SECRETS FOR BILLING
SUCCESS
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Invoice
Types -- There's One For Every
Occasion
Clients
& Profits offers many different invoice types
to choose from depending upon your billing needs.
All invoicing is flexible; until it's posted, an
invoice's amounts and tasks can be edited as
needed. And even after it's posted, an invoice's
printed style can be changed.
In addition to flexibility, invoices have varying
degrees of automation. Some agencies are only using
the job billing invoice. They aren't taking
advantage of more automated choices, like progress
or estimate invoices.
Here are some of the various invoice
types:
Advance: To bill clients before starting
work on jobs; based upon job's estimate. Credits a
liability account instead of income accounts. As
work progresses, subsequent job invoices are "paid"
by the advance.
Progress/Final: Very automated. Creates
invoice based upon currently unbilled costs.
Invoice type used by Auto-bill feature.
Estimate: Very automated. Creates invoice
based upon job's estimate. Bill any percentage of
estimate, including change orders.
Multi-Job: Includes many jobs and job tasks.
Especially helpful when projects span a number of
job tickets.
Miscellaneous: Non-job billing; a "client"
invoice. Used for consulting fees, commissions, and
service charges.
Retainer: Based upon retainer schedule set
up in the Client file. Credits a liability account
instead of income accounts. Any job invoice for a
client can be paid by a retainer.
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By Mindy
Williams
Billing seems an insurmountable task at times. How to
get from organizing all the elements that make up the
billing to counting the money that comes in as a result of
it? The pre-billing process does vary from agency to agency.
But here are some general steps that many shops have in
common:
1. Check that everything's posted.
Post anything you're
considering for this month's billing. For many agencies,
this isn't difficult. Clients & Profits makes data entry
easy, so keeping up with entering time and costs doesn't lag
behind and goes everywhere it needs to go.
2. Print Work In Progress reports.
WIP reports show you how much is available to bill. They
show totals from unbilled tasks. Other pre-billing reports
include Job Summaries, Job Costs, Job Lists, and Open
Purchase Orders.
3. Get necessary approvals.
Have people who know the job specs and the
clients review the pre-billing reports. Get their input on
what is OK to bill this month.
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4. Update billing status
codes.
Using billing status codes makes it easy to generate
invoices using the Auto-bill feature and print reports from
an accounting perspective.
5. Time to bill.
Generate the invoices. There are many invoice types to
choose from and many printing options. Print billing
previews or an A/R proof list if you need to get a final
approval.
6. Proof, revise, and post invoices
-- then get them out the door.
Double-check for mistakes before
sending invoices. Errors are the biggest reason payments get
delayed.
Mindy Williams
is a senior member of Clients & Profits Helpdesk. She
co-teaches the monthly new-user training classes
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