UserCare

To start, let's review how SOTA MSP sends out invoices and collects payment.

Each month, you'll receive an invoice for your managed IT services agreement. You should remember that the amount on this bill correlates with your monthly rate and covers everything on your MSA.

You'll generally see this invoice between the 10th and 20th of every month, and depending how your account is set up, will need to be paid via ACH within 10 days or we can collect payment for the amount listed on your bill with a credit/debit card on file on the first of the month via recurring payment.

If you have any questions about the bill, you'll want to directly reach out to our billing department.

Managed IT services solve one of the biggest nuisances of IT services: multiple invoices.

Most months, you’ll receive only one invoice that incorporates all the support, solutions, and services you utilize. Our goal is to help you streamline the financial aspect of managed IT services and create less confusion.

That being said, there are times when you may receive an additional invoice, but you’ll have plenty of advance notice about when to expect it and what it’s for. Here are the different types of billing statements you can expect as a managed services customer:

1. Managed Services Invoice — This is the main invoice you’ll receive for managed IT services and is for the full monthly amount you agreed to when you signed the agreement. This particular statement briefly describes what you signed up for in your MSA. You can review the different solutions and services you subscribe to by looking at the line items. This also includes the number of users and/or endpoints you have, so you can quickly review if you need to make any changes to these counts.
2. Service Invoice — As a managed IT services client, your MSA covers most services, and you generally won’t receive a service invoice. The most common exception is to add new users and/or endpoints to your company. In this scenario, you’ll receive an invoice that shows what work was performed, the number of hours it took, the billable rate, and the total cost for the service performed. As a reminder, your MSA does not cover the setup of endpoints and accounts for new users. These will be added to your managed service invoice on the next bill. However, if you decrease your count, you can update your invoice every 90 days to reflect these changes.
3. Project Invoice — We can work with you on projects outside of the scope of your IT environment, but you’ll receive a separate invoice for them. For example, if you decide midway through your agreement term you’d like to migrate your backup system to the cloud, you’ll receive a project invoice for the time and material involved in migration.

You’ll have staff or endpoint changes at some point, and your MSA will need to reflect that.

If you add or remove a user or endpoint, we’ll need to update your MSA to reflect the count accurately. It’s important to inform the billing department of these changes.

It’s easy to remember to inform billing about any changes because you’ll need assistance in onboarding or offboarding the IT component of the user’s profile or endpoint. Still, the most effective way to have billing changes accurately reflected on your invoices is to update billing on changes to your user count.

If you do forget to let accounting know about the changes, the managed services team will update them, but it might take longer than if you were to pass along the information yourself.

Since many clients pay there bill via card on file and recurring, they don’t have to remember to submit payment. However, if your card gets declined or you pay by ACH and miss the scheduled deadline, you will miss a payment.

If this happens, we’ll let you know there was an issue and resubmit the invoice within three days with an additional 10% late fee.

But, if the payment is not recieved on the second try, we’ll start the collections process. You’ll receive communication about us needing to collect payment and be placed on credit hold.

At that point, you cannot make any future purchases, but your services (anti-spam, antivirus, DNS filtration, etc.) aren’t impacted.

However, if you’re on credit hold for 15 days and still fail to submit payment, you’ll be placed on service hold. You can no longer make purchases or request IT support, and your applications (antivirus, anti-spam, DNS filtration, etc.) will be paused or ended.

You’ll need to pay any outstanding fees and work with the billing department to be taken off credit or service hold in order to resume routine services.

You’ve researched what to expect from a managed IT service provider in terms of service, so when it comes to billing, you should expect just as much transparency.

As a SOTA MSP managed IT services customer, you’ll receive a monthly invoice for services. Occasionally, you may receive additional invoices for user changes or ad hoc projects.

Of course, billing is only one component you need to consider when signing an agreement with us.

Our partners value SOTA MSP as an innovative company that excels in providing services that are not typical in the “local IT services” market.

SOTA MSP clearly understands the goals of our clients to create a strategic partner for IT management and trouble ticket management to free the client of technology issues so they can focus on strategic areas, not on their IT.

A Managed Service Provider (MSP) is a third-party company that manages and assumes the responsibility of a defined set of IT and technology management services to its customers. It is a strategic method of improving operations that is commonplace among large corporations as well as small and medium-size businesses, non-profit organizations, and governments. As an MSP, we can act as the client’s IT Department or can simply augment the IT staff that is already in place.

The vast majority of IT issues can be handled remotely, however sometimes there is a need to be on site. When that need arises, we will dispatch technicians to your site to handle those issues.

Customers can reach out by phone or email Monday thru Friday 9am to 6pm and receive help from a live technician. Optionally, our email support is available 24/7/365. However, response times to specific issues depend on the severity of the issue the client is facing, which are outlined within our customers managed services agreement. Our goal is to meet your business needs by maximizing uptime and addressing issues as soon as they occur.

At SOTA MSP, we will develop IT security policies for your specific business. In addition, we do offer Cyber Security testing, employee training, and even reviews separate from your MSA.

When comparing managed IT services vs. break/fix, the word you want to keep in mind is “proactive.”

Break/fix only companies provide traditional IT services — you break your technology, they come and fix it for you and leave you with a large bill.

But with the rise of cybercrime these days, malicious people make their money by breaking your tech – and it’s not always possible to fix what they destroy. Managed IT services proactively prevents ~90% of breakage and cyberattacks by keeping your systems up to date and secure around the clock. Of course, we will also roll up our sleeves and get to work fixing your endpoints when its required, which means that we are often a break/fix, albeit trusted, provider too.

Imagine having a dedicated IT team focused on keeping your Microsoft 365 environment secure and running smoothly — that's what Microsoft 365 Managed Services offer.

A managed Microsoft 365 provider takes care of the day-to-day tasks like security monitoring, licensing, user management such as on-boarding and off-boarding, data backup, and troubleshooting.

This frees up time for you, your team, or if applicable, internal IT staff to focus on strategic initiatives and ensures your M365 is always optimised for peak performance.

Microsoft 365 is the suite of productivity applications you know, like Word, Excel, Outlook, and collaboration platforms like Teams, delivered as a subscription service. And while Microsoft 365 itself isn't a managed service, it forms the core foundation for 365Care which can be offered as a managed service.

365Care builds on Microsoft 365 by adding additional features like security tools, account management, and licensing.

Both Microsoft 365 and Microsoft 365 Business offer cloud-based access to productivity applications, but cater to different needs:

• Microsoft 365: This version has various plans catering to individuals, families, and small teams. It provides access to core applications like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, with features tailored for individual users or small collaboration groups.
• Microsoft 365 Business: This is designed specifically for small and medium businesses. It offers additional features compared to the individual plans, such as larger cloud storage capacities, more applications, and enhanced security features.

Absolutely! Microsoft 365 offers numerous benefits for small businesses:

• Affordability: Subscription-based pricing makes it easier to budget for essential software without a large upfront investment.
• Scalability: Easily add or remove users as your business grows.
• Security: Microsoft invests heavily in security, providing robust protection for your company data.
• Accessibility: Access applications and data from anywhere, on any device, promoting remote work and collaboration.
• Increased Productivity: Features like Teams and cloud storage streamline collaboration and communication, boosting overall efficiency.

A Microsoft Partner is a company that provides knowledge and support for Microsoft products like Microsoft 365. They can help you with various tasks, such as:

• Migration: Seamlessly migrate your existing data and applications to Microsoft 365.
• Configuration: Tailor Microsoft 365 to your specific business needs and workflows.
• Security & Compliance: Implement best practices to keep your Microsoft 365 environment secure and compliant with regulations.
• Ongoing Support: Provide ongoing support and training to your staff, ensuring they can maximise the benefits of Microsoft 365.