The Top 5 Mistakes You're Making In ConnectWise

ConnectWise is a robust and highly customizable software designed to meet the unique needs of IT/MSPs. However, its complexity can often feel overwhelming, making it challenging to fully harness its potential. When optimized effectively, ConnectWise becomes a powerful tool to streamline processes, improve efficiency, and drive business growth.

At MSP+, we understand that navigating ConnectWise’s many features can be daunting. That’s why our consultants specialize in helping IT businesses like yours unlock its true potential. To get you started, we’ve identified the top 5 mistakes most businesses make with ConnectWise—and more importantly, how to fix them.

5. No agreement addition cost

“Our agreements are bundled and it’s impossible to get accurate costs.”

Problem:

One common mistake IT/MSPs make in ConnectWise is neglecting to account for agreement addition costs. This oversight can lead to inaccurate reporting, making it difficult to track the true profitability of client agreements. Imagine you’ve bundled services like software licensing, hardware maintenance, and cloud storage into a single agreement. If you’re not properly tracking the costs associated with each addition, your financial reports might overstate profitability, leaving you with an incomplete picture of your margins.

Resolution:

Start by using invoice grouping with $0 price additions, allowing you to include costs that may not appear on the client invoice but still impact profitability. Regularly update your product catalog with accurate rates and perform agreement addition updates in bulk as needed. Utilize tools like the Agreement Gross Profit report, Financial Dashboard, and C360 Reports to monitor and reconcile vendor bills effectively. By staying proactive with agreement addition costs, you’ll ensure precise financial tracking and maintain a clear understanding of your agreement profitability.

4. default time to 'do not bill' 

“If the time is covered, it’s not billable, right?”

Problem:

Many IT/MSPs mistakenly assume that if time is covered under an agreement, it’s automatically not billable. This can lead to lost revenue and skewed financial reporting. For example, if a technician logs time as "Do Not Bill" without proper oversight, you may unknowingly deduct from capped hour agreements or miss out on legitimate billable time, impacting profitability and reporting accuracy.

Resolution:

It’s crucial to understand when to use 'Do Not Bill' appropriately. Communicate with your sales, admin, and service teams to ensure alignment on billing practices. Update default settings across Work Types, Service Boards, Project Boards, Agreement Types, Active Agreements, and Ticket Templates to reflect accurate billing practices. Use tools like the Employee Chargeability Report and Employee Utilization Report to monitor time entries and ensure they align with your financial goals.

3. TOO MANY WORK TYPES

“Our technicians never seem to select the right work type.”

Problem:

An excessive number of work types leads to confusion, incorrect selections, low adoption by new hires, and mistakes in agreements. This creates inefficiencies, billing errors, and training challenges.

Resolution:

To address this, start by inactivating unnecessary work types, such as those overlapping with charge codes (e.g., PTO, Jury Duty) or misclassified as work roles (e.g., Project Management). Focus on keeping only the work types essential for rate modifiers and agreements, simplifying the system for easier adoption. Assign MUST CHANGE as the default work type with a custom rate of 999999 to prompt technicians to select the correct one. Finally, provide training to ensure your team consistently uses the updated work types accurately. Monitor these changes using C360 Work Type Usage Reports to track adoption and refine your system as needed.

2. TECHS ENTERING TIME UNDER STREAMLINEIT

“Our techs work on the StreamlineIT board for client visibility.”

Problem:

Technicians entering time on the StreamlineIT board for client visibility creates invoicing challenges in ConnectWise. These entries cannot be invoiced, impacting agreement profitability reports and causing inaccuracies in time detail reports. This forces finance teams to manually update each time entry, leading to inefficiencies and errors.

Resolution:

To resolve this, start by setting up an escalation workflow and training your customers on using the customer portal for visibility. Educate your technicians to avoid entering time on the StreamlineIT board and ensure compliance through clear communication. As a final step, restrict access to the StreamlineIT client board, preventing further entries and maintaining accurate reporting within ConnectWise. These measures will eliminate manual corrections and ensure financial and operational accuracy.

1. NO MEMBER HOURLY COST

“We left this blank because we don’t want others to know what people make.”

Problem:

Leaving the Member Hourly Cost field blank to prevent visibility into individual salaries creates significant reporting inaccuracies. Without this data, your Agreement Gross Profit Report, Gross Profit by Company Report, Profit by Member Summary Report, and even the Company Profitability Trending Report are all skewed. These inaccuracies cascade further, affecting critical metrics like Project Job Costing Reports, ultimately leading to flawed financial insights and decision-making.

Resolution:

To maintain accurate reporting without compromising privacy, configure security roles in ConnectWise to hide Member Hourly Cost from unauthorized users. Additionally, consider using tiered averages in your reports for a more generalized but accurate representation of labor costs. Enter the hourly cost data into ConnectWise to ensure your financial reports reflect true profitability and provide actionable insights for decision-making.

Unlock ConnectWise’s Potential with MSP+

Mistakes with ConnectWise are inevitable, but they shouldn’t hold your IT/MSP back. With the right expertise, even complex systems can be optimized to drive efficiency, profitability, and growth.

At MSP+, we specialize in helping IT/MSPs align their tools with their business goals. From custom reporting and data analytics to automation solutions, our services are designed to simplify your operations and maximize the value of your ConnectWise investment.