an extra charge. The staff at First Service opens the Invoice screen in the Service Agreement module, double-clicks on the first Description field, enters in some information, and clicks the Insert option and chooses to insert the location address in an appropriate place in the description. The Edit field appears as:

When the Exit button is selected, this information now appears in the Description area of the Invoice screen. Since the agreement is for $300 per year and is billed monthly, the Price of $25 is entered in the Price column (the charge for one month). The billing will begin on May 1st, 2004, so Month to Post becomes May, and that date is entered in the bottom area in the Begin Invoicing On field. Finally, the Fill Invoice Schedule option is chosen, and the Monthly option selected. The Invoicing screen now appears as follows:

The Contract Amount now properly reflects the $300 that First Service will charge on the bottom of the Invoice screen as well as the main screen of the Service Agreement. Starting in May, a monthly invoice for $25 will be created for this customer.

How do I get to this screen?