The prepaid block of time is different from the service contract. The IT service contract is specific to the type of things it will do: maintenance, upgrades, etc. The prepaid block of time is just that: time.

Example: The customer confirms that their normal hourly rate is $100 per hour. If you pay 20 hours in advance, you will receive a discount of $10 per hour.

Get your IT service contract in writing

You might still want some sort of single point of contact agreement, software licenses and confidentiality clauses. normally load these.In exchange for the client paying X hours upfront, you get that discount, and then it’s just a matter of setting up your accounting. Most importantly, you need to be able to generate a renewal notification when they’re pretty close. to waste your time

Of course, the big benefit is that you get the cash flow up front and don’t have to worry about getting stuck in an accounts receivable. The downside is that it’s not as regular as an upfront agreement because you’re selling a fixed price with a specific start and finish for the IT service, as opposed to more definite long-term options.

Make sure you offer a valuable IT service.

The best thing you can do is make sure you put some sort of proactive regime in place for them and check in with them regularly to make sure you’re looking after their continued safety. You need to make sure your backup is working properly and that the relatively small things that happen around the office are documented and prioritized so you can fix them.

Don’t let the pre-paid time allotment put you in the mode where it’s more of a one time deal with IT service. You want to make sure everything you do is geared toward long-term relationships.