What AYCE Means for an MSP
An AYCE agreement turns support into a subscription. The client pays one fixed fee per user or per device, and every ticket inside the agreed scope is covered, whether they open two a month or twenty. It is the most common shape of a modern managed services contract, and it is the model most pricing conversations start from. For the wider picture of how per user, per device and tiered models compare, see how MSPs price their services.
The appeal for the MSP is predictable monthly recurring revenue and an incentive to prevent problems instead of billing for them. The appeal for the client is a budget line that does not move when something breaks.
Where the Margin Goes
Revenue on an AYCE contract is fixed, so every hour of labor comes straight out of margin. Two clients paying the same seat price can have very different profitability, because ticket volume is driven by their environment, their staff turnover and their habits rather than by anything in the contract. The numbers worth watching per client are:
- Tickets per endpoint per month, which shows which clients consume the most support.
- Managed services gross margin, measured per client rather than across the book.
- Effective hourly rate, the monthly fee divided by the hours actually spent, which exposes the clients you are subsidizing.
Run each client through the client margin calculator at least once a year. The clients that surprise you are usually the ones that have grown, changed line of business applications, or lost the internal person who used to absorb small requests.
Writing the Scope Down
Unlimited support only works when the boundary is explicit. The agreements that go wrong are the ones where nobody wrote down what is not included. A workable AYCE scope usually separates:
| Usually Included | Usually Excluded or Billed Separately |
|---|---|
| Help desk support for covered users | Projects such as migrations, office moves and new sites |
| Patching, monitoring and routine maintenance | Hardware, licensing and third party software costs |
| Break fix on covered devices | Support for devices or users not on the agreement |
| Vendor coordination for covered systems | Work caused by the client ignoring a documented recommendation |
Define a project in the contract (for example, by expected effort or by whether it introduces a new system), so the conversation about billing it happens once and not every time. Tie the covered systems to what onboarding actually documented, which is one reason a structured client onboarding checklist pays for itself.
Keeping AYCE Profitable Over Time
Review profitability before renewal, not after. If a client has become expensive to support, the fix is usually a standards conversation, a scope clarification, or a price change, in that order. When the answer is a price change, the price increase letter and the guide to raising prices without losing clients cover how to have that conversation without putting the relationship at risk.
Common Questions
Is AYCE the same as fixed fee managed services?
Mostly. Fixed fee describes how the invoice is built, while AYCE describes the promise that support inside scope is unlimited. Some fixed fee contracts still cap hours, which makes them block agreements rather than AYCE.
Should after-hours support be included in AYCE?
Only if you have priced and staffed for it. Many MSPs include after-hours response for outages and bill after-hours requests for routine work, and the contract should say which is which.
Can a client abuse an unlimited agreement?
Rarely on purpose. High ticket volume is usually a symptom of an unstable environment or undertrained staff, and both can be fixed through standards and training rather than by capping support.
How do I move hourly clients onto AYCE?
Price the new agreement from their actual support history plus the proactive work you will add, then present it at renewal with a clear scope document.