BMS supports two types of agents — Finance Agents and Service Agents — that represent the businesses or internal entities responsible for the financial and operational delivery of a contract.
Agents are assigned to contracts via Billing → Contracts, and agent records are maintained in the Agents module from the main navigation.
Finance Agents
A Finance Agent is linked to the finance component of a contract. They represent the party responsible for the financial arrangement — for example, a finance company that owns or co-funds an asset under a lease or managed print agreement.
When a Finance Agent is assigned to a contract, billing transactions related to the finance component are attributed to that agent. This allows BMS to track and reconcile payments and charges separately from the operational service billing.
Service Agents
A Service Agent is linked to the service component of a contract. They represent the business responsible for maintaining and servicing the assets covered by the contract. A single contract can have multiple Service Agents — for example, when different agents are responsible for assets at different geographic locations.
Service Agents are also used in the Service application, where their service rates are specified and they are linked to the engineers who can complete service jobs. When a service job is raised against an asset, BMS uses the Service Agent assignment to determine which agent is responsible and what rates apply.
Internal vs External Agents
Within each class (Service or Finance), an agent is one of two types:
External agents — independent businesses that operate separately from your organisation, such as a third-party service provider or finance company
Internal agents — one of your own business entities, used when different branches or divisions within your organisation handle different parts of a contract
External Agent Billing Arrangements
External agents introduce a question that internal agents do not: who invoices the customer? Each external agent can be configured for one of two billing arrangements:
The agent bills you for their component. The external agent invoices your business for their share of the contract (service or finance), while you bill the customer for the complete invoice. The customer deals only with you.
The agent bills on your behalf. You bill the agent for your component (service or finance), while the agent sends the customer a complete invoice. The customer deals only with the agent.
Internal agents do not require this configuration — billing for an internal agent is always performed by your own business.
Assigning Agents to a Contract
Agents are assigned when creating or editing a contract in Billing → Contracts. The Finance Agent and Service Agent fields appear in the contract form. Select the appropriate agent from the list, or leave the field blank if the contract is serviced directly without a separate agent arrangement.
The Agents Module
Navigate to Agents from the main navigation to manage agent records. The Agents module is where Service Agent details, rates, and asset assignments are maintained. Changes to an agent's rate or coverage in the Agents module flow through to billing calculations for all contracts where that agent is assigned.
For Finance Agents, the primary configuration is on the agent record itself — including any margin or fee structure that applies to contracts they are linked to.
Tips
Confirm an external agent's billing arrangement before activating contracts linked to that agent — it determines whether your invoices go to the customer or to the agent.
Use multiple Service Agents on a single contract when assets are spread across locations serviced by different providers.
Related Articles
Billing - Creating Contracts
Billing - Billings And Transactions
Billing - Managing Customers