The WIP tab on a job lets you see every individual work-in-progress (WIP) ledger entry for that job, understand how the current balance is built up, and act on selected entries — invoice them, mark them billable or non-billable, or write them off. It is designed for finance and admin users who manage WIP, and for project managers and team leads who need a clearer view of where a job sits financially.
Available on: Advanced plan. Standard and Premium organisations can access the feature on a 14-day feature trial — an admin user opens the WIP tab and starts the trial from the prompt that appears.
What is Work in Progress (WIP)?
WIP is the value of billable work you have done on a job that has not yet been invoiced. It is made up of timesheet entries (at their billable rate), costs added to the job, and any deposits or interim invoices that reduce what you have left to bill.
The WIP tab adds a per-entry view on top of those concepts so you can manage WIP one ledger entry at a time, instead of acting on the whole job at once.
Key terms
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| WIP ledger entry | A single line in the WIP table. Each entry comes from one of three sources: a timesheet, a cost, or an interim invoice (sometimes called a deposit). |
| Time/Costs Entered | The gross value of all billable timesheet and cost entries recorded against the job to date, before any invoicing or write-offs. |
| WIP Invoiced | The total value of WIP that has been billed to the client, whether through progress, interim, or final invoices. |
| WIP Written Off | The total value of WIP that has been written off against the job, either by writing off entries directly on the WIP tab or by marking entries as non-billable on an approved invoice. |
| Current WIP Balance | What is left to bill: time and costs entered, minus what has already been invoiced or written off. |
| Billable / Non-billable | A flag on a timesheet or cost entry. Non-billable entries stay visible for costing purposes but are excluded from the billable WIP balance and from invoicing. |
| Write off | The act of clearing a WIP ledger entry from the current balance without invoicing it. |
| Ledger types | The WIP tab groups entries into three types: Timesheets, Costs, and Interims. Interims (also called deposits) reduce the amount of WIP left to bill, and are most commonly created when a progress quoted invoice is approved against the job. |
How the WIP balance is calculated
The figure shown in the Current WIP Balance card is calculated as:
Current WIP Balance = Time/Costs Entered − WIP Invoiced − WIP Written Off
The breakdown by ledger type is:
Timesheets + Costs − Interims = Current WIP
Interims (deposits and interim invoices) reduce the balance because they represent value already billed in advance.
Access the WIP tab
- In the navigation bar, click > .
- Click the name of the job you want to review.
- Click the WIP tab.
You need at least View Only Access to the Work In Progress (WIP) privilege to see the tab. Without it, the tab does not appear on the job.
Permissions
The Advanced WIP feature uses a dedicated Work In Progress (WIP) privilege with three levels:
| Level | What you can do |
|---|---|
| No Access | The WIP tab is hidden on every job. The WIP Manager page is also inaccessible. |
| View Only Access | You can open the WIP tab, view summary cards and ledger entries, change the As at date, sort, filter, search, and export to CSV. Action buttons (Invoice, Set as Billable, Set as Non-Billable, Write Off, Restore WIP) are unavailable. |
| Full Access | All of View Only, plus the bulk actions and per-row actions, subject to other privileges (for example, the Invoices privilege is also required to invoice WIP entries). |
If you are a View Only user and try to act on an entry, the per-row tooltip reads: "You don't have permission to perform this action. Contact your administrator."
Read the WIP summary cards
Four cards appear at the top of the tab. Selecting a card filters the ledger table below to that group of entries.
| Card | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Time/Costs Entered | The gross value of every billable timesheet and cost entry recorded against the job to date, before any invoicing or write-offs. |
| WIP Invoiced | The total value of WIP that has been billed to the client on an approved invoice — either a regular invoice raised from the job, or the wash-up final invoice on a quoted job. WIP only moves into this total once the invoice is approved; while it is still a draft, the underlying entries remain in Current WIP Balance. |
| WIP Written Off | The total value of WIP that has been written off against the job. This includes entries written off directly from the WIP tab, and billable timesheet or cost entries that were marked non-billable on an invoice when that invoice was approved. |
| Current WIP Balance | What is left to bill on the job — Time/Costs Entered minus WIP Invoiced minus WIP Written Off. |
When you change the As at date to a date in the past, the Current WIP Balance card relabels itself to WIP Balance ([date]) so it is clear you are looking at a historical snapshot. The Current WIP Balance card is the default view when you open the tab.
View WIP at a point in time
The As at date in the top-right of the tab controls the point in time the table and totals are calculated at. By default it is set to today.
Pick any date and the summary cards, the ledger table, and the CSV export all reconstruct the WIP position as it stood on that date — including which entries existed, what had been invoiced, and what had been written off.
Use As at to answer questions like "What was our WIP balance on this job at the end of last quarter?" without having to build a custom report.
Work with WIP ledger entries
The ledger table
Each row in the table is one WIP ledger entry. The default columns are:
| Column | Sortable |
|---|---|
| Type (Timesheet, Cost, or Interim — shown as a coloured badge) | Yes |
| Date | Yes |
| Name | Yes |
| Phase | Yes |
| Time/Quantity | Yes |
| Cost Amount | Yes |
| Est. Profit | Yes |
| Billable Amount | Yes |
| Billable (toggle) | Yes |
| Write Off Amount (visible when viewing written-off entries) | Yes |
| Write Off Date (visible when viewing written-off entries) | Yes |
| Write Off Source (hidden by default; visible when viewing written-off entries) | Yes |
Use the cog icon at the right of the column header to choose which columns are visible and reorder them. Your selection is saved against your user.
Filter and search
- Ledger Type dropdown — filter to All, Timesheets, Costs, or Interims.
- Search — free-text search across visible entries.
- Filters slide-out — narrow further by status, ledger type, phase, task, staff, entry date range, or invoice date range. The badge on the Filters button shows how many filters are currently active.
Select entries
Use the row checkbox to select an entry, or the header checkbox to select every entry on the page. When at least one entry is selected, the column header is replaced by a bulk action bar.
Bulk actions
When you have one or more entries selected, the action bar shows:
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Invoice | Creates an invoice from the selected entries. |
| Set as Billable | Marks the selected entries as billable. They are included in the billable WIP balance and in invoicing. |
| Set as Non-Billable | Marks the selected entries as non-billable. They stay visible in the table but are excluded from the billable WIP balance and from invoicing. |
| Write Off | Writes the selected entries off and removes them from the current WIP balance. |
When the WIP Written Off card is selected, the action bar shows a single Restore WIP button instead, which returns the selected written-off entries to the current balance. Some buttons may be hidden or disabled depending on your privilege level and what you have selected — for example, Invoice only appears if you also have a write-level Invoices privilege.
Locked entries
A lock icon next to a row means the entry cannot be modified from the WIP tab. Hover the icon to see the specific reason. Common reasons an entry is locked include:
- The entry has already been invoiced.
- The entry has previously been written off.
- The entry is on a draft invoice that has not yet been approved.
- The entry is on or before your organisation's WIP lock date.
- The underlying timesheet has been submitted.
- Your privilege level does not permit this action.
If an entry is locked because it is on a draft invoice, you can remove it from that draft invoice and the lock will clear.
Write off WIP
- Select one or more current WIP ledger entries.
- Choose Write Off from the action bar.
- In the confirmation dialog, pick the write-off date. This is the date the write-off is recorded against and drives where it lands in your financial reports. By default it is set to today.
- Click Confirm.
Writing off an entry:
- Sets the entry's status to Written Off with the date you chose.
- Removes the entry from the Current WIP Balance and adds its value to WIP Written Off.
- Leaves the underlying timesheet or cost record in place — only the WIP ledger entry is updated.
Write-off is a financial action and is recorded in the audit log. If your organisation has a WIP lock date set, entries dated on or before that date cannot be written off and will be skipped.
To reverse a write-off, switch the table to the WIP Written Off card, select the entries you want to bring back, and choose Restore WIP. The entries return to the current WIP balance with their original values.
Set entries as billable or non-billable
- Select one or more current WIP ledger entries.
- Choose Set as Billable or Set as Non-Billable from the action bar and confirm.
Toggling billable status:
- Updates the Billable flag on the WIP ledger entry.
- Syncs the same flag back to the source record — the underlying timesheet or job cost — so reports and the rest of the job stay consistent.
- Does not change cost or charge amounts.
Non-billable entries stay visible in the table for costing purposes but are excluded from the billable WIP balance and are not pulled into invoices. You can switch an entry back to billable at any time as long as it is not locked.
If a selected entry is locked (for example, the timesheet has been submitted, or the entry is on a draft invoice), it will be skipped. The success message tells you how many entries were updated and how many were skipped.
Invoice WIP entries
If you have the appropriate Invoices privilege as well as Full Access to WIP, you can invoice selected ledger entries directly from the WIP tab.
- Select the entries you want to invoice.
- Choose Invoice from the action bar.
- In the confirmation dialog, pick the invoice date and invoice type — Progress Invoice or Final Invoice — then confirm.
Progress Invoice
Raises an invoice for just the entries you selected. Any remaining WIP stays open against the job.
Final Invoice
All open WIP ledger entries on the job are pulled into the invoice automatically — not only the ones you had selected. This is the wash-up that closes out remaining WIP at the end of a job.
The new invoice opens as a draft. The entries you invoiced stay in the Current WIP Balance until you approve that invoice — at the point of approval, they move to WIP Invoiced.
Export to CSV
Click Export CSV at the right of the toolbar to download the current view of the WIP ledger as a CSV file. The export:
- Respects the As at date.
- Respects the active Ledger Type, search, and Filters selections, plus the selected summary card.
The file contains the same entries you see in the table, with the financial columns needed for analysis or reconciliation in a spreadsheet application.