Now that you have a good handle on Invoicing, this training guide is going to cover some additional features that Business Leaders and Billers may be interested in. You'll learn how to create and use Estimates, sell and invoicing for Prepay (Block) Hours, take Deposits, issue refunds, and work with Store Credit. You'll also get a taste of procurement with Purchase Orders in an end-to-end example of using Syncro to replace laptops for a client.

Step 1: Send Estimates That Generate Income

Syncro's Estimates feature allows you to create Estimates, or quotes for potential services. You can also:

• Email estimates to your clients for review,
• Have your clients approve or decline estimates via the End User Portal,
• Create Tickets or Invoices from an Estimate (once your client has approved the work), and
• Create a PDF/Email Template for your Estimates. 

The metrics panel at the top of the Estimates page shows you where you stand with your estimates by tallying and displaying:

• The number of pending estimates,
• The dollar value of your estimates, and
• The ratio of estimates that were Approved vs. Declined (for the current and prior months).

 Review your Estimate Settings, then create a new Estimate for one of your Customer Organizations. (Bonus: Process the Estimate assuming you have the Organization's approval, then convert the Estimate to an Invoice using its Details Page.) 

Step 2: Sell & Use Prepay (Block) Hours

Note: An Administrator must configure your Syncro Account to enable the Prepay (Block) Hours feature.

 Use the Work with Prepay (Block) Hours documentation to sell 20 prepay hours (i.e. create a one-time Invoice) to one of your Customer Organizations.

Step 3: Automate Monthly Prepay (Block) Hours

What's even better about selling Prepay (Block) Hours is that you can automate the entire process to create a “use it or lose it” offering for your clients. Using a Recurring Invoice, your client is charged for the hours whether they use them or not, and any pending ticket charges are automatically deducted.

Watch this short video to see how it works: 

 If you plan to provide this kind of offering, go ahead and set it up for a Customer Organization now. 

Step 4: Take Deposits & Refund Payments

You can set up Syncro to collect deposits for a Ticket. To take deposits, you will need to:

• Enable the deposits feature in your Invoice Settings,
• Create deposits (e.g., a specific dollar amount and/or percentage) as Products,
• Take the deposit for a specific Ticket using the Actions menu on its Details Page.

If needed, you can also process Full or Partial Refunds for Tickets that have been invoiced.

Create a new Ticket for an Organization, then take a Deposit. (Bonus: Completely refund that deposit.) 

Step 5: Issue & Use Store Credit as Payment

Store Credit in Syncro is similar to a physical gift card. There are several places in Syncro where you can add and view Store Credit for a Customer Organization. Their Organization Details Page shows total Store Credit in the Overview section in the upper left, and as individual rows in the Payments section:

You can issue Store Credit as a refund for an Invoice, or for reasons entirely unrelated to a transaction. Any overpayments Organizations make on their Invoices also appear as Store Credit. Once an Organization has Store Credit, you can apply that credit to an Invoice as part of taking payment:

Review the Work with Store Credit documentation to learn more about it.

Step 6: Work with Purchase Orders

You can also create Purchase Orders (POs) in Syncro. A PO is a contract from a company that wants to buy products or services that is issued to a company that has/sells the product or service. The latter is also known as a Vendor. You can create and assign Vendors to Products and Services as well as to POs to better track where your parts are coming from. You can also email Vendors and mark items “Received” when they arrive.

Create a new PO associated with Best Buy (as the Vendor). Manually add a piece of hardware you might want from them and send them an email to let them know about your order.

Step 7: Use Estimates with Deposits & POs to Replace Client Equipment

Now let's walk through a scenario where an office wants your help replacing several laptops, which you'll need to procure. You'll want to:

• Create an Estimate for the purchase, 
• Take a Deposit, 
• Order and receive the equipment using a Purchase Order (PO), 
• Work a related Ticket, then 
• Invoice for the balance due.

Here's how it can be done:

Next Steps

If you've completed these steps, you're on your way to becoming a PSA pro in Syncro!

• If you haven't already, explore the Integrations & Marketplace Training Guide and make sure you check out the Universal Billing feature specifically.
• Or, explore the other available Training Guides.