My company is involved in Immigration Advice, and some of the jobs can take months to complete some as long as 6-9 months. What I was wanting to do was if I have an Invoice that sits waiting for me to finalise, I might be adding incidentals as I go and inventory and was hoping that by the time I am ready to send the invoice I can append the billable time up to the date I am sending to the client.
As I am not able to invoice until after I have submitted applications to immigration it means it is getting difficult for me unless I pull out pen and paper and manually note the inventory and incidentals that are consumed.
Is there anyway the invoices can be designed to allow you to append the billable time after the fact with a button, because at that stage I then check the date is updated to reflect current day.
I cant use billable expenses as I have to show the 3rd party fees i pay and bill out on income and expense for the accountant, they need to see what is coming and going and the breakdowns.
It is more cost efficient in time to add items and time as you go, so that at the end it all adds to the invoice rather than I have to type everything at the end from a paper note of all used items.
Or just have a means of recording against the client everything you use that requires billing out at the end - I know it is lots to ask, but this software is so close for me in terms of doing everything I want this would just about complete it.
Currently you can only add (edit) incidentals to a Billable Time Invoice and not vice versa.
But you could consider this workflow.
Under Customise tick the Sales Quote tab and scroll to the bottom and click Update
Sales Quote tab, click on New Sales Quotes and change the heading - your choice.
Could be - Client Name - Incidentals - then add items as you go - no accounting impact
For invoicing the Client, create under Settings - Non Inventory Items an item called Incidentals - per attachment. Enter the “sales quote” total and attach the “sales quote” to the invoice.
You also referred to inventory - initially these could be added to the “sales quote” but when you come to invoice them you will need to add these individually and then delete from “sales quote”.
Or have two “sales quote” - Client - Incidentals & Client - Inventory.
There has been discussion regarding allowing Billable Time to be added to an existing Invoice, but as yet that feature hasn’t eventuated
I use the non Inventory Items to hold the Immigration fees as it is, such as Residency/Work Visa/Partnership
Then I use the incidentals for the consumed items such as printing and paper that I dont track, parking etc as a lump sum.
I may just drop using the billable time and try a different way as your way is even more complex, just as difficult as just tracking on paper which means ‘timewasting for me’.
Due to the licensing restrictions in my country for Immigration Advisers, I cant even use the quote system here for quoting clients - and invoices have to be very detailed, as English is not the first language, so I thought the billable time is a fantastic option, but I just had hoped to append it at the end to an already draft invoice.
I was going to build my own system, but I just dont have the time, and when there is one available that just about does the complete works for me there is not point in being stupid.
Thanks very much for the suggestion, I am grateful for the response dont get me wrong, it just doesnt quite do what I need.
Based on your additional information, Manager could do what you require quite easily in my view.
Record Billable time as now and when you are ready - create the invoice but don’t print it
Record the Non Inventory Items and incidentals using the Sales Quote tab but with a changed document heading (Client Name - Chargeable Expenses) and then print this off when you are ready to invoice.
Edit the Billable Time invoice by adding a line - Chargeable Expenses as per attachment - then print
You wouldn’t be using the Quote system to quote clients - but using it to record those items which you would otherwise be tracking by paper. This way you would only track/record that information once.
Thanks. No I will just keep recording paper way and adding it at the end as giving people two pages is not viable and looks messy especially as I am quite often invoicing non-english speaking migrants who would find it more confusing. Immigration is confusing enough
