Service Management landscape

Service Management is not “another form next to Sales Orders”. It is the delivery and cash collection chain for service obligations: what was sold, where the work happens, when money is due, and which document is allowed to create an invoice.

This page is the landscape. Child pages go deeper: contract & billing, ticket → order / field, field execution, amendments. App guide: Service Management.

Three layers — do not collapse them

A Service Order is not a duplicate Sales Order. They fulfil different promises:

Six pairs people mix up

When to link the SKU to a rate card: required if the quotation will become a Service Order; not required for Sales-only digital SKUs or ad-hoc service lines without a product id. Create the rate card from the product (Create rate card); do not auto-create on convert. | Project budget vs contract value | Budget is a cost cap for delivery. Revenue lives on the contract / order / invoice. |

Accepted quotation — convert to what?

A quotation converts once (accepted → converted). The wrong next document either double-sells or skips the delivery lifecycle you need.

Customer accepted the quotation
├─ Goods only (stock-tracked)
│     → Sales Order → (Delivery Order if required) → Invoice
│
├─ Services only, or service-led (with spare parts)
│     → Service Order
│           ├─ small one-off                    → Mode 1 (invoice from the order)
│           ├─ multi-phase implementation           → add Contract + Project (Mode 2)
│           ├─ time & materials                   → T&M contract (Mode 3)
│           └─ needs a site visit                 → dispatch jobs from the order
│
├─ Mixed, goods-led (sell a machine + minor install)
│     → Sales Order
│           Install lines are fulfilled at invoice time.
│           If install needs a schedule / sign-off / technician → split a Service Order
│           (do not add scheduling fields onto sales lines).
│
└─ Recurring / retainer
      → Service Order + retainer contract (Mode 4)

A won CRM deal follows the same mix: services-only often opens a Service Contract; goods + install stays on the Sales Order unless you explicitly split an SOW.

Ticket → quotation (out-of-contract upsell): many quotations per ticket are allowed. After accept, use the tree above.

Contract, project, service order — three independent frames

A Service Order has two independent parents. All four combinations are valid:

1. Contract only — retainer / support, no project.
2. Contract + one project — fixed-price SOW.
3. Contract + many projects — MSA, several engagements.
4. Project or order only — one-off (Mode 1). No contract required.

Linking rules:

• Orders under a contract inherit account, currency, payment terms, and the effective rate card (base lines + effective annexes), not raw catalog price.
• Attach orders only to an active contract, schedule inside the term. Exceeding contract value warns, it does not hard-block.
• Do not attach a project from contract A to an order on contract B.
• For a short one-off, do not force both a contract and a project.

Four billing models (and one golden rule)

Larger work (Modes 2–4) converges on the Billing queue. Cron only stages. A billing user creates a real draft invoice in Finance. Mode 1 invoices directly from the completed Service Order (partial invoices allowed).

Mode 1 — One-off

Quotation → Service Order → confirm → (schedule / in progress) → complete → invoice from the order.

No contract, project, or queue required. On-site → dispatch jobs from the order. Those jobs never auto-invoice.

Mode 2 — Fixed price / milestones

fixed_price contract + Project + milestones with amounts → complete a milestone → stage → invoice that slice.

A milestone stages once. It flips to invoiced only when a real invoice exists — not at stage time.

Mode 3 — Time & materials

Billable + approved timesheets → stage (when the T&M feature is on) → invoice.

A shortcut still exists: bill unbilled timesheets from the timesheet screen. The two paths exclude each other via timesheet billing status.

Mode 4 — Retainer / recurring

retainer contract + amount + cycle. Each period stages exactly one event (enable Recurring retainer billing). A human still creates the invoice. Auto-renew of the contract is a different switch.

Contract/ticket materials (no Service Order): record → stage → same invoice. If a Service Order exists, parts go on order part lines — do not also record contract consumption for the same items.

One engagement, one billing path

Four invoice origins. The same work may use only one:

Invoices that stamp an execution project require every line to share one workspace. Mixing two execution projects is rejected — invoice each project separately.

Tickets — demand intake

A service ticket is an incident / request / maintenance item tied to a customer (and often a contract).

Do not use the CS Helpdesk queue for this. Promote from Helpdesk to create a service ticket and keep the document chain.

From an open ticket, pick a primary next document (quotations may run in parallel):

resolved / escalated are dedicated actions — not bulk list edits.

SLA: the contract policy wins over the company default.

Service Order lifecycle

Do not delete a posted commercial document. Void the invoice instead.

Field Service — execution

The job answers who went, when, what they did, what they used. The order / ticket answers what was sold and how it bills.

• One Service Order → many jobs.
• Jobs from an order: no auto-invoice.
• Jobs from a ticket without an order may auto-invoice on complete/accept — except covered work unless someone sets an explicit billing type.
• Van stock, requisitions, tools sit on Inventory + Assets. With Enforce inventory link, parts must have a real item.

See Field Service execution.

Finance invoices — the only AR output

Service Management does not insert ledger rows itself. It asks Finance to create draft invoices from the Service Order, the billing queue, the timesheet shortcut, or a standalone job.

Voiding an invoice restores queued events, timesheets billed via the shortcut, and invoiced quantities on the Service Order. Used hours on a retainer are not reversed on void — the work still consumed entitlement. Reverse used hours by rejecting a timesheet (blocked if already staged/billed: void the invoice first).

Foreign-currency contracts may stage at rate 1; edit the rate on the draft invoice before posting.

Amendments

Do not edit price / scope / term on a locked contract. Use an amendment: draft → (sign) → manual apply. Draft/pending annexes never change numbers. Effective annexes are immutable — fix with a new annex.

Situations — which path?

1. One-off repair, no contract

Ticket (optional) → quotation (if you need a price) → Service Order → complete → invoice from the order. On-site → dispatch from the order.

2. Sell a machine + minor install

Mixed quotation → Sales Order. Ship on a Delivery Order; install fulfils at invoice. Need a crew schedule → split a Service Order (never convert the same quote line twice).

3. Multi-phase implementation / SOW

Fixed-price contract + Project + amount milestones → stage each completed milestone. Do not milestone-invoice from Operations Projects when origin is Service Management.

4. Hourly outsourcing / legal / IT

T&M contract. Approve timesheets, stage, invoice. Do not also sell hour lines on a Service Order for the same month.

5. Recurring maintenance / retainer

Retainer contract, enable recurring staging. In-entitlement incidents: resolve (and job if needed) without auto-invoice. Over-entitlement hours: billable timesheets or an upsell quote/order.

6. Asset still under warranty

Ticket on the asset/serial. Covered job → no auto-invoice. Bill out-of-warranty work with an explicit billing type or a separate Service Order.

7. Helpdesk took the call, then it became contracted work

Promote to a Service Management ticket, then order/job. Do not keep working it on CS.

8. Emergency visit, commercial terms not decided

Ticket → job. Bill later: covered → close; out of scope → order or quote.

9. Same customer buys hardware and a maintenance plan

Two parallel chains, same CRM contact: Sales Order for the machine; retainer contract for maintenance. Do not mix execution workspaces on one invoice.

10. Scope change mid-project

Amendment (money/term) + new project milestones. Do not silently edit a signed contract.

11. Deposit / partial invoice on a large order

Mode 1: invoice part of the line qty. Mode 2: invoice by milestone. Do not type a manual Finance invoice and “reconcile later”.

12. Wrong invoice

Void it. Do not delete the order/contract. Do not create a second invoice for the same events until the first is voided.

13. Van is short of parts

Requisition from the job → approve → van issue or PO for the shortage. If the Service Order has part lines: inventory issues at order complete (when the stock gate is on) — do not also consume the same SKU on the contract.

14. Subcontractor did the work

That is buying a service: PO → service confirmation → AP bill. Not a customer AR invoice.

15. Quote rejected, or converted to the wrong Sales Order

If not yet converted, fix the mix. If already converted, you cannot convert again; raise a new document that does not reuse consumed quote lines.

Catalog, SKUs, parts

Before you click “create invoice”

1. Which Mode? Only one path.
2. If there is a Service Order: child jobs must not auto-invoice.
3. Hours: approved, billable, uninvoiced; no same-month overlap with order hour-lines.
4. Milestones: completed, not staged twice.
5. One invoice = one execution workspace.
6. Warranty / in-entitlement: confirm it is not billable.
7. Quote SKUs already have catalog links.

Minimum permissions by role

Settings that change the path

Common failures