Move an item as a reference to another order

You have an order item that shouldn’t actually be billed in the current order, but in a different one – e.g. an ongoing maintenance contract. Instead of deleting the item and recreating it, you move it as a reference. It stays visible in the source order but is billed in the target order. Both sides know the reference. The source order stays valid, and the maintenance item runs in the right contract.

What the mechanism is for

If you have long-running service contracts, new items are added over the years. The customer sends you the expansion order with three new maintenance items – you don’t want to bill them in the expansion order, but in the large maintenance contract, where twelve items already sit.

The other way round: you write a new quote with a licence plus maintenance. As soon as the customer places the order, the maintenance item and licence should move into the maintenance contract that bills monthly – the original order sends out the purchase licence only once.

The item-as-a-reference mechanic does both: an item can be visible in two orders but is billed in only one.

Prerequisite – enable the standard maintenance contract

teamspace offers the function automatically when a customer has a standard maintenance contract stored. You switch on the field for this in the CRM:

Configuration → CRM → Settings → Organisations → Field visibility → (search "maintenance") → Standard maintenance contract → Visible

You can additionally enable the maintenance contract to be shown in the service note on the customer.

Prerequisites: The Standard maintenance contract field must be active for you to be able to enter a maintenance contract on a customer at all. Without this field, teamspace can’t tell which order is the “standard target order” when moving.

Creating the maintenance contract

Before you move an item as a reference, you need an order that serves as the maintenance contract – that is a normal order marked as the standard maintenance contract in the customer link:

1. Create a new order – Finance → Purchase and contract management → New document → type Order confirmation. Name e.g. Maintenance contract Ingo.
2. Add a starting item – a monthly licence or other recurring item (e.g. L1, two units, start date). This turns the order into a real contract with content.
3. Validate the order – via Create order confirmation. The draft becomes a valid order.
4. Enter it on the customer – open the organisation, and in the Standard maintenance contract field select the new order. This tells teamspace: For this customer, that is the collective order for maintenance items.

Note: You set the Billing mode (e.g. Rules for monthly billing) in the order’s contract data. How it works is explained in Recurring invoices.

Moving an item as a reference

Now the actual step. You’re in an order with several items – say, a new order with a monthly licence and a one-off purchase licence. The monthly one should go into the maintenance contract, the one-off purchase stays in the order.

1. Open the item – in the Items tab, via the three-dots menu of the monthly licence, choose the action Move item to another order.
2. Choose the target order – teamspace pre-fills the Standard maintenance contract field with the contract stored on the customer. You can also choose any other order; the system doesn’t restrict this.
3. Confirm – save.

What happens: the item stays in the source order but is shown there in grey and marked as a reference. From now on teamspace bills it only in the target order.

What you see on the referenced item

In the source order the item stays in the list – keeping the order “complete” and valid. It is visually grey and carries a note that it is billed as a reference in another order.

In the target order (e.g. the maintenance contract) the same item appears. There it shows that it comes from another order – with a note pointing to the source order. Billing, the billing run and time bookings run on the target order.

Important: Don’t delete the original item from the source order. It is the source of the reference; if you delete it, the link in the target order disappears too. If you no longer need an item, deactivate the reference and consider whether you really want to cancel both sides.

When this comes up in your day-to-day

Three typical cases:

• Expansion order into the collective maintenance contract: The customer expands their licence holding. The expansion quote contains the purchase licence and the maintenance item. You move the maintenance item into the maintenance contract, the purchase licence stays in the expansion order – a clean separation of one-off sale and ongoing billing.
• Lean quote, large order in the background: You send a quote with five items; the maintenance contract in the background has ten more items. After the order is placed, you move the five items into the large maintenance contract. The quote stays clear, the maintenance contract grows.
• Several contracts per customer: A customer has one maintenance contract for the licences and a separate one for managed support. The standard maintenance contract covers only one – when moving, you deliberately choose the right target order instead of blindly taking the suggestion.

Interaction with the other strands

When you have a maintenance item created via the workflow toggle maintenance items, it initially stays in the source order. If this customer has a maintenance contract, the next step is almost always: move the item there as a reference. The two mechanics are made to run in sequence – first create the maintenance item, then move it into the right contract.

The reference mechanic isn’t directly connected to the product manager (templates). A moved item remains visible to the template analysis – it still counts towards the customer’s product size, no matter which order it is billed in.

Common questions & needs

Related topics

• Generate maintenance items for sales articles (with video) Product management How-to
• The two strands: product manager & workflow helpers Product management Concept
• Recurring invoices Invoicing How-to
• Manage organisations CRM How-to