This is an internal document that creates the Project Manager to specify what have to be billed to the Client.
In some organizations, the person who creates invoices is not always involved in projects, so this is the tool that the PM has to tell him what have to be billed.
Also it's an important control tool because it will mark worked hours as billed (the hours your team has entered on the Time Tracking)
1. General Description
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Create the Bill Order
When it's time to bill your client according to your billing cycle, the Project Manager creates the Bill Order for the project. You will specify the period to help Frank determine the work that has been done.
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Add items
You can add items to the Bill Order as with an Invoice. You can add worked hours (Frank will assist you in determining the work that has been done from the time tracking), Reimbursable Expenses, or manual/custom items.
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Confirm the Bill Order
The Bill Order has 3 states: Draft, Confirmed and Invoiced. You can start working on your bill order and keep it in draft status until you're done. Once it's completed, you can Confirm your bill order and it will be ready to be invoiced.
The person who has the Accounting & Finace role in your organization will receive a notification that the Bill Order is ready to be invoiced.
This step will also confirm the hours that your team has entered on the time tracking.
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Create the Invoice from the Bill Order
From a confirmed Bill Order you will be able to create an Invoice, that will have the same items that you've specified before. The two documents will be linked for future reference.
2. Creating the Bill Order
Bill Orders are created from the Financials section of the projects. You must specify the following fields to create a bill order:
Period: From - To |
This is the most critical information for the Bill Order: the period that will be billed to the client. Frank will used this information to mark the hours from the Time Tracking to be billed. |
Notes |
This is an optional field, that will be used on the invoice as Notes field. |
3. Items
You can add items to bill as with an Invoice. Each item will have an amount, and may represent one of the following types:
Custom Item |
This is a simple item with the basic information. You'll have to enter information manually. |
Reimbursable Expense |
Frank keeps track of all your reimbursable expenses, and will offer you those expenses that haven't been billed to the client yet. |
Worked Hours |
For Hourly based contracts, Frank will assist you to include all pending hours from the time tracking in the bill order period that haven't been billed to the client, using the billable rates defined in your contract. |
Each item has the following information:
Product / Service |
This is one of the product or services that you have defined in your company profile. |
Description |
Text field. An extra description for the item |
Quantity / Value |
The quantity and the price for the item. |
Project Phase |
If your project has Phases, you can specify to which one of them corresponds the item. You can add as many items/phases as you want in your bill order, and this amount will be applied individually to the phase, so you can see later how much you have billed and collected for each Phase. |
After creating your items, your Bill Order would look like this:
3.1. Adding Manual items
To add a manual item, click on the + sign on the top of the Items section.
You must specify a Product/Service, a quantity and amount, and the total will be calculated automatically.
If your project has Phases, you can set it at the bottom of the modal. The amount will be applied to the "Phase Invoiced" total.
NOTE: as the Phase is related to the bill order / invoice items, you can have an invoice with multiple phases. Frank will calculate the amount billed to each phase based on this information.
3.2. Adding Reimbursable Expenses
Frank can keep track of your reimbursable expenses, this is, expenses that you will charge back to your client like copies, printing, etc.
When you enter an Expense to your project, you have the option to mark it as reimbursable, so when you add an item of this type Frank will offer you all the reimbursable expenses that haven't been billed to the client yet.
Once you send the invoice to your client, the reimbursable expense will marked as "invoiced" and will no longer be available to add it as an item to a Bill Order or Invoice.
3.3. Adding Pending Hours
For Hourly based contracts, Frank can help you determine the hours and the amount to be billed to your client based on time tracking records and the billable rates defined in your contract.
To add pending hours, click on the icon at the items section of the bill order. The following window will appear:
Frank will show the pending hours registered on the time tracking corresponding to the Bill Order period, grouped by Staff.
If you confirm this information, each staff row will be added as an item to the Bill Order. The item quanty will be the hours selected, and the value will be the billable rate of the staff (which is defined on the Contract section of the project).
How to use this window
- Each staff-row is a summary of the registered hours in the time tracking. If you click on the arrow icon, you can see the detail of the hours and select the hours to be included/excluded.
- If you select a Phase on the top, staff-rows will be filtered by this phase.
- When you confirm and click "Add items", each staff-row will be added as an item to the Bill Order
- You can select the Product/Service of each item and the staff-row
After adding the items, you can always modify them by editing as a regular item.
When you confirm the Bill Order and create the Invoice, all these hours will be marked as "invoiced".
4. Bill Order Status
A Bill Order may have the one of the following status:
Draft |
This is the first status of the bill order. While in draft, can be edited and will not be shown on the ACF Bill Order's Console |
Pending to Bill |
This is the status after it's confirmed by the Project Manager. The Bill Order will be shown at the ACF Bill Order's Console, and the Invoice can be created from the bill order. The Bill Order can still be edited. |
Invoiced |
After the invoice is created from the Bill Order. The bill order is locked, and can't be edited anymore. The Reimbursable Expenses are marked as invoiced. Time Tracking hours are marked as invoiced, and associated with this bill order. |
Cancelled |
If you cancel a bill order, all hours and reimbursable expenses will be available again (not invoiced) |