Contracts and invoicing

A contract is a customer's recurring agreement. Its type decides how it bills: a monthly fee with included hours, time and materials, prepaid blocks, a retainer, an incident pack, fixed price milestones, counted usage, or all-you-can-eat IT support priced per user. Each month the invoice run turns every contract in force into lines on the customer's invoice, and if you connect Xero or QuickBooks Online the issued invoices and their payments sync to your ledger.

Contracts are under Sales and billing > Contracts (in the Contracts group of the sidebar, with Renewals, Prepaid hours, Billable units and Price uplifts) and under Contracts and time on each customer's Commercial tab.

Contract types#

Tenvara has eight billing behaviours. The Contracts tab of Settings > Billing rules lists your contract types, each using one of them. Rename them, add your own with Add type, reorder them or switch them off; the first one switched on is the default for new contracts.

Templates#

Templates, under Add template on the same page, hold a type, prices, included hours or tickets, recurring items, work type rates, SLA, terms and billing rules, plus a numbering of their own (for example MSA-0001). A contract made from a template gets the next reference, shown beside the customer on the contract page.

Add a contract#

1. Press New contract on the contract list, or under Contracts and time on the customer's Commercial tab.
2. Choose the Customer, and a Template if you have one: it fills in everything else.
3. Choose the Type and enter the Name (it shows on the invoice, for example "Managed IT Gold").
4. Choose the Status: Draft while you agree it, Active once it is in force, Ended when it has finished.
5. Set Starts, and Ends if it has an end date. Leave Ends blank for a rolling contract.
6. Choose the Currency and Tax category.
7. Fill in the prices the type asks for: Monthly fee, Included hours and Overage rate for a managed service; Rate per hour for time and materials; Retainer each month; or Tickets included and Price per extra ticket for an incident pack. Turn on Prices include tax if you agreed prices with tax included.
8. Under Accounting export, add an Item code and Account code if this contract should not use the defaults.
9. Press Add contract.

More than one contract per customer#

A customer can have several contracts in force at once, each with its own fee, items, included hours, SLA and term: for example "Managed IT and backup" for the office and "Server care" for the servers. One of them is the customer's Default contract.

Tenvara picks the contract for each ticket and each piece of time in this order:

1. a contract chosen by hand on the ticket or the time entry;
2. the first contract whose rules match, in the Order among the rules (a rule can name ticket types, work types, device types, sites and a ticket custom field);
3. a contract limited to the site the work is for;
4. the customer's default contract.

Set a contract's rules on its page under What it covers. The ticket's side panel shows which contract covers it, with a picker when the customer has several. On the Contracts tab of Settings > Billing rules, An invoice per contract splits the invoice run so each contract gets its own invoice (and its own purchase order), for every customer or just some.

What a contract covers#

What it covers also says which work the fee and included hours pay for: ticket types, work types and device types (Covers all but or Covers only), plus catalogue items and expense categories. Work outside it is billable, uses no included or prepaid hours, and bills at the rate in force, at a chosen work type's rate, or on another of the customer's contracts. A ticket for uncovered work says Not covered by the contract before anyone starts, and the service agreement lists the exclusions in plain words.

All-you-can-eat IT support#

Most managed support is now sold per user per month with support included and projects extra. The All-you-can-eat IT support type and template do exactly that.

• Seat lines are priced per user, light user, device or server a month. Each follows a count: Microsoft 365 licensed users, users holding chosen licences (a licence set), active portal contacts, devices with an agent, servers, or a number set by hand, with an agreed minimum. The invoice reads, for example, "IT support, 37 users at £35.00, October 2026".
• Covered support is unlimited and never charged. Time is still logged, reviewed and reported. Work the contract does not cover (by default project work, out of hours and procurement) bills at the rate in force, and a technician can mark any entry as outside the contract.
• Fair use is a number of hours of covered support per user a month. Past it, the account manager is told once a period and the contract page shows a warning; nothing is charged. It is also a staff-only factor in the customer health score.
• The contract page shows this month's users, fee, covered support, the Effective rate (the fee per hour of covered support) and month-by-month figures. Reports > Finance > Unlimited support lists every such contract, past fair use first.
• The customer reads "Unlimited IT support for 37 users" on the portal's Services page, with who is counted.

Quote it with a catalogue item sold per user: accepted, it becomes a seat line on an all-you-can-eat contract. To move an existing managed service across, use Convert to all-you-can-eat on its page: from the date you choose, a new contract takes over with the same customer, terms and running items, and the old one keeps its months, time, invoices and history.

Note: The template is priced at nothing until you set your own price per user under Templates on the Contracts tab of Settings > Billing rules.

The contract page#

The contract page shows the month so far (Billable, Not billable, Over by and Overage) and the bar of included hours used. Below it:

• Recurring items: lines billed with the contract, from accepted quotes, licences or added with Add item. A line can be billed weekly, monthly, quarterly, every six months, annually, every two years, once per contract term, once on a date, or in Instalments (Contract line frequencies offered, on the Contracts tab of Settings > Billing rules, chooses which are offered).
• Rates by work type: what time costs beyond the included hours for each kind of work. Edit rates gives this contract its own price, rounding or minimum.
• Invoicing: the call-out charge for onsite visits (follow the rule in Settings > Billing rules, waive it, or charge an amount of its own) and the trading entity that invoices it.
• Milestones on a fixed price contract: add them, then Mark reached today to bill each one.
• Month by month, Rebilled expenses and Time on this contract. Only billable time counts against included hours, in the contract in force on the day it was worked.

Over by is every hour beyond the included hours, however it is paid for (the overage rate, a work type's own rate, prepaid hours). When billable time on the contract is not counted, a line under the summary and under each month says what and why, for example "Not counted: 2h of project work billed on its project". The reasons are time billed on its own project, time outside the contract's term, time written off, time waiting for approval or an approved timesheet, and work types shown at no charge. Time on this contract has an On the contract column that says Counted or gives the reason, so what is counted plus what is not always adds up to what is listed. The contract also says what an hour of support costs on it.

The side cards show the Terms and the Billing rules in force, with Own value switches to give this contract its own setting.

Items by hand, one-off charges and instalments#

Add item takes a typed item or one From the catalogue (at the customer's own price if they have one). Choose how it is Billed:

• Once: a one-off charge billed in its start month, such as a firewall set-up fee.
• Instalments: a Total split over monthly Instalments from the First instalment, the last taking the rounding, such as a laptop refresh paid over 12 months. Each invoice says "Instalment 3 of 12".

Change an item's quantity or price from a date and the months already billed keep their old values; lines billed in advance change from their next period. End item stops it on a date (a part month pro rata). Lines from quotes can be changed too; the quote stays as accepted.

History, amendments and renewals#

The History tab lists every change to the contract with who, when, where it came from and the old and new values: field changes, items added, changed and ended, amendments, renewals, uplifts and the agreement.

• Raise an amendment makes a quote of the fee and running items as they stand, from a date. Change it, send it, and once the customer accepts it the contract changes exactly as signed.
• Create renewal quote makes a quote for the next term at today's prices plus your renewal increase. Contracts that do not renew by themselves get one automatically a number of days before they end (60 by default, in Settings > Billing rules), for you to check and send. Accepted, the end date moves on and the new prices apply from the renewal date.
• The service agreement is signed the same way: Prepare for signature makes the agreement (cover, terms and the schedule of services, including what is not covered and the SLA targets) and sends it for an e-signature. Signed, the signed copy is kept on the contract's Documents tab and the contract records who signed and when. A proposal can carry the agreement so it is signed with the proposal; see Proposal pricing, signing and tracking.

Purchase orders#

A contract (and a project) can carry the customer's Purchase order number, with an optional value and expiry. The invoice's reference is its purchase orders, and a warning shows once invoices have used up most of the value (80% by default) or the order has expired. Turn on Purchase order required in a customer's billing settings to stop invoices being issued without one; accepting a quote then asks for it too.

Billing holds#

Hold billing on a customer, a contract, one contract item or a project keeps it off invoice runs while you wait for a purchase order, settle a dispute or renegotiate, with a reason and an optional last day. Unlike on stop, technicians keep working. Each run lists what it held under On hold; when the hold ends, the held months go on the next run (or you can release it without billing them).

Billing rules#

Set the defaults on the Contracts tab of Settings > Billing rules; any contract can override them.

• Unused included hours: Lost at the end of the period, Carried into the next period only, or Carried forward until they expire (after 1 to 24 months). Carried hours are used before the period's own, and the contract page and the customer portal show them.
• Prepaid blocks: Top up a used up block automatically, and A block can be used only once its invoice is paid.
• Bill the fee: In arrears, with the period's time, or In advance, for the next period.
• Billing periods: Calendar months (a part month is pro rata), or Months from the contract's start date (a contract from the 15th bills the 15th to the 14th; a whole period is never pro rata).

Caps: maximum per period#

On the contract form, Maximum per period caps Hours or an Amount each period, and When it is reached chooses:

The contract page shows Maximum this period with how much is used.

Terms and renewals#

The Terms card holds the minimum Term (0 months is rolling monthly), the Notice period, what happens At the end (renews automatically for a renewal term, or ends), who Reminders go to and whether to Remind the customer.

• Give notice works out the end date from the notice period and warns about distributor licence commitments that run past it. Withdraw notice undoes it.
• Renew now extends the current term straight away.
• Terms renew by themselves, or the contract ends, each night. Renewal reminders go out ahead of the end (90 and 30 days by default, in Settings > Billing rules).

Sales and billing > Renewals lists contracts ending in the next 30, 90 or 120 days or a year, with the last day for notice.

Supplier contracts on the customer's contract#

What you resell from a supplier (a broadband line, a phone service, licences bought elsewhere) is recorded as a supplier contract, under Sales and billing > Supplier contracts and on the customer's Commercial tab. Each one can bill on the customer's contract as a recurring line at its own frequency, at the sell price in force each day, with its circuit or line reference on the invoice line, and one-off charges bill once. See Supplier contracts.

Invoicing#

Contracts bill through invoice runs: each month's run puts every contract's fee, recurring items, overage, counted units and milestones on native invoices with gap-free numbers. Connect Xero or QuickBooks Online to post them and bring payments back. See Xero and QuickBooks.

If you prefer to keep invoicing in your accounting package, Export invoices on the contract list still builds a month's invoices as a CSV:

1. Press Export invoices and choose the Month.
2. Choose the Accounting package: Xero or QuickBooks Online.
3. Check the preview, then press Download for Xero (or Download for QuickBooks Online).
4. Import it: in Xero, Business > Invoices > Import; in QuickBooks Online, Settings > Import data > Invoices.

Export settings holds the Invoice number prefix, Payment terms and Sales account code the file uses, and the Xero tax rate or QuickBooks product and tax code for untaxed lines.

Warning: Use one route per month. If you issue invoices in Tenvara and post them to your ledger, do not import the CSV for the same month as well, or the customer is invoiced twice there.

Related#

• Billable units, prepaid hours and price uplifts
• Billing licences into contracts
• Supplier price changes and passing them on
• Logging time