Create an Invoice

Invoices are used to bill clients for time and costs associated with a job. When creating an invoice, you will be able to choose Work in Progress (WIP) or create an interim invoice to reduce the amount owing. Refer to Invoicing Overview.

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.

Tip: Invoices can be created automatically using a custom Automation Process. Refer to Process Step Details - Create Invoice.

Creating an Invoice with the + button

Before creating an invoice, navigate to the Client - Job workspace. This ensures that the client and job details are prepopulated when creating the invoice.

In FYI, click the + button in the menu bar.
Select Invoice.
Tip: Use the Keyboard shortcut "B" on any workspace to automatically open the Create Invoice drawer
The Create Invoice drawer will display on the right-hand side. In the drawer, select or enter the invoice details or change the defaults that are displayed.
The Client may have been automatically selected for you, depending on the screen of FYI you're currently on. Otherwise, click in the field and begin typing to search for your client.
Select the Job to be invoiced. If you created the invoice from the job workspace, this will be prepopulated for you.
The Date is the invoice date and will be automatically populated with the current date. Click the field to open the calendar and select a new date for the Invoice.
The Due Date field is updated automatically based on the Due Date Rules configured in the Practice Settings. Refer to Managing Invoices Settings. You can enter a new Due Date by clicking on the field to open the calendar and selecting a new date accordingly.
The Invoice Type is set to Progress by default and can be changed to Interim, Final, or Disbursement. The option you select will impact whether WIP will be invoiced, reduced, or written off.

Note: The Type cannot be changed once an invoice has been created; the invoice will need to be deleted and recreated.
- Progress - when selecting a progress invoice, you can bill some or all current WIP on the job and have write on/offs applied. Any remaining or additional WIP will remain active for future billing and will not be written off.
- Interim - when creating an interim invoice, WIP or write on/offs are not applied. A Timesheet with a negative value will be created on the same date as the selected Invoice Date to reduce the total WIP value. Interim invoices are typically used for pre-payments.
- Final - used at the end of a job where all remaining WIP is invoiced and any write on/offs are included. Once invoiced, the Job State will need to be manually updated to "Complete" to show the job has finished.
- Disbursement - used to invoice disbursements only. Time entries are not available to be invoiced on a Disbursement invoice.
The Invoice Layout can be changed to either Summary or Detailed, depending on the level of information to be included for the client. The Detailed layout will display each Job on a separate line, while the Summary will only display a single line on the invoice.
The Disbursements option 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.
The Invoice Amount is calculated automatically based on the outstanding WIP, and a value can be manually entered if required. For Progress and Final Invoice Types, you can also select individual Time and Disbursement entries to apply to the invoice. The Invoice amount will recalculate unless a manual amount was entered before updating WIP entries. Refer to Viewing and Selecting WIP further below.

When the Invoice Type of Progress or Final is selected, additional lines "Interim Amount" and "Total Invoiced" will display underneath Invoice Amount. The Interim Amount displays the total Interim invoiced on the Job, giving greater visibility to users. The Total Invoiced is a sum of Interim Amount and Invoice Amount, and will automatically update as the Invoice Amount changes.
The Budget is displayed from the Job Summary tab.
The Selected Jobs section will display if the Invoice Type is set to either "Progress" or "Final". The Job will be displayed, along with the Client Name, WIP value, and the Amount (as entered in the Invoice Amount field above). At least one job must be selected.

Click the Job Name link to view and select the Time and Disbursement entries associated with the invoice. If creating an Invoice Type of "Interim" this step is not relevant.

The Add Time WIP Selector window will allow users to select specific time or disbursement entries only, or split time entries to partially invoice the billable amount. Click Save or Cancel to return to the invoice drawer. Refer to Viewing and Selecting WIP below.
When invoicing a Billing Job, the Amount field can be adjusted for each Workflow job, and the Invoice Total will be recalculated.
If a Summary layout has been selected, the Invoice Description displays, which defaults from the Job Description. 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 (-).

If the Detailed Layout is selected, the Invoice Description and Insert Notes link will be displayed when selecting Time and Disbursement entries for the invoice. Refer to Viewing and Selecting WIP below.
The Set Custom Field drop-down will let you 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. Refer to Managing Custom Fields.

In the example below, a Custom Field of "Segmentation" has been added, with the Gold option selected. Additional Custom Fields have been added for the Accountant and Business Division. This information will be displayed on the invoice for the client.
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.

Viewing and Selecting WIP

Display the Add Time window

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 display a list of submitted Time and Disbursement entries.

Note: When creating an Invoice with a Disbursement Invoice Type, Time entries will be hidden and only Disbursement entries will be available to select.

To add the notes from WIP entries into the Invoice Description, click the Insert Notes link. Each time the link is clicked, the notes will be added to the bottom of the current description.

Selecting Time and Disbursement Entries

Any deselected time or disbursement entries from the Add Time window, will be carried forward as outstanding WIP on a future Progress or Final invoice.

To remove one or more entries from the invoice, click the checkbox on the left for each row. Click Save (or Cancel to close the window without saving the changes).

If using the Insert Notes link to add notes from WIP entries, only the notes from the selected entries will be added.

The value of the Invoice determines the write on or off amount applied to the invoice. Refer to Managing Work in Progress

The WIP value on the Invoice will be updated to match the total value of the selected Time and Disbursement entries.

If there is outstanding WIP carried forward, this will display in the Details section of the Invoice Drawer. Refer to Opening and Editing Draft Invoices

Splitting Time

Split Time can be used for time entries and interim invoices to partially invoice WIP, with a new time entry created for the remaining value. Disbursement entries cannot be split.

In the Add Time window, select a time entry and then click the Split Time button in the toolbar. The Split Time button will display when a time entry has been highlighted.

The Split Time window will be displayed.

Enter the Billable Amount to remain i.e. the value that will not be invoiced. The Billable Amount must be greater than zero, and cannot exceed the original value. If splitting Interim Time, enter the whole value. For example, if the Billable Amount was -100, enter 30 to only invoice a Billable Amount of -70. Once time has been split, it cannot be restored to the original value.

Click Split to confirm the time split. The Add Time window will be displayed. A new time entry for the remaining value will be created, but will not be selected, ensuring it won't be included in the current invoice.

The new time entry created by the split for the remaining amount will clone fields from the original time entry, for example Date, Notes, and Custom Fields. The Time and Rate fields will be locked.

The Activity for the original time entry will also be updated to display that time was split, and the original Billable Amount.

Columns and Filtering

Use the Columns tab on the left to add additional columns to the view, and display more details about the time entries. For example, tick the Name field to show the name of the Disbursement.

Click the Filter tab to narrow the results.

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.

Changing Amount Totals

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.

Features