Well, I’m a little later than intended but here, finally, is part 2 of our blog series, Managing client-owned equipment in ConnectWise PSA!
There’s not a natural way to do this in ConnectWise PSA, but we’ve come up with a couple of ways to handle the requirements. Both have their manual steps, but there’s a clear winner, in my opinion. We’ll cover that winning process today.
Last week, our blog posted covered method 1, using the Inventory module. There are some significant risks of using that capability for this purpose. You can review those here: Managing Client Owned Equipment – Part 1
What’s the alternative? For method 2 we’re going to use Configurations to store, track, and deploy customer-owned equipment.
Prerequisites: Setup a new Configuration Type to be used just for customer-owned equipment processes like, “Client Owned Stock”. Setup new Configuration Statuses for the following: “Stored at <your MSP name>”, “Stored at Customer”, and “Deploying”.
Step 1: Ordering and fulfilling products, invoicing the client.
- Quote, fulfil, and invoice the products, as usual: The client accepts the quote, and it’s won and converted according to your normal Quote-to-Cash processes.
- Pivotal Pro Tip: When an order is for equipment the customer wants you to store and track, we’d suggest using a Service Ticket or Project. Use for managing the order, putting it into stock, etc. You can use Task lists or Project Templates to manage consistent requirements.
- Following your company policies, the product orders are managed (ie. Down payment invoices sent, orders placed with distribution, products received, etc.)
- Client is invoiced for the equipment. Confirmation of the displacement of the equipment should be sent, as well (good use of the ticket or project mentioned above!)
Step 2: Adding the equipment into customer-owned ‘stock’, using Configurations.
- After the equipment is received, create Configurations for each piece of equipment for the company that bought the equipment.
- Status would be set appropriate to where the equipment is being stored: Stored at <your MSP name> or Stored at Customer.
- For Stored at Customer, use the site field to select the customer site where this equipment will be stored.
Step 3: Deploying Equipment.
- When there’s a request to deploy equipment from customer-owned storage, use a service ticket or a project.
- Add the configurations to be deployed to that ticket/project. Change the status of each configuration to ‘Deploying’.
- Follow your normal service or project ticket processes for performing the service and deploying the stored equipment.
- Finally, the service is invoiced. At this time, the of the deployed equipment Configurations should be set to Inactive.
Step 4 (optional): If you allow the client to buy products elsewhere and store in your facility
- Follow step 2 above to put the products into the client’s warehouse
- Follow step 3 above to deploy the products
The above processes use standard Configuration management processes, which makes it undeniably easier to keep this equipment separate from your own inventory and a much better process for MSPs who don’t use Inventory class products today.
No matter which method you elect to use, good auditing or inventorying processes for equipment stored on behalf of customers would be critical for both your own management of the equipment and for reporting to the customer.
We’ve covered option 2 for managing client-owned equipment, using the Configurations in ConnectWise PSA.
If you have questions or need assistance with your ConnectWise configuration, Pivotal Crew is here to help! Reach out to us for expert advice tailored to your needs.