Service jobs
Work on a customer's unit at your depot or on site: coverage, estimates, time, parts, the MES clock, invoicing and the dispatch schedule.
A is the work on one customer unit, such as a returned drive at your repair bench or a site visit to a running machine. It holds the problem, one , the technicians' time, the parts and charges, and for billable work an estimate.
Open Service → Jobs in the ERP. The Service module also has Schedule (the dispatch grid) and Customer Assets (the installed base). On the shop floor, technicians use Service in the MES.
Where a job comes from
| Origin | How | The new job |
|---|---|---|
| An RMA line | Post the receipt of a Return for Service or Return for Warranty line | Open, at the receiving location, work site Depot. Billable for Service, Warranty for Warranty |
| The office | Service → Jobs → New, the New Service Job drawer | Open. The coverage you choose, or a suggestion from the asset |
| The shop floor or a site | MES Service → New Job: scan or pick a serial or a customer, type the problem | In Progress, assigned to you, with your clock running |
When you pick a Customer Asset, the job takes the asset's item and serial. If you leave Coverage empty, Carbon suggests Warranty while the asset's labor or parts warranty runs today, else Billable. Every new job copies the default bill rate from Settings → Service.
Status
A Completed, Invoiced or Cancelled job is locked: its time, parts, charges, estimate and fields no longer change.
The header shows one primary action, chosen by status: Start, Send Estimate or Complete, Record Response, then Create Invoice for a Billable job. Hold, Resume, Reopen, Print Estimate and Cancel Job are in the ⋯ menu.
Coverage and cost
Coverage decides where the job's cost goes. Carbon posts the cost as the work happens: parts when they are issued, time when each entry is saved or its clock stops. The customer owns the unit, so nothing goes to work in progress.
| Coverage | Cost account | Invoiced? |
|---|---|---|
| Billable | Cost of Service, else Cost of Goods Sold | Yes |
| Warranty | Warranty Expense | No |
| Contract | Cost of Service, else Cost of Goods Sold | No |
Set Cost of Service and Warranty Expense in Accounting → Default Accounts. Without Warranty Expense, every Warranty posting is refused.
Changing coverage moves the cost already booked.
Change Coverage in the properties panel while the job is open. Carbon moves the cost of the parts already issued and the time already posted from the old account to the new one.
Estimates
A Billable job can carry an estimate: Labor lines (hours at the job's bill rate), parts and charges at a unit price. Send Estimate marks it Sent and the job Awaiting Approval; Print Estimate opens the PDF. While the estimate is Sent or Accepted, its lines and the job's bill rate are locked.
Record Response stores the customer's answer and the name of whoever gave it. On a Fixed Price job, acceptance sets the job's Fixed Price to the estimate total. You can also set it in the properties panel; Complete and Create Invoice ask for it when it is empty.
An estimate is optional.
A job completes without an accepted estimate. Send one when the customer must approve the work or the price first.
Labor rates
Set two rates per hour, in your base currency, in Settings → Service:
| Rate | What it does |
|---|---|
| Labor cost per hour | The cost of every time entry. Without it, no time can be logged. |
| Default bill rate per hour | Copied to each new job as its Bill Rate. |
Change a job's Bill Rate in its properties panel until the estimate is sent. Its Labor estimate lines follow the new rate. While the cost rate, or a Billable job's bill rate, is missing, the job page shows a warning with a link to Settings → Service.
Time
- On the job page, add an entry under Time with the employee, date, hours and Billable.
- In the MES, tap Start on the job. Stop records the hours. You can run one clock at a time; a second Start is refused until you stop the first.
- On My Time, each service job you work on or are scheduled on has its own row below your charge numbers. Drag a day's bar to set your total hours for that job. Service rows never go through timesheet submit or approval, and they lock when the job completes.
Each entry posts its cost as soon as it is saved or its clock stops: one journal that debits the coverage account and credits labor absorption, at hours × the cost rate. An entry keeps the cost rate it first posted at, so a later rate change does not move it. Editing an entry posts the difference, and deleting it reverses its cost.
Complete is refused while a clock runs. In the ERP, the Complete dialog offers Stop clock and complete.
Parts and charges
Issue Part takes stock from the job's location. Its cost posts to the coverage account at once, because the part has left the shelf. Return to Stock on a part line puts everything still issued back and reverses its cost. In the MES, technicians add parts from the job page.
Add Charge adds a Service item at a price, such as a trip fee. A charge that was a real cost, like a hotel night, can name the line that paid it in Paid By: a line of a posted reimbursement or of a posted supplier invoice. The charge then shows that line's cost, and the job posts nothing for it, because the linked document already did.
Invoicing
Create Invoice drafts a sales invoice for a Completed Billable job and moves the job to Invoiced.
- Time and Materials bills one line named "Labor", the billable hours at the job's bill rate, then each billable part and charge.
- Fixed Price bills one line, "Fixed price service", at the job's Fixed Price. Time, parts and charges are in the price. If the job has no price, the dialog asks for it.
Every line is a Service line. The "Labor" and "Fixed price service" lines have no item, so the invoice shows the line's description as its name. On the invoice, you can change their description, quantity, price and tax.
Posting the invoice records revenue only. The parts already left inventory when they were issued.
Revenue
A Billable job earns its revenue as the work is done, not when it is invoiced. Each month, the revenue recognition run (Accounting → Closing → Revenue Recognition) accrues what an open Billable job has earned and not yet billed: debit Contract Assets, credit Service Revenue.
| Billing | Earned so far |
|---|---|
| Time and Materials | Billable hours logged × the bill rate, plus billable parts and charges |
| Fixed Price | The fixed price × hours logged ÷ the Labor hours on the accepted estimate, up to 100%. All of it once the job is Completed |
When the invoice posts, it clears that accrual off Contract Assets and credits the rest to Service Revenue. A job that leaves Billable coverage or is cancelled before it is invoiced reverses its accrual in the next run. A Warranty or Contract job earns no revenue.
Set Service Revenue and Contract Assets in Accounting → Default Accounts. Without Service Revenue, service revenue posts to Sales. Without Contract Assets, the run refuses to accrue service revenue.
The dispatch schedule
Service → Schedule shows a week for one location: technicians as rows, days as columns. Each cell lists the day's jobs with their planned hours and a total against the person's shift. A day marked absent is greyed out.
The Backlog panel lists the location's open jobs that nobody is scheduled on. Drag a job onto a cell to schedule it, drag a block to another cell to move it, or drag it back to the backlog to unschedule it. The department filter brings that department's people to the top.