01What Meter is
Meter is the billing and contractor-paperwork site in the CCI Suite. It starts with a private vault for each contractor's documents. Clients, month close and invoices follow and appear as "soon" in the tab bar.
Click ? Help at the top right of any screen to open the guide. Sign in with your Microsoft 365 account.
Meter is limited to administrators, managers and billing staff. Anyone else who signs in sees a message that Meter is limited. The check is made on the server, so it cannot be bypassed from the page.
02Contractor documents
The Contractors tab is a private vault for each contractor's paperwork. Files are stored in Azure, not on a public share, and open only through links that expire after 15 minutes.
Document types
| Type | Notes |
|---|---|
| W-9 | Tax form from the contractor. |
| 1099 | Choose the tax year. |
| Payment | Payment instructions. |
| Contractor agreement | Signed agreement. |
| NDA | Signed non-disclosure agreement. |
| Insurance certificate | Expiry date is required. Meter reminds you before it runs out. |
| Other | Anything else. |
Allowed files are PDF, Word and pictures (PNG, JPG, GIF, HEIC, WEBP), up to 25 MB each.
Add a contractor
- Click + Contractor.
- Enter the name and an email address. The email tells two people with the same name apart and is used for signing requests.
Add a document
- Open the contractor.
- Under Add a document, choose the type. For a 1099 enter the tax year; for insurance enter the expiry date.
- Optionally add a note, choose the file and click Upload.
The main list shows check marks for W-9, payment, agreement and NDA, and the insurance expiry: green when more than 30 days away, orange within 30 days, red when expired.
Replace, delete and history
- Replace: the new file becomes the current version (v2, v3 and so on) and the old one is kept.
- Delete: the document stays in Deleted files for 30 days, then is removed for good. Only an administrator can restore it.
- History: shows who added, replaced, deleted or restored what and when.
Insurance reminders
Every Monday morning Meter emails a list of insurance certificates that have expired or expire within 30 days. Upload the new certificate with Replace and the contractor drops off the list.
E-signatures
Meter is prepared to send agreements and NDAs for electronic signature through Dropbox Sign and file the signed copy automatically. This is switched off until the Dropbox Sign account is connected.
03Settings
Administrators see a Settings tab for choosing which additional team members can see Meter and the contractor documents.
04Coming next
- Clients: the client list as proper records, with billing type, tax rate and accounting name.
- Month close: technicians submit, a manager or billing approves, billing closes the month. A closed month is locked.
- Invoices: checks before invoicing (unknown clients, overlapping times, duplicate entries) and invoice numbers in the form YYMM-NNNNN, for example 2611-00001.
05Tips
- Only upload documents that belong in the vault, and keep copies of private information out of email.
- If the page looks old after an update, press Ctrl + Shift + R.
- If a file will not upload, check it is under 25 MB and one of the allowed types.