What is a Service Contract? #

A service contract is an agreement with a customer that allocates a fixed number of service hours over a defined period. It is the core billing unit in DMSI Service Management. Every service request can be linked to a contract, and every time entry logged against that request automatically deducts from the contract’s hour balance.

Contract Number Format #

Each contract is assigned a unique identifier when it is created. The format is:

SVC-YYYY-NNNNN

• SVC is a fixed prefix
• YYYY is the four-digit year
• NNNNN is a zero-padded sequential number

For example: SVC-2026-00042

Hour-Based Billing Concept #

Contracts operate on a prepaid hour model. When a contract is created, a fixed number of hours is allocated. As service requests are handled and time is logged by staff, those hours are deducted from the balance in real time. Administrators and customers can see how many hours have been used and how many remain.

When a contract’s hour balance reaches the configured alert thresholds (default: 70% and 90% usage), the system triggers alerts and can send notifications to the customer and administrator.

Contract Lifecycle #

A contract moves through the following statuses:

• Active – Contract is in effect, hours are available for use
• Expiring – Contract is within the expiration warning window
• Expired – End date has passed
• Cancelled – Manually cancelled before expiration
• Suspended – Temporarily paused; time cannot be logged against it