Retainer By Hours

Finance > Contracts > New > Retainer by Hour

Hours of service are prepaid. Clients schedule services when needed. Labor time entries decrement the retainer hours purchased. The total price of contract is calculated by multiplying the number of contract hours purchased by an average rate. Retainer by Hour contracts are billed by billing periods. The total hours specified by the contract are distributed evenly across all the billing periods contained by the contract's date range. When a billing period within the contract is closed, unconsumed retainer hours can be optionally carried forward to the next billing period.

Creating Retainer by Hours Contracts

1. Select the Finance > Contracts page.
2. Click New > Retainer by Hours.
3. Enter the following in the Contract Information section.
   • Contract Number - Only displays when editing a contract.
   • Contract Name
   • Contract Description
   • Client
   • Start Date
   • End Date
   • SLA - A contract associated with an SLA overrides the Default SLA when the ticket is linked to the contract.
   • Setup Fees
   • Reference Number
   • Billing Cycle - Contract Length, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly
   • Default Contract - Yes or No

     Note: To prevent generating billing lines for labor hours independently of a contract, set the Default Contract option to Yes for that contract. When a new ticket or task is created, the default contract is linked to the ticket or task automatically.

4. Enter additional information in the Custom Fields section.
5. Click Save.
6. Click Add to add milestone payments in the Billing Information tab.
   • Average Rate
   • Contract Hours
   • Bill For - Actual Hours or Actual Hours + Overage
   • Carry Over Extra Hours to the Next Billing Cycle - If Yes, unconsumed retainer hours are carried forward to the next billing period when a billing period is closed using Billing Review > Retainer Hours page.
7. Click Save.
8. Review the following in the Billing Information tab
   • Contract Billing Price - The Average Rate times the Contracts Hours.

   

9. Optionally exclude roles and work types that can report hours to this contract using the Exclusions tab.
   • If hours are reported using an excluded role or work type, the hours are reported against the Default Fallback Contract you specify.
10. Upload files to the contract using the Attachments tab.
11. Click Save.
12. Optionally reopen the contract and click Activate to begin using this contract to create billing entries.
13. When labor time entries are applied to this contract, you can review the hours consumed using the PrePaid Hours Summary tab.