Guaranteed Maintenance Overview

Guaranteed Maintenance

Overview

Certain dealers offer Guaranteed Maintenance contracts to customers. Softbase tracks all income and maintenance for each unit on a per-customer and per-unit basis. This guide outlines how to configure your software to manage these contracts effectively:

Monthly Invoicing: Automatically invoice the customer monthly for the contract amount per unit.

Internal Invoicing: For service work covered under the contract, internally invoice the service department, billing to a designated expense account associated with guaranteed maintenance.

Non-Contract Service Work: Invoice the customer separately for service work not covered by the guaranteed maintenance contract, using standard service billing procedures.

Reporting: Generate reports showing units on Guaranteed Maintenance, with an overview of income and maintenance over a specified period.

Equipment Setup

• Open the Equipment record
• Ensure the unit is marked as "Customer Owned."
• Check the "Guaranteed Maintenance" box under the GM tab
• Start Date: Enter the contract start date.
• Number of Billing Periods: Specify the total number of billings (e.g., 36 for a 3-year contract).
• Periods Billed: Enter the number of billings that have occurred. The system will assist in invoicing for any remaining periods.
• Last Income Invoice #: Leave this field blank.
• Hours Allowed and OT Rate Per Hour: These fields provide informational data.
• Note: When a work order is created for this unit, a notification will appear.

Sale Code Setup

Maintenance Sale Code

• Navigate to Settings > Administration > Sale Codes
• Set up a sale code for each department that invoices maintenance on Guaranteed Maintenance units (e.g., Road, Shop, PM, Rental).
• Labor Rate Override: If maintenance is sold at a higher internal labor rate, adjust the "Labor Rate Override" to the specific rate for Guaranteed Maintenance.
• Enter the Revenue and Cost Accounts for Parts, Labor, Rental, and Miscellaneous.
• Check the "Guaranteed Maintenance" box but do not select "Customer Sale," as this is for internal billing. Optionally, set an automatic expense code for easier service order processing.

Customer Monthly Billing Sale Code

• Create a sale code for the department responsible for billing Guaranteed Maintenance to the customer.
• Enter the Revenue Account and provide a description for the Miscellaneous Line.
• Check both the "Guaranteed Maintenance" and "Customer Sale" boxes.

Expense Code Setup

• Navigate to Settings > Administration > Expense Codes
• Create an Expense Code for the cost of Guaranteed Maintenance sales. This account should offset the Revenue Account used for customer billing.
• Use a meaningful name for the code to simplify identification by employees handling invoices.

Internal Invoicing

Create Monthly Sales Order:

• Use the designated department to bill the customer for the monthly Guaranteed Maintenance contract.
  
• Under the Misc tab, add the equipment record to the work order.
• Enter a description for the customer to see.
• Select the appropriate Sale Code for Guaranteed Maintenance billing.
• Enter the monthly amount.
• Additional Details:
  
  • Click the "Additional Details" button and select the GM equipment record to be billed.
  • Choose the equipment from the GM Serial # dropdown (will list GM units owned by Ship To customer) and click "Add" to include it in the order.
• Multiple Units:
  
  • Repeat the above steps to add multiple equipment records to the same document.
• If the Reoccurring Document checkbox is set under the Add'l Info tab of the sales document, a new document will be created for subsequent billing periods, updating the Number of Periods Billed for each unit.

Create GM Service Order:

• Use the internal Guaranteed Maintenance sale code for the service department.
• If an automatic expense code is set, it will populate; otherwise, manually select the appropriate department and expense code.
• Set the "Bill To Customer" as your internal customer account for billing purposes.
• Set the "Ship To Customer" as the customer account where service is performed.
• Add the unit to service on the Service 1 tab of the work order. 
• Add any necessary details and invoice. 

Reports

Utilize the Guaranteed Maintenance Reports (or GM reports) to obtain a comprehensive overview of all units under Guaranteed Maintenance.