Invoicing in BigTime, an Overview

In BigTime, creating invoices is simple. Your invoicing cycle (whether you're creating one invoice or hundreds) will follow the same set of steps:

1. Draft Invoices. You'll create a draft invoice from the Tools... Invoices, Create Drafts screen. Note that it's also possible to create a draft invoice from the Project Dashboard, but we're not focusing on that workflow in this chapter.
2. Review/Edit. You (or your managers) can review and edit each draft invoice you create, making adjustments to the fees, the time/expense details or more.
3. Post Invoices to QuickBooks. Once your edits are completed, you'll use the Tools... Invoices, Print/Post screen to post those invoices to QuickBooks where you can keep track of A/R aging and payment information.
4. Print/EMail Invoices to Clients. Final invoices can be converted to "documents" that can be printed out or emailed to your customers.

Invoices vs. Invoice Documents

In BigTime, there's a difference between an "invoice" and an "invoice document." The invoice is just a collection of line item charges and credits (e.g. - "$10,000.00 for Professional Fees"), but the invoice document is the physical piece of paper you send to your customer.

If an invoice is data, the invoice document is the report that data is used to create. That seems obvious, but it's important to remember as you review BigTime's invoicing options. With a QuickBooks invoice, there is very little difference between what you see on screen and what you send to your customer. In BigTime, your invoice document can be a lot different from the invoice you see on screen.

• You may create a simple "on-screen" invoice, but send your customer something far more detailed. You may send them a printed invoice document showing all of the time entry/expense details, day-by-day, with rates and notes attached.
• You might decide you want to break down your invoice into phases, and you may decide to send your customer a detailed breakdown of billings per phase (both prior billings and current charges).
• You may have notes, logos, custom project fields, wire transfer instructions or other details that appear on the printed invoice document that don't need to show up on screen when you look at an invoice.
• You may have dozens of time entries associated with a given invoice, but the customer just needs to see a single line item with a "flat fee" amount.
• Finally, you may have 3 or 4 different "calculations" you use to create your various project invoices (e.g. - T&M, retainer, etc.), but you may decide you only want to create one printed "invoice document" format for your customers.

When you create a draft invoice, edit it or post it to QuickBooks, you're working with an "invoice." When you print out that invoice, convert it to a PDF document or email it to your customer, you're working with an "invoice document."

Chapter Roadmap

This chapter is divided up into two sections. The first section covers setting up a project so that it's ready to bill. You'll do this one time for every project in the system, but you won't need to repeat those steps during each invoicing cycle.

The second section in the chapter will review the invoicing cycle (e.g. - the steps you'll follow each time you create invoices in the system).