Contracts create regular Invoices to a Customer via a template of charges with variable inputs each Billing Period.

How to create a Contract in BMS

• Step 1: Create a Contract
• Step 2: Add Charges to the Contract
• Step 3: Assign Assets, thier charges and initial readings
• Step 4: Activate the Contract

Step 1: Create a Contract

• Within the Billing Application, search for and select the relevant Customer. The first Tab will list all the contracts that belong to the Customer. The Filter option allows you to filter specific contracts

• Click + New Contract. This will list all available Contract Profiles. Select the Profile you require. To add additional Contract Profiles, follow How to add Contract Profiles to BMS

• The New Contract form will open and will be prefilled with some details pertaining to the Contract Profile template. Continue to capture the relevant details

• Customer of: Select the Entity the Customer belongs to
• Billing entity: Select the Entity that will be Invoicing the Customer
• Division: Select the relevant Division. Additional divisions can be added under Admin > General Settings > tracking_category_1
• Location: Specify the location at the customer

Contract Details:

• Contract No: Specify a unique Contract Number. If left blank, BMS will auto assign a Contract Number
• Customer Ref: Provide a reference if required
• Deal No: Provide a Deal Number if required 
• Contract Type: Select the relevant Contract Type
• Billing Group: Select the required Billing Group
• Contract Profile: Select the relevant Contract Profile
• Consolidation Code: For all contracts that are required to be invoiced on a consolidated invoice, provide the same unique code on each contract. Otherwise leave blank
• Start Date: Specify the Start Date of the Contract
• No of Months: Specify the period of the contract by number of month. If entered, the Expiry Date field will be automatically captured
• Expiry Date: Specify the Expiry/End Date of the Contract. If entered, the No of Months field will be automatically captured
• Increase Frequency: Select the increase frequency, usually year or none

Billing Details:

• Finance Agent: Select the relevant Finance Agent if needed
• Service Agent: Select the default Service Agent if needed
• Billing Period: Select the Billing period that must run on this contract
• Recon Type: Select the relevant Recon Type. For more info, see: Billing - Contract Reconciliation
• Meters day: Specify the date of the earliest acceptable date for captured meters to be used for billing
• Billing day: Specify the date of billing which will automatically generate Billing transactions on this date
• Base in Advance: Select if any advanced billing is required
• Bill Usage for: Select if the billing should be run for the current month or the previous month

Invoice Settings:

• Send method: Select the method that invoices will be sent to Customers. Use Customer Default will use the Invoice Send Method specified on the Customer Profile. Email refers to emailing while Mail refers to printing out and physically mailing the invoices (shame)

• Once all required and relevant info has been captured, click Save Contract. The contract will now be created as a draft contract, listed under the Customer's Contracts Tab. Next step is to add Charges onto the contract

Step 2: Add Charges to the Contract

• Select the contract and click + New charge

• A list of Contract Charges will appear, select the one to be added. For an explanation of the different Contract Charge types and how to add additional ones, please see Understanding Contract Charges in BMS

• In this example, we will add a charge for the Black count on the MFP, by selecting the Black charge. The Black | Usage charge window appears

• Enter in the Black CPC rate in the Unit Price (ex Tax) field and click Save charge

• Add a Colour charge and capture the relevant rate

• Continue to add all required charges. Next step is to assign Assets to the contract

Step 3: Assign Assets, thier charges and initial readings

• Select the Assets tab and click Attach Assets to Contract and Select from Customer Assets

• Select the checkbox of the asset to be added to the contract. If the Asset is not listed, please see How to create an Asset in BMS

• Click + Attach Selected

• Confirm that the Reads Req? field is set to Yes. If not, double click the field and set to Yes and press Enter

• Select the Meters Tab and confirm that the Charge Type fields have been specified automatically. If not, double click each field and select the relevant charge for each meter

• Next, add in the Initial Reading for each meter and press enter respectively. This is either the start readings or the previous month's final reading that was last billed

Step 4: Activate the Contract

• Give all the contract details one last check to confirm all are correct and modify if needed
• If the contract has been captured correctly, select the menu and click Activate Contract.

• A popup message will ask you to confirm you want to activate the contract, click OK

• The contract will be activated and pending billings will be generated for upcoming months, as seen under the Billings Tab

• The contract and it status will be seen under the Customer > Contracts Tab

• Your contract is now created and awaiting the billing period to automatically generate a billing transaction, based on the charges and settings applied to the contract

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