A quote answers “what will it cost.” A service agreement answers “what did we agree for the whole season.” It is a contract with a start date, an end date, the services, how you bill, and a signature. Say a customer wants mowing every week from April through December for $200 a month, rain or shine. That is an agreement.
An agreement is its own document, separate from a quote. You find them under Agreements in the menu, and on a customer’s page.
Service agreements are included in every plan.
1 Start a new agreement
Click Agreements, then New agreement. The form has five parts:
- Customer, and the property if they have more than one.
- Services: each line has a description and a Price per visit.
- Dates and visits: Start date, End date and a Visit schedule (every week, every 2 weeks or every month). You can start a new schedule when it is signed, or point the agreement at one of the customer’s current schedules.
- Billing: see the next step.
- Fees and terms: the optional cancellation fee, the optional deposit, a title and your terms.
The customer needs an email address on file before you can send it.
2 Pick how it bills
You choose this per agreement:
- Same amount every month. Type the Monthly amount, for example 200.00, and pick whether it is billed at the start or the end of each month. A $200 a month agreement from April through December is nine bills of $200, whatever the weather did.
- Per visit. Each month the customer is billed for that month’s visits, at the prices on the lines, at the end of the month.
The form shows the committed total as you fill it in. With a per-visit agreement that total is an estimate, from the number of visits you enter. The total the server works out when you save is the one that counts.
Tick Replace their current billing plan if the customer is already on a plan and this agreement should take over. The agreement list shows each one’s amount, like $200/mo or $45/visit, so you can scan a season’s worth at a glance.
3 Add a deposit or a cancellation fee (both optional)
Deposit. Pick a dollar amount or a percent. It is due when the customer signs, and they pay it by card or bank account right then.
- The deposit is credited only to invoices from this agreement’s own billing. It never pays off an older unpaid invoice.
- While it is held, it shows on the customer’s page as Deposit held for agreement and it is not counted in their available credit.
- If the agreement is cancelled before the deposit is paid, the unpaid deposit invoice is voided.
Cancellation fee. A flat amount, charged only if you choose it when you cancel early. It is not charged automatically.
4 Send it, and what the customer does
Open the agreement and click Send for signature. The customer gets an email with a signing link. They read the agreement, type their full name, tick the agreement box and can draw a signature. No account needed.
Signing is always required. When they sign, ClippingCash starts the visit schedule and the billing plan from the agreement’s terms, and raises the deposit invoice if there is one.
Sent it and the customer lost the email? Click Get a new link. The old link stops working and the new one is shown once, to copy. Editing a sent agreement also sends it back to draft and kills its link, so nobody signs a version you changed.
Withdraw takes back an agreement that has not been signed.
5 Renew for next season
There is no auto-renew. About 30 days before an agreement ends, you get one reminder email. Open the agreement and click Send next season’s agreement to send the same terms one year later, or Review first to open it as a draft and change it. The customer signs again.
6 If the customer cancels early
Open the agreement and click Cancel early. ClippingCash shows what is at stake before you choose, for example contracted $1,800, billed $1,000, $800 unbilled, and any completed visits that were not invoiced yet.
Under What to charge you pick what the final invoice is for: the cancellation fee, the unbilled amount, or nothing, depending on what the agreement allows. Cancelling stops the visit schedule and the billing plan.