This is the second session in the Autotask Essentials track. One of the most important steps in onboarding a new customer in Autotask is accurately representing their billing relationship in the Contracts module. When set up correctly, your Contracts help streamline and automate workflows from labor & services billing to configuration item reporting. The session will show you the building blocks of the most commonly used Contract types in Autotask and help you master this fundamental skill. Autotask features: Recurring Service Contracts - Block Hour Contracts - Contract Exclusions [Presenter: Bernd Muller, Autotask & Moderator: Melissa Hockenberry, Autotask]

1. Building a Strong Business Foundation
with Contracts
Bernd Müller
Sr. Implementation Manager
Autotask GmbH

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Bernd Müller
Sr. Implementation Manager
Autotask GmbH
German, married, 3 kids
Lived and worked in Australia for over 6 years
With Autotask for over 1 year, based in Germany
Over 20 years of IT Industry Experience, mostly as IT Manager
Certified ITIL v3 Expert
Certified Prince2 Practitioner
Certified Solution Consultant SAP Netweaver 2004s BI/BW
Certified XAL Programmer (Damgaard Axapta now MS Dynamix AX)
Former KHK Programmer (now Sage)

4. Agenda
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Brief overview of the different contracts available in Autotask
Overview Recurring Service Contract
Walk through the creation of a Recurring Service Contract
Overview Block Hour Contract
Walk through the creation of a Block Hour Contract
Overview and Set up of Exclusions
Run through scenario how this set up works

5. What is a contract and why use them?
 A billing arrangement that modifies the standard role
rates, the billing method, or both.
 Help streamline and automate workflows from labour &
services billing.
 Accurately represent your billing relationship in the
Contracts module.

6. What types of Contracts are there?
Recurring
Service
Time and
Materials
Fixed Price
Block Hour
Retainer
Services
Labour
Milestones
Blocks
Purchases
Desktop
Monitoring
Technician
= €90/hour
Initial
Payment
2 Hours
per
month
€1000 per
month
Per Ticket
Tickets
10 Tickets
per year

7. Scenario:
 You want to charge your customer for monthly services like
remote desktop monitoring and software updates.
 As part of your arrangement with your customer you include 2
hours of Remote work per month for free to maintain their
network.
 Only Maintenance work on provided services should be covered
and booked on Recurring Service contract, all other work should
be covered with a Block Hour contract
 Any additional Onsite or Emergency work should NOT be
covered in your agreement.
 You need to send a field technician to the customer site for
Onsite work, which should NOT be covered under your contract
agreement.

8. Scenario:
 You want to charge your customer for monthly services like
remote desktop monitoring and software updates.
 Autotask: Create Recurring Service contract with these services

9. When should you use a Recurring Service Contract?
 Billing fixed amount for services and service bundles at a
regular frequency
 Need to adjust billed units of supported assets (CIs) on a
customer site based on fluctuating number of assets (CIs)
 Recurring Service Contracts are ideal for Managed Services
arrangements
Example:
 Billing for third-party monitoring and maintaining of
computers, networks and software
Goto Autotask

10. Scenario:
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 As part of your arrangement with your customer you include
2 hours of Remote work per month for free to maintain their
network.
 Autotask: Create a Block Hour contract with a monthly 2 hours
block at a zero rate

11. When should you use a Block Hour Contract?
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Customer wants to pre-pay for specific hours per month
Reduce pre-paid hours for billable work that is performed
Override standard rates to apply a discounted rate to the client
Apply rate factors to accommodate for increased or decreased
reduction of hours
 Bill your customers for work performed beyond prepaid hours
Goto Autotask

12. Scenario:
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Only maintenance work on provided services should be covered and booked on Recurring
Service contract, all other work should be covered with a Block Hour contract
 Autotask: Set Recurring Service contract as the default service desk contract.
Exclude all Work Types except Maintenance from Recurring Service contract and point to
Block Hour contract for those.
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Any additional Onsite or Emergency work should not be covered in your agreement.
 Autotask: Exclude all Work Types except Remote from Block Hour contract
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You need to send a field technician to the customer site for Onsite work, which should NOT
be covered under your contract agreement.
 Autotask: Handled automatically based on defined contract exclusions
Goto Autotask

13. Recap Contract Exclusions
What is the function of a Contract Exclusion?
 Contract exclusions allow you to exclude one or more roles or
work types from the contract for non-covered work.
 For roles and/or work types that are excluded you can point to
another contract.

14. Scenario Recap
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You want to charge your customer for monthly services like remote desktop monitoring and
software updates.
 Autotask: Create Recurring Service contract with these services
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As part of your arrangement with your customer you include 2 hours of Remote work per
month for free to maintain their network.
 Autotask: Create a Block Hour contract with a monthly 2 hours block at a zero rate
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Only maintenance work on provided services should be covered and booked on Recurring
Service contract, all other work should be covered with a Block Hour contract
 Autotask: Set Recurring Service contract as the default service desk contract. Exclude all
Work Types except Maintenance from Recurring Service contract and point to Block Hour
contract for those.
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Any additional Onsite or Emergency work should not be covered in your agreement.
 Autotask: Exclude all Work Types except Remote from Block Hour contract
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You need to send a field technician to the customer site for Onsite work, which should NOT
be covered under your contract agreement.
 Autotask: Handled automatically based on defined contract exclusions

15. Scenario Flow
Time entry:
Onsite work
Default contract =
Recurring Service
Contract
Onsite
work
included
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Only Maintenance included
No
Block Hour
Contract
Onsite
work
included
?
Only remote included
No
Charge work per
Standard Role
Rate

16. Reports
Profitability reports for Recurring Service Contract
 Profit and Loss Detail by Contract (Contracts Module)
 Managed Service Client Profitability Detail (New LiveReports Designer)
 Managed Service Client Profitability Summary Report (New LiveReports
Designer)
 Managed Service Client Profitability Summary Report (Month to Date) (New
LiveReports Designer)
Block Contract reports
 Blocks report (Reports Module and Client Access Portal)
 Contract Opening/Ending Balance (Reports Module)
 Block Contract Balance (New LiveReports Designer)

17. Resources
 If you have questions or issues, you can get more
information:
Online Help
Community
Training videos / Webinars
Client Portal / Contact Support

18. Bernd Mueller
Sr. Implementation Manager