Plan: Not Available: Intermediate, Pro Available: Elite
Users: Not Available: All users Available: FYI Admins or User Group permissions
Practice Management Source: Not Available: Xero Practice Manager, APS, Iris, MYOB AE & AO, CCH, MYOB Practice Management (formerly GreatSoft) Available: FYI
Invoices are used to bill clients for time and costs associated with a job. Invoices are created as a Draft by default, and using the Workflow tools in FYI can be sent to be reviewed before being approved. Once approved, invoices will be synchronised to Xero. Invoices are displayed as documents in FYI, appearing on the Documents, Clients, and Jobs workspaces.
Access to creating invoices is available to FYI Admins and users assigned to a User Group with Create Invoices permission.
This article describes how to create the following types of invoices:
- Progress: Allows you to bill some or all current WIP, while keeping any unbilled WIP active for future billing. This is the default Invoice type when creating an invoice.
- Final: Created at the end of a job to bill all remaining WIP, apply any write on/offs, and then mark the job as complete.
- Disbursement: Used to only invoice Disbursements.
To create a mixed invoice that includes WIP and interim amounts, refer to Adding an Interim Amount. Otherwise, to create a separate Interim invoice, refer to Create an Interim Invoice.
Tip: Invoices can be created automatically using a custom Automation Process. Refer to Process Step Details - Create Invoice.
Creating an Invoice
Before creating an invoice, navigate to the Client - Job workspace. This ensures that the client and job details are prepopulated when creating the invoice.
Ensure there is unbilled WIP against the job selected before creating a Progress or Final Invoice, to avoid receiving an error when clicking Create.
- In FYI, click the + button and select Invoice, or press B on your keyboard.
- The Create Invoice drawer will display on the right-hand side.
Tip: Select a Job, if you have not created the invoice from a Jobs Workspace.
- Select Progress, Final or Disbursement from the Type drop-down.
- Update the Invoice details, as applicable.
Tip: When creating a Progress or Final invoice, open the Add Time window on Selected Jobs to view and select the Time and Disbursement entries associated with the invoice. Opening the Add Time window will allow users to manage the WIP entries, including manually allocating WIP, create system write on/offs, add an interim amount and split time entries to partially invoice the billable amount.
- Click Create.
The invoice will be filed to the Cabinet and Categories based on your practice filing defaults. Refer to Managing Invoices Settings.
The invoice will also be displayed in:
- The Invoices tab in the Client and Job Workspaces
- In the Documents List
- On the Documents tab in the client workspace.
Invoices will display a calculator icon in the Document Type column:
Once invoiced, any selected Time and Disbursement WIP entries will be updated with the Status of Locked.
To approve invoices from the Invoice drawer or using Workflow, refer to Approving Invoices.
Invoice Fields
The following Invoice Details can be entered or updated when creating an invoice in FYI.
| Field | Details |
| Client | The Client may have been automatically selected for you, depending on the screen of FYI you're currently on when creating the invoice. Otherwise, click in the field and begin typing to search for your client. |
| Job |
The Job to be invoiced. The Billing or Standard Job will be automatically selected:
Otherwise, click the field and begin typing the name of the Billing or Standard Job. |
| Invoice Date |
The Invoice Date will be automatically populated with the current date. Enter a new date where required, by clicking on the field to open the calendar and selecting a new date accordingly or typing in a new date. This field is mandatory. Note: When a new Invoice Date is selected, the WIP Date is automatically updated to match this date. |
| Due Date |
Updated automatically based on the Due Date Rules configured in the Practice Settings. Enter a new Due Date by clicking on the field to open the calendar and selecting a new date accordingly, or typing in a new date. This field is mandatory, and if left blank, an error will be displayed and the user will be unable to create the invoice. |
| WIP Date |
The WIP Date controls what time and disbursement entries are included on the invoice. All available WIP for the selected jobs will be included, up to and including the selected WIP date. Defaulted to the Invoice Date, enter a new WIP Date by clicking on the field to open the calendar and selecting a new date, or typing in a new date. Refer to Selecting a WIP Date for more information. |
| Type |
The Invoice Type, and can be changed to one of the following:
The Invoice Type cannot be changed once an invoice has been created. The invoice will need to be deleted and recreated. |
| Layout |
The Invoice Layout can be changed to either Summary or Detailed, depending on the level of information to be included for the client:
Refer to Approving Invoices for more information. Note: For practices who use different Chart of Accounts on Workflow Jobs within the same Billing Job and require this to be applied to the invoice, the Detailed Layout must be selected. |
| Disbursements | Can be set to either Summary or Detailed. By default, the Summary option will be selected, where Disbursements will be included in the WIP for each job. To itemise the disbursements, select Detailed. Each disbursement will be displayed on individual lines when the invoice is synchronised with zero, and the WIP value will be reduced to exclude the itemised Disbursements. |
| Theme |
The Theme determines the invoice template used in the practice's Xero Ledger. Defaulted to the Invoice Theme selected in the Job Template. If your practice has multiple themes, the theme can be changed by selecting an alternative from the drop-down if needed. Note: If no Theme is selected when creating an invoice, the first theme will be used as defined in the Xero Ledger Invoice Settings. |
| Invoice Amount |
The Invoice Amount is calculated automatically based on the outstanding WIP. A value can be manually entered if required. Refer to Changing Amount Totals. For Progress and Final Invoice Types, you can also select individual Time and Disbursement entries to apply to the invoice. Refer to Viewing and Selecting WIP further below. When invoicing a Billing Job, the Amount field can be adjusted for any of the Workflow jobs, and the Invoice Total will be recalculated. When creating a Progress or Final invoice, a Minimum Amount will be applied to the selected Workflow Jobs, based on the total value of the interims for the respective Billing and Workflow Jobs. Users will not be able to enter an Invoice Amount less than the Minimum Amount. Note: If a Job contains only time entries assigned to a $0 rate the invoice amount is locked to $0 and cannot be updated. |
| Interim Amount |
Displays the total Interim invoiced on the Job, giving greater visibility to users. Only displayed when a Progress or Final invoice is selected. |
| Total Invoiced |
The sum of the Interim Amount and Invoice Amount, and will automatically update as the Invoice Amount changes. Only displayed when a Progress or Final invoice is selected. |
| Budget | Displayed from the Job Summary tab. |
| Show All Jobs | Enable Show All Jobs to display Workflow Jobs that do not yet have time recorded. This allows users to add an interim amount during invoice creation. Refer to Adding an Interim Amount. |
| Selected Jobs |
Displayed if the Invoice Type is set to either "Progress" or "Final". The Job name will be displayed, along with the Client Name, and WIP value. The Amount will be calculated automatically, including any interim entries yet to be invoiced. Click on a job name to display the Add Time window, to view and select WIP for the invoice, or to create System Write On/Offs. At least one job must be selected to create the invoice. To reorder the jobs on the invoice, click and drag the icon on the left, and drag the row to the preferred position. |
| Invoice Description |
Displays in the Invoice Drawer if the Summary Layout has been selected. Enter an Invoice Description to be displayed on the Invoice. To insert notes from Timesheets, click Insert Notes. The notes will be added under the existing description. Each row will begin with a hyphen (-). Click the Full Screen icon to expand the Invoice Description field, and again to reduce the field back to the regular size. |
| Custom Fields | Select a Custom Field to be displayed on the Invoice. Once a Custom Field has been selected, a new field will be displayed to select the appropriate value for that Custom Field. |
Viewing and Selecting WIP
When the Create Invoice drawer is open, to view the WIP entries associated with the invoice, click the Job Name link beneath "Selected Jobs".
The Add Time window will open and display a list of submitted Time and Disbursements.
By default, entries will be displayed in date order, newest to oldest. Click the column headings to change the sort order if required.
When creating an Invoice with a Disbursement Invoice Type, Time entries will be hidden, and only Disbursement entries will be available to select.
If the "Detailed" Layout is selected on the Invoice Drawer, the Add Time window will display the Invoice Description. Click the Insert Notes link to add the notes from WIP entries into the description. Each time the link is clicked, the notes will be added to the bottom of the current description.
From the Add Time window, users will be able to perform the following actions (click on the links to view more information about the feature):
- Select or Deselect WIP entries by clicking the checkbox on the left for each row. The Total Invoice Amount will be adjusted, and the Invoiced Amount for the remaining lines will be recalculated.
- Manually allocate WIP by editing the Invoiced Amount or Write On/Off values. Proportional allocations will be displayed with a yellow background, while non-proportional allocations will be displayed with a red background. Formulas can be entered to calculate the values, for example, a percentage of the Invoiced Amount.
- Split Time Entries, to only partially invoice the WIP.
- Add an Interim Amount to create a mixed invoice that includes both WIP and future billed work.
- Bulk edit time and disbursements to reallocate WIP to another client or job.
Refer to the articles in Managing WIP for more information.
Use the Columns tab on the left to add additional columns to the view and display more details about the time entries. For example, select a custom field, such as Business Division, to show its value.
Click the Filter tab, or the Filter icon in the column headings, to narrow the results to specific entries only.
Custom Fields enabled for Time and Disbursements will be available to add as a column or filter, and will display any selections made when entering time and disbursement entries.
To group the Add Time window by user, click and drag the User column into the Row Groups section above the list.
The Grouped view will display a new Group column, with a group for each user name. Click the arrows next to the user name to expand and collapse each group as required.
Changing Selected Job Amounts
When invoicing a Billing Job, the Amount field can be adjusted for each Workflow job. The Invoice Total will be recalculated, with the amount first allocated to Disbursements before distributing the remaining value against any WIP entries.
To reset the allocation, update the Invoice Amount total. The Amount for each Workflow Job will be adjusted accordingly.
When creating a Progress or Final invoice, a Minimum Amount will be applied to the selected Workflow Jobs, based on the total value of the interims for the respective Billing and Workflow Jobs. Users will not be able to enter an Invoice Amount less than the Minimum Amount.
Selecting a WIP Date
The WIP Date controls the time and disbursement entries included in the invoice, to help prepare invoices for a specific billing period.
For example, preparing a February month-end invoice with an Invoice Date of 11 March. In this example, you would choose the WIP date as 28 February to ensure March time entries are carried forward.
When selecting a WIP date:
- All available WIP for the selected jobs will be included, up to and including the selected WIP date.
- If the Invoice Date changes, the WIP Date will automatically update to match.
- If the WIP date differs from the invoice date, the Total Invoiced Amount will be adjusted.
Tip: Jobs will display a minus symbol to identify that not all WIP has been selected. - Once an invoice is created, users can view the original WIP date selected by editing the invoice.
- Users can still open the Add Time window for each respective job to manually include or exclude individual entries if required. Changing the selected entries from the Add Time window will not update the WIP Date in the Invoice Drawer.