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| Information | Example |
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| Schedule detail, however, is not created unless the task will be completed in the new contract period, as in Example 1 to the right. | Example 1:
If the contract is renewed for 01/01/09 to 12/31/11, the next task will not fall within the new contract term, and a new task schedule will not be created. The task header, however, is created using the last schedule date of 01/01/07. If the contract is renewed for 01/01/12 to 12/31/13, the task will fall within the new contract term, so the new task schedule will be created with the task schedule date set to 01/01/13. |
| As shown in Example 2 (right), if you skip a period of time between the end of the old contract and the beginning of the renewed contract, and a task would have been scheduled during that gap of time, the task will instead be created in the first available period of the new contract, based on the Service Call Day. | Example 2:
If the contract is renewed for 02/01/09 to 01/31/11, the system will calculate the next schedule date as 01/01/07 plus two years, or 01/01/09. Because this date does not fall within the new contract period, the system will reset the task schedule date to 02/01/09, which is the first available service call date in the contract period. When a contract is renewed, if a task has a frequency of Monthly or greater and the Use Relative Scheduling check box checkbox is marked, the tasks for the new contract will be created for the same relative day of the month as the current contract at the time of renewal. If a task has a frequency of less than Monthly, the tasks for the new contract will be scheduled based on the Contract Start Date, Service Call Day, and schedule. |
| The contract task schedule dates are preserved for the new contract period if the contract that is being renewed has new dates that are the same month and day for both the start date and expiration dates. | Example 3: Contract 2020 with Start Date 01/01/2020 and Expiration Date of 12/31/2020 is being renewed. If the Start Date 01/01/2021 and Expiration Date of 12/31/2021 are entered for the new contract, then the contract task schedule dates remain the same in the new contract period. When the dates differ from the contract being closed to the new contract date, you must verify your tasks and task schedule dates upon renewal as they cannot be preserved in all scenarios. |
When a contract with an attached billing note is renewed, the master billing note is copied to the new contract. Edits to billing notes on individual invoices will not be copied to the new contract. |
Renewing an individual contract
- Choose Select Cards > Service Management > Service Manager.
- Select a customer, and choose select the Contract indicator.
- If you want to review estimate costs before renewing the contract, choose 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.
- Choose Select OK and Save to return to the Maintenance Contract window.
- If you do not intend to close the contract upon renewal, mark the Leave Contract Open check box 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.
- Choose Select Renew.
- Address all warnings.
- 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.
- 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 choose select Service History button in the Maintenance Contract window to access the open calls.
- 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.
- Complete the following fields, as necessary:
- Leave Open
Mark this check box checkbox if you want to leave the contract open upon renewal. This option defaults if you marked the Leave Contract Open check box checkbox in the Maintenance Contract window. - Close Date
If you marked the Leave Open check boxcheckbox, this field is cleared and disabled. If you marked the Maintain Contract History check box 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. Choose 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 check box checkbox during maintenance options setup, the Automatically Bill check box checkbox defaults as marked for the maintenance contract. Your option from the Maintenance Contract window - either unmarking the check box checkbox or leaving it as marked - defaults here. You may choose 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 choose 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 check box 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.
- Leave Open
- When you are ready to renew the contract for the new date range, choose select Save. If you marked the Leave Open check box 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 check box checkbox is marked in the Maintenance Options window, sends its information to history.
- If you are using the percentage-of-completion revenue recognition method, you must run the post renewal process.
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When you renew a contract with the mass renewal feature, the start and end dates are advanced, a new billing and revenue recognition schedule are created, and the maintenance tasks are reset. Closing the contract moves billing schedule, revenue recognition, and contract information to history; however, you can also choose select to leave a contract open during mass renewal.
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- Creates a new task schedule from the last scheduled date, if the newly calculated schedule date is within the new contract period. If the new starting schedule date does not fall after the contract start date of the new period, the new schedule start date will be reset to the first available service call date in the new contract period. This allows all tasks to be scheduled properly across contract renewal periods.
- Uses the new task frequencies to create new task schedules for any piece of equipment that has a task or task list.
Mass renewing contracts
- Choose Select Microsoft Dynamics GP > Tools > Routines > Service Management > Maintenance Contract > Mass Renewal.
- Specify the following criteria:
- Contract Expiration Date Range
Enter a date range that includes the expiration dates of the maintenance contracts you wish to renew. For instance, you may want to renew contracts one month at a time. - Renew Contracts with Open Service Calls
If you mark this check boxcheckbox, maintenance contracts with open service calls will appear in the scrolling window. If you do not mark this check boxcheckbox, processing may take longer.: - Customer Range
Enter a range if you wish to limit the contracts by customer.
- Contract Expiration Date Range
- Choose Select Preview to view the maintenance contracts that meet your criteria. On the list that appears in the scrolling window, you can zoom on the Contract No. to view the contract. You do not need to worry about renewing a contract twice; contracts that have already been renewed, even if they were left open, will not appear on the list. Use the show/hide detail button to view contract information:
- Contracts that have the Automatic Renew check box checkbox marked will be renewed after you choose select Commit.
- Only contracts that are less than 365 days will be renewed.
- If a customer is on hold or the contract is on hold or canceled, the contract will not be renewed.
If you do not wish for a contract to be closed automatically by the mass renewal process, mark the Leave Open check box checkbox. You can also Mark All or Unmark All. See Leaving a contract open for more information.
Note If you have two contracts expiring at the same time but only wish to renew one of them, you must mark the Hold check box checkbox of the one not to be renewed. After running the commit process, unmark the Hold check boxcheckbox.
- Choose Select Print to print the Contract Mass Renewal report. The report indicates if each contract will be successfully renewed.
- With the maintenance contracts that you wish to renew present in the scrolling window, choose select Commit. The commit process advances the start and end dates of the contract, creates a new billing and revenue recognition schedule, and removes the existing service call IDs from the maintenance tasks covered by the contract. It also moves the billing schedule, revenue recognition, and contract information to history for any contract that will be closed by the renewal process.
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The lookup window also opens automatically when you manually enter a Contract Number, and the contract is open multiple times. This allows you to view both open contracts and select the correct contract based on the start and end dates.
In addition, when a contract is open multiple times, the contract that is being held open is indicated with an "Expiring" marker. On the Maintenance Contract or Master Contract window, this marker is located next to the Expiration Date field. When viewing the expiring contract on the Maintenance Contract window, the Renew button is disabled.
When viewing the renewed contract on the Maintenance Contract window, the Close button is disabled if the old contract is still being held open. You cannot close a renewed contract until the previous contract is closed.
About closing
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an expired contract that
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has been renewed
Run the contract close process when you are finished with a contract that was left open when it was renewed. The contract should be entirely billed and recognized for revenue. The contract close process determines if the contract is open for multiple date ranges; if so, the previous year amounts and total to date amounts are updated to keep the contract amounts accurate.
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When this expired contract is finally closed, the contract close process will look for the next future contract sequence number and will update the Contract Life-to-date on that contract, accordingly. Since the contract number can remain the same when the contract is renewed, the contract sequence number is incremented by 1. This allows us to uniquely identify each contract, and allows us to calculate the next future contract sequence number to evaluate for update purposes.
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Run the Reconcile process on the new contract when the original contract is closed so that any trailing costs from the expired contract are correctly updated to the newer contract's totals to date. The Reconcile process is available in the Revenue/Costs window off the Contract Maintenance window. |
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Posting renewals makes the appropriate general ledger accounting entry to transfer all current year costs to total-to-date costs and recognize revenue for the current fiscal year on the profit and loss statement. A POST RENEWALS batch is created in General Ledger.
- Choose Select Microsoft Dynamics GP > Tools > Routines > Service Management > Maintenance Contract > Post Renewals. The Post Renewals window lists the number of maintenance contracts you have renewed or closed for a given period and year.
- Choose Select Print Edit List.
- Choose Select Post to post the renewals for the year.
| Note |
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| If you try to post to a closed period, you receive a message. Choose Select OK. You are then asked if you would like to reassign the transaction(s) to another year/period. Choose Select Reassign to open the Reassign Posting window. Select a period and choose select OK to reassign the transaction(s) to an open year/period. |