/contract-services

name: "Autotask Contract Services and Recurring Billing"
description: >
  The recurring-billing side of Autotask contracts: service and bundle lines
  (autotask_search_contract_services, autotask_search_contract_service_bundles),
  the billed unit rows behind them (autotask_search_contract_service_units,
  autotask_search_contract_service_bundle_units), the per-contract monthly
  recurring-revenue roll-up (autotask_get_contract_recurring_lines), and
  writing service lines and onboarding contract shells.
when_to_use: >-
  When answering what a customer is billed every month in Autotask, reconciling seat counts
  against contract units, or setting up recurring services on a new contract. Use when: contract
  services, recurring revenue autotask, mrr per client, contract units, seat count billing,
  service bundle, recurring lines, add service to contract, or onboarding contracts.

Autotask Contract Services and Recurring Billing

Overview

An Autotask recurring-service contract bills through **service lines** (a catalog service at a contract-specific unit price) and **service bundles**, each with **unit rows** that record how many units are active over a date range. MRR per client, seat reconciliation against the RMM, and "why did this invoice change?" are all answered from these tables, not from the contract header.

Anti-triggers

• **Contract headers, types, SLAs, renewals** — use `autotask-contracts`.
• **The service catalog itself** (what a service is and its default price) — use `autotask-product-catalog`.
• **Invoices and billing items already posted** — use `autotask-billing`.

MCP Tools

| Tool | Tier | Purpose | |------|------|---------| | `autotask_search_contract_services` | read | Service lines on a contract (`contractID`) | | `autotask_search_contract_service_bundles` | read | Bundle lines on a contract | | `autotask_search_contract_service_units` | read | Billed unit rows per service line, active on `activeOn` (default today) | | `autotask_search_contract_service_bundle_units` | read | Billed unit rows per bundle line | | `autotask_get_contract_recurring_lines` | read | Every service and bundle line with units active on a day, joined to the catalog (name, vendor, billing period) and normalised to a monthly figure | | `autotask_create_contract_service` | write | Add a service line (`contractID`, `serviceID`, `unitPrice`) | | `autotask_update_contract_service` | write | Change a service line (`id`, `contractID`) | | `autotask_create_contracts_bulk` | write | Up to 50 contract shells (headers only) in one call, e.g. one per client location |

Workflows

MRR for a client

1. `autotask_search_contracts` with `companyID`, `status: 1` and `pageSize: 500` (the default is 25). If 500 contracts come back, say the list may be incomplete. 2. For each recurring-service contract, `autotask_get_contract_recurring_lines` (`activeOn` today). 3. Sum the monthly figures; report per service and per contract.

Seat reconciliation

1. `autotask_search_contract_service_units` for the managed-workstation and managed-user lines. 2. Compare units with the device or user counts from the RMM or M365 (for example `datto_list_devices`, `cipp_list_users`). 3. Report under-billing (more devices than units) and over-billing separately. Changing units is a proposal for the account manager, not something to apply automatically.

Explain a changed invoice

Run `autotask_get_contract_recurring_lines` with `activeOn` set to a day in each billing period and compare the two results line by line.

Onboard a multi-site customer

1. Draft one contract shell per site and show it. 2. After approval, `autotask_create_contracts_bulk`. Shells are created one at a time, so read the per-item result: a failure part-way does not roll back the earlier ones. Retry only the failed items, never the whole batch, or the shells that succeeded are duplicated. 3. Add the service lines with `autotask_create_contract_service`, only to shells that were created successfully.

Gotchas

• **Lines are not units.** A service line with no active unit row bills nothing; always read units (or the recurring roll-up) before quoting a figure.
• **Contract-specific prices.** The unit price on the line overrides the catalog price; do not quote the catalog price as what the customer pays.
• **Date-scoped rows.** Unit rows have start and end dates. A count for "now" and a count for last month can both be correct.