License sales and service agreements

Yes, because Vertec has been developed specifically for service providers. When invoicing, you can still edit the services to be invoiced, and you can invoice both at fixed prices and depending on expenditure (hours and material). Of course, you can also invoice travel expenses and other expenses, too.

Many IT service providers issue recurring invoices to their customers. For software developers or software vendors, these are usually maintenance invoices or rental licenses, for consulting companies quotas for consulting services. The requirements are often very different and can also be tied to conditions. The recurring amounts are about a percentage of a license price and depending on the modules or packages. The challenge is to map this logically in the CRM software.

The administrative hours involved in settling recurring amounts manually are high. Errors may occur often. With software-based settlement, invoices can be (partially) automated. Even with an increasing quantity of customers or invoices, there is hardly any additional administrative effort. In addition, you can easily generate forecasts of expected sales in addition to regular income. The prerequisite for this is that you make little or no special agreements with your customers.

Depending on the detailed requirements, there are several solutions available in Vertec:

Option 1: Recurring installments up to a defined total amount
If a total amount for a project is agreed with the customer, which is to be invoiced at regular intervals, Vertec can automatically generate the agreed partial invoices. You can enter a budget value for each project for the entire duration. In the next step, you define the invoicing interval and the invoice fixed amount. The individual steps can also be automated with the help of scripts.

Option 2: Recurring invoices over a defined period of time
Alternatively, you can create invoices in advance for the generation of maintenance invoices over a defined term. For this purpose, a project phase “Maintenance” is created and budgeted with the total amount over the term. You then define a billing interval and create the down payments, which can then be automatically created upon their due date, if desired.

Option 3: Mapping according to individual ideas
In addition to the standard functions, Vertec can also be configured to your individual requirements. The following example has been established for several customers: The billing of licenses and maintenance fees (SSA=Software Service Agreement) runs at the level of the project phases. This allows you to clearly present the entire implementation project and evaluate it according to the phase.

The amounts for the software service agreements are determined based on the license value. Depending on the term of the agreement, the percentage value on the license amount changes. The individual maintenance contracts can then be queried globally, as shown in the screenshot below. For a reliable statement about the future revenue from the maintenance contracts, this query can be limited in time periods.

License sales and the processing of maintenance contracts can be centrally mapped, evaluated and invoiced in Vertec. The prerequisite for this is that you make little or no special agreements with your customers. In addition, you should determine the extent to which automation of your processes makes sense.

How big is your software portfolio? How much time do you need today for license and maintenance management? Is the basis for calculation clear? The answers to these questions form the basis for setting up automation.

Mapping this to Vertec offers the following advantages:

• Project management: Evaluate license revenue per project
• Key Account Management: Identify what is being used for which customer and identify up- and cross-selling potential
• Contract management: Keep an eye on all contracts: See when which contracts expire and need to be renewed
• Administration: Invoice licenses or maintenance contracts at the touch of a button. With the annual renewals of maintenance invoices, you can reduce internal effort
• Cash Flow Analysis: Analyze which contract renewals can be invoiced when and reliably forecast your revenue for the following months
• Own product review: Check your own portfolio. Which licenses are the “cash cows,” which are the “poor dogs”?

For detailed information on license management with Vertec, see the Knowledge Base article License Sales and Service Agreements.

In framework agreements, several projects are carried out over a certain period of time under fixedly negotiated conditions. They usually specify the period, the total budget, costs per hour, per employee or price scales. In Vertec, you can create and evaluate framework agreements individually according to your requirements. On the framework agreement, you can create, request and control individual fields.

When you map and update your framework agreements in Vertec, all authorized employees have central access to the up-to-date status. Manual follow-up is no longer necessary. The recorded services of all employees are immediately incorporated into the up-to-date project statuses and individual evaluations for each customer, framework agreement, contract type or project type are easy to determine. This way, you can see the respective profitability at a glance. Change or enhancements to the framework agreements are easily possible at any time, even during ongoing operations.

The advantages of individually mapping your framework agreements in integrated software and maintaining them centrally are:

• Central access for all employees to the up-to-date status of framework agreements
• No manual follow-up necessary, the recorded services of all employees are immediately incorporated into the up-to-date project status
• Customizable evaluations per customer, framework agreement, contract type or project type to easily determine the respective profitability

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