A fixed-fee contract is a supplier agreement with a set price, paid in stages called milestones, rather than by the day. Fixed-fee contracts are on the Resources tab: open the project menu, choose Money and people, then Resources, and select the Fixed-fee contracts tab within the page.
What it's for
The contract's value and its payment plan tell you what you owe and when. ProjectCAPEX uses the milestones as the contract's cost in the budget: a paid milestone is actual cost in the month it was paid, and a planned or invoiced one is forecast in the month it is due (or this month, if it is overdue).
Before you start
Before you add a contract
- The project's plan includes Resources (Professional, Enterprise or a personal plan)
- Your role can create resources
- You have the vendor, contract value and dates
- You have the payment schedule: each milestone's amount and due date
How to add a contract
- Start a new contract
On the Fixed-fee contracts tab select Add contract.
- Fill in the contract
Enter the Vendor and Contract value (both required), and the Contract reference, Owner, Currency, Start and End dates.
- Set its status and category
Choose a Status: Draft (not in the budget), Active, Completed or Terminated. Choose the Budget category the cost books to. External labour is the default.
- Describe the scope
Write a short Scope and any Notes, then select Add fixed-fee contract.
How to add payment milestones
- Open the contract card
Each contract has its own card. Select Add milestone.
- Describe the milestone
Enter the Milestone name, Amount and Due date. All three are required.
- Track its status
Set Status to Planned, Invoiced or Paid. A paid milestone needs its Paid on date.
- Save
Select Add milestone. The card updates its totals straight away.
Reading the contracts
Each contract card shows its status and scope, and four totals: Contract value, Paid, Invoiced, not paid and Still to invoice. A table lists its milestones with due date, amount, status and paid date.
If the milestones do not add up to the contract value, the card shows a Payment plan warning with the gap. Fix it by adding or adjusting milestones.
Payment milestones is a timeline with one row per contract. Each milestone is a marker on a month axis, shaped and labelled by its status (Paid, Invoiced, Planned or Overdue), with a Today line.
What counts in the budget
- Draft contracts are left out of the budget.
- For a terminated contract, only paid milestones count.
- A contract in a different currency from the project is left out of the budget totals, and its card says so. No currency conversion is applied.
- When the supplier's invoice arrives, you can log it on the Budget tab with Invoice for contract set to this contract. It is then counted through the milestones, not twice. See Budget, cost log and forecast.
People who deliver the contract
You can also record the supplier's people so they count in headcount and FTE. On the Fixed-fee contracts tab, the Delivery team card lists every one of them with their Name, Role, FTE in the current month, Contract and Status. Select Add person, keep Kind on Fixed-fee contracts and choose the Contract they deliver. Their time is planned month by month, but their cost is carried by the contract's milestones, so it is not added again.
- Each contract card has its own Delivery team section, listing the people linked to that contract.
- The contract's drawer shows the same Delivery team table under its fields.
- Select a name in any of these tables to open that person. See Resources: payroll and contractors.
Who can do this
Admins and project managers can add, edit and delete contracts and milestones. Everyone on the project can see them. See Roles and permissions.