The first step in invoicing your clients is to review the items that are ready to be billed. To do this, click on the Billing nav bar item the Ready to Bill sub-menu item under Billing (Figure 1) to access the Ready to Bill screen (Figure 2).
Figure 1 - Select Ready to Bill to Review the Items Ready to Bill in Your Workspace
The Ready to Bill screen (Figure 2) is a ledger of all services, expenses, and other items that can be invoiced for a specified time period. In order to access the Ready to Bill screen, you must have the Create invoices permission enabled on your security role.
Figure 2 - Ledger of Services, Expenses, and Other Items that can be Invoiced
At the top of the Ready to Bill screen is a date range selector (Figure 3). This date range will determine which time entries, expense items, fixed fee milestones, and other items will be invoiced. You can choose a predefined date range or you can type in a custom range.
Figure 3 - Use the Date Range Selector to Specify the Time Period for Which you want to View Ready to Bill Items
Next to the date range selector is a checkbox (Figure 4) marked Invoice for prior billable items. Checking this box will include any uninvoiced, billable items prior to the dates specified into Ready to Bill for invoicing. This will allow you to bill a client for items that were not included on prior invoices for whatever reason.
Figure 4 - Include Uninvoiced, Billable Items in Ready to Bill
Below the date range selector is a group of refinement inputs to limit the inclusion of items that are ready to bill:
Client
The Client dropdown (Figure 5) enables you to filter the returned items to bill to those for a specific client. Often times, you may want to generate an invoice for one or two clients amongst a large number with items to bill. Select the client for which you wish to view items to bill.
Figure 5 - Filter the Ready to Bill Screen for a Specific Client
Client Practice
The Client Practice dropdown (Figure 6) enables you to filter the returned items to bill to those for a specific list of clients associated with a practice. Often times, you may want to generate invoices for clients within a specific practice only. Select the client practice for which you wish to view items to bill.
Figure 6 - Filter the Ready to Bill Screen for a Specific Client Practice
Project Practice
The Project Practice dropdown (Figure 7) enables you to filter the returned items to bill to those for a specific list of projects associated with a practice. Often times, you may want to generate invoices for projects within a specific practice only. Select the project practice for which you wish to view items to bill.
Figure 7 - Filter the Ready to Bill Screen for a Specific Project Practice
Project Admin
To view a list of items to bill for projects administered by a specific Project Admin, you can use the Project Admin dropdown (Figure 8) to filter for that specific member.
Figure 8 - Filter the Ready to Bill Screen for Projects Managed by a Specific Project Admin
Approved Items
As discussed below in the Ready to Bill List section, Ruddr will present all items that can be considered for billing. To limit the list of items to bill to those items that are Approved, check the Approved item only checkbox (Figure 9) at the top of the screen.
Figure 9 - Filter the Items to Bill List to only Display Approved Items
Project Status
In some cases, you may wish to invoice customers based on project status. For example, perhaps you wish to only generate invoices for "Completed" projects. When needed, specifying a particular set of projects statuses via the Project Status dropdown (Figure 10) will limit the items to bill results to only those ready to bill items on projects with the selected statuses.
Figure 10 - Filter the Items to Bill List to only Display Items for Projects of a Particular Status
Task Status
In some cases, you may wish to invoice customers based on project task status. For example, perhaps you wish to only generate invoices for "Completed" tasks. When needed, specifying a particular set of task statuses via the Task Status dropdown (Figure 11) will limit the items to bill results to only those ready to bill items on project tasks with the selected statuses.
Figure 11 - Filter the Items to Bill List to only Display Items for Project Tasks of a Particular Status
Summary Bar
Immediately below the date range selector is the summary bar (Figure 12) which shows the total dollar amount of services and expenses that can be invoiced for the selected date range. Changing the date range will change the totals in the summary bar.
Note that clicking on any of these values will take you to a detailed report of the items that make up that specific total of services items, expense items, other items, or all items.
Figure 12 - Ready to Bill Summary Bar
Services Total
- Time and materials projects: the services total is the sum of all billable work delivered on the project during the period.
- Fixed fee projects: the services total is the sum of any billing schedule milestones that occur within the period.
Expenses Total
The expenses total for a project represents the sum of the project expense items in the time period that are marked as billable. Any expense items associated with the project that are not set as billable will not be shown.
Other Items
Other items can be scheduled similarly to fixed fee billing schedule milestones. You simply set the date that you want those other items to bill on the Billing tab of the Edit Project drawer.
Ready to Bill List
Any project that has billable services, expenses, or other items for the period will be shown in a list (Figure 13) beneath the summary bar. Each row in this list represents a potential draft invoice. Or, multiple rows for the same client can be combined into a single draft invoice.
Note that clicking on any of the values in the list will take you to a detailed report listing the items included in the respective total (Services, Expenses, Other Items, All Items).
Figure 13 - Ready to Bill List
There may be times where you receive warnings related to items included in Ready to Bill. Putting your mouse over this icon will provide more details on the warning condition (Figure 14).
- Unapproved Items: If some of the time or expense items are not in an approved state, a warning icon will be shown to the right of the row. This includes items that have yet to go through client approvals, where instituted.
- Unsubmitted Timesheets: In workspaces that utilize the Timesheets feature, if there are time entries in Ready to Bill that are part of an unsubmitted timesheet, a warning will be shown.
- Zero-dollar bill rates: If billable time entries that are assigned a bill rate of $0.00 are included in Ready to Bill, a warning will be displayed.
Figure 14 - Hover Over the Warning Icon in Ready to Bill to View Details on the Warning Condition
Note that you can still create a draft invoice if these warning conditions exist. When the invoice is published, any unapproved time entries or expense items will be automatically approved.
To create a draft invoice for a project, simply click the checkbox on the left side of the project row and then click the Create Invoice button at the bottom of the screen. If you wish to create a single invoice for all billable projects within a client, click the checkbox next to the client name and then click the Create Invoice button.
Invoice Settings and Recipients
If you create an invoice for a single project within a client, the invoice will first look to leverage the invoice settings on the project. If, for the project, you have specified different invoice settings than what has been provided for the client, then the project's invoice settings, such as billing address, email recipients, payment terms, etc., will be used when creating the invoice. If you are creating an invoice for more than one project for the same client, the client's invoice settings will be used.
When you click the Create Invoice button, you will be shown the Create Draft Invoice confirmation window (Figure 15). Note that if you have any running timers associated with the draft invoice, those will be stopped when you click the Create Invoice button. If there are any warning conditions related to the time and expenses for this invoice, those will be detailed on this window.
Figure 15 - Confirm Your Action to Create Draft Invoice from Ready to Bill