Billable expense invoicing error with multi-line purchase transactions

When multiple line items on a purchase invoice or payment form are posted to Billable expenses for the same customer:

and then invoiced from the Customers tab:

the first line item is repeated in place of all subsequent line items on the resulting sales invoice:

Yet all billable expenses show as Invoiced in the Billable Expenses tab. (This part of the behavior looks similar to that caused by a bug that was supposedly fixed with the recent changes to billable expense functions.

If the same line items are split between multiple payments or purchase invoices, those on separate purchase transactions appear correctly. But any time there is more than one line item posted to Billable expenses on the same transaction, the first of the line items is repeated in place of all others. This behavior occurs in the same manner when billable expenses from several different multi-line purchase transactions are combined on a single sales invoice. In other words, the only thing that matters is that more than one billable expense is recorded on the same purchase transaction. It does not matter how many line items, type of transaction, or number of transactions.

I have the exact same problem except that the source of the billable expenses is from an expense claim.

Step 1: Create an expense claim with multiple items booked against “Billable Expenses” and the same customer. Ensure they are marked as “Uninvoiced”.
Step 2: View Customer summary, click on the uninvoiced amount. This will show you all the uninvoiced transactions.
Step 3: Select all of the billable expense items and click “Create invoice”
Step 4: The generated invoice looks like the example above: the first line item is repeated for all selected transactions from step 3.


Details: Manager 19.12.12 / Desktop

I’m sure the same thing happens when billable expenses are recorded on journal entries or debit notes, too. The only requirement is multiple line items. The problem is clear: the program knows how many lines there are, it just repeats the content of the first. Then it shows the incorrect result (Invoiced) for all lines, even though it filled the content for the first line on the sales invoice.

I am having the same problem

Fixed in the latest version (19.12.26)

1 Like

Is this still an issue because it doesn’t work like it should, it only puts in maybe one billable time one billable expense and doesn’t add the rest but considers them invoiced.

what version are you on?
the issue was fixed in version 19.12.26
if you still face any issues after updating to the latest version, then please post more details regarding the issue.

I open customers click on billable expenses and it takes the first billable expense invoices it then the second billable expense considers in uninvoiced and doesn’t apply it to the invoice.

I can’t reproduce what you are doing. In the Customers tab there’s no Billable Expenses to be clicked on. There’s an Uninvoiced total amount. When you click on the amount a new window opens with a relation of uninvoiced billable time or expenses, which you can then select to create a new invoice. But maybe you can provide some screenshots to clarify your problem?

What I do find a bit strange is that the invoice is automatically created without VAT. IMO it would be better to open it first in editable state so that the VAT can be chosen, 'cos it’s easy to forget adding the VAT in the current way. @lubos ?

With regards to Billable Expenses does it matter - let say the Billable Expense is 100 + 10 tax. The tax authority reimburses you 10 and the customer reimburses you 100. Remembering that you purchased it on their behalf, you are not selling it to them as it’s not appearing in your P&L, unless there is a mark-up involved.

With regards to Billable Time, enter the tax code under Chart of Accounts > Billable Time - Invoiced:
0000000 Bug 1

@shawn I can’t reproduce this problem either.
Is it only occurring with one customer ?
What if you give this customer a second Billable Time - do both appear ?
To do this just delete the created invoice and the original Billable Time will be re-instated.
If yes, then the situation is related to Billable Expenses only.
I note that you are using a backup file of the company - why ?

Thank you, in regards to back up file I imported to another computer. ( could that be a problem?) Yes just takes billable time (multiple) but not the billable expenses. So it appears just billable expenses are affected but its a huge possibility I could be doing something wrong in my process. thank you.

I think it does matter because invoicing without VAT as a VAT-registered business makes the invoice invalid.

That’s a nice trick not mentioned in the guides. Thanks.

BTW, I’ve noticed that creating a billable expense by means of an expense claim, there is a box to indicate the tax rate. However, that tax is not added to the expense amount so the entered expense amount is considered as VAT included. Hence, IMO, the tick box ‘Amounts are tax inclusive’ is missing. Using a purchase invoice that tick box is present and not ticking it adds the tax to the entered amount.

this was discussed last month and has been categorized as an idea. please see below.

I didn’t see that. Good idea. Voted.

What version are you on ?
It needs to be later than 19.12.26 or you could be picking up the previous Bug which is now fixed.

Just because you are a VAT registered business doesn’t mean all invoices must contain VAT.
Your invoices could contain all VAT items, a mix of VAT and non-VAT items or just non-VAT items and none of those invoices would be invalid.

Generally if the invoice contains VAT items then it is referred to as a “Tax Invoice”, if there is no VAT items then it is just referred to as an “Invoice”.