KB

Sign In

Prepaid Hours (PPH)





Depending on your industry, prepaid hours may be referred to by a number of other terms such as a prepayment invoice, support contract, a time bank, or a block of hours. Prepaid hours is when you sell a block of support hours to a customer for a set price. These hours are applied to the customer account. The hours are then reduced from the account as you log work for that customer.


Summary of prepaid hours features in OneDesk

  • Enable prepaid hours on a customer account.
  • Set the number of hours per block and price per block.
  • Charge for a block of prepaid hours using an invoice.
  • Deducts hours when time is logged for the customer in ‘prepaid hour projects’.
  • Remaining prepaid hours are indicated while your team is working.
  • View history of changes made to a customer’s prepaid hours.


Enable prepaid hours on a customer account

To sell prepaid hours to a customer you should enable PPH on their account as well as set the block price and number of hours per block. 

  • Go to More Applications >> Customers app >> select the desired Customer Organization.
  • Go to the Invoicing Prefs & PPH tab.
  • Click the box to Enable Prepaid Hours
  • Set the Price Per Prepaid Block - This will be the set cost for the PPH block. 
  • Set the Hours Per PrePaid Block - This will be the number of hours within the block.



You can now create a ‘Block of Hours’ invoice for the customer. Once the invoice is set as paid, the customer's account will be credited with the number of hours billed.  


Note: if you create a PPH invoice or project for a customer whose PPH is not enabled, you can automatically enable PPH for that customer. In this case, the customer will have a default block cost, with no remaining hours on the account.  



Sell / refill prepaid hours

Configure the Price Per Prepaid Block and Hours Per Block on the customer organization, as described above, if you have not already.


  • In the top bar, select Add >> Invoice.
  • Select the customer organization to bill. 
  • Select invoice for ‘Block of hours’.
  • Click 'Create' and the invoice will be generated with the customer's hours and price block as a line item.
  • You can add additional blocks or line items (tax, discount, etc) if desired.


 


Managing PPH

Hours are reduced when time is logged on prepaid hour projects for the intended customer

In the top toolbar, click Add >> Project >> select the Customer Organization >> under 'how will you invoice for this project', select 'Prepaid hours.'



If you have an existing project with no invoice method you can also change it into a PPH project. Go to the project detail panel >> set the invoice method >> add a customer requester. If the project already has an invoice method or a different requester, you cannot change it and you will need to create a new project instead. 


Log time on tickets or tasks within the project timer or add timesheet. As time is logged, hours are reduced from the customer account.


Remaining hours for the customer are indicated on:

  • On the timesheet (when logging time within a PPH project).




  • On the requester card (on the ticket/task with a PPH project).


  • On the project requester card (if it is a PPH project).
  • Within the customer detail panel.


When PPH is low, refill the hours by invoicing the customer as described above. 


Prepaid hours settings

Global settings affect prepaid hours for all customer accounts. 


Go to Admin >> Financials. 


Minimum invoice work per timesheet

  • The smallest amount of invoice work that can be reduced from a customer account. For example, if the minimum amount is set to 10 minutes and my agent logs 3 minutes, 10 minutes will be reduced from the account.  (The default of 1 minute will work for most companies). 


Round up excess time 

  • Any amount above the 'minimum invoice work' will be rounded to the nearest value set. Let's say my 'minimum invoice work' is set to 10 minutes and my 'round up excess time' is set to 5 minutes. If my agent logs 12 minutes, it will be rounded to 15 minutes. If my agent logs 9 minutes, then only the minimum will apply, so the time logged will be 10 minutes. 


Indicate when pre-paid hours fall below

  • Remaining prepaid hours will be highlighted in red when below this number


Other settings

To set your company address and logo (visible on the invoice), go to Admin >> Company Preferences. 

Be sure to set the billing contact on the customer organization before sending an invoice. This can be done from the customer organization >> Invoicing Prefs. & PPH tab.


History of PPH

You can view the history of changes made to a customer’s PPH account. 


Go to More Applications >> Customers >> select the customer organization and tab to Invoicing Prefs. & PPH. 

The history of changes include:

  • Block of hours invoices that increased remaining hours on the account.
  • Any time logged that reduced the hours.
  • Any manual adjustments to the PPH made by an admin user.