Invoicing - FAQs
- How do I account for non-billable time?
- What happens to WIP when invoicing?
- How do I progressively invoice a client for an agreed total amount, on a (task or cost) line by line basis?
How do I account for non-billable time?
WorkflowMax allows you to track time even if you don't need to bill it directly to your clients. You can then generate time sheet reports that will provide valuable information on exactly how each staff member spent their non-billable time, such as for:
- staff meetings
- administration
- annual leave or sick leave
- training and professional development.
This is achieved by setting up an 'Internal job' in WorkflowMax with tasks (one task for each area) that are flagged as non-billable. Your staff can then enter time against the internal job by recording time against the specific non-billable task.
To set up a job that your staff can record non-billable time against, complete the following tasks:
Go to the Client Manager and make sure that your own
Create a list of the work areas that you want to be able to allocate the non-billable time to. You might consider general areas such as leave or professional development, or be more specific, such as sick leave, annual leave, training, conferences.
Now create a non-billable task for each work area you listed:
- In the Business menu, select Settings > Tasks > New Task.
- Give the task a suitable name, such as: Internal - Staff Training, and a description.
- Set the Base Rate of 0 and the Billable Rate of 0.
- Complete the other fields as required and Save.
Repeat for each item in your list. For general information about creating tasks, see Creating a task.
Create the internal job to which you will assign the tasks you have just created.
- In the Jobs menu, select Jobs > New Job.
- Select your business as the client.
- Name the job Internal Job (or similar).
- Set the Start Date and Due Date as the start and finish of your financial year or whatever time period suits your needs.
- Assign all your staff to the job and Save.
For general information about creating jobs, see Creating a job from scratch.
Now assign the tasks to the internal job.
- On the Job Information screen for your internal job, select + New Task.
- Leave the Estimated Time as 0.00.
- Deselect the Billable checkbox.
- Set the Start Date and Due Date to match the dates you specified above for the job itself.
- Select the staff that you want to be able to record non-billable time against the task.
If you allocate any staff to the task, only the selected staff will be able to record time against this task. If you do not allocate any staff to the task, any staff member allocated to the internal job will be able to record time against the task.
- Save and repeat for each internal task (do NOT use Add Multiple Tasks as this will leave the tasks all marked as billable, instead of non-billable.
Using the internal job to record non-billable time
Now when your staff need to enter "internal" non-billable activities they can select the internal job and the specific task, Staff Meetings (for example) and record time against that task.
The idea is to have the one internal time job set up for the year. You can then report per week or month (or any other period) for time entries against the tasks on that job, or by staff member, or as required.
Your staff can enter (for example):
- 8 hours against the task for Annual Leave, for a days holiday taken
- 4 hours against Sick Leave for a half day taken off
- 1 hour against Staff Meetings, and so on.
You can also create custom reports specifically for this non-billable time from the Reports > Report Builder and select Report Type = Time.
Using the internal job in future
To make the internal job available for next year (or the next period), simply save it as a job template. From the Information tab of the internal job, under Options, select Save Job as Template.
Alternatively, you could use the Copy Job option to copy the job.
What happens to WIP when invoicing?
This topic describes how WIPWork In Progress in WorkflowMax is all uninvoiced staff time and disbursements recorded on client jobs. is written on (or off) and carried forward in:
- invoices based on actual time and costs, and
- invoices based on a quote.
Invoices based on actual time and costs
You can select and deselect tasks and costs, edit time sheets and add more tasks and costs in a progress or final invoice for actual time and costs (an "actuals invoice"). All these actions have an effect on the WIP ledger, as follows:
Action performed in the invoice |
WIP result in a progress actuals invoice |
WIP result in a final actuals invoice |
---|---|---|
Tasks |
|
|
Select a billable task |
Removed from WIP ledger |
|
Deselect a billable task |
WIP carried forward |
|
Select a non-billable task |
Removed from WIP ledger |
|
Deselect a non-billable task |
Remains in WIP ledger |
Removed from WIP ledger |
Costs |
|
|
Select a billable cost |
Removed from WIP ledger |
|
Deselect a billable cost |
WIP carried forward |
|
Select an non-billable cost |
WIP written on |
|
Deselect an non-billable cost |
Remains in WIP ledger |
Removed from WIP ledger |
Part bill a cost (reduce quantity) |
Unbilled portion carried forward |
Outstanding balance written off |
Increase the quantity of a cost |
WIP written on |
|
Time sheets |
|
|
Mark time as Future |
WIP carried forward |
|
Mark billable time as No |
WIP written off |
|
Edit billable time marked Yes (increase hours) |
WIP written on |
|
Edit billable time marked Yes (reduce hours) |
WIP written off |
|
Mark non-billable time as Yes |
WIP written on |
|
Other |
|
|
WIP carried forward |
|
|
Add a task to the invoice |
WIP written on |
|
Add a cost to the invoice |
WIP written on |
|
Invoices based on a quote
A progress invoice based on a quote does not create any write offs. A final quoted invoice will remove all WIP from the WIP ledger except deselected interims (percentage or deposit invoices).
Costs from the original quote are automatically marked as estimated costs and are therefore NOT added to the WIP ledger. If you add additional tasks and costs to a quoted invoice, the WIP will be applied to existing WIP entries.
You can add WIP to a job based on a quote as follows:
- Record time against the quoted tasks.
- Add additional billable or non-billable tasks to the job and record time against these tasks.
- Add additional billable or non-billable costs, marked as actuals, to the job.
When the final quoted invoice is created, the write on is calculated and distributed among staff members as follows:
- First, all costs are absorbed by the amount invoiced.
- Then, the balance is allocated pro-rata to the time sheet entries in the job, which will allocate write ons (or write offs) to the individual staff members according to the time they billed to the job.
You can select and deselect tasks and costs, edit time sheets and add more tasks and costs in a progress or final quoted invoice. All these actions have an effect on the WIP ledger, as follows:
Action performed in the invoice |
WIP result in a progress quoted invoice |
WIP result in a final quoted invoice |
---|---|---|
Tasks |
|
|
Deselect a quoted task |
Remains in WIP ledger |
Removed from WIP ledger |
Select a quoted task |
||
Billable task added to the job (can’t be checked, but time is added to WIP ledger) |
||
Non-billable task added to the job |
||
Costs |
|
|
Select an billable cost |
Removed from WIP ledger |
|
Deselect a billable cost |
Remains in WIP ledger |
Removed from WIP ledger |
Select an non-billable cost (cost added to the job) |
Removed from WIP ledger |
|
Deselect an non-billable cost |
Remains in WIP ledger |
Removed from WIP ledger |
Part bill a cost (reduce quantity) |
Unbilled portion carried forward |
Removed from WIP ledger |
Increase the quantity of a cost |
Removed from WIP ledger |
|
Other |
|
|
Deselect an interim |
WIP carried forward |
|
Add a task to the invoice |
WIP is applied to the existing WIP entries |
|
Add a cost to the invoice |
WIP is applied to the existing WIP entries |
|
How do I progressively invoice a client for an agreed total amount, on a (task or cost) line by line basis?
Scenario: You have agreed to perform a job for your client which contains multiple tasks and costs, and you wish to bill those individual task and cost lines progressively, rather than all at once.
Example: You have quoted your client $20,000.00 (excluding tax), made up of:
- Task A - Stage 1 - $7000
- Task B - Stage 2 - $5000
- Cost A - Materials - $8000
Each month, as the job progresses, you wish to invoice out part of the amounts for each of the three line items, which will represent actual progress to date.
Step 1: Create a quote
If you want to successfully progressively invoice out individual line items, you MUST change the Pricing Mode from the default Calculated Price to Fixed Price before you issue the quote. Once you've done this you will have the option to accept the calculated values, or override those values with another amount in the Fixed Price column.
Create a Fixed Price quote with the three line items.
- Task A - Stage 1 - $7000
- Task B - Stage 2 - $5000
- Cost A - Materials - $8000
You will need to issue and accept the quote to create a job based on that quote.
If you need more information on how to create a quote, see Creating a quote from scratch.
Step 2: Create your first progress instalment
When you are ready to invoice your first instalment:
- Go the Financial Tab of the job and select New Progress Invoice in the left-hand menu.
- On the New Progress Invoice screen, make sure that the Invoice Type is set to Quoted/Estimated Time and Costs.
- Select Next. The Invoice Information screen is displayed.
Because you selected the Fixed Price Pricing Mode at the quote stage, your invoice will default to the Fixed Price Pricing Mode.
- On the Invoice Information screen, change the amounts shown in the Fixed Price column to the amounts that you wish to invoice.
For example, at the end of the first month, you have almost completed Task 1, just started Task 2 and purchased roughly half the materials; so you might choose to invoice as follows:
- Task A - Stage 1 - $6000 (of $7000)
- Task B - Stage 2 - $1000 (of $5000)
- Cost A - Materials - $4000 (of $8000)
- Approve and Print the invoice and send it to your client.
Step 3: Create your next progress instalment
When you are ready to invoice your second instalment, repeat steps 1–3 of Step 2 above.
On the Invoice Information screen, you'll see that the remaining balances are:
- Task A - Stage 1 - $1000
- Task B - Stage 2 - $4000
- Cost A - Materials - $4000
Un-billed balances will be available for billing only if you have used Fixed Price Pricing Mode in the quote and all invoices. Using Calculated Price Pricing Mode at any stage will cause the remaining un-invoiced balances to be written off, so there will be nothing left to invoice.
Repeat steps 4–5 of Step 2 above, using the amounts you wish to invoice for.
Step 4: Repeat Step 3 until you are ready to issue your Final Invoice
You need to complete the billing sequence with a Final Invoice (for housekeeping purposes - see below), so don't keep issuing progress invoices until there is nothing left to invoice.
Step 5: Create your final progress instalment
Raising a final invoice will:
- Remove the job from the invoice list (Estimated Billings section on the job's Financial tab).
- Set the job's State to Completed and move the job to the Archive.
When you are ready to invoice for your last instalment:
- Go the Financial Tab of the job and select New Final Invoice in the left-hand menu.
- On the New Final Invoice screen, make sure that Invoice Type is set to Quoted/Estimated Time and Costs.
- Select Next. The invoice generated will display the remaining un-invoiced balances for each line item.
- Approve and Print the invoice and send it to your client.