Billing Contracts
Contracts in JobNext serve as the formal agreement framework that links Jobs to customer billing. A Contract must be established and linked to a Job before BOQs can transition to the CONTRACTED state, which is a prerequisite for generating RA Bills and other measurement-based invoices.
Why Contracts Matter
Contracts are the bridge between project execution and customer billing. Without a contract linkage:
- BOQs cannot move from CREATED to CONTRACTED state
- RA Bills cannot be generated
- Measurements cannot be compiled into invoices
- Monthly billing automation will not function
Linking Jobs to Contracts is one of the most important setup steps for billing. Ensure this is done early in the project lifecycle, before your team starts recording measurements.
Contract Setup
Step 1: Create the Contract
Navigate to the CRM module and create a new contract for the customer. Enter the contract details including:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Contract Number | Unique identifier for the contract, may follow your organization's numbering convention |
| Customer | The customer party associated with this contract |
| Contract Date | The effective date of the agreement |
| Contract Value | Total agreed value of the contract |
| Terms & Conditions | Payment terms, retention percentages, billing frequency, and other contractual terms |
Step 2: Link Jobs to the Contract
Associate one or more Jobs with the contract. Each Job linked to the contract inherits the contract's billing terms and enables BOQ state transitions.
Step 3: Transition BOQs to CONTRACTED
Once the Job is linked to a Contract, navigate to the Job's BOQ and transition the relevant BOQ items from CREATED to CONTRACTED state. This unlocks the billing workflow for those items.
Contract Terms and Billing Impact
| Contract Term | Billing Impact |
|---|---|
| Retention Percentage | Automatically deducted from each RA Bill; recovered via One-Time Invoice |
| Payment Terms | Sets due dates on generated invoices |
| Billing Frequency | Determines how often measurements should be compiled into bills |
| Price Escalation | Affects BOQ rates if escalation clauses are defined |
Managing Multiple Contracts
A single customer may have multiple contracts, each covering different Jobs or scopes of work. When creating Combined Bills, measurements from Jobs under different contracts can be consolidated into a single invoice for the customer.
Review contract terms carefully before linking Jobs. Once BOQs are transitioned to CONTRACTED state and billing has begun, changes to contract terms may require formal amendments.