Creating Interim & Final Invoices - Basic Steps

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1 Creating Invoices in your fp. system is a straightforward and flexible. Please follow the steps in this article, to learn the basics of building interim or final invoices. Refer to other articles to learn about Batch or Deposit invoices. And to learn about building an invoice from estimated or actual values more specifically, please review these articles: Create an Invoice Using Estimated Values; Create an Invoice Using Actual Values Where to Add the Invoice An Interim or Final invoice can be added to any active Job. From any Job page, choose the Add New menu in the top right, and then select Add Invoice. Please note that if you do not see the Add Invoice button, then you do not have the permissions needed to create invoices. Also note that choosing Final as the invoice type, marks the job as "invoiced" meaning it can no longer have time tracked to it (unless it is moved back to an active status). Page 1

2 Alternately, you can hover over the Invoices module in the main navigation bar, choose Add Invoice, and then choose the name of a job you have been working on recently from the subsequent pop out menu. When you click Add Invoice, you will move to a new screen. Here you can make some choices about the Invoice, before it is created: 1. At the top of the screen you will see your Job name and number. This will be repeated as the Invoice Name. Through a setting in your Admin area, you can open this field to be a Page 2

3 name/ number of your choosing when you create an Invoice, or have this field be locked down. 2. Choose your Invoice Type. An Interim invoice is any that needs to be sent during the job, a Final invoice is the last invoice for a job, and will in turn move the job to an inactive (can no longer have time tracked, or task statuses changed) status. To learn about Deposit invoices, please review this article: Creating Deposit Invoices 3. By default, the Invoice Date will be the date you create the invoice. Type in another date of your choosing, or select the date from the calendar widget. 4. View a summary of what internal services (timesheets), internal expenses or external expenses have yet to be invoiced for this job, and for the date you selected above. If you change this Invoice Date, the information here can change as well. 5. From this drop down menu choose to calculate the invoice total based on the Actual values, Estimated values, Remainder from Actual values, Remainder from Estimated values or None (to have the Invoice amount fields to be blank and all values entered manually). 6. Enter a percentage from which to calculate the invoice. For example, enter 50, for 50% of the calculate from value you selected above. Note that if you leave this field blank, the system will assume you mean to invoice 100% of the value. 7. Choose from your available Tax Group(s) as needed. To learn about adding taxes in the fp. system, please review this article: Setting Up Taxes Click Add Invoice when ready. Viewing & Adjusting the Invoice The invoice has now been created, and you will land on the Service Groups/ Services tab. Here you can see the Invoice Total, totals per row and any Taxes you may have included. In the top portion of the page, you can change the Invoice Date and Billing Percentage as needed. If you do change these values, click the Reset button to have them affect the Invoice content. From this screen you can also: Page 3

4 1. See all the Service Groups and Services from your Estimate/ Job listed. Add or change the descriptions of these items as needed. 2. Click the column headers of Estimated, Actual or Remainder to change the value by which the invoice is calculating. Click Invoiced to clear the value fields in that column. If you make changes, the Invoice Total at the bottom of the page will adjust accordingly. 3. Use the up/ down icon(s) to change the order of line items within the invoice. Click Save when ready. On the Basic Info tab, you will see information that has pulled from both the Estimate/ Job and the Invoice. Click Edit Details to open these fields for changes. There may be nothing that needs updating, but these are some commonly adjusted fields: Page 4

5 1. Choose to change the Payment Terms. There is no limit to the number of options you can have, and you can add or edit options via List Maintenance. 2. Choose to add or edit the Description on the Invoice. 3. Choose to show any Payment Notes. There is no limit to the number of options you can have, and you can add or edit options via List Maintenance. 4. When the client pays you, enter the Payment Amount, Method and Date here. Click Submit to save any changes. Timesheet Removal Option When Calculating by Actuals If you choose to calculate based on Actual values, you will have the ability to not associated selected Timesheets to the Invoice. Where an Internal Service has Actuals (tracked time), click into the bullet on the left side of the Service. Page 5

6 I can now see the Timesheets, and just un-tick any one to remove it from the Invoice. Doing so will adjust the Invoice Total as well. Save any changes. Page 6

7 Print &/or Send the Invoice Out Print the invoice as a PDF through the Print button in the top right. You can create up to 3 different single invoice printouts, depending on your needs - for example, one that shows great detail, but another that shows less. To learn more about creating a custom Interim or Final Invoice printout, please review this article: Add a Printout - Invoice Single Rather than printing, or in addition to printing, you can also use the Notify Client option, to send the invoice directly from the fp. system to your client. Note that in order for this feature to function properly, the Invoice Contact must have an address on their Contact Details page. A Note on Printing Invoices There is an option to print your invoice as well as a couple of related reports - the Expanded Summary Report and/ or the Status Report. These reports are completely optional, and can be configured as to the level of detail they show, when and if you choose to create your own configured versions of Invoice printouts. Expanded Summary Report: As the name suggests, this report is a detailed view into the Actuals (time tracked & expenses) on the Job you are invoicing. It breaks down to Estimated hours/ quantities, Estimated amounts, Actual amounts, Service Group, Service type and more. Page 7

8 Status Report: This report also pertains to Actuals. It shows the date on which time was tracked, the staff initials, Service Group, and shows the hourly rate, quantity of hours and totals. Screenshot above taken from the Admin > System Set Up > Printing Preferences area. Again, be encouraged to learn more about configuring printouts here: Printouts in fp. We have found that clients can encounter issues though, if they are manually adjusting values on Invoices, as well as including the Expanded Summary report on the Invoice printout. Let's say that on my Invoice, I've billed to Actuals, but decide to over-write a value into my line for Printing. There are no actual Actuals for this row, but I'm putting $5000 here. Page 8

9 When I print this Invoice, and that printout includes my reports, I run into a problem. On the Expanded Summary portion, my client can see that the $5000 is a bit out of thin air. We understand that there may be occasion to over-write in this way, and it may be ok'd by the client, but know that the reports (should you include them in the printout) will show another story. Page 9

10 Notify Client Option Clicking Notify Client will bring up a new screen. You will have a few choices you can make before sending the Invoice out. 1. Choose who the invoice should be sent to. Click "More Contacts" to select from other job contacts (who have addresses in the system). The notification can include them in the To line, or the Cc line. 2. If you have pre-built templates in your system, you can select one of them here. To learn more about the template feature, please review this article: Creating & Note Templates 3. The Subject and Content of the notification will pre-populate for you, but you can change as you see fit, or use the template option in step Choose to include in the notification a link to the fp. Portal, and/ or a PDF version of the invoice. 5. Choose from your created single invoice printout options. 6. Choose to save a copy of this notification to the Notes tab of the Job. This is a recommended step, as you will be able to easily see from fp. when your invoices were sent out to clients. 7. Cancel the notification, send it to yourself as a test, or Send to the contact(s) selected in step 1. Page 10

11 Post the Invoice Depending on your workflow, another member of your team may now need to approve/ review this invoice. Once this invoice has been ok-d, we recommend you click Post Invoice. This will also prep the invoice for exporting to an accounting package, should that be part of your process. Invoice Storage Once the Invoice has been created, it is immediately accessible back at the Job level. You will see changes on Job related financials, on the Summary tab. And the invoice will be stored under the Invoices tab. This invoice can be revisited once the client pays, which will in turn change the Payment Status. To learn more about marking an invoice as paid, please review this article: Mark an Invoice as Paid/ Payment Received Page 11

12 We welcome your questions or concerns: Page 12