Contract templates

Purpose: Eliminate the need to create contracts from scratch, reducing errors, and accelerating delivery to clients with contract templates.

Customise services provided, incorporate SLAs, billable rates, payment methods, and contract durations based on your agreement with the customer with an in-depth configuration to suit your requirements. This approach improves efficiency, cuts costs, ensures uniformity, and streamlines workflow processes.

Before creating a Contract template, review the prerequisite settings in Contracts Overview to ensure they meet your requirements.

View setting

➡️ Profile icon > Settings > Contracts > Contract templates > View

Add new contract template

➡️ Add new contract template

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Building your contract template is a step-by-step process visualised on the left side of your screen. Each step, foundational for your contract, may involve simple or multi-part forms. Complete them systematically; dependent fields may appear or disappear based on your answers.

A progress bar tracks your completion. Click the steps on the left to navigate in order, starting from Step 1. Once a step is complete, click "Next" to save and move on or "Back" to review previous steps. You cannot skip ahead; progress through each step methodically.

	Indicates the step progress
	Indicates a step or sub-step is in progress
	Indicates the step or sub-step is complete

Step 1 Basic details

Establish the fundamental details by configuring the basic contract information.

Contract name: This name serves as the identifier used throughout the system.

Contract description: Provide a concise description to clarify the services covered by the contract.

Contract category: Select a Contract category, used for reporting purposes.

Contract type: Select a Contract type; this influences various aspects of the contract template setup, eg. the renewal process and invoicing.

• Fixed Length renewal required: Contract duration specified in months; manual renewal is necessary after the specified Contract period, allowing for amendments and adjustments as needed.
• Fixed length auto-renewal: Contract duration specified in months; automatically renews with the same terms, chosen in Renewal type in the next step.
• Monthly rolling: Contract duration is one month and renews automatically each month until manually cancelled. 

Contract period: Enter the length of the contract in months.

If Monthly rolling is selected for your contract type, the contract period cannot be changed from 1 month.

The contract period cannot exceed 300 months (25 years).

Step 2 Sales/Renewals

Renewals

Contract renewals extend existing agreements, ensuring customers maintain access to products or services beyond the initial contract period.

If your contracts need renewing, you can use a draft to discuss new terms with your customer. Give yourselves enough time to discuss adjustments and ensure everyone's happy before signing on the dotted line.

If you've set your contracts to auto-renew, it's like putting them on autopilot. It saves you time filling out paperwork and keeps that recurring income (your Net Revenue Retention or NNR) flowing in smoothly.

Based on your chosen Contract type, you'll be able to see the respective form to configure how the renewal happens. If you've chosen a monthly rolling contract, however, this step will be skipped as this renewal simply happens every month, ongoing unless you stop it.

Contract type: Fixed length renewal required

Automatically create draft contract: Should a draft contract be generated automatically for this renewal?

• Do nothing: Choose this option if you prefer not to generate a draft contract. the contract will finish at the end of the specified period with no further action.
• Create draft contract: Choose this option if you wish to have an automated generation of a draft contract.

Renewal type: Decide whether the current contract terms continue, eg. if you made adjustments to the templated terms when creating the customer contract or if they should be renewed following the contract template terms you are currently configuring.

• Renew from existing customer contract: The current contract terms will continue without any changes.
• Renew from contract template: The contract template terms will be used for each renewal.

How many days before the contract expires does the renewal contract get generated: Give yourself the time needed to renegotiate contract terms before the current contract expires. This will default to 7 days but can be changed as required.

Contract type: Fixed length auto-renewal

Renewal type: Decide whether the current contract terms continue, eg. if you made adjustments to the templated terms when creating the customer contract or if they should be renewed following the contract template terms you are currently configuring.

• Renew from existing customer contract: The current contract terms will continue without any changes.
• Renew from contract template: The contract template terms will be used for each renewal.

How many days before the contract expires does the renewal contract get generated: Give yourself the time needed to renegotiate contract terms before the current contract expires. This will default to 7 days but can be changed as required.

How many days before the new contract starts does the renewal invoice get generated: Decide when you want the renewal invoice to be generated based on the new contract start date.

• This value must be between the renewal generation and the current contract expiry.
• If no value is provided, the invoice is created on the day the renewal contract becomes active.
  
  

Step 3 Assets

If assets will be used on your contract template, you can choose which asset types should be included. This will determine how assets behave when used on contract jobs for an active contract.

Appliances are not compatible with Contracts, you will not see this step in your template setup.

Which asset types are allowed on this contract: Choose all the asset types that could be used on this contract.

These asset types apply to contract jobs, but not PPM jobs. This is set up in the next step if required.

If an asset is added to a job, do you want the asset to be automatically added to the contract: Sometimes you might not have the asset details upfront when setting up a customer contract. With this setting, you can automatically add new assets (as long as it uses one of the types you already defined) to the contract when they are added to jobs.

Why don't I have the "Assets" step?
If you're a long-standing client, your account might still be using the "Appliances" system, which doesn't include the "Assets" feature. Currently, there's no automated process to transition from "Appliances" to "Assets." For more information on how to manually switch to the "Assets" system, please contact us at support@commusoft.com.

Step 4 Job details

4.1 SLA

including an SLA in your contracts provides a win-win situation. It ensures your customers understand the level of service they're paying for and helps you deliver a high-quality service that builds trust and strengthens your business relationships.

Enable, then select the desired SLA template from the dropdown.

Only one SLA template can be selected.

Click Next to save your changes and move on to the next step.

4.2 PPM

Including PPM (Planned Preventative Maintenance) in your contracts creates predictable income through recurring maintenance, boosts client satisfaction with fewer equipment failures, and allows for efficient service delivery through pre-scheduled work

PPM cannot be included in rolling monthly contracts, this step will be skipped.

Select yes to set up your PPM details. Complete a row for each option you wish to provide, including all relevant data for the PPMs you want to include.

PPM: Click into the field to open the search, and start typing to find your PPM template.

Type: Determine what record type this PPM will apply to. A combination of types can be used for the contract template to account for any possible requirement.

• Property: Any works completed for this PPM schedule will apply to the property as a whole.
• Asset: Any works completed for this PPM schedule will apply to individual assets.

Asset groups: If you've chosen Asset as the type, select the asset groups to use on this PPM. This will apply to all asset types within the selected group(s). This is disabled if "Property" is chosen in type column.

These asset groups apply to PPM jobs only.

Job descriptions: Choose the job description to apply to these PPM jobs when they are created based on your chosen schedule.

Chargeable: Choose how charges will apply for PPM jobs, you can combine different ways of charging across your PPM rows for the desired level of detail.

• No, FOC on completion
• Yes, labour and parts
• Yes, labour only
• Yes, parts only

FOC reason: If you've selected FOC in the Chargable column, choose which FOC reason to apply when the jobs are completed. This is disabled if any other Chargable option is chosen.

4.3 Service jobs

Including service jobs, like a yearly boiler service, in your contracts benefits your customers by promoting preventative maintenance and peace of mind, and providing you with predictable revenue and efficient business operations.

Service type: Choose the service reminder you want to be used on the service jobs.

Preferred date range: Choose the months you would prefer to carry out these service jobs, for example, you may prefer to carry out contract boiler services in spring/summer.

Reminder/job: How should the service be managed when the service date is due?

• Create job: Schedules the job based on the service due date. The service reminder used must be linked to a job description.
• Send reminder: Send a service reminder to the customer, they are responsible for getting in touch to book the service job.

Chargeable: Choose how charges will apply for PPM jobs, you can combine different ways of charging across your PPM rows for the desired level of detail.

• No, FOC on completion
• Yes, labour and parts
• Yes, labour only
• Yes, parts only

FOC reason: If you've selected FOC in the Chargable column, choose which FOC reason to apply when the jobs are completed. This is disabled if any other Chargable option is chosen.

Actions: Set reminder



Communications need to be set up in the same manner as a standard service reminder. Select the communication template in their dropdowns for the first communication.

If you haven't created an email, SMS or letter template yet you can create one here as well by clicking on Add new template.

Customers can book the service job online themselves by including the [service_reminder_booking_portal_url] tag in the email or SMS template for the single property communication. 

If no templates are selected for the first communication, the system service reminder communications will be sent.

You can now set some follow up communications, these are triggered after the first communication based on the delay you set here.

Actions: Set confirmation

A confirmation communication needs to be set up using an email or SMS template, select the template in the dropdown list. If you haven't created an email, SMS or letter template yet you can create one here as well by clicking on Add new template.

If no templates are selected, no communication will be sent when a service job is created.

4.4 Call outs and breakdowns

Including calls outs and breakdowns in your contracts can limit call-outs to manage costs and discourage unnecessary service calls. This encourages preventive maintenance and helps the company predict their workload. You may also offer tiered service options for your customers' choice, with a higher allowance for a higher premium.

Allowances

What are the allowances based on:

• Job description 
• Business unit

Based on the Allowance choice you will see List of job descriptions or List of Business units.

List of job descriptions:

• Job descriptions: Connect the relevant Job description
• Maximum number of jobs allowed: Number of jobs included per contract period.
• Chargeable: 
  • No, FOC on completion: Charges included in the contract.
  • Yes, labour and parts
  • Yes, labour only
  • Yes, parts only
• FOC reason: Choose from the drop-down
  
• Actions: Delete the line from Allowances.
  

List of Business units: 

• Business units: Connect the relevant Business units
• Maximum number of business units allowed: Number of jobs included jobs per contract period.
• Chargeable: 
  • No, FOC on completion: Charges included in the contract.
  • Yes, labour and parts
  • Yes, labour only
  • Yes, parts only
• FOC reason: Choose from the drop-down
  
• Actions: Delete the line from Allowances.

Step 5 Billable rates

Billable rates ensure you charge the correct rate and reduce billing errors for your contracts, including the ability to segment pricing for enhanced billing control.

5.1 Labour

With segmented labour pricing, you can apply different rates for the same service under different circumstances, for example, you can segment the price based on priority so urgent jobs have a higher charge than low priority jobs.
Specify the hourly rate that the customer pays. This rate can remain consistent or vary for overtime hours and weekends, possibly with additional charges for public holidays.

Continue without segments: Apply the labour rates you set here to every contract job, regardless of the properties of the job. 

Add segmentations: Apply a primary and an optional secondary segmentation to configure labour rates based on the following options.

• Job description
• Job priority
• Business units
• User group 
  

Days applicable - From the dropdown, select the day(s) of the week to apply the labour rate to. If you have Public holiday templates set up, you can apply a labour rate.

From/To time: Set the time this labour rate is applicable in 12-hour clock format.

Labour (per hour): Enter the labour cost to apply for the chosen timeframe.

Labour rates are not required for contract templates. If they aren't set up, the labour rate used will default to the next one you have set up in the following order:

• Customer price book
• Labour rate from the job description
• User labour rate

5.2 Pricing items

These items often encompass non-physical charges that still need to be applied, such as a call-out fee or congestion charge.

All Pricing items you have in your system will be displayed for you to configure any contract pricing you want to offer. Change all Contract prices that apply.

5.3 Parts 

Contract prices for parts can be set using markups, and segmented by categories or individual parts.

Categories: The Industries, Categories and Sub categories set up in your system will be displayed. Each record can have a markup percentage, which is applied to the base price set against a part.

The markups supersede in the following order:

• Individual parts
• Sub category
• Category
• Industries

To input a markup for an individual part, expand the form to display Part markup, search for the part, and enter the contract markup.

Markups are not required for contract templates. If not set up, the system markups will be used.

Step 6 Invoicing

Configure the invoice and payment options available for this contract. You have the flexibility to establish invoicing preferences and decide how you wish to handle invoice distribution and payment collection.

6.1 Invoicing

Asset invoicing is only available on the Customer Journey plan or higher.

If you select no, automatic collection of payments won’t be possible.

Invoice settings

• Email the invoice: The email will be automatically emailed after creation.
• Don’t email the invoice: The invoice will not be emailed, it can be emailed or printed manually.
• Don’t email the invoice, mark it as sent: The invoice will be marked as sent to the customer, without ever sending the email. This allows taking payments automatically and reconciling them to the relevant invoice.
  
  

A customised Invoice email template should be set up for Contract invoices, including the [invoice_description].

Invoicing options

➡️ Add new invoice option > Complete the side panel > Save

*Description of options: Name of the payment plan.

*Is the price fixed or does it change per customer?

• Fixed: Same price applies to every customer.
• Can change per customer: Price varies.

*Is this a fixed price or does it change depending on the number of properties or the number of assets?

• Fixed price for the contract: Price is fixed for the entire contract term and has no dependancies.
• Price depends on the number of properties: Typically designed for customers with multiple properties, allows you to set a limit on how many are included in the price.
• Price depends on the number of assets: Typically for when servicing multiple assets like Airconditioning units, allows you to set a limit on how many are included in the price.

*Period of billing:

• At the beginning of the contract: One invoice created upon customer contract activation.
• Monthly: One invoice per month.
• Quarterly: One invoice every three months.
• 6-Monthly: One invoice every six months.
• Yearly: One invoice for the each year.

*Description to appear on the invoice: The description shown on the customer’s invoice. This can be tagged in the Invoice email template for the customer to reference the contract.

Notes on invoice: Notes you'd like to appear on the invoice.

*Business unit: Connect based on Business unit.

*User groups: Connect based on User groups.

*Nominal code: Connect based on Nominal code.

*VAT option: Choose Include or exclude 

*VAT: Choose from drop-down

*Price: Enter the subscription price for the billing period or per property or asset.

*Creditor days: Connect based on Creditor days.

Contracts configured for Monthly billing will be invoiced exclusively on a monthly basis, no other period of billing can be chosen.

6.2 Payments

Including payment options in your contracts can add another level of automation, by allowing the payment integrations to manage this based on your invoice schedule set up in the previous step.

This step is not available if you do not have a payment integration set up.

Contract payments can be managed in several ways. Take a look at the Contract payments guide for a detailed look at these options and help decide how to manage your contract payments.

Step 7 Communications

External communication, including Emails, SMS, and Letters, serves to keep customers informed about their contracts, upcoming services, invoices, and payment details.

➡️ Add communication > Choose Communication template from dropdown or create a new one > Save

• On Activation: Notify the customer when the contract is activated.
• Renew communication: Notify the customer when provided contract is renewed.
• GoCardless confirmation: Notify the customer a mandate is awaiting their confirmation to complete setup.

GoCardless confirmation will only show if the integration is set up.

Automatic communications will be sent only when the contract is applied to a Customer.

Now your template is complete, review all steps to ensure you are happy with your configuration before activating it.

Activate contract template

When Step 7 is complete, you'll see the "Activate" button, you can either activate the contract or "Save as draft" if you want to review it later.

➡️ Save > Type "Activate" in the box below > Activate.

➡️ Save > "Save as draft"

Edit contract template

➡️ Profile icon > Settings > Contracts > Contract templates > View > Edit 

If the contract is still in draft, you can edit all steps. If the Contract type is changed at this stage, then Step 2.2 Renewals will need to be completed again for the new type selected.

Edit an active contract template

It is possible to edit an active contract, however, there are some restrictions to note:

Step 1 Basic details: Contract type can not be edited.

Step 3 Assets: Assets can't be added/removed.

Archive contract template

If you have used the contract template on customers, then it cannot be deleted and must be archived instead.

➡️ Profile icon > Settings > Contracts > Contract templates > Archive > Type "Archive" > Archive

Delete contract template

If the template has not been used on any customers yet, it can still be deleted.

➡️ Profile icon > Settings > Contracts > Contract templates > Delete > Type "Delete" > Delete