IT services
IT contracts and hour banks drawn down from the ticket
OKTO PSA is MSP contract management software: each client has a contract, a prepaid hour bank and a recurring invoice. Time logged on a ticket is drawn from the bank, unused hours can carry over, and the Hours to bill screen shows what is left to invoice.
Coverage rules, project contracts and Hours to bill are modules the administrator turns on themselves.
What is an IT contract in OKTO PSA?
It is the record of what the client bought, for how long, and how it gets billed. It does not live in a spreadsheet next to your service desk: tickets, logged time and the invoice are all tied to it.
A contract can be a managed plan billed every month, a prepaid hour bank or a project contract, and each keeps its own rules.
Managed plan
The amount comes back every month through a recurring invoice built from a template, for example a per-seat price plus licences. The contract is what that invoice hangs on.
Prepaid hour bank
A set number of hours comes back each period, with a validity of so many months. Hours are drawn down as your technicians log time.
Project contract
For bounded work such as a migration. It is a separate module, off by default, that the administrator turns on when needed.
How does an hour bank get drawn down?
Through the time logged on the ticket. The technician does not open a second tool to debit the bank: they log time as usual, and the balance follows.
Set up the bank on the contract
You set the hours, the validity in months and whether unused hours carry over. The recurring invoice links to the same contract.
Log time on the ticket
A technician fixes a ticket for an 18-seat accounting firm and logs 1.5 h. That is the only entry.
Watch the bank go down
The 1.5 h come out of the client’s bank. No retyping, no month-end reconciliation.
Fix mistakes cleanly
Delete a time entry and its hours go back into the right bank. A wrong-client entry does not leave a hole in the balance.
The draw-down starts from the ticket, so the hour balance is only as accurate as the time your team logs.
What happens to unused hours?
You decide contract by contract. Carry-over is possible: unused hours move to the next period. Without it, they end with the period. The validity in months caps both.
Why this rule matters before the first invoice
A client who prepays 40 hours and uses 25 will ask where the other 15 went. The answer has to be in the contract already, and the software has to follow it without anyone redoing it from memory. Written down once, it also stops technicians from improvising an answer on the phone. To write the clause itself, read our guide to billing prepaid hour banks.
- Carry-over allowed or not, set on the contract.
- Validity in months: a bank does not last forever.
- The recurring invoice stays linked to the contract, not to someone’s memory.
How do you say what is covered and what is billable?
With coverage rules, a module the administrator turns on. They spell out which work the contract absorbs and which work stays billable. Without them, each technician rules their own way, and clients notice.
What is covered
Day-to-day user support, for instance. The logged time draws down the contract or plan.
What is billed on top
An office move, for instance. The time does not touch the bank and waits to be invoiced.
One rule, one place
The decision is written once, not repeated to every new technician.
One client, one contract
A client on a per-seat plan and another on an hour bank are not handled alike, and the contract knows it.
Why take hour banks out of the spreadsheet?
Because a spreadsheet depends on someone updating it. On a busy evening it is the first chore to slip, and the balance turns into an opinion.
One action
Time is logged once, on the ticket. The draw-down is not a second task.
A balance you can defend
Every hour taken from the bank points to a ticket. If the client disputes it, you open the ticket.
A team that sees the same thing
The on-call technician and the person who invoices read the same contract, not two versions of a file.
What is the Hours to bill screen for?
To see the logged time that has to become an invoice, before you prepare it. It is an optional module, off by default. It prevents the classic MSP slip: hours worked in March, spotted in May. Along with the coverage rules, it gives whoever invoices one place to look instead of digging through tickets one by one.
| Contract type | What recurs | What OKTO PSA does |
|---|---|---|
| Managed plan | An amount each month | Recurring invoice linked to the contract, from a template |
| Hour bank | Hours each period | Draw-down from the ticket, carry-over, validity in months |
| Project | A bounded piece of work | Project contract (module to turn on) |
And then, the invoice?
The plan’s recurring invoice goes out with the taxes of the client’s province, and its payment can come back from QuickBooks. It is all covered on the IT billing, taxes and QuickBooks page.
What ships and what does not
So we do not promise what the product does not do, here is the exact line.
- Available: prepaid hour banks, validity, carry-over, draw-down from the ticket, linked recurring invoice.
- Available, to be turned on by the administrator: coverage rules, project contract, Hours to bill.
- Not yet: the client cannot see their bank balance in the portal. Send it yourself, for example in a monthly report.
Frequent questions
The questions we get asked
Your question is not here?
Write to us. A person in Trois-Rivières answers, within one business day.
Ask your questionYes. A contract carries recurring prepaid hours, a validity in months and a linked recurring invoice. Hours are drawn down as time is logged on tickets.
Yes, carry-over is possible. You set it contract by contract, along with the validity in months. Without carry-over, hours end with the period.
The hours go back into the bank they came from. The balance corrects itself without anyone redoing the math by hand.
Not yet. The portal does not show an hour balance or a contract. You can send the balance yourself, for example in a monthly report.
They are separate modules, off by default. The client’s administrator turns them on in their own settings, along with the project contract.
Your contracts finally follow your tickets
Tell us how you sell time today: plan, hour bank or project. We will show you the draw-down on your own cases.
OKTO Solutions, Trois-Rivières, Quebec