Clients and agreements

The account owner starts with the client. Record its name, primary contact, industry, billing terms and owning service team before asking delivery to take on work. A client marked Prospect belongs in the sales handoff. A client marked Active can be paired with an agreement that gives the delivery team a contract value, hours budget and accountable manager.

The agreement is the center of the operating record. It links back to the client and owning organization, and it names the service delivery manager. Its type distinguishes fixed fee, time and materials, retainer and milestone work. Dates and budget hours give the team a boundary for service entries and milestones. The status tells people whether the engagement is proposed, active, on hold, completed or cancelled.

• Account context. The client record holds billing terms and account ownership so the team can route questions to a person.
• Delivery commitment. The agreement holds value, dates, type, budget hours and the manager who owns execution.
• Consumption. Delivered amount, delivered hours, invoiced service amount and expense total accumulate against the agreement for review.

Decide who changes a client from Prospect to Active and who can open an agreement. Name the organization that owns delivery. Check whether the agreement value is the committed amount for the entire term or one billing period; the choice affects how the team interprets contract consumption and remaining billable value. Agree on how on-hold and cancelled engagements are represented before engineers begin logging work.

For a managed infrastructure contract, the account owner records the client’s billing terms and assigns the service team. The service delivery manager adds an active retainer agreement with a start date, end date and hours budget. Engineers then use that agreement when recording service. This keeps the account relationship and work record tied together through the same client.

Open a proposed agreement and verify the client, owning organization and service delivery manager. Compare its contract value and hours budget with the signed scope. Move it to Active only after the delivery manager accepts the dates and ownership. Then enter a service line and a milestone against that agreement and confirm both point back to the same client relationship. For an old engagement, move the agreement to Completed and confirm it appears with the delivered and invoiced amounts that explain its closeout.

If a client changes billing terms, the account owner should update the client before the next billing cycle. If delivery changes hands, replace the named manager on the agreement and check the manager’s own work list. These are small changes, but leaving an old owner makes approval and collection follow-up harder.

• Active Agreements — Current agreements with client, owner, value and end date in one list.
• Proposed Agreements — New commitments that need a delivery owner and commercial check.
• Agreement Schedule — Start and end dates for proposed and active work.

Follow agreement setup into service delivery. Check the data model before moving existing client and agreement records.