When signing a new contract mid-month, it’s important to follow a few guidelines in Aspire. It's best to begin a contract on the first day of the month and end it on the last day of the month. Contracts should not last more than 12 months. For example, if a contract starts on July 1, 2024, it should end on June 30, 2025.

Please note that according to best practices in Aspire, you cannot start a project in the middle of a month and have it end in the middle of a month if it lasts longer than 12 months.

For instance, if you sign a contract on April 15th and want it to end on April 14th the next year, that won’t work because that would be 13 months, which is too long.

There are a few ways to handle this, and we’ll talk about those options in this article.

When starting a new contract in the middle of a month, many people choose to create a work order or a small one-month contract, with only the services needed for that partial month. After that initial month, you would start an actual 12-month contract opportunity and the start and end dates of that contract would be your rolling 12 months going forward.

For example, if a new client wants to start service on May 15th, you would create a contract or work order for just the services from May 15th to May 31st of the current year only. This could be done with a fixed monthly price or done on a per-service basis. Then you would create a full 12-month contract that starts June 1st and goes through May 31st.

Another option is to start your contract in the middle of a month but end it earlier than usual. You would want to verify you only have the correct services and service occurrences for that length of contract.

One factor to consider in this approach is the process of Invoicing. How will you invoice for that first partial month? Make sure to set up your payment schedule correctly to spread the dollars as desired.

For example, if you start a contract on April 14th, you can run it until March 31st of the next year without any invoicing problems. After that, your future contracts will start on April 1st. It's important to ensure that you update services and quantities on the renewal if you have removed some from the initial contract. This will likely change the overall contract price and may need to be explained to your clients.

You might not always have full 12-month contracts, or you may prefer to renew at a specific time each year. You can start a contract in the middle of a month and choose when to end it, as long as it lasts less than 12 months.

For example, if you sign a new customer on June 15th and want all renewals to start on January 1st, you would set the contract from June 15th to December 31st. Only include services that will occur during that time period to ensure your monthly billing is correct. Then create a new contract starting on January 1st that will contain a full year's worth of services.