Working with Subcontractors During Snow Season

The most common cause is a Flat Fee auto expense on a Fixed Payment service. Fixed Payment work sits on one work ticket for each occurrence, usually one for the whole season, and that ticket stays open all season, so a Flat Fee expense has nothing to generate against. Change the fee type to Hourly or Catalog Item. Fixed Payment auto expenses need one of these. Next, check whether the expense was triggered. T&M and Per Service expenses go to the Purchasing Assistant on their own once time is accepted and the ticket is Pending Approval or Complete, but Fixed Payment expenses appear only after you select Bulk Actions > Trigger Auto Expense Creation. If you did trigger them, check that the date you chose covers the visits you expect, because expenses generate only up through that date. Other causes: an in-house crew reported the time instead of the subcontractor, the visit was never on the Schedule Board, or the reporting contact isn't associated with the company named on the auto expense.

Usually a missing auto expense rather than an app or portal problem. A service displays for a subcontractor only when an auto expense exists for that subcontractor on the opportunity service, the opportunity is won, the date selected falls within the opportunity's start and end dates, and the service is either As Needed or has tickets in open or scheduled status. Adding services they aren't scheduled for also requires a setting on the Time Reporting tab in Administration > Configuration: Enable Sub tickets to be created from Aspire Mobile for Aspire Mobile, or Enable Tickets to be Created From Sub Portal for the portal.

When a receipt's received date falls after the completed date of a ticket on it, that cost can post to warranty instead of to the job. A receipt covering several days of an event takes the first day as its received date so costs for tickets completed earlier in the event aren't affected. If you've already set it too late, select Unapprove to return the receipt to Received status, then Unreceive to return it to New. Correct the received date, then receive and approve it again.

Fixed Payment work gets one work ticket for each occurrence on the service, and most seasonal services have one occurrence for the whole season, so hours accumulate across every visit. An expense showing 17.08 hours may represent many visits. T&M and Per Service work generates a separate ticket each time, so each expense covers one occurrence. To pay a set amount instead of the accumulated hours, change the quantity in the Purchasing Assistant before you create the purchase receipt. Entering "1" pays a single unit at the auto expense rate rather than the full accrued hours.

No. Aspire skips visits that already have a generated expense and picks up only new ones. If a subcontractor says they weren't paid for a day they worked, add their time to the work ticket in Time Entry, then select Bulk Actions > Trigger Auto Expense Creation, with a date that covers the missing day. The Anticipated Start Date field in that window is the date expenses generate up through, not the opportunity's start date.

Effectively, yes. Auto expenses key off the company, and purchase receipts key off the vendor list, so your subcontractor needs both records. Without the vendor, you'll set up the auto expense successfully and then have no vendor to receive against. Add vendors at Administration > Application > Lists > Vendor, or set them up in your accounting system and sync them so you're not maintaining them twice.

Yes. Nothing about the Subcontractor Portal or auto expenses is snow-specific. The same setup and workflow apply to any subcontracted service, including commercial clean and construction. Snow is simply where most companies use subcontractors heavily enough to need it, and where seasonal contracts make the Fixed Payment behavior worth understanding.