What Are Support Contracts?
Support contracts link a customer to a billing arrangement for helpdesk work. When an agent logs time against a ticket that belongs to a contract, the time is automatically attributed to that contract's hours balance. The platform supports three contract types:
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| CONTRACT | A retainer — the client pays for a block of hours per month. Hours included are tracked; overages can be billed separately. |
| BLOCK | A one-off block of pre-purchased hours. The balance counts down as time is logged. |
| ADHOC | Time and materials — no included hours. Every minute logged is billable at the hourly rate. |
Creating a Support Contract
- Go to Admin → Helpdesk → Contracts.
- Click + New Contract.
- Fill in:
- Name — e.g. "Acme Corp — Monthly Retainer".
- Type — CONTRACT, BLOCK, or ADHOC.
- Client Name — auto-populated if you select a customer.
- Client Email — for contract notifications.
- Hourly Rate — billing rate in your currency.
- Hours Included — for CONTRACT and BLOCK types, the hours the client has pre-purchased.
- Start Date / End Date — the contract period.
- Click Save.
Linking a Contract to Tickets
When creating or editing a ticket, select the relevant support contract in the Contract field. All time logged on this ticket will count against the contract balance.
You can also set a default contract on the customer record (CRM → Customers → [Customer] → Support Contract) so new tickets for that customer pre-select it automatically.
Viewing Contract Usage
- Open a contract from Admin → Helpdesk → Contracts.
- The Usage panel shows:
- Total hours included.
- Hours consumed (sum of time entries linked to this contract).
- Hours remaining.
- A list of all time entries with agent, ticket, date, and duration.
- Export the time entries as CSV for invoicing.
Billing Overages
For CONTRACT type, when the hours balance reaches zero the system sends an alert to the accounts email. Work continues (tickets are not blocked) but all additional time is flagged as "billable overage" in reports.
For ADHOC type, all time is billable. The monthly billing run (if configured) rolls up billable time entries into a bill sent to the customer.