Changes should be made with care as they will affect the entire operation of for the organisation.
Field descriptions prefixed by (Premium only) are available with Premium only.
To view or change your organisation settings:
- On the toolbar click the Settings
icon.
- On the General Settings tab, make sure that the Organisation Settings section is selected.
- On the Organisation Settings screen, view or change your organisation settings as required.
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Account
Field Description Name Specifies the name of your organisation – used in quotes/estimates, invoices, reports and anywhere that the name is used in .
Time Zone The time zone you selected when you created your account. The time zone is used to ensure consistent day/time information is recorded when staff are entering time sheets in more than one time zone, such as New Zealand and Australia, for example.
Information
Specifies text to show on invoices and quotes/estimates issued by the organisation (displayed in the top right of the default template). Typically, it includes your postal address and contact details. Initially this field contains only the company name and phone number you provided when you signed up for the free trial.
We recommend that you add your GST, VAT or tax number in this field as there is no separate data field for this information.
Tasks
Specifies the heading to use for tasks in your quotes, job briefs, purchase orders, invoice statements and invoices, when printing using the system default or a custom print template. You can rename it from Tasks if there is a term that will better fit your business. For example, Activities. See PreferenceTaskHeading in Merge field reference.
Phases
Specifies the heading to use for phases in your quotes, when printing using a custom print template. You can rename it from Phases if there is a term that will better fit your business. For example, Categories, Stages, Deliverables. See PreferenceFolderHeading in Merge field reference.
Unassigned Phase Name
Specifies the heading to use for the Unassigned phase in your quotes and invoices, when printing using the system default or a custom print template. The Unassigned phase contains tasks and costs that have not been assigned to a specific phase. You can rename it from Unassigned if there is a term that will better fit your business. For example, Unallocated, Miscellaneous.
Costs
Specifies the heading to use for costs in your quotes, job briefs, purchase orders, invoice statements and invoices, when printing using the system default or a custom print template. You can rename it from Costs if there is a term that will better fit your business. For example, Disbursements, Materials. See PreferenceCostHeading in Merge field reference.
Options
Specifies the heading to use for optional extras in your quotes, when printing using the system default or a custom print template. You can rename it if there is a term that will better fit your business. For example, Optional Services, Upgrades, Alternative Options. See PreferenceOptionHeading in Merge field reference.
Enable or Disable mandatory Multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all users in the account.
This feature is available only to the Account Owner.
By enabling mandatory MFA, all staff who access this account are required to authenticate using MFA when signing in to their account. Staff who have not yet enabled MFA on their account need to set up MFA the next time they sign in to by linking their account with an MFA Authenticator app and creating answers for backup security questions.
When you enable mandatory MFA, all staff automatically receive an email notifying them of this change, including instructions on the setup process.
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Client
Field Description Individual Name Format
(Premium only) Specifies the order that the client's surname and first name are stored when the client's name is a personal name rather than a company. This helps ensure that the salutation uses the correct name.
Include "other name"...
(Premium only) Select this checkbox if you want to be able to specify an alternative name for salutation purposes when the client name is a personal name rather than a company.
Show Postal Address
If this checkbox is:
- selected, the Address (for clients listed in the All Clients screen) will be the postal address.
- deselected, the default address is shown.
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Cost
Field Description Markup % All costs added to a job will be marked up by this percentage, unless:
- a standard price has been set in
- this markup value is specifically over-ridden in the
- this markup value is specifically over-ridden in the cost screen's Calculate Markup dialog when the cost is added.
You can also control how unit prices are managed for cost items on purchase orders. This is especially important if you want (or don't want) to pass on changes to unit costs to your clients. For further details, see Automatically re-calculate job cost unit price....
Round Unit Price
This will round the unit price of a cost in a job to two or four decimal places.
Billable
If this checkbox is:
- selected, new costs added to a job will be billable by default
- deselected, new costs added to a job will be non-billable by default.
You can over-ride the default for each added cost if you wish.
- a standard price has been set in
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Financial
Field Description Tax [n] Name Specifies the name of your sales tax (such as GST, VAT) as it will appear on quotes, invoices, statements and reports. Together with the tax rate (below), it appears in the Tax drop-down in a draft invoice. You can add new tax names and rates if you wish.
Tax [n] Rate Specifies the standard tax rate that will be applied to all of your sales, provided the client is not flagged as Zero rated GST.
Financial Year End (Premium only) Specifies the month that your company's financial year ends.
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Lock Dates
Field Description If this checkbox is:
- selected, you can specify a date to lock WIP Work In Progress in is all uninvoiced staff time and disbursements recorded on client jobs. . Users will then be unable to:
- add, edit or delete time sheets or job costs up to and including this date
- receipt a purchase order, where the receipt date falls prior to the lock date
- move a time sheet that falls prior to the lock date
- import job costs, where the cost date falls prior to the lock date.
If this checkbox is:
- selected, you can specify a date to lock a period. Users will then be unable to:
- add, edit or delete invoices up to and including this date
- import invoices from Xero prior to this date.
If you undo a WIP write-off in a job, then will recover all WIP that was previously written off, as far back as the current lock date. It will not recover WIP that was written off before the lock date.
If you apply a Period Lock Date then a WIP Lock Date must also be applied.
If this checkbox is:
- selected, you can specify a date to lock WIP Work In Progress in is all uninvoiced staff time and disbursements recorded on client jobs. . Users will then be unable to:
- add, edit or delete time sheets or job costs up to and including this date
- receipt a purchase order, where the receipt date falls prior to the lock date
- move a time sheet that falls prior to the lock date
- import job costs, where the cost date falls prior to the lock date.
If this checkbox is:
- selected, you can specify a date to lock a period. Users will then be unable to:
- add, edit or delete invoices up to and including this date
- import invoices from Xero prior to this date.
If you undo a WIP write-off in a job, then will recover all WIP that was previously written off, as far back as the current lock date. It will not recover WIP that was written off before the lock date.
If you apply a Period Lock Date then a WIP Lock Date must also be applied.
- selected, you can specify a date to lock WIP Work In Progress in is all uninvoiced staff time and disbursements recorded on client jobs. . Users will then be unable to:
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Job
Field Description Specifies the job status Job status usually matches the stages in your company's job workflow, such as Planned, In Progress or Completed. By adding notifications to each job status, you can communicate to key people how a job is progressing - and when it's time for them to take action. that will be assigned to all jobs by default when they are first created.
For example, if you create jobs in bulk at the start of the financial year, select a job state called Planned. However, if you create jobs as you start working on them, select a job state called In Progress.
Default Template
Specifies the default job template that will apply for all new jobs. Select the job template for the most common type of job you perform.
Specifies the job status that a job will automatically move to once a final invoice has been created. The job status will not change as long as there is unbilled WIP Work In Progress in is all uninvoiced staff time and disbursements recorded on client jobs. in the job, regardless of progress or final invoices created.
Specifies how you want tasks in a job to be ordered. - If you select Custom, the tasks in a job can be reordered using drag and drop.
- If you select Due Date, costs in a job are in ascending order of the date the task is due for completion.
Job Cost Order
Specifies how you want costs in a job to be ordered. - If you select Custom, then costs in a job can be reordered using drag and drop.
- If you select Cost Date, costs in a job are in ascending order of the date the cost was added to the job.
allows you to base your billing on the task billable rate The task billing rate is the cost to your client of your staff working for an hour on that task. The rate has a default value for each task that can be overridden on a job or client basis if required. for the task being worked on, or on the staff billable rate The staff billing rate is the cost to your client of an hour of your staff member's time. The billing rate has a default value for each staff member that can be overridden on a task, job or client basis if required. of the individuals working on the task.
In general, you would choose:
- Task Billable Rate if all your employees are charged out at the same labour rate when they are working on the same task.
- Staff Billable Rate if you have (for example) a Junior Designer and a Senior Designer both working on the same design task. This will ensure that the client is billed for the hours worked by each staff member at the appropriate junior or senior hourly rate.
All jobs in rely on this preference setting to determine which type of billing to use.
The Task Invoice Rate set here becomes the default for each new job. If you change this setting it will not affect existing jobs – only new jobs created after the change.
You can change the Task Invoice Rate for a specific job in the Financial Settings screen for that job (click the Financial Settings button on the job details screen).
If you set Task Invoice Rate to:
- Staff Billable Rate, you must also set Time Allocation to Staff , or you won't be able to save your current changes.
- Task Billable Rate, you can set Time Allocation to Staff or Task.
For staff who have been allocated to work on specific tasks (normally done when adding a task to a job), you can use the Time Allocation setting to control if they can be allocated an amount of time to work on a task. If a staff member is then allocated time to work on a task, that time is shown against the job task for reporting and scheduling purposes only - it does not limit the amount of time that can be recorded against the task.
If you set Time Allocation to:
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Staff: You will be able to explicitly allocate all or part of the estimated time to individual staff members.
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Task: You will not be able to explicitly allocate time to staff members. To use this setting you must have set your Task Invoice Rate to Task Billable Rate.
For staff members who have been assigned to a job, Staff Task Allocation controls how they can record time against the tasks in the job.
Inherit from Job: The staff member can record time against any task that has not been allocated to another staff member.
Explicit: The staff member can record time against a task only if he or she has been explicitly allocated to the task. If you select this option, job creation and job administration will be more time consuming, as you have to allocate individual staff member to each task. However, this option offers greater control of how time is managed in a job.
More about staff allocation and job scheduling
To find out more about the staff time allocated to specific jobs, you can run the Staff Allocation report, available on the Jobs > Jobs > Staff Allocation (tab). For further details see Staff allocation view.
When Calculating the Estimated billings...
This checkbox controls how estimated billings are calculated and displayed for jobs – not how the billable amounts in invoices are calculated.
Specifically, this affects the estimated billings displayed in the:
- Estimated Billings panel in the WIP Work In Progress in is all uninvoiced staff time and disbursements recorded on client jobs. Manager, and
- Estimated Billings section in the job's Financial tab.
If this checkbox is:
- selected, the estimated billings will be based on the quoted/estimated values for tasks and costs (but only for jobs that have an accepted quote/estimate).
It's possible to have multiple quotes/estimates for a job, but estimated billings are based on the 'master quote operates on the basis of one 'master quote' per job. The master quote is the most recently accepted quote on that job. It is this master quote that will determine what can be invoiced. If you create a new quote to deal with variations to the quoted work, the new quote becomes the master quote and supersedes the previous master quote. The previous master quote is retained and is still associated with the job, but it is available for reference purposes only. ' - the most recently accepted quote/estimate.
- deselected, the estimated billings will be based on actual times worked and actual costs (for all jobs, with or without an accepted quote/estimate).
The value of estimated billings will flow through to your invoice and will normally be the value you actually bill your client for, unless you edit the invoice to write time up or down, change cost items, mark items as non-billable, or add additional time or costs directly to the invoice.
More on write ons and write offs
allows you to adjust the actual amounts billed in an invoice by applying write ons (also called write ups) and write offs. For further details, see About adjusting an invoice.
If this checkbox is:
- selected, new cost items added to a job to be automatically added to the Cost Admin database (
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Invoice
Field Description Default Invoice Type
Specifies the default Invoice Type that will be used when creating a new invoice:
- Actual Time - invoices based on actual time and costs
- Quoted/Estimated Time/Costs - invoices based on quoted time and costs.
Select the type of invoice you will use most of the time.
Payment Terms
Specifies how the supplier invoice due date is calculated when a new invoice is created. You need to specify:
- a number of days (7, for example), and
- how the number of days is used (day(s) after the invoice date, for example).
The Payment Terms value in the client type A client type is a named set of payment terms, used to ensure consistency across your client base. For example, you might set up two client types: Premium, with a markup rate of 30% and payment terms of by 20th of next month, and Standard, with a markup rate of 40% and payment terms of within 7 days. When you add a new client, you can then allocate Premium or Standard payment terms, as required. settings (for details, see Add or edit a Client Type) will over-ride this setting.
Timesheet Notes
Specifies if (or how) you want time sheet notes to be displayed in the invoice description.
Default Percentage Sets the default percentage that will show in a progress invoice A Progress invoice should be used for on-going jobs, or jobs where there is a likelihood of further time or costs being added to the job. (only when the invoice is created from the Job Actions button on the job detail screen), when:
- invoicing a percentage of a quoted value, and
- there is an accepted quote or estimate in a job.
Initially set to 50%.
Footer
Specifies the text that you want to appear at the bottom of all invoices. In custom print templates this is the PreferenceTerms merge field.
Invoice Display Options:
Specifies how tasks and costs are displayed on invoices
Additional Cost Behaviour
The Additional Cost Behaviour dropdown specifies how you would like costs which are added at the time of invoicing to be added to the job. The options include:
- Always add as a job cost - This will add any cost added at the time of invoicing back to the job the invoice was raised for.
- Never add as a job cost - This will not add the cost back to the job at the time of invoicing.
- Ask upon invoice approval - This option will ask you whether or not you would like the costs added to the invoice to be added back to the job or not.
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Account
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Payment Advice
Field Description Specifies the text to display beneath the dotted 'tear off here' line in the Payment Advice area in invoices. In custom print templates this is the PaymentAdviceHeading merge field.
Details
Specifies the text to display in the Payment Advice. For example, details of your bank account that the clients should make payment to. In custom print templates this is the PaymentAdviceText merge field.
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KPI Dashboard
Field Description Hours Per Day
(Premium only) Specifies the number of working hours in a day. The KPI Dashboard allows you to track the productivity of each staff member by comparing their actual billable hours against their expected billable hours.
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Purchase Order
Field Description Bulk PO Job Order
Specifies the order in which jobs are displayed when creating purchase orders in bulk.
Default Cost Type
When you add a cost to the Cost Admin database or to a quote or purchase order, you can have the cost Type default to:
- Service - use when most of your cost items are non-physical items such as subscriptions or travel expenses.
- Stock - use when most of your cost items are physical items such as machinery or materials. Typical Stock items are delivered and you track their receipt.
Default Delivery Address
Specifies the default delivery address used in a new purchase order.
Footer
Specifies the text printed at the bottom of a purchase order. In custom print templates this is the PreferenceTerms merge field.
Draft PO Number Allocation
Specify when to allocate a number to a purchase order. - If you have several staff creating purchase orders, select Allocate a PO #. This allocates a purchase order number immediately the draft is created and helps to avoid problems with purchase order numbering.
- If you have a sole staff member creating purchase orders, select Do not allocate a PO #, as you do not need to avoid possible contention for PO numbers.
Automatically re-calculate...
When a cost item is initially set up in the Cost Admin database, the cost item has a unit cost and a unit price. The unit cost shows how much the item cost you to buy. The unit price shows how much you are billing your client for the item, and is based on the unit cost plus a markup.
When a cost item in Cost Admin is added to a purchase order (PO), the unit cost shown in Cost Admin are used. However, when you are billed for the cost item by your supplier, the unit cost may be different from the unit cost in Cost Admin. If you change the unit cost to match the bill, the unit price added to the job reflects the original unit cost - not the new one - as the markup is applied when the item is set up in Cost Admin.
The Automatically re-calculate... checkbox controls whether or not the unit price is re-calculated based on the new unit cost and applicable markup.
Do one of the following:
- Select this checkbox if you want any updated unit costs to be used to automatically re-calculate the corresponding unit prices. In this case, any changes in unit costs would be passed on to your client as updated unit prices.
- Deselect this checkbox if you do not want to pass on any cost changes automatically to your client. In this case, you would need to maintain the unit costs and unit prices manually in Cost Admin.
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Purchase Receipt
Field Description Payment Terms
Specifies how the supplier invoice due date is calculated when receipting a purchase order. You need to specify:
- a number of days (7, for example), and
- how the number of days is used (days after the invoice date, for example).
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Quote/Estimate
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Reports
Field Description Time Format
Specifies the format that will be used when displaying time in a report:
- Hour minute (1:30)
- Decimal (1.5).
Regardless of the Time Format setting, the decimal format is used when exporting reports to CSV, as it is easier to use in spreadsheet formulas.
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Timesheets
Field Description Specifies the method that staff will use to record time sheets.
- Time Duration – the actual number of hours/minutes worked
- Start/Finish – the times that work started and finished.
Enables/disables the ability to enter time for an entire week. If this setting is:
- Enabled - the Enter Weekly Timesheet option is available on the Timesheet screen (Dashboard > + Quick Add > Enter time > + Enter Timesheet drop-down).
- Disabled - the Enter Weekly Timesheet option is not available.
Specifies which day your working week begins on. This will also affect how the week will display in the schedules.
Specifies whether you want time entries to be rounded to the nearest 5, 6, 10, 15, 20 or 30 minutes for invoicing. always rounds up to the selected setting. The default is No Rounding.
Rounding may create problems with inflated time sheets and can impact productivity measures.
Specifies the order in which jobs are displayed (in the Jobs drop-down list) when entering time sheets. May be set to:
- Client (default) - jobs are listed in alphabetical order of client name.
- Job Number - jobs are listed in ascending order of job number.
Specifies the order in which tasks are displayed (in the Tasks drop-down list) when entering time sheets. May be set to:
- Alphabetical (default) - tasks are listed in alphabetical order.
- Job Order - tasks are listed in the order they appear in the job.
- Save your changes.