Billing: Worksheets Overview
Workamajig allows you to define billing preferences by customer and project so that when it comes time to create invoices, it can largely be done automatically. Your current billing workflow probably consists of printing of a budget for all of the necessary projects and a detailed billing worksheet report. These are typically routed to the different account executives. They then review the details and the budget and determine what needs to get billed. The reports are marked up and passed back to Accounting who then needs to key all this in. You can also review our Billing Worksheet Video or Billing Guides for more detailed information.
To properly use the billing worksheets in your billing process, we recommend that you try a smaller run of invoices or a specific Account Executive first. There will be some iron out of this process the first time that is better to address early on then when it comes time to bill.
Contents
Setup
Depending on how the client is setup (One Invoice Per = Project, Client, Division, Product, Parent Client), or if you are using a Campaign to group Projects under, you may also see what is called a Master Billing Worksheet be generated. These Master Worksheets are assigned to the Account Manager on the Client or Campaign respectively.
NOTE: When Billing by Campaigns. The Unbilled Amount is calculated differently on Fixed Fee versus Time and Material Projects.
- On the Fixed Fee projects, the Unbilled Amount is calculated as Budget Amount - Invoiced Amount.
- On the Time and Material projects, the unbilled amount is calculated as Unbilled Amount.
When you use the billing worksheets, there are four different types of worksheets that you may come across, these are:
- Time and Materials (Based on the Billing Method of the Project)
- Fixed-Fee (Based on the Billing Method of the Project)
- Retainer (Based on the Billing Method of the Project and the Setup of the Retainer)
- Master Worksheets (Based on Client or Campaign Setup)
Workflow
Our integrated billing process allows you to complete the review process faster and with fewer mistakes and missed billing opportunities. The billing process goes through the following steps.
1. Generate Billing Worksheets
- Typically the accounting department (has the security right to Create and Edit Client Invoices) would be the ones to generate Billing Worksheets.
- Only one active Worksheet can be open for each project.
- Worksheets are sent to each projects account manager for review.
2. Review Billing Worksheets
- Worksheets that are sent for review will appear in each user's My Items To Approve Widget.
- Based on security rights, the review might only have the ability to Add Comments vs. Editing Transactions.
- There are a variety of options when editing transactions via the Form Actions menu.
- Reviewers can also see the project snapshot, which includes the overall budget and profitability.
- Once a reviewer is done commenting or making changes, they Send For Approval.
3. Approve Billing Worksheets
- Any person with the right to Create and Edit Client Invoices can approve a billing worksheet. Or just the Billing Manager set on the client/project.
- Approvers have access to the same screens as in the review process. With the additional option to Reject or Approve.
- Once a worksheet has been approved, you can create invoices for it.
4. Create Invoices From Worksheets
- This step shows all worksheets that have been Approved and are ready to be turned into client invoices.
- Select the worksheets and create client invoices. The line format and other settings are controlled by the client setup or campaign.
- Afterward, you then move on to the processes of reviewing and approving client invoices that were generated, sending the invoice to the client and posting them to the GL to run your financial reports.
Additional Options
There are a couple of new options that can be set at the project level to help determine how the project should be billed.
Billing Method
When you set up a project, you can specify how the project should be billed (Time and Materials, Fixed Fee or Retainer (you must specify a retainer to link to the project). These options can also be set on the client and defaulted onto the project when it is created. This simplifies the setup and standardizes how things are set up.
Billing Schedule
This can be used to restrict when a Billing Worksheet can be generated for a Fixed Fee Project or an Advance Billing on a Time and Materials project.
Keep in mind that a Billing Worksheet will NOT be available to Generate unless the defined date in the Billing Schedule has been met.
Fixed Fee Project: An entry can be tied to a Date (User Determined) or Task (Plan Complete Date) or Both (uses the earlier of the two dates). You can also designate a percentage of the budget to create the invoice for.
Time and Materials Project: Only Used to create an Advanced Billing Invoice. An entry can be tied to a Date (User Determined) or Task (Plan Complete Date) or the earlier of the two if both are selected. You can also designate a percentage of the budget to create the Advance Billing invoice for.
NOTE: A normal Time and Materials worksheet will be available to generate anytime there are approved/unbilled transactions on the project. So what this means is that if you have approved/unbilled transactions and the billing schedule date is ready to create the advance, then you will see two worksheets you can generate for the same project. The one listed under (Time and Material) is for the Approved/Unbilled transactions, then the one under (Fixed Fee/Time and Material with Advance Billing) is for the Advance Billing. In this case, you would need to generate a bill for the worksheet for the Advance Bill before you can generate the regular worksheet for the transactions.
Next Steps
- Generate Billing Worksheets
- Review Billing Worksheets
- Approve Billing Worksheets
- Create Invoices From Worksheets
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