Individual Contract Renewal

If you renew a contract without skipping any period of time (between the end of the old contract and the beginning of the new contract) during which a task would have been scheduled, the task header is created using the last schedule date.

When renewing a contract that has a task list with inactive tasks, only the active task codes will be assigned to the contract. This applies to maintenance contracts, master contracts, as well as mass renewing contracts. You can print a report before renewing by selecting Print > Contract Inactive Tasks that shows any inactive tasks or task lists on the contract(s). This report will automatically print after renewing if there are any inactive tasks or tasks lists that were not added to the new contract(s).  See Setting up Maintenance Task Codes and Task Lists.

If the Customer or Location is inactive, you will not be able to create or renew maintenance contracts.

To renew an individual contract: 

1. Select Cards > Service Management > Service Manager.
2. Select a customer, and select the Contract indicator.
3. If you want to review estimate costs before renewing the contract, select the Revenue / Cost button from the Maintenance Contract window. Use the expansion button next to any Estimate field to view the monthly breakdown of the estimate. If the new contract is the same length, and you enter the same total estimate cost, the monthly estimate costs that default for the new contract will be the same.
4. Select OK and Save to return to the Maintenance Contract window.
5. If you do not intend to close the contract upon renewal, mark the Leave Contract Open checkbox. This allows you to bypass the warnings you would receive if you were closing the contract. See Leaving a Contract Open for more information.
6. Select Renew.
7. Address all warnings.
8. You will receive a warning if you are using the percentage-of-completion revenue recognition method and there are no forecast costs assigned to the contract. You cannot proceed until forecast costs are entered.
9. You will receive a warning if there are open service calls associated with the contract. You can proceed if you intend to renew the contract without closing it; otherwise, renewing and closing the contract will transfer all open service calls and cost transactions to the renewed contract. You can also select Service History button in the Maintenance Contract window to access the open calls.
10. You will receive warnings if you have not created an invoice and recognized revenue for each period of the contract. Continue past the warnings by choosing Yes. You have the option of leaving the contract open until all billing and revenue information is posted; it is also acceptable to renew and close the contract without recognizing revenue for the final period if, for example, you are using the percentage-of-completion revenue recognition method. Once a maintenance contract is renewed, the prior year costs and billing information cannot be changed.
11. Complete the following fields, as necessary:
    • Leave Open
      Mark this checkbox if you want to leave the contract open upon renewal. This option defaults if you marked the Leave Contract Open checkbox in the Maintenance Contract window.
    • Close Date
      If you marked the Leave Open checkbox, this field is cleared and disabled. If you marked the Maintain Contract History checkbox in the Maintenance Options window, a close date is required when renewing and closing a contract.
    • Start Date, Expiration Date
      Enter dates for the new contract.
    • Amount
      Enter the amount of the new contract.
    • Division
      Fills automatically from the maintenance contract.
    • Billing Frequency
      Fills automatically from the maintenance contract. Each period's billing amount is calculated based on the selected frequency. If you change the frequency, you must redistribute the billing amounts in the Billing window. Select Custom if you plan to edit the billing amounts; the billing schedule is initially calculated monthly and can later be edited to reflect a non-conventional billing schedule on the Billing Schedule window.
    • Automatically Bill
      If you marked the Automatically Create Invoices checkbox during maintenance options setup, the Automatically Bill checkbox defaults as marked for the maintenance contract. Your option from the Maintenance Contract window - either unmarking the checkbox or leaving it as marked - defaults here. You may select not to automatically bill the new contract if the invoice needs individual attention, such as a billing adjustment.
    • Invoice Billing Day
      Fills automatically from the Maintenance Contract. You can select the exact day that customer invoices are created for each maintenance contract. The Invoice Billing Day field can contain a number between 1 and 28.
    • Service Call Day
      This field populates from the maintenance contract and contains a number between 1 and 28. This value is used to calculate the schedule for MCC calls. If a task has a frequency of Monthly or greater, and you are using the Relative Scheduling feature, the first MCC call is scheduled on the service call day, and subsequent MCC calls are scheduled based on the day and week of the first call. For example, if a contract created on the first day of January has a Service Call Day of 10, the first MCC call for a task with a frequency of Monthly is January 10. If January 10 is the second Monday of the month, MCC calls for that task will be scheduled on the second Monday of subsequent months. If a task has a frequency of Monthly or greater, and you are not using Relative Scheduling, the service call day is the day of the month that the MCC call for that task will be scheduled. If the task has a frequency of less than Monthly, the service call day is relative; for example, if a task has a frequency of 3 Weeks and a schedule of 1st Thursday After Service Call Day, the first MCC call would be on the first Thursday after the service call day; subsequent calls would be every three weeks on Thursday. The date that displays next to this field is the first available MCC call, calculated based on the contract start date and the service call day. This is not necessarily the first call, but the first possible date. The date of the first call is calculated based on the task schedules.
    • Bill at End of Month (EOM)
      Mark this checkbox if you want to bill the maintenance contract at the end of the month.
    • Estimated Costs
      The amounts you enter appear in the Estimate and Forecast columns of the new contract's Revenue/Costs window. Forecast costs are required for calculating revenue and closing contracts when using percentage-of-completion revenue recognition. The labor amount must be entered from the labor cost category in the new contract's Revenue/Costs window.
12. When you are ready to renew the contract for the new date range, select Save. If you marked the Leave Open checkbox, you receive a message reminding you that the existing contract is flagged as "left open." The renewed contract will then display. Otherwise, the renewal process closes the current contract and, if the Maintain Contract History checkbox is marked in the Maintenance Options window, sends its information to history.
13. If you are using the percentage-of-completion revenue recognition method, you must run the post renewal process.