Syncro's Prepay Hours (also known as Block Hours) feature allows you to:

• Sell pre-paid blocks of service hours to clients,
• Add Prepay Hours as a line item to an Invoice,
• Automatically deduct Prepaid Hours and adjust the balance when tracking labor,
• Clear/reset Prepay Hours on recurring invoices, 
• Track Prepay Hours in reports, added them to service level agreements and contracts, or combine them with discounts in the form of packaged deals.

With Prepay Hours, your clients know what they pay every month, and you receive steady revenue whether or not they use the service.

Note: There isn't an option to add discounts to Prepay Hours. Discounts must be added using the same discount method for all invoice line items.

Enable Prepay Hours

To enable Prepay Hours on your account, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Admin > Customers - Preferences.
2. Check the “Enable the Prepay Hours Tracking Feature” box.     
3. Click Save.

Create the Prepay Hours Product

Next you'll need to create Prepay Hours as a Product. Follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the Products & Services tab (it might be under the "More" menu).
2. Click +New Item.
3. Enter values for any required fields. Make sure the selected radio button is “Product or Service.”
4. From the Category dropdown menu, select “Prepay Hours.”
   Tip: Products with the category "Prepay Hours" ADD prepaid hours to a (Customer) Organization's account, while Products with the category "Labor" SUBTRACT hours from their account.
5. In the Price field, enter the price for ONE hour of prepaid labor. 
   IMPORTANT: You can only create an item for ONE hour, not multiple hours. If you want to sell a block of 20 Prepaid Hours, you must still enter the price for one hour of labor. Then, when you add the item to a Ticket or Invoice, you'll enter a quantity of 20.
6. Click Create Product.

Sell Prepaid Hours

You can now add Prepay Hours as a line item to an Invoice. Follow these steps:

1. Create an Invoice.
2. In the LINE ITEMS section's search field, enter the name of the Prepay Hours product you created and select it:   
   
3. Specify the Quantity in the QTY cell. Remember: the Product is for ONE hour of prepaid labor, so if you want to sell a block of 20 hours, enter 20.
4. Click Create Line Item. Syncro tallies the total price for the quantity sold.
5. Scroll to the top and click Take Payment.

As soon as you add the prepaid hours to the Invoice, they'll show up in the Overview section of the (Customer) Organization's Details Page, even if they haven't paid for them yet:

Apply Prepaid Hours to Labor Charges

1. Add labor hours to a Ticket as usual.
2. At the top of the Ticket, click Make Invoice. Syncro automatically applies any Prepaid Hours against these labor hours:
   
   Note: If the number labor hours exceeds the prepaid hours, Syncro bills the remaining labor hours at their standard rate.

Create Expiration Dates for Prepaid Hours

If you have a Recurring Invoice set up for the (Customer) Organization and you want their Prepay Hours to expire and reset at the end of the month, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Invoices tab. 
2. Select “Recurring Invoices” from the Inventory Modules dropdown menu.
3. Click the appropriate Recurring Template Name to edit it.
4. On the right side of the screen just above the BILLING section, check the "Clear/Reset Prepay Hours (before this runs)" box.
5. Click Update Schedule.
6. Add the Prepay Hours item as a Line Item to your invoice and you're all set.

Don't Use Prepaid Hours for Certain Labor

There may be times when you want labor to display in the Ticket Timer/Labor Log for tracking, but don't want Prepaid Hours used for it.

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Admin > Products & Services - Preferences, and scroll to the Category Editor at the bottom.
2. Click Add to create a new Category. You must name it something that doesn't begin with the word “Labor” (e.g., “Non-Deductible Prepay Hours”).
3. Drag and drop that new Category into any category (except Labor) to make it a subcategory.

Tip: A small black triangle will appear to let you know you've grabbed a category. A green checkmark will show valid locations where you can drop it.