Agent types
Agents → Agents. The register is tabbed by what kind of agent each is.
| Tab | Holds |
|---|---|
| Finance | Finance companies and funders |
| Internal Service | Service agents that are part of your own business |
| External Service | Service agents that are not |
The two-level classification
The first split is finance or service. A finance agent sits behind the funding of a machine; a service agent does service work.
Service agents carry a second classification — internal or external. Internal service agents are your own operation; external ones are third parties working on your behalf. The distinction matters because it drives how their work is reconciled and disbursed, and the reconciliation types are named accordingly.
Two dimensions, formally
Agents are classified on two axes, and both appear on the agent form:
| Dimension | Values | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Class | Service or Finance | A service agent maintains assets; a finance agent sits behind the finance component of a contract |
| Type | Internal or External | Internal is one of your own business entities acting in a service capacity; external is an independent third party |
A single contract can have several service agents — different agents responsible for assets in different geographic areas, for instance.
Setting one up
New Agent on the index. The form has three parts.
Core fields — Business Name, Trading Name, Agent Code, Description, Agent Type, Do we bill on behalf of this agent? (an RCTI arrangement — a Recipient Created Tax Invoice), Does this agent bill on our behalf?, Consolidate Invoices, Linked User, Geo Area, and Start Agent Accounting From.
Agent accounting settings — Base Due Months, Base Due Day, Reconciliation Item Level, Invoice Import Service, Generate RCTI Invoice?, RCTI Prefix and RCTI Sequence.
Note
The two billing questions are not the same and are not opposites. Do we bill on behalf of this agent? sets up an RCTI, where you raise the invoice the agent would otherwise send you. Does this agent bill on our behalf? is the reverse. An agent relationship can involve either, both or neither.
Service agent settings — where a service agent's rates live, and the reason a visit's charge, travel and labour lines come out as they do: Track Stock? and its Warehouse, Callout Charge and its cost, Callout Time Included, Labour Rate Per Hour, Labour Time Blocks, Travel Chargeable?, Travel Time Included, and Labour Cost Rate.
Note
These settings are why a cleared visit produces the lines it does. A job showing a callout charge, a travel line and an additional-labour line is applying this agent's rates — including how much callout and travel time was already included before anything extra is charged. Two agents on the same job type will bill differently, correctly.
Columns
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | The agent |
| Phone, Email | Contact details. REQUIRED FIELD appears where a mandatory detail has not been filled in |
| Suburb | Location |
| Agent Class | The classification, e.g. finance |
Where agents appear elsewhere
| Module | Where |
|---|---|
| Sales | A deal's Financed By is a finance agent |
| Service | A job's Service Agent is the business unit responsible; engineers can work for more than one |
| Stock | Purchase invoices can be generated from agent reconciliations |
| Xero | Those purchase invoices are pushed as accounts payable |