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 in-depth configuration to suit your requirements. This approach improves efficiency, cuts costs, ensures uniformity, and streamlines workflow processes.
Existing system settings
The only mandatory pre-requisite is Contract categories. Before creating a Contract template, we recommend you review the full list of settings used. These can be found in the Contracts Overview.
View Setting
➡️ Profile icon > Settings > Contracts > Contract templates > View
Add New Contract Template
➡️ Add new contract template
Navigation
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.
Step 1: Basic Details
Establish the fundamental details by configuring the basic contract information.
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Contract name: This name serves as the identifier used throughout the system.
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Contract description: Provide a concise description to clarify the services covered by the contract.
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Contract category: Select a contract category for reporting purposes.
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Contract type: Select a contract type; this influences various aspects of the contract template setup, e.g., the renewal process and invoicing.
Contract Durations:
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Fixed length (renewal required): Specify the contract duration in months. Manual renewal is necessary after the specified period, allowing for amendments and adjustments as needed.
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Fixed length (auto-renewal): Automatically renews the contract with the same terms after the specified duration. Choose the renewal type in the next step.
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Monthly rolling: The contract duration is one month and renews automatically each month until manually cancelled.
Note: 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
Contract renewals extend existing agreements, ensuring customers maintain access to products or services beyond the initial contract period.
Contract type: Fixed length (renewal required)
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Automatically create draft contract: Should a draft contract be generated automatically for this renewal?
- Do nothing: The contract will finish at the end of the specified period with no further action.
- Create draft contract: Automatically generates a draft contract for review.
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Renewal type: Decide whether the current contract terms continue (e.g., if adjustments were made to the terms when creating the customer contract) or if they should follow the contract template terms.
- 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.
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How many days before the contract expiration should the renewal contract be generated?: This defaults to 7 days but can be changed as needed to provide enough time for renegotiating contract terms.
Contract type: Fixed length (auto-renewal)
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Renewal type: Choose whether to renew from the current customer contract or the contract template (same as above).
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How many days before the contract expires does the renewal contract get generated?: Set a period for generating the renewal contract before the contract expiration.
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How many days before the new contract starts does the renewal invoice get generated?: Set when the invoice should be created, between the contract renewal and expiration dates.
If no value is provided, the invoice is generated on the day the new 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.
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Which asset types are allowed on this contract?: Choose all the asset types that could be used on this contract.
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If an asset is added to a job, do you want the asset to be automatically added to the contract?: This option allows for automatically adding new assets (as long as they match the defined asset types) to the contract when they are added to jobs.
Note: Appliances are not compatible with contracts, and this step will not appear if your account is still using the "Appliances" system. Contact support to manually switch to the "Assets" system if required.
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 high-quality service, building trust and strengthening your business relationships.
- Enable SLA: Select Yes to include an SLA in your contract, then select the desired SLA template from the dropdown.
Only one SLA template can be selected for each contract.
4.2 PPM (Planned Preventative Maintenance)
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.
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PPM setup: Select Yes to set up your PPM details. Complete a row for each option you wish to provide, including relevant data for each PPM.
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PPM type: Choose whether the PPM applies to a property or asset. If Asset is selected, specify which asset groups the PPM will apply to.
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Job descriptions: Choose the job description to apply to the PPM jobs when they are created based on the schedule.
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Chargeable: Set how charges will apply for PPM jobs. Options include:
- No, FOC on completion
- Yes, labour and parts
- Yes, labour only
- Yes, parts only
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, while providing predictable revenue and efficient business operations.
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Service type: Choose the service reminder you want to use for the service jobs.
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Preferred date range: Select the months you prefer to carry out these service jobs (e.g., spring/summer for boiler services).
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Reminder/Job: Decide how the service should 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, who will need to get in touch to book the service job.
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Chargeable: Select how charges will apply for service jobs:
- No, FOC on completion
- Yes, labour and parts
- Yes, labour only
- Yes, parts only
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FOC reason: If FOC is selected, choose the FOC reason to apply when jobs are completed. This is disabled if another chargeable option is chosen.
Actions: Set reminder
- Communications need to be set up similarly to standard service reminders. Select the communication template for the first communication.
If you haven't created an email, SMS, or letter template, click Add new template to create one.
- Customers can book the service job online by including the [service_reminder_booking_portal_url] tag in the email or SMS for single-property communication.
If no templates are selected, system service reminder communications will be sent.
Follow-up communications: You can set additional communications to trigger after the first one, based on the delay set.
Actions: Set confirmation
A confirmation communication needs to be set up using an email or SMS template. Select the template from the dropdown list or create one by clicking Add new template.
If no templates are selected, no confirmation communication will be sent when a service job is created.
4.4 Call Outs and Breakdowns
Including call-outs and breakdowns in your contracts can limit the number of call-outs allowed to help manage costs and discourage unnecessary service calls.
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Allowances: Choose whether to base allowances on job descriptions or business units.
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Job descriptions: Select the job descriptions that will count towards the allowance. Set the maximum number of jobs allowed per contract period.
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Business units: Select the relevant business units and set the maximum number of jobs allowed per contract period.
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Step 5: Billable Rates
Billable rates ensure you charge the correct rate and reduce billing errors for your contracts, allowing you to segment pricing for enhanced billing control.
5.1 Labour
Segmented labour pricing lets you apply different rates for the same service under different circumstances, such as based on priority or business unit.
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Hourly rate: Specify the hourly rate the customer pays. This rate can vary depending on overtime, weekends, or public holidays.
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Continue without segments: Apply the labour rates you set here to all contract jobs, regardless of job properties.
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Add segmentation: Segment the rates based on:
- Job description
- Job priority
- Business unit
- User group
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Days applicable: Choose the days of the week this rate applies to (e.g., weekends or weekdays).
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Time range: Set the times the rate applies (e.g., 9 AM - 5 PM).
5.2 Pricing Items
These items cover non-physical charges that need to be applied, such as a call-out fee or congestion charge.
All pricing items configured in your system will be displayed for you to adjust contract prices accordingly.
5.3 Parts
You can set contract prices for parts using markups, which can be segmented by categories or individual parts.
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Categories: Industries, Categories, and Subcategories in your system will be displayed. Each record can have a markup percentage applied to the base price of parts.
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Individual parts: Expand the form to set specific markups for individual parts by searching for the part and entering the contract markup.
The markup supersedes in the following order:
- Individual parts
- Subcategory
- Category
- Industries
Markups are not required for contract templates. If not configured, system default markups will be used.
Step 6: Invoicing
Configure the invoice and payment options for the contract. You can establish invoicing preferences and decide how to handle invoice distribution and payment collection.
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Invoice settings:
- Email the invoice: Automatically email the invoice upon creation.
- Don’t email the invoice: The invoice will need to be emailed manually or printed.
- Mark as sent: The invoice will be marked as sent, allowing for automatic payment collection without ever sending the email.
A customised invoice email template should be set up, using the [invoice_description] tag.
Step 7: Communications
External communications, including Emails, SMS, and Letters, keep customers informed about their contracts, upcoming services, invoices, and payment details.
➡️ Add communication > Choose the communication template from the dropdown or create a new one > Save
Set communications for contract activation, renewal, or payment notifications, including GoCardless confirmation for mandate setup.
Activate Contract Template
Once all steps are complete, review your contract template and click Activate.
➡️ Save > Type "Activate" in the box > Activate
➡️ Save > Save as draft
Edit Contract Template
➡️ Profile icon > Settings > Contracts > Contract templates > View > Edit
- If the contract is still in draft, all steps can be edited.
- Once active, only certain sections can be edited. For example, Contract type cannot be changed.
Archive Contract Template
If the contract has been applied to customers, it cannot be deleted and must be archived.
➡️ Profile icon > Settings > Contracts > Contract templates > Archive > Type "Archive" > Archive
Delete Contract Template
If the template has not been applied to any customers, it can still be deleted.
➡️ Profile icon > Settings > Contracts > Contract templates > Delete > Type "Delete" > Delete