Renewing a Service Contract
OBJECTIVE
Many service companies have their customers sign contracts for a period of one year or more for maintenance services or repairs to be performed at a given location.
Every year, these contracts must be renewed in maestro* to initiate the billing process for the contract, to reinitiate regular maintenance work, and to authorize new work related to these contracts, by allowing the maintenance and service calls to come in.
There are three methods for renewing contracts:
- Renewing a Service Contract Immediately, Using the Contract Management Option
- Preparing the Contract Renewal Using the Preparation of Renewals Option
- Using the Batch Renewal Option to Renew More than One Contract at a Time
PREREQUISITE
steps
Renewing a Service Contract Immediately, Using the Contract Management Option
| maestro* > Service Management > Service Management > Contract > Contract Management |
This is the most popular and most used method. It is available in all versions of maestro*. This method consists of displaying the contract on the screen in Contract Management and clicking the Renew a Contract icon.
This method can be used if one or more of the following situations occur:
- The contract is due in maestro*
- Only one contract needs to be renewed at a time
- The renewal must be effective immediately
Before renewing a contract, the user must ensure that all visits have been generated and, for deferred contracts, that revenue collected in advance has been transferred.
With this method, the process of renewing the contract should resemble the following:
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The process may differ depending on the context of your business. |
- Print a list of contracts based on a due date from the List of Contracts option.
maestro* > Service Management > Service Management > Contract Renewal > List of Contracts
- According to the contract list, access the Print Contract Forms option and print the form that contains the information in the contracts.
maestro* > Service Management > Service Management > Contract Renewal > Print Contract Forms At this stage, negotiations may be conducted with your customer to renew your contract.
This step can be omitted if the contractual agreements sent to customers are not printed by maestro*.
The form can be customized and is defined in Configuration in the Service Management module. The form is the same as that used for Contract Management.
- When you receive the signed agreement from your customer, renew the contract by using the Contract Management option and clicking the Renew Contract icon.
maestro* > Service Management > Service Management > Contract > Contract Management
Review the information in the contract and, for deferred revenue contracts, create the Revenue Collected.
For more information on renewing contracts using this method, refer to Contract Management help topic.
Preparing the Contract Renewal Using the Preparation of Renewals Option
| maestro* > Service Management > Service Management > Contract Renewal > Preparation of Renewals |
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This method is available in the 3.04 version of maestro* or higher. |
The Preparation of Renewals option is used to prepare the renewal of a contract using an existing contract that is still in force, without affecting it.
The user can make changes that will affect the next contract by changing the information in the contract, such as visit schedules, equipment, warranties, amounts to be invoiced, etc.
The contract renewal being prepared is saved in a temporary table and does not affect the current contract.
This method can be used if one or more of the following situations occur:
- The service contract is currently in effect.
- Changes must be made to the renewed contract without affecting the current contract.
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Since the current contract is not affected, this option should not be used if the changes must affect future maintenance calls on the current contract. |
With this method, the process of renewing the contract should resemble the following:
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The process may differ depending on the context of your business. |
- Print a list of contracts based on a due date from the List of Contracts option.
maestro* > Service Management > Service Management > Contract Renewal > List of Contracts
- In the Preparation of Renewals option, prepare the contract to be renewed by making the changes to the contract and creating the Revenue collected in advance for deferred revenue contracts.
maestro* > Service Management > Service Management > Contract Renewal > Preparation of Renewals
- In the Print Contract Forms option in the Contract Renewal section, print the details of the contract being prepared.
maestro* > Service Management > Service Management > Contract Renewal > Print Contract Forms At this stage, negotiations may be conducted with your customer to renew your contract.
This step can be omitted if the contractual agreements sent to customers are not printed by maestro*.
The form can be customized and is defined in Configuration in the Service Calls module. The form is the same as that used for Contract Management.
- The List of contracts in Preparation of Renewal displays the contracts that have been prepared using the Preparation of Renewals option and that are still being renewed.
maestro* > Service Management > Service Management > Contract Renewal > List of contracts in Preparation of Renewal
- When the current contract expires, the prepared contract can be converted into a real contract.
Two methods are available:
- One contract at a time by clicking the Transfer the preparation to the current contract icon in the Preparation of Renewals option.
OR
- Multiple contracts at a time using the Batch Renewal option.
maestro* > Service Management > Service Management > Contract Renewal > Batch Renewal
For more information on preparing for renewal, refer to Preparation of Renewals help topic.
Using the Batch Renewal Option to Renew More than One Contract at a Time
| maestro* > Service Management > Service Management > Contract Renewal > Batch Renewal |
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This method is available in the 3.04 version of maestro* or higher. |
This option is used to renew current contracts or for which renewal has already been prepared.
This method can be used if one or more of the following situations occur:
- Multiple contracts must be renewed at the same time
- Few changes are required in the renewed contracts
- The same contract start date and the same rate of increase applies to multiple contracts
With this method, the process of renewing the contract should resemble the following:
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The process may differ depending on the context of your business. |
For Current Contracts
- Print a list of contracts based on a due date from the List of Contracts option.
maestro* > Service Management > Service Management > Contract Renewal > List of Contracts
- Renew contracts in batches, using the Batch Renewal option, by selecting the contracts to be renewed and specifying the rate of increase.
maestro* > Service Management > Service Management > Contract Renewal > Batch Renewal
If changes are required in the contracts, complete step 3.
- If you renew in batches, the recently renewed contracts can be modified and are available in the Contract Management option.
If changes are required in the contract, the user must open the contract in Contract Management and make the necessary changes to the contract. This step must be repeated for each contract that requires changes.
maestro* > Service Management > Service Management > Contract > Contract Management
maestro* > Service Management > Service Management > Contract > Contract Management
For Contracts in Preparation
- Print a list of contracts based on a due date from the List of Contracts option.
maestro* > Service Management > Service Management > Contract Renewal > List of Contracts
- From the Batch Renewal option, select the contracts being prepared and click on the Transfer and Renew icon.
maestro* > Service Management > Service Management > Contract Renewal > Batch Renewal
At this stage, contracts from Preparation of Renewals are deleted from the temporary table and replace the contract with the same number in Contract Management.
For more information on renewing contracts using this method, refer to Batch Renewal help topic.
See also
