Skip to content

Agreement fee billing

Pro and Enterprise feature

Service agreements are available on the Pro and Enterprise plans. On Pro, an agreement covers a customer or one of their sites, with labor-only or inspection-only coverage, and its fee can be billed. Agreements tied to individual equipment and coverage that includes parts need the Enterprise plan, because they build on asset management and inventory. Compare plans to find the right fit for your business.

An agreement usually costs the customer something — a monthly membership, an annual maintenance fee, or nothing at all because it was folded into a larger deal. FSM Navigator® records what it costs and how that fee is handled, separately from the jobs the agreement covers.

Recording the fee

Monthly fee and Annual fee are both on the agreement form, and both are optional. Fill in whichever matches how the agreement was sold. They are stored encrypted.

The fee is a record of the arrangement. It is not charged to a job, and it does not change what a covered job is billed — that is coverage, which is a different question.

Agreement fee billing

Agreement Fee Billing on the agreement form says where the fee is collected. Each choice shows a one-line description under the list so you can see what it means before you save:

Choice Meaning What the customer sees in their portal
Billed by FSM Navigator An invoice is issued on the schedule you set, and your customer can view and pay it in the customer portal Invoices for this agreement appear under Invoices
Billed outside FSM Navigator The customer pays you directly — cheque, bank transfer, or your own accounting system. No agreement invoice is issued here Billed directly by your service provider, outside this portal
Included at no charge The agreement has no separate fee. Leave both fee fields empty No separate charge for this agreement

Included at no charge is the default, which is right for the common case: the agreement governs coverage and response, and whatever the customer pays for it was handled somewhere else.

Coverage works the same in every mode

Where the fee is collected has nothing to do with whether the agreement covers a job. An externally-billed agreement still waives exactly what its tick list says it waives. The two are separate settings on purpose.

Choosing Billed by FSM Navigator

  1. Open Service Contracts from the side menu and click Add Contract, or click Edit on an agreement's row.
  2. Enter the Monthly Fee or Annual Fee. An agreement billed through FSM Navigator must carry a fee, and the form tells you if it is missing.
  3. Choose Billed by FSM Navigator in Agreement Fee Billing and click Save Contract.
  4. The Agreement Billing window opens straight away. Pick the billing cadence and when the first period starts, then click Create billing schedule.

The agreement becomes Billed by FSM Navigator the moment the schedule is created. If you close the billing window without creating a schedule, the agreement is kept as Billed outside FSM Navigator and nothing is invoiced. Click Billing on its row whenever you are ready to finish the setup. See recurring billing schedules for every schedule option.

Changing an agreement that has a schedule

While an agreement has a billing schedule, Agreement Fee Billing shows Billed by FSM Navigator and cannot be changed on the form, because the schedule decides how the fee is billed. Remove the schedule from the Billing button first if you want to bill it another way.

Which mode to choose

  • You want FSM Navigator to invoice the fee on a monthly or annual cycle and let the customer pay online → Billed by FSM Navigator.
  • They pay it on a standing order, by cheque, or through your accountant → Billed outside FSM Navigator. Saying so explicitly means their portal tells them where to look instead of leaving them wondering why no invoice appeared.
  • The agreement is complimentary, bundled into a larger deal, or you bill it job by job → Included at no charge.