AWRA Help Center

A contract has a customer, a start and end date, a value before tax and a billing schedule. AWRA works out the milestones, and every morning raises the invoice for each one that has come due. Open Sales → Invoices and choose Contract billing in the row of links at the top; the list is at /sales/contracts and can be filtered by status (Active, Completed, Cancelled) and customer.

A contract is for a fixed total paid in parts. For an open-ended charge that repeats until you stop it — rent, a retainer, a subscription — use Recurring Invoices instead.

Making A Contract

1. Press New contract.
2. Give it a Title (for example ERP rollout — phase 1) and choose the Customer.
3. Set Starts on, Ends on and the Contract value, before tax. Tax is added on each invoice exactly as on any other invoice to that customer.
4. Choose the Service billed, or leave it on A custom line with the contract title. Only service (non-stock) items are offered: a contract bills a service, and goods are sold on a sales order.
5. Choose the Billing schedule (below).
6. Set Days to pay — each invoice is due that many days after its date; 14 by default.
7. Tick Issue each invoice automatically if you want invoices issued as they are raised (issued invoices are final and file to eTIMS where it is on). Leave it off to review each one as a draft first.
8. Add any Notes on each invoice, such as the agreement reference, and press Save contract.

The contract gets a number starting CTR and is billed in your workspace’s base currency.

The Three Billing Schedules

• Even instalments (monthly or quarterly) — choose Every Monthly or Quarterly. One instalment falls on the start date and then every month or quarter until the end date; the value is split evenly, with any rounding on the last one. Labels read Instalment 1 of 12 and so on.
• Fixed amounts on fixed dates — add each milestone with a name (for example On signing), a Bill on date and an amount. The amounts must add up to the contract value exactly.
• Percentage of value at milestones — add each milestone with a date and a percentage. The percentages must add up to 100%; each amount is that share of the value, with rounding on the last.

Every milestone date must fall between the contract’s start and end dates, and each must bill more than zero. If anything does not add up, the form says by how much.

How Milestones Are Billed

• Every morning AWRA raises an invoice for each milestone of an active contract whose date has arrived, dated on the milestone’s own date.
• One invoice per milestone, ever. A second run, a retry or Bill now pressed twice cannot bill a milestone again.
• The invoice is built like one you type: the same numbering, tax and credit check, so an invoice that would take the customer over their credit limit goes on hold like any other. With automatic issue off it waits as a draft.
• Bill now on a milestone raises its invoice today instead of on its date, and opens it.
• If a milestone cannot be billed, it is marked failed with the reason, retried on every daily run, and the person who made the contract is told the first time — not every morning. If an invoice is raised but cannot be issued, the invoice stands and they are told.
• A contract still bills a customer who has since been suspended: it settles work already agreed.
• When the last milestone is billed, the contract becomes Completed.

The contract page shows the value, what is billed and what remains, and each milestone with its date, amount, status and invoice.

Editing A Contract

Press Edit contract to change the terms and the milestones still to bill. A billed milestone is history: it has an invoice, so it is shown under Billed milestones, locked, and is never changed or removed.

• The schedule must still add up: billed plus unbilled milestones make exactly the contract value (or 100% on a percentage schedule). The value cannot drop below what has already been invoiced.
• Once anything is billed, the customer and the schedule type are locked, and the contract cannot start after, or end before, a billed milestone’s date.
• On an even schedule, what is left is spread again over the instalment dates left in the contract.
• A changed milestone is billed afresh: an earlier failure does not carry over.
• A milestone billed by the morning run while you had the form open is treated as billed, not overwritten.
• Cutting the value to what is billed completes the contract; giving a completed contract more to bill makes it active again.
• Every edit is written to the audit log with the fields that changed and how many milestones were added, changed or removed.

Cancelling

Cancel contract (in the Related menu on the contract page) is final. Milestones not yet billed are skipped and will never be billed; invoices already raised stay as they are — correct one with a credit note if needed. Only an active contract can be cancelled, and a cancelled one cannot be edited.

In The Mobile App

The AWRA app lists contracts as Contract billing among the sales documents, and can create and edit a contract, bill a milestone now and cancel a contract, with the same rules as the web.

Permissions

• View sales contracts — see the contracts and their milestones.
• Manage sales contracts — create, edit and cancel contracts, and bill a milestone now.

Common Mistakes

• Choosing a stock item. A contract bills a service; it is refused for stock items. Sell goods on a sales order.
• A start date in the past. Every milestone already due is billed on the next morning’s run. Check the schedule before saving.
• Waiting for invoices that are drafts. With automatic issue off, each invoice waits for someone to approve it on the Invoices page.
• Expecting tax inside the value. The value and milestone amounts are before tax; tax is added on each invoice.
• Making the contract under someone who is leaving. Failure notices go to the person who created it.

Related

• Recurring Invoices — open-ended billing that repeats until you stop it.
• Invoices — approving, issuing and collecting the invoices a contract raises.
• Invoice & billing automation — the feature overview.