Service Contracts vs. Reality: Solving the Use It or Lose It Problem in JSM

[#1]

This won’t come as a surprise to anyone: there is a gap between rigid service contracts and flexible work needs.

Work doesn’t happen in straight lines. Some months are quiet. Other months, a server crashes, a critical bug appears, and everything breaks at the same time.

But standard service contracts usually don't keep pace with that reality. They are fixed. You typically get a set amount of time or tickets per month.

If you don’t use them? They vanish. That is Use it or lose it problem.

If you need more? You hit a wall or have to scramble to create "Amends" to add extra quotas manually.

This friction leads to awkward phone calls and administrative headaches. So, we released 2 new features in TicketBook - Service Time and Contract Management for Jira to help JSM contracts align with real-life needs.

Now, you can:

Carry-over unused quotas to later periods

And allow over-consuming periods to borrow from later periods.

Feature 1: How does "Carry-Over" work?

The "Use it or lose it" model is frustrating for customers. If they pay for hours, they usually feel they should get to keep them. This often leads to a rush of low-priority tickets at the end of the month just to burn through the remaining quota.

To make the contract more flexible and to match real-life needs, we added a checkbox setting called Carry-over unused quotas.

How it works: TicketBook looks at what wasn't used in the current period and automatically moves it to the next one.

The Math: If a client has 100 hours but only uses 80, the remaining 20 moves to next month. Next month, they automatically have 120 hours available.

And it doesn't stop there; the quota continues to carry over and accumulate period after period until the end of the contract.

Feature 2: How does "Borrowing" work?

Sometimes a project gets messy. You need to work right now to fix a P1 issue, but the client is out of hours for the current month. You don't want to stop work to negotiate a new invoice while the house is on fire.

We added a feature: allow borrowing from future periods.

How it works: This lets you keep working even if you use up your limit. The system validates the work and automatically deducts the extra hours from the next period.

The Math: If you need 110 hours this month, but the limit is 100, you can use the 10 extra hours without triggering a breach. Next month, the limit drops to 90.

It just balances out. It keeps the work moving without needing a new contract or an awkward conversation about "overages."

How to Configure?

We made these settings unchecked by default. You can find these options in your Contract Definition configurations.

Pro Tip: On the Contract Report page, you can toggle Borrowing and Carry-Over in your reports to view different scenarios without changing the actual contract definition.

Here is how your report looks like when borrowing and carry-over are disabled:

Once enabled, it looks like this for the same period:

Work fluctuates. Your tracking tool should be able to handle that.

What is TicketBook?

For those who haven't used it, TicketBook - Service Time and Contract Management for Jira is an app that lets you manage service contracts directly inside JSM.

Define Contracts: Set limits using ticket counts, hours, or SLA success rates (Monthly/Annual).

Track Usage: Show exactly how much value has been used in real-time.

Customer Transparency: Display the remaining balance directly to customers on the JSM Portal, so everyone knows exactly where they stand.