New Company with Services

[SkipDever]

I have done several companies that all sold physical goods.  I am now doing
another that sells things, but also provides services that do not include
physical goods.  Some of these services are normal "by the hour" labor.
Another is a fixed price to perform a particular service.  They also provide
labor whose price changes depending on which machine is used to perform the
service, essentially renting the machine and the operator.  In another case,
they have a fixed price to do a specific job.

This is a highly technical business, so forgive the examples:

1.  Hourly rate to lazer cut parts from sheet metal stock.  (Hourly rate on
a specific machine)
2.  Hourly rate to clean and polish finished products. (Standard labor)
3.  Radius a 1/2 inch endmill. (Fixed price for labor, they have hundred
of these)

I would like to keep this as simple as possible and re-use as much code as I
can from previous installations.  I am thinking of creating Products as
SERVICE items for each of these and doing no additional modifications.

Anyone have experience implementing SERVICE items with some pointers to
possible pitfalls?

Thanks in advance

Skip

[Pierre Smits]

Skip,

You have several options at your disposal.

First, you could classify all your applicable 'products' as services. With
feature and configuration definitions where needed. But, you could also
classify the hourly rates re specific machinery as rental goods. Like in
the demo rental setup.

The hourly rate services shouldn't pose any difficulty. You could also set
some cross-sell assocs between the hourly rate service and the machinery
applicable.

There are a lot of options available to you.

Feel free to contact me in person.

Regards,

Pierre Smits

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