Renewing clients
Renewals are an important part of the client lifecycle and present an opportunity to review your current agreements and expand the services that are being offered to your existing client base.
This is a chance for you to upsell and cross sell different services whilst you review your client's scope of work for the coming year.
Ignition makes this easy by providing the ability to create these renewal proposals in bulk via CSV files.
What is a client renewal?
A client renewal creates a renewal proposal for all your active services, regardless of the proposal they originated from. Learn more about active services.
The renewal proposal allows you to make edits to your current offering, transition your services from one period to the next and send to your client for acceptance.
Please note: This process combines all client services into a single renewal proposal. If you do not wish to combine all your services into a single renewal proposal, see this article to learn how to renew a proposal.
Creating renewals via CSV
If you have multiple clients that require a renewal, you can take advantage of our bulk renewal process.
This process is most suitable when you need to renew more than 50 clients.
Video Tutorial
PREREQUISITE: Exporting your Active Services
The first step to bulk-creating renewals is to download the Active Services CSV. This export contains all the information you need to plan for your renewals.
The active services listed for each client will be automatically populated into the renewal proposal once you have completed the bulk renewals process.
In the Clients tab click Export → click Active services.
Filling in the bulk renewals spreadsheet
First, open your Active Services export CSV file and identify which clients you want to create a renewal for.
Copy the Client IDs into the client_id column of the renewals import sheet
Remove any duplicate Client IDs from the client_id column
Fill in the remaining fields - definitions below:
client_id - This will be used to identify which clients a renewal proposal will be created for
start_date - This is the start date of the proposal. The services created in a renewal will align to this date (use YYYY-MM-DD format)
hide_date_for_onetime_services - Yes/No to enable or disable the hide date for one-time services setting on the proposal.
show_minimum_term_value - Yes/No to enable or disable the show minimum term value setting on the proposal.
OPTIONAL FIELDS
minimum_contract_length - Controls the minimum contract length of the proposal. If one is not specified, the system will default to 12 months.
current_billing_end_date - If your previously engaged services are on a continuous schedule, you may want to stop automatic billing from your current services on and beyond a certain date.
If not provided, the system will automatically cap your billing schedule so that existing billing will not overlap with the start date of your renewal services.
proposal_name - This is the name of the proposal, if one is not provided the system will default to 'Untitled Proposal'
personalized_message - This field can be used to add a personalized message to the created proposal. If not provided, no personalized message will be added.
terms_template_uuid - This determines the terms template that will be applied to the created proposal. If left blank the default template will be used.
The uuid can be found in the URL when viewing the particular terms template.
new_proposal_message_uuid - This determines the new proposal message template that will be applied to the created proposal. If left blank the default template will be used.
The uuid can be found in the URL when viewing the particular new proposal message template.
show_service_prices - Yes/No to enable or disable the show service prices setting on the proposal.
sender_type- This can either be practice or user which defines who the sender of the proposal is. If user is selected, you will need to populate the sender_email field. (e.g. practice, user)
sender_email - The proposal sender's email which will be displayed to the client. Please ensure that the email is correct and the user exists in your Ignition account. (e.g. johncena@youcantseeme.com)
cc_emails - Add an email address if your client needs someone to be cc-ed in on the proposal. Use a space between emails if you need to cc multiple people.
(e.g. john@beatles.com paul@beatles.com)
require_payment_method - Yes/No to enable or disable the require payment method setting on the proposal.
accept_credit_card - Yes/No to enable or disable the accept credit card setting on a proposal.
accept_direct_debit - Yes/No to enable or disable the accept direct debit setting on a proposal.
include_inactive_services - Yes/No to renew services that have become inactive for a client
inactive_services_ended_after_date (yyyy-mm-dd)- This date specifies which inactive services to include based on the date they were ended or expired.
Sending the bulk renewals spreadsheet to our team
Once you have completed the bulk proposal creation spreadsheet, remember to save it and then send it to our team at onboarding@ignitionapp.com!
Alternatively, if you have a Customer Success Manager or Account Manager, please send it to them directly for processing.
If you are sending it to our team, please format your email with the subject line:
PRACTICE NAME - Renewal Proposal Creation - REGION (AMER/APAC/EMEA)
e.g. Growth Accounting - Renewal Proposal Creation - APAC
Identifying your renewal proposals
Once the renewals have been created in your account, you will be able to see them listed in your Pipeline filtered to Draft.
Renewal proposals can be identified at all stages of the re-engagement process through the renewal tag.
Editing and amending your renewal proposals
When a renewal proposal is created, it will automatically contain all the active services for a client for you to edit and amend.
General step
We recommend using a specific start date for your proposal so that there is a clear point in time when a current service is to be replaced by a renewal service.
The minimum contract length will define the new expiry date of the services and when they are due for renewal contained in this proposal.
Services may continue to be active past the expiry date based on the billing rule.
Services step
Once in the Services step, you will see the services that have been carried over can be identified through the Renewals badge. Hovering over Current Schedules will give you context as to the price and billing of the original service.
Renewal services will maintain the same billing day and month as the original service, but the year will be aligned to the new engagement.
For example:
My contract terms start on a specific date (1 January) but my billing date is at the end of the month.
Original Proposal
Proposal Start Date Service Start Date Schedule | Renewal
Proposal Start Date Service Start Date Schedule
|
If you wish to start billing when the proposal is accepted, you will have to edit the Billing Rule.
If you do not want to renew a service, you can delete this service and it will not be replaced by any service.
Please note: If you have used the current_billing_end_date column in the renewals CSV, the future billing items for this service will be changed to a manual billing mode.
From this point you can add another service, update pricing, change billing dates and continue with the rest of the proposal.
The proposal will be identified as a renewal as long as the proposal contains at least one renewal service.
Sending a renewal to clients
Once you’re happy with the renewal proposal, you can send this to your clients in the Send step.
They’ll be notified via email with a link to the client portal to view the agreement.
If services from the existing proposal have ongoing billing (i.e. billing with no end), when the proposal is sent, the system will schedule the billing to stop before the renewal start date so there is no overlap in billing.
If the renewal is accepted after the proposal’s start date, there may be a gap in billing. However, any catch-up periods will be billed when the proposal is accepted.
Accepting a renewal proposal
Renewals when accepted will function differently from standard 'new' proposals as the renewal services within these proposals are linked to active services.
A renewal can be accepted by the client or you can Accept on client's behalf.
See the different scenarios and how the system will function accordingly.
Scenario 1 - My renewal proposal is accepted before the start date
If a renewal proposal is accepted before the proposal start date, the services will be created in the Services tab as an Upcoming Service and will be linked to the existing active service.
Upcoming services will not have billing items populated in the billing schedule until they become active.
Once the start date of the upcoming service has been reached, the active service will be replaced by the upcoming service.
You can find the replaced service by enabling show inactive services. Once the existing service is inactive, all billing items linked to this service will be removed from the billing schedule.
Scenario 2 - My renewal proposal is accepted after the start date.
If a renewal proposal is accepted after the proposal start date, the services contained in this proposal will replace the existing services and become active immediately.
Scenario 3 - I used 2021-12-31 in the current_billing_end_date column in the renewals CSV
The billing items for all active services for this client have been changed to manual - so they won’t automatically bill past a certain date, but they can be triggered in the meantime if required.
FAQ’s
Can I create more than one renewal proposal?
You cannot have more than one renewal proposal in draft or awaiting acceptance for a single client at the same time.
If you have made an error with a renewal proposal and want to recreate the proposal, simply archive the proposal and go through the implementation process again.
What happens if I have a renewal service set to start billing on 1 February, but I also have the existing (old) billing item set to bill automatically on 1 February? Will this double bill?
No this will not double bill. The replacement service should "go live" at midnight on the start date before the automated invoicing occurs.
As long as you set your timezone correctly in Settings → General, you should not have any double billing issues!