INVOICE: Service Package

Hello @Russ,

I might have a workaround for you, that could help with this issue. There is a little bit of a setup, but it will automate some of the tasks.

Edit: There were changes some time ago to how our billing works, allowing us to create the invoices, without having to generate a ticket schedule and a ticket automation rule, please scroll down for the solution.

For each of the separate services that you bill for, you create a Retainer/Flat fee contract. For example, you create one for AV. You make the Retainer/Flat fee contract, and there you add a rate that is the amount you want to charge for the AV, let's say $5. During the contract creation, you select the number of AVs that the customer has, let's say 20 and you select the billing period of "Monthly".
Create New Contract: Retainer/Flat Fee – Atera Support

If needed you can also add taxes and so on. Don't make the contract default, we don't need that. You can also leave the SLA as None. Also, keep in mind that you have the option to change all of the values within a contract after creating it, except for the contract type. So, if the number of AVs that you provide to a customer changes, you can simply change the Quantity later, and even the Rate.

Now, we have a contract that will bill the customer. In order to create an invoice for this contract, we will need to create a ticket, the ticket needs to have the contract that we have created assigned to it, and then the ticket needs to be closed. Now, this would be a tedious process to do each month, for each product that you provide, so we can do something else.

We create a Ticket Schedule. This ticket schedule basically will generate a ticket automatically at the date when you have to bill your customer. On the ticket schedule section, you have the option to assign the contract that we just created. Also, very important, to assign a name to the ticket that will most likely never be used anywhere else, something like [AV billing]. Create the schedule.
Now, every month, a ticket with the contract assigned will be created, however, you would still have to set the status as Resolved or Closed.

Schedule a ticket – Atera Support

This is still somewhat of a process, but we have a solution here. You create a ticket automation rule, that sets the status of the ticket to Resolved automatically. So, go to ticket automation rules, and create a rule with the Trigger=New ticket created, in the Condition of the rule, add Ticket Title > Equals > [AV billing], basically the title of the scheduled ticket. Then, action Set Field Value>Status>Resolved.

Ticket automation rules – Atera Support

And this is the whole setup.

The logic is the following
Create a contract for each product you sell, you can clone the contract if you sell the same service/product to multiple customers. Then create a schedule ticket for each of the products that you sell to each customer. I would suggest you use the same title for all products across all customers, this way, you need to only create a ticket automation rule only for the products you sell. When you create the billing batch, you will have the option to select the Contracts and generate invoices automatically.

Also, keep in mind that the Start date and the billing period of a contract dictate the date that you can bill your customers. For example, if you have the contract Start Date set as the 1st of August, and the Billing period as Monthly, you will be able to bill your customers only on the 1st of each month. Take that into account when creating the contract and ticket schedule.

Important note: Please keep in mind that this is not fully tested, I did some tests and in some parts, it appears to be working. Please attempt to do a test first then see if it works for you.
I know that this is a tedious setup, but in the long run, if it works, it can save you quite some time.

In case I find other more suitable solutions, I will reply here.
Another thing, I will forward your scenario internally to our teams, maybe over time we can develop a more suitable solution.

I would also be interested in learning how some of our customers deal with this. If anyone else in the community has a better suggestion or any feedback on this matter, please let me know.

Hope it helps a bit.

Hello @tanderson,

Thank you for the suggestion, I will forward this internally as a suggestion.

As always, I would also encourage you to add it to our features board, the votes/posts help our teams better understand the need and how many people wish for these new features.

Use The Atera Features Board – Atera Support

Hello @Russ,

I am not entirely sure what the behavior should be here. Doing some tests on my end, it does appear that this is the case, however, it is a bit weird. I will do some more tests and raise a ticket if needed.

Thank you for letting me know Russ.