The service contract is also a reference point to access other functions.
The Index value history can only be accessed from the service contract management. This history is used to record all the successive values of an index. Contract revaluations are based on these values. This file must be updated regularly.
The manual renewal of contracts where renewal is not planned can be carried out either from the workbench or from the service contract management. This additional functionality is used to make sure that the successive renewal history of a contract has been updated automatically.
Refer to documentation Implementation
Six sections are available to define a service contract. The fields you can enter depend on your selected service contract.
Fields
The following fields are present on this tab :
| This field contains the company code that manages the contract. |
| This field contains the site code which carries out the contract management. |
| This field is associated to an automatic sequence number by default. As this counter is automatic, you should not need to check the content of this field. By default, the service contract number is defined on 15 characters. |
| This field contains the customer code who is in receipt of the contract. |
| Enter the currency to be applied to all the financial fields in a service contract. This currency is also used to evaluate the minimum and maximum thresholds of services in a product coverage. |
| This field contains the name of the contact with whom the different contract negotiations are carried out. |
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Fields
The following fields are present on this tab :
Block number 1
| Use this field to enter text that will help identify and understand the main characteristics of the contract. |
Statistical groups
Use these fields to enter the statistics group codes for the service contracts. Codes can be selected and initialized from the service contract template. You can define up to 5 statistical groups. The number of groups and their names can be set up when installing the application. These groups are used in statistical processes and as selection criteria in many programs. |
Contract category
| This field is essential to determine the functional category of the service contract:
This triggers various processes: the points management rule, the contract revaluation, the invoicing, etc. |
Coverage
| This check box sets the access to the skill coverage table.
In this function, you enter the level of the covered skills group. This means that when a skills group is entered, all its subgroups are considered in the contract. When the check box is cleared and no skills group is defined, the contract can be considered as useless as no customer issue can be supported by this contract. |
| This check box sets the access to the installed base coverage management. It does not apply to contracts with points.
These coverages can be limited by components, consumed parts, labor, or assignment expenses. |
| This check box is only used on warranty and maintenance contracts with a coverage According to base (not All the base). It is used to automate the definition of combined coverages (Installed base + Skill) for all coverages set According to base. If this check box is selected, the creation, modification or deletion of this type of coverage will immediately apply to the associated cross-referenced coverages. |
Signatures
| This field contains the code for the sales representative that has signed either the maintenance contract order or the product order covered by a warranty contract. |
Source
| A service contract can be created manually or via the entry of a sales movement. The different possible origins are :
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| The Document no. and Line fields identify the line number in the document used to create the service contract. These fields are loaded automatically. |
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| Use this field to facilitate the manual entry of a contract: enter or select a template used to define the main characteristics of the contract. You can only use a template compliant with the category of the service contract being created. |
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Fields
The following fields are present on this tab :
Management
| This field contains the subscription date of the contract. It is only entered once. |
| This field indicates the contract duration.
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| This field contains either a date that is identical to the subscription date (throughout the first period) or the date of the last renewal. |
| This date indicates either the date on which the contract will automatically be renewed where there is tacit renewal agreement or the date from which the contract will no longer be valid. |
| This field specifics whether the contract will be subject to an automatic renewal at the end of its term. Essentially this signifies that there will be no gap in the invoicing chain that will continue to be executed at the desired frequency. It is the invoicing that takes into account the contract renewal. If this is not the case, the contract will be the object of a renegotiation and a manual renewal in the function provided for this Several tools can be used to identify the non-renewable contracts:
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| This field does not apply to warranty contracts. It displays the price of a contract with points. Contract with points are indeed subject to an overall and single invoicing process. This field displays the basis used to calculate billable scheduled invoices from maintenance contracts. |
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| This field concerns only contracts with points. You use it to enter the total number of points awarded to the customer for this contract. |
Revaluation
| Enter the renewal frequency of the contract annual royalty basis. The automatic revaluation can also be done based on the evolution of a chosen index. |
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| Specify a contract revaluation method. Maintenance contracts can be revaluated in two ways:
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| This field specifies which type of revaluation is used on the service contract. Two options are available:
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| This field is only accessible if the Evolution of an index revaluation has been selected. You use it to enter index to be used at each contract revaluation. A revaluation is done by comparing the index value used during the last revaluation and the last value saved in the system for this index. |
| This field indicates what is the index value used at the time of the last contract re-evaluation. The Date field indicates the date for the index value. |
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| This field can only be accessed if the Mathematical formula revaluation has been selected. Enter the formula code, selected from the 427 - Revaluation formulas miscellaneous table. |
| This field displays the date when the contract has been revaluated for the last time. |
Termination
| Depending on your activity sector, this field can have the following meanings:
In both cases, the termination has to be done manually from the contract record. |
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| This field only applies to contracts with points. In this process, contracts can be fully "consumed" based on a ranking system with points and a tolerance threshold. As the rules for consuming these points can be quite complex, it is usually unlikely to fully consume all the points awarded for a given contract. For example, a contract has a 100 points and a consumption rule for 30 points by service request with a tolerance threshold of 10%. The fourth service request from this customer leads to issuing a quote for subscribing to a new service contract. However, in the meantime, the customer still has a contract with 10 points. If this contract had been assigned a 20% tolerance, this fourth request would have followed the standard process and the contract would have been closed automatically once the service request had been processed. |
Presentation
The information in this section:
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Fields
The following fields are present on this tab :
Invoicing
| This field indicates the frequency on which the customer will receive the invoices related to the receipt of services covered by their contract. It is also used to determine what fraction of the annual royalty must be allocated to the invoice. | ||
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| Use this field to enter the method used for invoicing the service contract.
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| When open items are collected several times a year, an increase or increase is often applied. You use this field is to define how important this increase or decrease is. | ||
| Use this field to define the notice from which a contract open item to be invoiced will be available in the invoicing tools. From this moment, the invoice will be generated and sent to the customer. The notice represents the number of days that precede the term for an invoicing open item. | ||
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| Use this field to enter the payment terms defined for paying the contract open items. |
Grid Litigations
| Use this field to enter the dispute codes used to log customer issues when a payment is made after the contract due dates. Example: A customer payment is two month late after the contract due date. This customer has also reported a dispute with their supplier. When the customer calls customer support to solve an hardware issue for example, they will get assistance if the dispute code is already listed on their maintenance contract. |
Grid Analytical dimensions
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| You can enter analytical dimensions for each dimension type defined in the folder. |
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Fields
The following fields are present on this tab :
BPs
| Code of the bill-to customer. By default, the bill-to customer code defined on the service contract header is displayed. |
| Code of the pay-by customer. By default, the pay-by customer code defined on the service contract header is displayed. |
| Code of the group customer. By default, the group customer code defined on the service contract header is displayed. |
| Use this field to enter the project code used to subscribe to the service contract, if applicable. |
Valuation
| Use this field to enter the exchange rate type used to invoice the contract. If no exchange rate type is specified, the first value in local menu 202, Daily exchange rate, is used by default. |
| This field is essential if the service contract is subject to invoicing. You use it to enter the product code that will be displayed on the invoice line for the selected scheduled invoice of the service contract. By default, this field displays the value defined on the service contract template or, if no value is defined, the value of the DEFCONITM - Default contract product parameter (HDK chapter, COT group). |
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| This field displays the sales unit of the invoicing product. |
| A tax rule represents the tax territoriality principle, in other words, the calculation rules to be applied to determine the tax amount. |
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Grid Invoicing elements
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| The values relate to the invoicing footer. This information can directly come from the parameters of the invoice footer or from the customer record. |
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| Enter the code to use in order to override the default SST tax code from the product or invoice element. This tax code is recognized by Sage Sales Tax and is used to identify line types for tax purposes. This field is available only if the LTA - Local taxing activity code is activated, and the USATAX - Tax system user parameter is set to Yes. For invoicing elements designated as the SST document discount for a company, you cannot remove the SST tax code value on the document. |
Points
| These fields are not available for entry.
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Presentation
Each invoice generated for a contract is displayed in the issued invoices table. Invoices are displayed in descending order by default: the last issued invoice is displayed on the first table line.
Click on an invoice line to display the open items and payments related to the selected invoice in the corresponding tables.
This table displays the list of generated open items for an invoice. The number of generated open items depends on the payment terms of the contract.
Open items are sorted in the order in which payments are expected to be collected.
Use the Dispute column to record any disputes reported by the customer.
This table displays the list of payments received for an invoice. You use it to quickly check if the open items have been paid.
Use the Open item no. column to group the payments by open item.
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Fields
The following fields are present on this tab :
Block number 1
| This field displays the date on which the next invoice will be issued. |
| This field displays the date from which the scheduled invoice to be billed will be available in the service contract picking list in the Invoices function. This date is calculated based on the invoicing frequency and the invoice notice. It is calculated automatically when creating the contract in order entry. It is recalculated automatically each time an invoice is generated for the contract. |
| This field displays the excluding-tax amount of the next invoice provided that the contract has not yet been revaluated, or revaluated using the post-revaluation method. For a pre-revaluated contract, this field displays the amount of the first scheduled invoice only. The amounts of next invoices are not known. This amount is calculated based on the annual renewal and following parameters:
It is calculated automatically when creating the contract in order entry. It is recalculated automatically each time an invoice is generated for the contract. |
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Grid Invoices
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Grid Open items
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Grid Payments
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Action icon
Click this action to access the invoice record.
Click this action to access the payment details.
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Presentation
This table is automatically updated each time a service contract is revaluated. For example, if the contract needs to be revaluated while generating an invoice, the previous annual royalty basis, and dates of application, are kept in the history.
This table is updated automatically each time a service contract is renewed, manually or automatically.
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Fields
The following fields are present on this tab :
Grid Revaluations
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Grid Renewals
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Termination/Closing
| Select this check box terminate the contract. The termination of a contract leads to it disappearing from the invoicing chain and all the renewal tools. In the selection panel, the contract will be removed from the list of active contracts and moved to the list of terminated or closed contracts. |
| This field can only be accessed if the Terminated contract check box is selected. You use it to enter the reason why the customer requested a termination of their contract. |
| Select this check box to close the contract. The closing has the same consequences as a contract termination as far as invoicing and renewal go. However, the closing is usually due to an internal action within the organization rather than a request from a customer. In the selection panel, the contract will be removed from the list of active contracts and moved to the list of terminated or closed contracts. |
| This field indicates the user who closed the service contract. |
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| This field displays the current date when the Terminated contract or Closed contract check boxes are selected. You can also enter freely the actual contract termination date requested by the customer. |
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By default, the following reports are associated with this function :
CONTSERV : Service contracts
CONECHE1 : Contracts to renew
This can be changed using a different setup.
Click this action to generate the invoice linked to a maintenance service contract (Reminder: Only service contracts can be billed). The date of the next invoice can be today's date or the actual next invoice date based on how you have set up the DATREFCON - Service contract invoice date parameter (HDK chapter, INV group). |
To access this function, the All the base option must be cleared on the service contract. This option is not available on contracts with points.
You use it to identify what equipment on the customer's premises is covered by the contract.
The coverage for a warranty contract is comprehensive by default. However, you can limit this coverage by defining (including or excluding) components or financial rules to adjust the coverage of free services.
Three methods are available to identify the installed base and define the coverage:
For warranty contracts, a "+" sign on the base identification line indicates a partial coverage, which means that a financial coverage description is defined. In this context, the Financial coverage action is available from the Actions icon on the table line.
Each coverage type can be based on a different rule:
A financial coverage can cover:
The function is designed so that you can only enter exceptions, by excluding or including elements, while considering the minimum and maximum thresholds.
A good way to refine your coverage rules is to define a precise list of components. When the Exclude non-listed components option is selected, you can still include components. When the Include non-listed components option is selected, you can still exclude components.
You can use general parameters from the HDK chapter, COV group to define the default coverage type when no rules are set on the service contract.
Click this function to describe all the skills covered by the service contract. This can be a full coverage or partial coverage. The "+" sign before the coverage line signals that the coverage of the skill group is partial. When no "+" sign is displayed, the skill group is considered as covered in full.
Click Cross-reference with the installed base from a skill coverage line to create a cross-referenced coverage.
Each skill can be assigned a different financial coverage by clicking Financial coverage.
Click this function to renew the contract manually.
When opening the window, you are prompted to renew the contract either based on the end date of the current period or of the last active period. This means that the new suggested start date will correspond to the contract end date.
The new period is then displayed with an identical duration and annual royalty basis. You are free to adjust this information on the new period.
Click Current date to define the New start date and New end date: The current date will be used as the start date for the new period.
Click Renew to update all related fields on the contract. A line is added to the renewal history table.
There are two possible scenarios:
This option gives access, via a tunnel, to the Journal traceability inquiry function that makes it possible to view and browse the hierarchy of the entries originating the document or coming from it.
You cannot import service contracts in Sage X3.
In addition to the generic error messages, the following messages can appear during the entry :
This message is displayed when you enter the same skills group twice in the covered skills table.
This message is displayed when you enter the same dispute code more than once in the accepted dispute table.
This message is displayed when you confirm the creation of a service contract but the site is missing.
This message is displayed when you confirm the modification of a service contract but the site is missing.
This message is displayed when the Evolution of an index revaluation has been selected but the index is missing.