What do Service Types do?
Service type defines when services in a service group will be billed.
A service type is made up of:
A billing frequency (recurring or one time)*
A billing start date (a specific or relative date)
*Note: If recurring services is selected, you'll need to define how often it recurs and any potential end to the recurrence.
Multiple services can be housed together in a service type, meaning all of the services in the group will follow that particular billing rule.
Also, a single proposal can have as many service types as you need - e.g. quarterly, monthly, and annual billings altogether on one proposal.
You can edit a service type's billing at any time by clicking the drop-down menu in the title of the group.
When editing a service type's billing, you will be presented with settings that you can customize.
Let's take a look at the different options.
Recurring
If you want to create a Recurring service type, all services will be billed on a recurring basis depending on how you configure the billing rule.
Recurring Period
You can choose how frequently the billing will occur by configuring the Recurring Period (# days, weeks or months).
Start billing on
You can choose when to Start billing:
On Acceptance of the proposal - use this to bill immediately when the client accepts a proposal. You can also choose to delay when this begins.
On the Proposal start date - use this to bill on the start date of the proposal. You can also choose to delay when this begins.
On a Specific date - use this if you have a precise or estimated date when this will be billed
End billing
You can choose when to End billing for a recurring fee:
Selecting No end means the fee will continue until it is ended or changes
Selecting After a number of times will end billing after the entered number of billing periods. If selecting this option, check the last billing date aligns with your expectations.
Once you have confirmed the billing rule, you can start adding services to the service type and begin building out your proposal.
One-off (On Acceptance & On Completion)
If you want to create a One-off service type, all the services under that service group will be only billed once.
Use this for upfront or on completion billing where all fees will be charged one time for that service.
You can then choose when this one time fee is billed by editing the billing rule:
On Acceptance of the proposal - use this to bill immediately when the client accepts a proposal. You can also choose to delay when this begins.
On the Proposal start date - use this to bill on the start date of the proposal. You can also choose to delay when this begins. You can change the start date in the General step of the proposal editor.
On the Proposal end date - use this to bill at the end of the proposal or when it finishes. You can change the start date in the General step of the proposal editor.
On a Specific Date - use this if you have a precise or estimated date when this will be billed
On Completion billing
When you create a new One-off service type, Ignition will ask you if you want to bill On Acceptance or On Completion.
If you choose On Completion, the billing rule will default to billing manually on the proposal's end date - displayed to the client as "Billed on completion".
If you want to bill On Acceptance of the proposal, you simply need to select One-off and then change the billing rule to start billing On Acceptance!
Deposit
You can also set a service or a group of services to be a Deposit. This means that all the services under that service type will have a deposit created that will be billed for once the proposal is accepted.
Please note that Billing Rules do not take into consideration the Default Recurring Invoice Day setting (found in Settings → General tab). This setting is for Classic Proposals only and do not apply to New Proposals. They will follow the Billing Rule.