If you have set up billing schedules for your projects, you can use the system to check if any projects are ready to be billed, and then display a list of suggested bills. You can then select which of these bills you want to produce, and the system will automatically generate the bills for your project customers, using the billing templates you have set up.
To check if your projects have outstanding revenue which can be billed for, you can use the Billing Analysis enquiry.
If you are going to use a billing schedule for your project customers, you will also need to:
Set up templates for your suggested bills.
If you want to automatically generate suggested bills, you must first set up billing templates. You can create billing templates for the types of bill that you use regularly, or design a bill layout for a specific customer. A billing template is a standard bill layout, containing a list of predefined billing lines.
Set up the project customer's billing schedule.
The billing schedule allows you to specify the bills that need to be produced for a project customer, and when they need to be produced. For example, you could bill a customer when a project is complete, when particular stages in the project are reached, or on a particular date.
Open: Project Accounting > Billing > Suggested Bills.
Choose whether you want to recalculate the outstanding values to bill for each project.
The Suggested Bills window appears.
The list displays all bills that are ready to be produced for your project customers.
Note: You can update the list by clicking Refresh.
The Suggested Draft Bills window appears, displaying the generated draft bills. You can amend, print or delete the bills.
When you generate suggested bills, the draft bills will be generated according to the customer's billing schedule and template. The Suggested Draft Bills window displays the bills that have been generated. You can:
Amend Draft Bill
You can add or edit bill lines. You can enter these details in the Bill line totals or select the costs to bill from the Selected Costs tab:
Item Quantity Unit Price Unit of Measure
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Enter the required values. Note: If the selected items on the bill line have the same price and unit of measure, the quantity displayed will be the total of all the items. If the items in the line have different prices and/or units of measure, the quantity will be set to 1 and the unit of measure will be set to not applicable. |
Unit Discount %. Unit Discount.
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Enter the required discount as a value of a percentage. |
Tax Rate.
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Choose the required tax rate |
Click Add Costs.
The Select Costs To Bill window displays the list of outstanding costs that can be billed, for the selected project and customer.
To show costs relating to items or levels in the project structure, click Show Project Structure.
Select the level or item in the structure to display only the costs relating to that area.
Use the Costs Criteria to filter the list.
To display only those items relating to a specific project item type (such as labour items), select it from the Project Item type list.
To limit the date range of the items displayed in the list, select the date in the Date up to box.
COB: Opening balance transaction.
EXP: Expense claim.
NLP: Nominal payment.
NLR: Nominal receipt.
PAC: Cost accrual.
PCA: Cost adjustment.
PLC: Purchase credit.
PLI: Purchase invoice.
STI: Stock issue.
STR: Stock return.
TSE: Timesheet entry.
To select or deselect all the costs displayed in the list, click Select All or Clear All.
Note: You cannot select items that have been queried, indicted in the Qry column.
To view information about a cost, select it and click View Details.
The Transaction Details window appears.
When you have finished selecting the costs to add to the billing line, click OK.
The costs will be displayed on the Selected Costs tab of the billing line.
Click Add Refunds.
The Billed Costs To Refund window displays a list of billed costs that can be refunded, for the selected project and customer.
To show costs relating to items or levels in the project structure, click Show Project Structure.
Select the level or item in the structure to display only the costs relating to that area.
Use the Costs Criteria to filter the list.
To display only those items relating to a specific project item type (such as labour items), select it from the Project Item type list.
To limit the date range of the items displayed in the list, select the date in the Date up to box.
COB: Opening balance transaction.
EXP: Expense claim.
NLP: Nominal payment.
NLR: Nominal receipt.
PAC: Cost accrual.
PCA: Cost adjustment.
PLC: Purchase credit.
PLI: Purchase invoice.
STI: Stock issue.
STR: Stock return.
TSE: Timesheet entry.
To select a billed cost to refund, click on the box in the Inc column.
To select or deselect all the costs displayed in the list, click Select All or Clear All.
Note: You cannot select items that have been queried, indicated in the Qry column.
The Invoice address displays the address that is entered in the customer's record. The Delivery address is initially set to be the same as the invoice address (when Use invoice address is enabled).
To use a delivery address that is different to the customer's invoice address, clear the Use invoice address box and enter the delivery address.
Print Draft Bills
To display the draft bills, click Display.
Note: You can sort the list by clicking on the column headings, e.g. clicking on Customer name will sort the list in ascending or descending alphabetical order.
You can print a selection of draft bills or all the bills in the list.
Tip: To select more than one item using the mouse, hold down the Ctrl key to pick individual items, or hold down the Shift key to select a block of items.
Note: Printing a draft bill will not change the bill's status from Draft to Finalised.
If you do not want to print the bill now, you can print it later.