I just tested an entry for billable time, to see what happens once it is marked as ‘invoiced’ and an invoice no. entered. After my update, this billable time entry has remained in ‘movement’ in my P&L, it has not moved to ‘invoiced’. I notice that it has moved out of billable time in the balance sheet though.
It sounds like you are doing things incorrectly. To invoice billable time, you must begin in the Customers tab. Read this Guide: Manager Cloud. You should not be designating billable time entries as invoiced yourself. Manager will do it for you.
I see, but then why does billable time offer you drop down options for ‘uninvoiced’, ‘invoiced’, or ‘written-off’ and ask you for the invoice no. when you select ‘invoiced’?
The problem with this is that our sales invoices are already created in many instances. We first create a sales order, then clone the invoice from that once the customer has paid. Unfortunately Manager does not allow you to create a sales order from billable time via ‘customer’ it only lets you create an invoice.
In actual fact, we would just like to use the billable time feature as a timesheet substitute and not have it appear in the accounts at all, but Manager does not allow you to remove billable time form the balance sheet or P&L. If I leave all the entries as ‘uninvoiced’, as I have currently, they will keep adding up and up in my accounts when in actual fact some will have been invoiced and some will be pending in sales orders.
You are doing things out of order. Sales order (if you need it at all—this is an optional step), then sales invoice, then receipt of customer’s payment.
That is because sales order should be entered before you enter any billable time. The sales order is the record of the customer’s purchase order. Honestly, for a company doing primarily time billings, sales orders are not very useful. They work better when you are selling inventory. So they sound like an unnecessary step to me.
That’s right, because Manager is not a time clock. It is an accounting tool. Billable time is an asset for which you are entitled to receive future revenue. So it must appear on your balance sheet. Otherwise, your financial position is misrepresented.
Yes, they will, because you are using both billable time and sales orders for things not intended. Manager is not adaptable to incorrect accounting procedures.
Thanks for your help. It may seem like strange way of doing things, but that is how our accountant has asked us to do it. It is common practice here. You issue a sales order as a notification for payment, then once the client pays you issue the sales invoice and receipt. Doing it this way means you only incur the VAT liability after you have been paid the VAT by your customer, rather than before. It reduces the risks on default payments particularly for small companies. I understand that Manager was not built to deal with these practices, so will probably have to stop using the Billable Time feature unfortunately. We’ll see what the accountant says!
At its core, what you describe is simply cash-basis accounting. Manager will do this, and you can still use all features as designed and in conformance with standard accounting practices. That is, you can use sales invoices as demands for payment, sales orders as records of incoming requests from customers, etc. See the Guide: Manager Cloud.