Re: [SL] Prepayment / Contract Services

[Steve S. <st...@sw...>]

I haven't received any further replies to this and figured I'd "bump"
the thread. I need to have this ability shortly, as I'll be entering a
contract very soon. I brainstormed a bit and tried to come up with a way
to handle this with different AR entries. However, I quickly realized
this won't work since the whole idea of an "AR" is to show that someone
owes *you* money. So, I bill a customer for a bank of hours (they
receive an invoice), and they pay it. The invoice is closed, since the
payment was satisfied. What they were billed for must then go
*somewhere* to cancel out the actual hours that I've logged. This almost
seems like an AP/AR scenario against a part, where I've been paid for a
part (really labor, but would need inventory), but then I have to pay a
vendor and order the parts (the actual labor is performed). However, I
cna't figure out how to get the time cards involved with this. Then
again, should they be?
Thoughts are greatly appreciated. *Somebody* must be doing this out
there. Where are you? :)

Thanks,
Steve


On Mon, 2006-11-06 at 10:34 -0500, Mark Bucciarelli wrote:

> 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
> 
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