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Generate suggested bills

If you have set up billing schedules for your projects, you can use the system to check if any projects are ready to be billed, and then display a list of suggested bills. You can then select which of these bills you want to produce, and the system will automatically generate the bills for your project customers, using the billing templates you have set up.

To check if your projects have outstanding revenue which can be billed for, you can use the Billing Analysis enquiry.

To set up suggested billing

If you are going to use a billing schedule for your project customers, you will also need to:

1. Set up templates for your suggested bills.

   If you want to automatically generate suggested bills, you must first set up billing templates. You can create billing templates for the types of bill that you use regularly, or design a bill layout for a specific customer. A billing template is a standard bill layout, containing a list of predefined billing lines.

2. Set up the project customer's billing schedule.

   The billing schedule allows you to specify the bills that need to be produced for a project customer, and when they need to be produced. For example, you could bill a customer when a project is complete, when particular stages in the project are reached, or on a particular date.

Billing for stock price discrepancies

The Confirmed Price Adjustment transaction type is created automatically within Project Accounting, when there is a price discrepancy between the stock issued to the project at unconfirmed cost and the confirmed cost of the stock entered once that is known. You will see the Confirmed Price Adjustment transaction type in project enquiries within Project Accounting if such discrepancies exist.

If stock has been issued to the project directly, any Confirmed Price Adjustment transactions will be selected automatically when you use the Suggested Bills option. If you do not want to bill these, you must remove these costs from the draft bill.

Stock issued to a sales order is not billable.

To display a list of suggested bills

Open: Project Accounting > Billing > Suggested Bills.

1. Choose whether you want to recalculate the outstanding values to bill for each project.

   The Suggested Bills window appears.

   The list displays all bills that are ready to be produced for your project customers.

   You can update the list by clicking Refresh.

2. Choose the projects that you want to create bills for by selecting the box in the Select column.
   • To check a project's record, select it and click View Project Record.
3. To create draft bills for the selected projects, click Create Draft Bill(s). Bills will be generated according to the customer's billing schedule and template.

4. The Suggested Draft Bills window appears, displaying the generated draft bills. You can amend, print or delete the bills.

   When you generate suggested bills, the draft bills will be generated according to the customer's billing schedule and template. The Suggested Draft Bills window displays the bills that have been generated. You can:

   • Amend Draft Bill

     You can add or edit bill lines. You can enter these details in the Bill line totals or select the costs to bill from the Selected Costs tab.

     The bill may include Confirmed Price Adjustment transactions that compensate for price discrepancies, caused by a difference between the unconfirmed price of stock when it was entered (based on the average selling price) and the confirmed price of the stock once this is known.

     How is the Value to Bill calculated for these transactions

     The Value to Bill for Confirmed Price Adjustment transactions is calculated with reference to the Time & Materials Pricing rules on the project item to which the adjustment is posted.

     • Standard Price. The Value to bill is 0 (zero).
     • Cost. The Value to bill is the same as the adjustment cost value.
     • Non Chargeable. The Value to bill is 0 (zero).
     • Cost + n%. The Value to bill is the adjustment cost value + n%.
     • Cost + Value. The Value to bill is the same as the adjustment cost value.
     • Set Value. The Value to bill is 0 (zero).

     If you don't want to bill for these discrepancy costs, you must set the Value to Bill for these transactions to 0 (zero).

     Enter the bill line totals

     Item Quantity Unit Price Unit of Measure	Enter the required values. If the selected items on the bill line have the same price and unit of measure, the quantity displayed will be the total of all the items. If the items in the line have different prices and/or units of measure, the quantity will be set to 1 and the unit of measure will be set to not applicable.
     Unit Discount %. Unit Discount.	Enter the required discount as a value of a percentage.
     Tax Rate.	Choose the required tax rate

     Select costs or refund items for the bill

     Add costs items to a bill

     1. Click Add Costs.

        The Select Costs To Bill window displays the list of outstanding costs that can be billed, for the selected project and customer.

        For some projects, a large number of costs may be displayed in the list. See how to find the costs that you require:

        • To show costs relating to items or levels in the project structure, click Show Project Structure.

          Select the level or item in the structure to display only the costs relating to that area.

        • Use the Costs Criteria to filter the list.

          To display only those items relating to a specific project item type (such as labour items), select it from the Project Item type list.

          To limit the date range of the items displayed in the list, select the date in the Date up to box.

        • To sort the list by a particular column (such as Project Item), click on the column heading.
     • The Tp column displays the cost type code.

       COB: Opening balance transaction.

       EXP: Expense claim.

       NLP: Nominal payment.

       NLR: Nominal receipt.

       PAC: Cost accrual.

       PCA: Cost adjustment.

       PLC: Purchase credit.

       PLI: Purchase invoice.

       STI: Stock issue.

       STR: Stock return.

       TSE: Timesheet entry.

     • The Acc/Emp/Item column displays the reference for the supplier, stock item or employee.
     2. To select a cost to add to the billing line, click on the box in the Inc column.
        • You can amend the quantity, rate or value to bill for the cost; e.g. to part bill for the cost.

        • To select or deselect all the costs displayed in the list, click Select All or Clear All.

          You cannot select items that have been queried, indicted in the Qry column.

     3. To view information about a cost, select it and click View Details.

        The Transaction Details window appears.

     4. When you have finished selecting the costs to add to the billing line, click OK.

        The costs will be displayed on the Selected Costs tab of the billing line.

     Add refund items to a bill

     1. Click Add Refunds.

        The Billed Costs To Refund window displays a list of billed costs that can be refunded, for the selected project and customer.

        For some projects, a large number of costs may be displayed in the list. See how to find the costs that you require:

        • To show costs relating to items or levels in the project structure, click Show Project Structure.

          Select the level or item in the structure to display only the costs relating to that area.

        • Use the Costs Criteria to filter the list.

          To display only those items relating to a specific project item type (such as labour items), select it from the Project Item type list.

          To limit the date range of the items displayed in the list, select the date in the Date up to box.

        • To sort the list by a particular column (such as Project Item), click on the column heading.
     • The Tp column displays the cost type code.

       COB: Opening balance transaction.

       EXP: Expense claim.

       NLP: Nominal payment.

       NLR: Nominal receipt.

       PAC: Cost accrual.

       PCA: Cost adjustment.

       PLC: Purchase credit.

       PLI: Purchase invoice.

       STI: Stock issue.

       STR: Stock return.

       TSE: Timesheet entry.

     • The Acc/Emp/Item column displays the reference for the supplier, stock item or employee.

     2. To select a billed cost to refund, click on the box in the Inc column.

        To select or deselect all the costs displayed in the list, click Select All or Clear All.

        You cannot select items that have been queried, indicated in the Qry column.

   • Print Draft Bills

     Select the bills and click Print Draft Bill(s).

     • You can display draft bills for a project, customer or bill reference.
       • To show all draft bills, select All bills.
       • To show all draft bills for a project, choose Single project and select the Project code.
       • To show all draft bills for a customer, choose Single customer and select the customer.
       • To show a particular draft bill, choose Single bill and select the Bill no.

     • To display the draft bills, click Display.

       You can sort the list by clicking on the column headings, e.g. clicking on Customer name will sort the list in ascending or descending alphabetical order.

     • You can print a selection of draft bills or all the bills in the list.

       Tip: To select more than one item using the mouse, hold down the Ctrl key to pick individual items, or hold down the Shift key to select a block of items.

       • To print a selection of bills, highlight the bills and click Print.
       • To print all the bills in the list, click Print All.

     Printing a draft bill will not change the bill's status from Draft to Finalised.

     If you do not want to print the bill now, you can print it later.

   • Delete Draft Bill.
5. When you have finished creating your draft bills, click Close.