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GP9 Contracts - Contract period vs. Billing period

We sell support contracts with 1 and 3 year terms. Payment is primarily (95%), using credit cards. For a long time, we have been notifying (Invoicing), customers 1 month before the end of the contract term. This gives them a month to provide payment before their service expires and we have money in our hands before providing services.

Moving this to GP9 Contract Administration, my 1st inclination was to set the contract term for the length of the contract (ie. 4-5-2009 through 4-4-2010), and set the billing period to a years term, beginning a month prior (ie. 3-5-2009 through 3-4-2010). My thinking was that this would do what I wanted.

However, next invoice dates seem to pay attention to the contract period (not the billing period).

So, I'm thinking at this point I don't understand fully the meaning of these periods. The GP documentation isn't helping me much, it's pretty sparse when it comes to concepts.

Thanks,

John

Hi John,

I am not a Functional Expert, so I am not quite sure, how this would solve your issue or answer query.

If I understand the process correctly, the billing for a Contract of an Year's term is done exactly a month before the Contract term ends. The billing is only once for this contract. So why don't you try this? From your example term:

Contract Period (Year's Term): Start 4-5-2009 | End 4-4-2010

*Billing Period (Length 1 / Period DAYS): Start 3-5-2010 | End 3-5-2010

Now this will create an invoice only once for this entire Contract and a month prior to the Contract Expiration.

Regarding the terms: Contract Period is the timeline on which a Contract is active. Billing Period is the timeline in which you want to bill a particular Contract. It's not necessary that you need to setup the frequency which is quite similar to the Contract itself. It's just a period in which you wish to generate the Invoice(s) for the Customer.

Hope this is relevant and helps.

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