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Service Contract Entitlement Check

An entitlement check that reads each service call against the signed contract in effect that night, quotes billable work before anyone does it, and leaves each waived charge to a contracts administrator to confirm.

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Follow one 02:14 call from the fields to the clause ↓
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The problem

The service system bills from fields keyed the day the contract was signed

A service agreement's entitlement fields are keyed once, at signing. Amendments, schedule changes and warranty terms arrive later as signed PDFs and often never reach the fields. At two in the morning the night desk sees what the fields say, and when it looks wrong the dispatcher opens the PDF, hunts for amendments, calls the contracts office in the morning, or guesses.

Weeks later the hospital disputes the invoice, and service finance digs out the amendment that was in effect on the work date. Out-of-scope work gets done before anyone quotes it, so the bill becomes an argument. At quarter end, uptime is counted against the guarantee on whatever hours base someone remembers.

Built forService dispatchersContracts administratorsField service engineersService finance analysts

The Problem Today

Coverage lives in signed contracts and amendments, but service desks bill from fields keyed at signing.

2,080 h
in a weekday 8-to-5 year, against 8,760 h measured 24/7 our estimate
95–98%
uptime guarantees vendors commonly offer, per trade press our estimate

Checked by hand on each call

  • Agreement
  • Amendments
  • Warranty
  • Rate sheet
  • Night labor billed in errorAn amendment that covers it never reaches the fields
  • Extra work starts unpricedThe bill turns into an argument weeks later

The Solution

  1. Drop the call on its weekEach call lands on a seven-day grid of what its own contract covers
  2. Read the contract itselfBase agreement, amendments in effect and warranty, each passage cited
  3. Stamp it, quote it firstLabor, parts and uptime stamped; billable lines priced before any work
  4. A second person signsThe dispatcher accepts; a contracts administrator opens the clause

Built-in controls

  • Agents never bill, waive, send or credit
  • No one confirms a reading they accepted
  • Problem descriptions are never read here

What You Get

Each charge follows the contract signed for that asset, and out-of-scope work is quoted before anyone does it.

50,000
hours a year of contract reading, for a large maker our estimate
  • Disputes answered from the clauseEach charge carries the clause in effect that night
  • Uptime on the right hoursDowntime counted in the hours each guarantee names
  • Evidence on each callWho read, accepted and signed, with the passage
One night call, one amendment

An entitlement check at 02:14 for a surgical table's hand control

A powered surgical table in OR 4 is out of use. The hospital asks for a new hand control and both battery packs at the same visit. The night desk has one dispatcher.

demoThe hospitals, the device maker, the table, the people and every price shown are sample data.

  1. 0102:31

    186 open calls, each read against the contract in effect on its visit date

    Service dispatcher

    The night desk's queue holds 186 calls for one health system: 125 covered, 16 partly covered, 32 billable and 13 that need a person. A batch of 55 routine covered calls, decided by the base agreement alone, waits for a contracts administrator to open a sample of 6 and sign. A call an amendment decides stays out of the batch.

  2. 0202:31

    Read from the fields, the night is amber and labor bills at $760

    Service dispatcher

    The call drops onto the coverage week as a pin at Tuesday 02:14. Read from the service system's fields, weekdays 07:00 to 19:00 are green and the rest amber, so the draft bills after-hours labor at $760 and the two battery packs at $1,462: $2,222 in all. Those fields were set from the base agreement, and no amendment has reached them since.

  3. 0302:32

    Read from the signed contract, the whole week turns covered

    Service dispatcher

    She has the agents read the contract itself. The call reader takes the serial, site and work type, and leaves the problem description alone. Serial 2290 turns up in Schedule A. The contract reader works through the base agreement, the 4 amendments in effect that night and the warranty, and the grid fills with the striped shade for covered because of an amendment.

  4. 0402:33

    Amendment 2 covers OR labor at eight named hospitals around the clock

    Service dispatcher

    The deciding passage opens in the signed document with the words highlighted: for OR equipment at eight named hospitals, coverage hours for corrective labor and travel are 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Section 11.2 says an amendment controls from its effective date. Her reading of the passage is recorded under her name at 02:33.

  5. 0502:33

    The outage counts against a 98% uptime guarantee measured 24/7

    Service dispatcher

    Switching the grid to uptime measured shows the same amendment measures uptime around the clock, so this outage counts. That allows 44.2 hours of downtime this quarter, against 15.1 hours if the base agreement's coverage hours applied. The hand control is covered under section 3.3. The two battery packs are consumables and stay billable.

  6. 0602:33

    Engineer sent under contract; billing held because a charge was waived

    Service dispatcher

    She accepts the reading and dispatches the field engineer under contract, due on site by 06:14 under the response clause. Dispatch does not wait for paperwork. But the reading waives a charge the fields would have billed, so billing holds until a contracts administrator, someone other than her, opens the clause and confirms it.

  7. 0702:36

    The administrator opens the clause herself, and the $760 comes off

    Service contracts administrator

    The on-call contracts administrator signs in and opens Amendment 2, section 2.1; she cannot sign before she has read it. She confirms with the meaning that this call's coverage follows the signed contract. The after-hours charge of $760 is removed, and the trail keeps the dispatcher's acceptance and her confirmation, each with its own session.

  8. 0802:36

    Two battery packs get a $1,462 quote before anyone fits them

    Service contracts administrator

    The quote drafter priced each billable line from the agreement's own rate schedule: two packs at $860 list less 15%, $1,462. The quote waits for the finance analyst's price check, then goes to the hospital's clinical engineering manager. Across the account, 48 quotes worth $69,537.95 now wait ahead of the work.

  9. 0902:36

    The same amendment answers a dispute over seven night labor charges

    Service contracts administrator

    The hospital's dispute covers seven after-hours labor lines on OR tables at the eight named hospitals, $6,317.50 in all, one of them on this same table. The invoices are not read yet, so no credit memo exists. Once they are, the dispute answerer checks each line against the clause in effect on its work date and drafts the memo for a contracts administrator to sign.

The same call, read from the fields and from the signed contract

One click switches the grid between the two readings. Only the contract reading cites a clause for each line.

LineService system's fieldsSigned contract
Labor and travel, 1.5 hours at nightBillable, $760Covered, Amendment 2 §2.1
Hand controlCoveredCovered, §3.3
Two table battery packsBillable, $1,462Billable, quoted first, Schedule B
Uptime guaranteeDoes not countCounts, Amendment 2 §2.3
Billed for this visit$2,222$1,462, once the hospital approves

demoSample data, from the working solution. Night labor under Schedule C is a 2-hour minimum at $285 an hour plus a $190 call-out, which is how 1.5 hours becomes $760.

Seven night labor lines in the hospital's dispute, $6,317.50

Each line is read against the clause in effect on its own work date.

After-hours call, 2-hour minimum$760
After-hours call, 3 hours$1,045
After-hours call on this same table, 2-hour minimum$760
After-hours call, 2-hour minimum$760
After-hours call, 2.5 hours$902.50
After-hours call, 2-hour minimum$760
After-hours call, 4 hours$1,330
Drafted as a credit, for a contracts administrator to sign$6,317.50

demoSample data, from the working solution.

Around the call

Uptime, renewals and rulings behind each service contract entitlement

What the contracts administrator, the field engineer and service finance read between calls.

Uptime guaranteesEach system out of use, counted in the hours its own clause measures, with what is allowed and what is used. No agent computes or issues a credit.
Agreements9 signed agreements and 31 amendments covering 2,310 serviced assets at 14 hospitals, read as signed and never edited.
RulingsWhat waits for a contracts administrator: changed readings to confirm, calls to rule on and the daily batch. Nobody confirms a reading they made or accepted.
End datesEach agreement, amendment and warranty end date inside the window, and what changes the day after, such as pumps falling to time and materials.
The engineer's viewWhat the field engineer sees for tonight's visit: what is covered, and the battery packs held until the hospital approves the quote.
SignaturesEvery reading, acceptance and confirmation with who, when, what the signature means and its reason. Entries cannot be edited or deleted.

demoSample data, from the working solution.

Who reads the call

Eight agents read the contract behind each call, and none of them bills

Each stamp, quote line and answer cites its passage.

Call reader

Takes serial, site, room, work type, requested parts and visit time from the call.

  • Never reads, stores or summarizes the problem description
Asset matcher

Finds the serial in each agreement's asset schedule as amendments changed it, and the warranty dates.

  • Never guesses a near-match serial
Contract reader

Reads the base agreement, the amendments in effect on the visit date and the warranty, and finds the deciding clause.

  • Never decides between two disagreeing clauses
  • Never edits a document
Coverage stamper

Stamps labor, each part and uptime with a confidence.

  • Never confirms its own reading
  • Never changes billing in the service system
Quote drafter

Prices each billable line from the agreement's own rate schedule.

  • Never sends
  • Never prices below the agreement
Uptime counter

Counts downtime in the hours the clause names, leaving out planned work and time waiting for access.

  • Never computes or issues a credit
Dispute answerer

Reads disputed invoice lines against the clause on each work date and drafts the answer and any credit.

  • Never issues a credit or sends an answer
Renewal watcher

Lists end dates inside the window and what changes the day after.

  • Never extends a term

Billing, credits and what a device problem means stay with people

Reading the asset, the contract and the work type is the agents’ part. Every money decision has a named owner.

No agent bills, waives or creditsA reading that waives a charge holds billing until a contracts administrator who did not accept it opens the clause and confirms.
The problem description is not read hereThe service system sends it to the complaint handling unit, which decides whether it is a complaint. The agents use only the asset, the contract and the work type.
Out-of-scope work waits for the hospitalBillable work needs the clinical engineering manager's written approval of the quote before the engineer does it.
Two clauses that disagree go to a personThe contract reader stops there, and a contracts administrator rules on which clause decides.
Uptime credits are service finance'sThe uptime counter counts hours on the right base. Whether a credit is owed is decided at quarter end by people.

What service desks ask about an entitlement check

What is an entitlement check?

An entitlement check decides what a service call is owed under the customer's contract: labor, parts, response time and uptime. This entitlement check reads the signed agreement, its amendments and the warranty in effect on the visit date, and cites the clause that decides each line.

Does it replace the entitlement rules in our service system?

No. It reads the signed documents those fields were keyed from, and shows where the two disagree. Keeping the fields current stays with your administrator, and a disagreement becomes a task.

Who confirms a reading that waives a charge?

A contracts administrator who did not accept the reading. The signature is possible only after the deciding clause has been opened, and the dispatch itself does not wait for it.

How is uptime counted against a guarantee?

In the hours the uptime clause names, around the clock or coverage hours only, leaving out planned work and time waiting for access. Service finance decides any credit at quarter end.

Does it read the problem a hospital reports?

No. The problem description goes from the service system to the complaint handling unit, and the agents never read, store or summarize it.

What happens with work the contract does not cover?

The quote drafter prices it from the agreement's own rate schedule, the finance analyst checks the price, and the engineer does the work only after the hospital approves the quote.

Capital Equipment & Field Service

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Every serial placed from its own records, and every serviced unit gets its PM.

1-min demoSite Planning and Installation Readiness Review

Install-date risk on screen weeks before the truck, every gap tied to its sheet.

1-min demoHospital Security Questionnaire and MDS2 Response

One true answer per product version, checked against the SBOM and everything said before.

1-min demo

Pick ten disputed service calls
and the contracts behind them.

We will read each one against the agreement in effect on its work date and show the clause.

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