Re: [SL] Prepayment / Contract Services

[Mark B. <ma...@ga...>]

On Mon, Nov 06, 2006 at 10:12:04AM -0500, Steve Switzer wrote:
> Hello,
>    I currently use timecards / sales orders / invoices to track and bill
> for my time to a client. My client is now interested in going on a
> contact where they pay for 10 hour a week regardless of the time I spend
> there. However, it shoudl eventually balance out - I may spend 5 hours
> one week, 20 hours another week, 8 another, 2 another, 6 the next, etc.
>    What I need to happen is:
> 1) Automatic invoicing for 10 hours every week. (easily done with
> recurring transactions)
> 2) Tracking the balance of hours that they have paid for but not
> consumed
> 3) Have timecards deduct from the balance of hours they prepaid
> 4) Other jobs and product sales should not be intermingled with the
> hours. In other words, I don't want to track that they have $1000 worth
> of hours available, then sell them a $500 device to find that they have
> $50 worth of hours available... this should be completely separate.
> Also, I'd much rather track the available hours in *hours*, not
> *dollars*. :)
> 5) Ability to report on hours balance is a must.
> 
> Can anyone point out a way to do this with current features, or offer a
> quote for custom development?

First idea I had is to poke around to see if you can use parts for
this, becase I know you can maintain inventory.   That would give
you hours.

Thinking a bit more, it's probably much easier just to use a line
item on your chart of accounts.  If you get paid for ten hours,
but only work four, it seems like the value of that six hours
would be a liability.  This would track dollar value, not hours.

I would think your invoice to the customer should crebit a
liability account (as that 10 hours is what you owe them), then
the invoice for actual time should debit that account.  I _think_
you could set the Income Account field for two different
Service's (one for the invoice to the customer and one for the
actual hours) to get what you want here.

m