Overview
Contracts often need changes while work is in progress, sometimes multiple times for a single contract. Aspire lets you revise a contract and apply those revisions to future work, while keeping a history of the work already completed under the previous contract terms. You can add new services, edit existing services, remove services entirely, change the items used for a service, and move services between the active and optional sections in the estimate.
This article explains how to change an existing contract instead of creating a new one from scratch.
Important
If you need to change the number of service visits or occurrences, we recommend canceling the original contract and creating a new one to replace it. Changing occurrence counts through a contract revision may cause problems.
Things to know
Each time you start a contract change, Aspire creates a new revision within the same contract. The contract keeps its original opportunity number. The original contract is revision v.0, and successive revisions are numbered in order (v.1, v.2, v.3, etc.).
A single revision can include multiple individual changes. For example, you might add two services, remove one, and adjust item costs on another, all in the same revision.
When you view a revised estimate, you can see the full revision history for each service. Look for the version tags (v.0, v.1, etc.) to the left of the services.
While a change is pending, you can still schedule and complete active tickets based on the existing contract version, not the pending one.
You can't remove a service that has pending changes. Undo the pending changes first, then remove the service.
Requirements
To access the Opportunities module, you need either the View Opportunities or View Only My Opportunities permission.
To make a change on a contract, you need the Change Contract Opportunity permission.
Workflow summary
There are three main steps to changing a contract:
Start the contract change
Make changes to the contract estimate services (add, remove, edit, or relocate)
Win the contract change
The following sections walk through each step in detail, along with the additional options available while a revision is pending.
Create a contract change
Go to the Opportunity screen for the contract you want to change.
Select the three-dot icon next to the Save button, then select Change.
Note
The Change option is only available when the opportunity has the In Production job status, and the opportunity either has no revisions or its current revision is still active.
In the Change Opportunity window, enter a New Revision Start Date no later than the latest Opportunity Start Date or the Active Revision Start Date, if any. The start date must also be earlier than the Opportunity End Date.
Select the Save icon to start the revision.
Note
If the opportunity has already had at least one revision, the Active Revision Start Date also displays in the Change Opportunity window.
After you select Save, a new revision is created, and the opportunity’s status changes to In Production (**Changes Pending**). This status remains until you win or cancel the change.
What happens while changes are pending
While a change is pending, Aspire removes the following options from the three-dot menu on the Opportunity screen, since they shouldn't be used during a pending change:
Renew
Change
Cancel
Copy
Reset to Bidding
Save as Template
While the revision is pending, you can apply any of the following updates to the contract:
Add a new service
Remove an active service
Edit an active service
Move a service between active and optional
Important
Communicate with your team when a contract is being changed. Active tickets can still be scheduled and completed under the existing contract version while the revision is pending, which can lead to tickets being completed that you had intended to change. Coordinating with your team helps avoid these conflicts.
Making revisions
Tip
You don't have to make all your changes at once. You can leave the Estimate screen and come back later to make updates, as long as you haven't won the revision yet.
From the opportunity, select the Estimate tab.
Add services and update pricing and quantities like you normally would when building an estimate. New service lines display their revision number in green.
To remove an active service that’s no longer needed, select the three-dot icon next to the service, and select Delete. Removed services remain on the estimate and have a red icon next to them.
To undo a removal, select the three-dot icon next to the removed service and select Undo.
Note
Additions and removals in an active revision are pending until you win the revision. After you win the revision, you can no longer undo removals.
Edit an active service with multiple occurrences
You can change a service that has multiple occurrences, even if some of those occurrences have already happened.
When viewing the Estimate, select the three-dot icon next to the service, then select Change.
In the Change service window that appears, use the dropdown to select the first ticket the change should be applied to. The dropdown only lists tickets in Open or Scheduled status. Changes apply to the ticket you select and all tickets that follow it.
Select the Save icon.
Back on the Estimate screen, the changed service displays with yellow bars on either end, and two versions of the service appear:
The original service before the change, marked v.0.
The new changed service, marked with the next revision number (for example, v.1).
You can now edit the individual fields and items on the new version of the service.
Edit the starting ticket for a multi-occurrence service change
If you need to change the starting work ticket after creating a change on a multi-occurrence service, select the service to open its Service Details screen. Select the Begin Change on Work Ticket field and select a different ticket, then select Save.
Reduce the number of occurrences for a service
Caution
Avoid changing the number of service occurrences through a contract change. If you need to change the number of occurrences, cancel the original contract and create a new one to replace it.
When you win a change where you reduced a service’s occurrence total, Aspire cancels the number of open or scheduled tickets necessary to match the new number of occurrences, starting from the last ticket.
Important
Make sure there are enough open or scheduled tickets for Aspire to cancel. If there aren't, you'll get an error when you try to win the change.
Move a service between active and optional sections
While a revision is pending, you can change active services into optional services or optional services into active services.
On the Estimate screen, click and drag the grid icon to the left of the service and move it to the section you want. Confirm the change when prompted.
Note
When moving an active service to the Optional Services section, the service is duplicated and given a new revision number that displays in the Optional Services section.
Edit or undo contract changes
The three-dot menu at the top right corner of the estimate has the Edit Contract Change and Undo Contract Change options.
Edit Contract Change reopens the Change Opportunity window so you can update the revision start date while the change is still pending.
Undo Contract Change removes all pending service additions, removals, and changes from the contract and clears the Changes Pending status.
Tip
Remember that you can undo changes to individual services by clicking the three-dot icon next to the service and selecting Undo.
View the Pricing Summary
The Pricing Summary screen shows the expected cost and margin for the contract as if changes have already been applied. This means that deleted services or prior versions of new services aren’t included.
To access the Pricing Summary, select the three-dot icon at the top right corner of the estimate, and select Pricing Summary.
Pricing Summary Cost and Overhead
The Pricing Summary separates contract value into two categories:
Cost shows the direct costs for labor and materials in the estimate. This is the Purchase Cost for a specific item, including any burden that may come with that item.
Overhead shows the value generated from the markup percentages defined in Administration. Aspire considers all pricing created by markup percentages to be overhead.
Note
When the markup on a Service Type in Administration is 100%, the Cost and Overhead values are equal, which corresponds to a 50% Gross Margin (GM). A difference between cost and overhead appears only when markups are over or under 100%.
Print the Estimate Sheet
The estimate sheet generates a summary of all material and labor costs on the estimate, and is most often used to confirm pricing with vendors before delivering the bid to the customer.
Select the three-dot icon at the top right corner of the estimate.
Select Print Estimate Sheet.
In the Report Settings window that appears, choose a Report Layout and Export Type.
Select Print.
Tip
Estimate sheet layouts can be customized. To request a layout change, submit a layout request to AspireCare. For more information, read our article about Using the Layouts Catalog.
Print a proposal with changes
When you’re done updating the estimate, you can print a new proposal that includes the contract revisions.
On the Estimate screen, select the three-dot icon.
Select Print Proposal.
In the Report Settings window, configure the proposal options:
Opportunity Revision Through - Select the revision the proposal should be based on. For example, selecting revision 1 generates the proposal based on the second revision (v.1).
Include Revision History - Select this checkbox to include line items from contract versions earlier than the selected revision.
Select Print.
Win a contract change
After the customer accepts the proposal, it’s time to win the change. In the Estimate, select the three-dot icon in the top right corner, and select Win Contract Change.
Before completing the change, Aspire checks the following:
That there are enough open or scheduled tickets to cancel if the change reduces occurrences.
That all tickets following the selected starting ticket are in Open or Scheduled status if the change includes a price change.
If either of these checks fails, Aspire displays an error message and no changes are applied. You must correct any errors before you can win the change.
Note
If the opportunity uses the Fixed Payment invoice type, you're also prompted to update the payment schedule before the change is fully won.
What happens after winning a change
When you win the change, Aspire creates, updates, or cancels tickets based on the changes you made:
Removed services/Moved services from active to optional: Aspire cancels open or scheduled tickets that have no time or materials recorded. The status of the removed service is set to Inactive. Inactive services continue to display on the Estimate screen, but they’re highlighted in gray.
Added services: Aspire creates new tickets as if the contract had just been won. The new tickets display with the new version number.
Updated services: Aspire moves open or scheduled tickets to the new version, starting with the ticket you selected.
Increased number of occurrences: Aspire adds tickets to match the new count and sets their Anticipated Start Date to match the last previously existing ticket.
Decreased number of occurrences: Aspire cancels open or scheduled tickets, starting from the last ticket, to match the new count. For example, if monthly mowing is decreased from 12 occurrences to 10, visits 11 and 12 are automatically canceled.
Price and item changes: Aspire applies the new price to existing tickets, starting with the ticket you selected. Item changes apply to the items on the affected tickets.
After the change is won, the previous version of each updated service continues to display on the Estimate screen, highlighted in gray. You can expand earlier versions to examine their items and kits.
Renew a changed contract
When you renew a contract that’s been changed, Aspire creates the renewal based on the most recent revision. For example, if you renew a contract where mowing service v.0 was replaced by mowing service v.1, the renewal uses the v.1 mowing service.