BMS Contracts | Fixed Price Milestones

Introduction

Fixed Price Milestones are milestones that are entitled to get a fixed amount for the work done. Fixed Price Milestones are used in fixed price contracts. A fixed price contract is a contract which charges a fixed amount for the work done; however, the contract is interspersed with milestones. Each milestone is entitled to a fixed amount. For example, assume there is a fixed price contract with three milestones - First Phase, Second Phase, and phase 3. The achievement of phase 1 is entitled to $100, achievement of phase 2 is entitled to $100, and achievement of phase 3 is entitled to $100. The total amount payable to the service provider according to the contract is $300. When each of the milestone entry is "posted," it becomes billable which means that you can raise an invoice for it. Once an invoice is generated for it, the amount becomes unchangeable. However, you can change some of the fields of the invoice in the pre-generation stage.

The fixed price contract goes through four stages from the time the contract is created until the time the invoice is sent to the customer. The four stages are explained below.

Stage 1: Creating a Fixed Price Contract 

1. Go to Finance > Contract.
2. Click New > Fixed Price.
   
   
3. In the Contract Information tab, enter the following:
   • Contract Name: Enter a name for the contract.
   • Account: Select the appropriate account from the dropdown.
   • Start Date: Select a start date from the calendar.
   • End Date: Select an end date from the calendar.
   • Reference Number: Enter a reference number of your choice.
   • Default Contract for Service Desk: If you select Yes, the contract will be auto-selected when you add a ticket or a project to this account since it is the default contract.
   • Accumulating Contract: The default selection is Yes. The option Yes allows you to add milestones with a collective amount even greater than the total contract billing price. The option No does not allow you to add milestones with amount greater than the total contract billing price.
   • Alter From Project: If you select Yes, you will be able to add milestones under Projects > particular project > Tasks tab > Add Task > Milestone when the project is linked to the particular contract.
4. Click Save. The contract is saved with the basic information and additional tabs open towards the bottom along with some additional buttons on the top of the page.
   
   
5. Click Activate (on the top of the page). The contract will get activated. Alternatively, you can click Activate after you have added milestones too.
6. In the Billing Information tab, you can add milestones.
7. Click Add. The Add/Edit dialog box opens.
   • Name: Enter a name for the milestone.
   • Type: Select a milestone type from the dropdown. To create a milestone type, go to Admin > Finance > Milestone page.
   • Amount: Enter the amount to be claimed from the client.
   • Due Date: Select the due date from the calendar.
   • Description: Enter a description for the milestones.
   • In the Exclusions tab, you can add excluded Roles and Work Types along with a Default Fallback Contract if you have one. For example, the time entries that you added to the main contract will be excluded and added to the fallback contract that you have added here.
     In the Attachments tab, you can attach any relevant documents.
8. Click Save. The milestone will be added to the grid under the Billing Information tab. You can add as many milestones as you want.
   
   
   
   
   

   Note: If you link a ticket to this contract and add time entries to that ticket, the contract amount will not change since this is a fixed price contract.

Stage 2: Billing Review

1. Go to Finance > Billing Review > Fixed Price Milestones.
2. Search for your milestones using the search criteria. The milestones will then appear in the grid below.
3. Select the relevant milestones and click Post.
   
   

Stage 3: Billing

1. Go to Finance > Billing page.
2. Search for your milestones using the search criteria. The milestones will then appear in the grid below.
3. Select the milestones for which you want to generate an invoice.
   
   
4. Click Generate Invoice. You will see a message that says an invoice has been generated for your selection. You can generate invoice by project or milestones. By default, the No option is selected for milestones. 

Stage 4: Generating and Sending an Invoice

1. Go to Finance > Invoices page.
2. Search for your invoice using the search criteria. The invoice will then appear in the grid below.
   
   
3. Click the Open/Edit button of the invoice that was generated earlier. At this point, the invoice is in pre-PDF or pre-generation stage, which means you can still edit some of the details of the invoice. Also, at this point, if you go to Finance > Contracts page and open your contract, you will see that each of the boxes under Billed and Posted columns are grayed out with tick marks. This means that they are now uneditable.
   
   
   
   • In the Invoice Information tab, you can edit Invoice Date, Due Date, select a Sales Representative from the dropdown, select a Tax Item from the dropdown, and add notes in the Notes section.
   • In the Billing Address tab, you can enter the billing address.
   • In the Invoice Details tab (in the bottom), you can edit Item Name, Quantity, Unit Price and Total Price for each milestone.
   • In the Invoice Discount tab, you can also add a discount for the invoice.
   • In the Attachments tab, you can upload (and even delete) any relevant attachments.
4. Once you have done your edits, click Save.
5. Click Generate. The Add/Edit dialog box for Invoice Template will appear.
6. Select a Template Type - Classic or Ad Hoc Reports.
7. Select a Template from the dropdown list.
8. Additionally, you can click Print Cover Letter and Print Receipts (Only Images).
9. Click Generate. You will see a message to this effect. You can click Preview on the top to see the final invoice in PDF. To send the invoice to the contact of the customer, click Send to Customer. To cancel the invoice, click Void Invoice. To flip the status of the invoice that it is already in accounting so as not to show up again to be exported to QuickBooks, click Set as Posted to Accounting. This is useful when some customers have created an invoice manually in QuickBooks and do not want to show it for export in BMS.