Limits, troubleshooting & FAQ
Limits and constraints
| Constraint | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| One active service order per ticket | Enforced by a partial unique index, not just by the UI — the ?ticketId= form cannot bypass it |
resolved and escalated are dedicated transitions | Set through their own action, never a bulk status edit |
| An effective contract amendment is immutable | Corrections come as a new annex that supersedes the old one |
| A locked contract cannot be edited in place | Once an amendment is pending or signed, only whitelisted metadata changes; scope and price go through the annex |
| Approved timesheets cannot simply be rejected | Once staged or billed, rejection is blocked — void the invoice first |
| Void reverses the whole chain | Voiding an invoice reverts billing events, timesheets, materials and milestones — not just the status |
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| ”Create service order” is refused from a ticket | An active order already exists for that ticket | Open the existing order from the ticket’s chain |
| A ticket’s SLA looks wrong | The contract’s SLA policy overrides the company default | Check the contract, not just the company setting |
| Approved hours never appear in billing | They were billed through the timesheet shortcut instead of the queue | The two paths are mutually exclusive by billingStatus — check which one consumed them |
| Invoice generated with exchange rate 1 | Service contracts carry no exchange rate column | Set the rate on the draft invoice before posting |
| Helpdesk tickets are missing here | They are a different table | Customer Success helpdesk lives at /customer-success/helpdesk |
| A technician sees no tickets | Data-scope tier own and they are not the assignee | Assign them, or widen the tier |
FAQ
What’s the difference between a Service Contract and a Service Order? A Service Contract governs the ongoing relationship (scope, rates, term) and is where you set up T&M or retainer billing. A Service Order is a specific, billable piece of work — usually raised under a contract — that the team actually delivers and bills.
What’s a contract amendment, and when do I need one? An amendment is a formal, approved change to a live contract — a new rate, an extended term, an expanded scope. It goes through review before taking effect, and it preserves the history of the original terms rather than overwriting them. Use it any time contract terms genuinely change mid-relationship, so it’s always clear which rate applied to which invoice.
How do the four billing models actually differ? They differ in how work is priced and staged, not in how it’s invoiced: one-off bills directly from a Service Order (with partial invoicing); fixed-price bills per completed milestone; T&M bills approved timesheet hours at a contract rate; retainer auto-stages one billing event per cycle. All four still require a human review step in the Billing queue before an invoice is generated — none of them invoice automatically.
Can a Service Order use parts from inventory? Yes. Line items on a Service Order can reference an inventory item; as the order moves through fulfillment, that part is consumed from stock the same way as any other inventory movement.
How do agent hours become an invoice? Agents log Timesheets against tickets/orders at service-catalog or contract rates. A manager approves them, they’re staged in Billing, and a reviewer generates a customer invoice in Finance with those hours and rates — no re-keying.
Can customers see their ticket without an account? Yes. Each ticket has a secure portal link the customer can use to follow status and reply; their responses log back onto the ticket automatically.
How are SLAs enforced? An SLA Policy sets response and resolution deadlines by priority. Tickets inherit the deadline and show time remaining; the SLA Report flags at-risk and breached items so managers escalate in time.
Does on-site work connect to Field Service? Yes. A confirmed Service Order can be dispatched to Field Service, which owns technician scheduling, parts consumption during the visit, and customer acceptance — and reports completion back to the originating order automatically.
Where do standard rates come from? The Service Catalog holds standard offerings and their default rates. A Service Contract’s rate card can override those rates for a specific customer; orders and timesheets price from the contract rate card first, falling back to the catalog default.
Is anything ever invoiced automatically? No. Every billing model — including the retainer cycle’s automatic staging — still requires a human to review the staged items and generate the invoice. Automation stages; people invoice.
What’s the difference between Service Management tickets and the CRM/Sales Order path? Service Management sells and delivers services (labor, engagements, contracted work). Physical goods generally move through Sales Orders and Delivery Orders instead. A single customer relationship can involve both — a Service Order for installation work alongside a Sales Order for the hardware it’s installed on — and they connect through the same CRM account.