Service contracts

# Service contracts

A service contract, often called an AMC, is an agreement to look after something for a customer over a term, such as lift maintenance for a year. Open Service contracts under Sales. There are three views: Active, Due for renewal and Visits.

Making a contract

Choose New contract and fill in:

• the customer, a title, and the start and end dates
• the value for the whole term, and how often to bill: every month, quarter, half year or year
• how many visits are owed in the term
• how many days before the end it should show under Due for renewal
• what it covers, one line for each thing
• whether invoices are issued as they are made. Otherwise they are made as drafts for you to check.

The value is shared equally between the billing periods. When it does not divide evenly the extra cents go one each to the earliest periods, so the invoices add up to the value exactly. A yearly 12,000.00 billed every quarter makes four invoices of 3,000.00.

Generating invoices

Press Generate invoices due. Pop Books makes one invoice for every billing period that has started and has no invoice yet. The line reads "AMC", the title and the period, such as "AMC Lift upkeep 2027-01-01 to 2027-03-31". Press it again and nothing is doubled. Each period is billed once, even if the screen is closed halfway.

The money goes to the income account you chose, or to an account called Service contract income that Pop Books makes the first time. If an invoice cannot be made or issued, for example a customer is over the credit limit, the message says which one and the rest carry on.

Once an invoice has been made, the start date, value and billing cycle are fixed. Renew the contract to change them.

Visits

Visits are spread evenly over the term. Open the Visits view to see what is waiting, with overdue ones marked. Choose Mark done, then say when, who went and what was found.

Renewing

A contract shows under Due for renewal once it is inside its notice period, and stays there after it ends until it is renewed. Choose Renew to start the next term the day after this one ends. It has the same length unless you give an end date, and the same value unless you type a new one. The visits and the list of what it covers carry over. A contract can be renewed once. Cancel a contract and no more invoices are made for it.

Who can do what

• Anyone who can see the books can see contracts, visits and renewals.
• Making, changing, renewing and cancelling contracts, generating invoices and marking visits done need the permission to make invoices.

What has not been tried

Invoices are made without tax. Add tax on the draft before issuing, or issue it as it is when the service carries none. Reminders appear on this screen only, not on the home page.