6 Easy Steps to Streamline Your MSPs Invoicing

Whatwe’llcover today:

• How to increase profits by 5-15%

• Whyyou must streamline your invoicing

• We saved26 MSPstons of lost revenuelast year

• An outline of the 6-step process

• It starts with understanding…

• …&ends with copying the Contract Templates

• How long does it take to get there?

• Your next steps are easy…

Welcomeback to our new series on improving your MSP in 2023.I hope that the New Year has been goodtoyouso far.As promised,this series aims toprovidevaluable guidance you can implement NOW to grow and improve your MSP in 2023.

Thisweek’s topic:streamlining your invoicing.

Why is this so important, you ask?

BecausemostMSPs are losing 5-15% of MRR in profits,that’swhy!The losses are in non-MSA work that is being written off as Managed Services Support.

How can youtell? Look at the ratio of MRR to T&M invoicing to Managed Service Clients. When an MSPcapturesall thenon-MSAwork, the ratio will be somewhere north of 18%.

Note: “All work is billable! If we are entitled to be paid for the work, then it is billable! How the Customer gets billed, Managed Service Agreement or Line Item on the invoice,should not be a concern of the Support Team.If it is warranty work, business development, or in some cases,travel, then yes, it is non-billable. The rest of the work is all billable and uses a billable Work Type.”

-Adam V. (former supervisor)

Gary Pica ofTruMethodsfame says a good Preventative Maintenance / QBR program will return 30% of MRR as project work.

Last year alone, Advanced Global helped 26 MSPs to Streamline their Invoicing Process.The guidance included a roadmap on how to get from there to here, a project plan that guaranteesresults, and knowing what to do when.

The resultswerepretty impressive, showing a3-18% of MRR gained in T&M invoicing to Managed Service Clients. That is a huge increase to bottom-line profit without incurring any ongoing expense – just capturing lost profit.This is at least a 2X ROI and,in some cases,10X.

Tell me:Where else are you guaranteed to double your money orgetyour money back?

I imagine your eyes are starting to glaze over right now, thinking about how this must be some long, complicated, unattainableprocess.

Gaining 3-18% MRR in a feweasy stepssounds like a 3 am infomercial, right?ButI’mserious:what we teach is no“buy one get one free”gimmick. Stay with me just a bit longer and decide for yourself.

So, what is the easy6-step process?Since you asked…

1. Understanding what is in the signed MSAs

2. Mapping Out of Agreement type of work

3. Reduce the number ofRoles and Work Types

4. Create Exclusion Sets for the different MSA levels of service

5. Create Contract TemplatesforbothSingleand Cascading Contracts

6. Copy the Contract Templates into the Client Accounts

1. All at once, deploying sweeping changes

2. As New Clients are onboard or as Contracts come up for renewal

Step 1: Understanding what is in the signed MSAs:

I remember the day an Account Manager tracked me down because he was honked off that we refused to schedule a PC install under the proactive,regularly scheduled Network Administration visits.It seemed the Customerdid not want to pay extra for the installation and therefore askedfor it to be done under the Recurring Network Administration Visits agreement.

My response to the Account Manager came from the President of the Company,who said, “No more Service Request work is to be done under the Network Administration agreements or during the pro-active visits; it’s to be billable time outside of the Managed Service Provider Agreement (MSA).”

A few minutes later, the same Account Manager returned with the signed MSA,whichclearlystatedthat Network Administration time covered “the Net Admin checklist, and any other work the Clientrequested.” I took a photocopy of the sectionof the agreement and sent it to my supervisor, informing him of whatI felt wehad to do – schedule the installationunder Net Admin time.

From my experience, this is not an isolated case.In fact,it’sbecome common for Service Delivery to not know what Sales issellingand what Sales says they are selling is not in the signed agreements nor in the PSA configurations.

Last year wewereimplementingour “Streamline the Invoicing”processtoan MSP Client. We asked the Owner,Office Manager,and Ops Manager what Type of Work was covered by the MSA agreements for eachClient. The Office Manager leaned forward in her chair and said,“Yes, what is in those Agreements?I would like to know!”

The steps weuseare quite simple:

1. Pull a list of Managed Service Clients(Search all Contracts, export to Excel, sort by Account, remove duplicates)

2. Use the Excel Spreadsheet as the map, and add columns forIncluded Type of WorkandExcluded Type of Work

3. Go throughClient by Client, filling in the extra columns

Step 2: Mapping Out of Agreement type of work:

With the Managed Service Client list in hand:

• Add another Column forContractTemplate Type.

• Group the Clients together based on the Excluded Type of Work.

• Title eachGroup Template A thru as many letters in the alphabetasyou need(note: it isnot uncommonto have6 or 7Groups. In otherwords,GroupA thru G or H).

Now, mapout each Templateusing this format:

ContractTemplateType ?:

GroupTitle:

(Ex:Bronze, Silver, Gold,Platinum)

(Ex:MonitoringOnly, Essentials, Advanced, Ultra)

Primary Contract:

(Ex:Managed Service Agreement)

Primary ContractProduct Line (Line ofBusiness):

Secondary Contract(s):

(Ex:Block Hours, T&M, Retainer, Fixed Price)

Secondary Contract(s) Product Line (Line ofBusiness):

Notes:

Exclusions:

Step 3:Reduce the number ofRoles and Work Types:

Autotask: “The purpose of Roles is to adjust the Billing Rate depending on the skill set needed to do the work.”We recommend having only one Role assigned to each Employee. That way,they do not need to check or change the Role when entering time. It is hard enough to encourage the Techs to do Real-Time Time Entry. If we make the process burdensome, we will never get theirbuy-inor participation.

Autotask:The purpose of Work Types is to adjust the Role Rate based on the type of work being doneorto exclude the Type of Work from the primaryContract.We recommend reducing the list of Work Types to only those needed to adjust the Standard Role Rate for non-Managed Service Clients (Afterhours, ProjectWork, Travel, On-Site, etc.) and for work excludedfromor limited by theMSAs. (Afterhours, Project Work, Travel, On-Site,Remote Work,VOIP,etc.)

Step 4: Create Exclusion Sets for the different MSA levels of service

For certainContract Template Types,a fair amount (more than 1) ofWork Typesareexcluded from the Agreements– Think: Monitoring Only. For these Template Types,it is easier to create anExclusionSet. Therefore, rather than adding a lot of individualWork Typesto each Clients’ Contracts, you can just add the Exclusion Set in a singlekeystroke.

Step 5: Create Contract Templates for both Single and Cascading Contracts

We recommend creatingasingleContract Template for each type ofContract that will be used. Ex: Recurring, T&M, Block Hour, Fixed Price, Retainer. Note:We only had one Client that useda Per Ticket Contract, and once we were done with the Streamlining Invoicing engagement, that Contractwentaway.

Once all the Single Contract Templates have been created:

• Reference the Contract Template Mappings

• BuildCascading Contract Templates

• Start by using the Contract Copy Wizard tocopythe primary Contract in the Cascade.

• Follow this by copyingall the Secondary Contracts and linking them to the preceding Contract(bysetting the Exclusion Contract in both the Primary Contract and all except the last Secondary Contracts)

• If no Work Type is covered byany of the Contracts in the Cascade, they will be excludedtothe Standard Role Rate in Approve and Post

Step 6: Copy the Contract Templates into the Client’sAccounts

Now the process isvery easy:Just use the Contract Copy Wizard to copy the templates into the Client accounts. Here you have three choices:

1. Not usingtheCascadingContractAutomatedframework…and continuingto lose 5-15% in monthly T&MBilling

2. Copy the Templates into all Client Accountson a specific date

3. Copy the Templates into Client Accounts as they are set to renew

Summary:

Whew! We made it. Thanks for hanging in there. I promised this would not beaRonco3000 “As seen on TV”MSP improvement gadget.

It is quick and easy, so you can begin making 2023 awesome right away.I know your next question:how long will it take?

Itshouldonlytakeabout9 hours to getthroughthe process,maybe alittle more if the only documented MSA is in the Owner’s head(which of course itisn’tbecauseOwnerscomplain about Techs notkeeping their documentation up to date…).

All that being said, weknow MSPOwners and Service Managers are pretty busy people and not alwayssuper knowledgeable about Autotask.

If you areleery ofgoing italone, Advanced Global is here to help. We are happy to guide youthroughthe process in6 weeksorless, andguaranteeyou will recoup5-15%non-MSA billable hours as T&M invoicing, not to mention reducingyourA&Pprocessing timeby 75%.

How canAdvanced Global afford toguarantee the results? Because we have atop-notchstreamlining evaluation,aroadmap on how to get fromtheretohere, and a deployment plan that provides agreat track record guiding 26 MSPs in 2022 thru the process, each one recouping 3-18%in more T&M Invoicing from their Managed Service Clients.

For more information on AdvancedGlobal’sStreamlining Invoicing program, just email[email protected]with the words“SI is for me”in the subject line.

Theelephantin theroom:

How do we know what we know? Because we are not philosophers! We arehands-on “How To” coaches that everyday guide MSPs on how to thrive by:

1. Fullyleveragingthe Autotask software

2. Providing the “Best in Class” Standard Operating Procedures

3. Leveraging Autotask Live Reports to hold everyone accountable

We are Thinkers and Doers with49+ years ofworking for MSPs,bringingrealBottom-LineImprovements,change, profitability, and Best in Class performance.

Here are a few bullet points to let anyone interested know who we are and what we do:

1. We Are–the Autotask Global Service Delivery Authority

2. We Help–MSPs thrive

3. We Solve–Service Delivery issues, inefficiencies, and challenges by making surethat:

1. MSPs know what theydon’tknow

2. Techs know what to work on next

3. Someone is managing all open tickets and driving them to completion

4. The Client has a great client experience

5. Real-Time Time Entry is a cultural habit

6. Projectsare completed On-Time and On-Budget

7. Profit is maximized

8. Autotask is being fully leveraged

9. The staffing levels are correct, and the workload is balanced

10. The historical data that is in the Autotask software is accessible to benchmark, track & USE effectively

11. The Service Delivery operations can scale

12. TheCompany can grow

4. Our Tools:

1. Autotask“Best in Class”standard build

2. OurMSProbustService Delivery SOP library

3. Advanced Live Reports

4. Expertisein providing a transformational experience

Note: We are not philosophers; we are doers with49+ years of Service Deliveryexperience, bringingrealService Delivery Improvement change, profitability, and Best in Class performance.

We start by offering aFREE No-Obligation PSA Configuration Evaluation.

Steve&Co