Process Step Details - Create Invoice

The date the invoice was generated and is the invoice date. This can be set to:

• Current Date
• Month End
• A date selected from the calendar. 

Invoices cannot be backdated. 

Merge Fields can also be used. For example, selecting End of Month from the General Merge Field section will populate a Date merge field. 

The invoice date will be the last date of the current month. For example, if your process runs on the 1st September, the invoice date will be 30th September.

By default, the automation process is set to Use Rule, where the due date is calculated based on your invoicing rules in Practice Settings. Refer to Managing Practice Settings.

Alternatively, you can select a date from the dropdown, including Current Date, Month End or select a date from the calendar. Note this will apply to all invoices created as part of this process.

The WIP Date controls what time and disbursement entries are included on the invoice. Defaulted to Current Date, users can change this to:

• Month End
• A date selected from the calendar

Merge Fields can also be used. For example, selecting End of Month from the General Merge Field section will ensure WIP up to and including the last day of the month is included in the invoice. 

Tip: The WIP Date should match the invoice date, to avoid invoicing future WIP.

Refer to the section Selecting a WIP Date of Create a Progress, Final or Disbursement Invoice for more information.

Select from either Progress, Interim, Final, or Disbursement Invoice Type. The Invoice Type you select will determine whether WIP is applied and should be invoiced, or if only the Disbursements will be invoiced. 

Creating Interim invoices is only available for Billing and Standard job types selected in the Job view filter. Where a job only contains interim time, an interim invoice cannot be created. Refer to Invoicing Overview.

The total amount of the invoice. 

This defaults to the merge field {{ TotalWIP }} which is used to calculate all current WIP associated with the job, applicable for Progress and Final Invoices. 

Merge Fields can also be used to select relevant Job values. For example, selecting "Budget Amount" from the Trigger Job Merge Field Section, will populate the associated Merge Field. When the automation runs, the Invoice Amount will be the value of the Budget Amount from the relative Job.

If creating a Disbursement Type invoice, this defaults to the Merge Field {{ TotalDisbursement }}, used to invoice the sum of disbursements for the Job. Refer to Including Merge Fields in Automations.

The invoice amount is distributed pro rata across the time and disbursement entries of the selected jobs on the invoice. To allocate WIP non-proportionally, or to create a System Write On/Off, users will need to create the invoice manually. Refer to Allocating WIP.

Note: If a Job contains only time entries with a $0 rate, resulting in $0 billable time entries, the invoice will not be created. An error will display in Practice Activity.

Enter the name of the Invoice. By default, the Name will be set to the format of “Invoice on [Invoice Date] - [Currency Symbol] [Invoice Amount]” e.g. Invoice on 22/03/2024 - $1100.00.

Use Merge Fields in the Filing Name field to customise the Name when the Invoice is created. For example, selecting "Name" from the Trigger Client Section of the Merge Fields and "Year" from the Trigger Client Tax Merge Field section would create an Invoice with the name "Frank Marshall 2023 Invoice". Refer to Including Merge Fields in Automations. 

Can be "Disabled" or "Enabled".

• When AutoFile is Disabled, the invoice will be filed using the settings for Cabinet and Category in the process step.
• When AutoFile is Enabled, the Filing Defaults for the client are used, if available.
  These settings are taken from the specific client the step is processed for. Where the client is part of a Client Group, the process ignores whether there is a client for the group set with the Include in Autofile setting. Refer to Setting Filing Defaults for a Client

The Filing Status, and defaults to "Filed".

• If this is set as "Unfiled" it will appear in the "Owner's" In Tray ready for filing. If the Owner is set in the Workflow section, this is used (refer below to Workflow).
• If the Owner is not set in the Workflow section, it is set as the Owner of the Process.

Select the owner of the invoice. 

This can be set to a specific person in your user list. Using Merge Fields a User Role relative to the Client or Job, such as Manager, Partner or a Custom User Role such as "Accountant", can be selected. Refer to Including Merge Fields in Automations. 

Only Custom Fields that have the Type set as "User" are included in the list of what can be selected for the Owner (refer to Custom User Roles).

When using the drop-down option to select the Owner:

• For a process that is run in the context of a Job, the Manager or Partner is taken from the Job Details.
• If there is no Partner/Manager assigned to the job and the process is creating an invoice, it will add the Process Owner as the Owner of the Invoice created in the step. 

Set the Approver of the invoice. 

This can be set to a specific person in your user list. Using Merge Fields a User Role relative to the Client or Job, such as Manager, Partner or a Custom User Role such as "Accountant", can be selected. Refer to Including Merge Fields in Automations. 

Only Custom Fields that have the Type set as "User" are included in the list of what can be selected for the Owner (refer to Custom User Roles).

When using the drop-down option to select the Approver:

• For a process that is run in the context of a Job, the Manager or Partner User Role is taken from the Job Details.

Select a Task Template if required, to prepopulate remaining fields as per the template e.g. Assignee.

Advanced Task Fields, for example, Priority, Job Category, or Work Type, can only be populated using the selected Task Template. You will not be able to update these fields in the Automation Step.

Can be set as a specific person in your user list. Using Merge Fields, this can be set as "Manager" to assign the task to the relative job's manager, or as "Partner" to assign it to the relative job's partner. For manual processes, the task can be assigned to the "Automation Initiator User", the user that triggered the automation to run. Custom User Roles can be selected from the Merge Fields window. Refer to Custom User Roles.

When using the drop-down option to select the Assignee:

• For a process that is run in the context of a Job, the Manager or Partner is taken from the Job Details.
• If there is no Partner/Manager assigned to the job, the Assignee is set as "Unassigned".

If a user has been selected incorrectly, and the task needs to be set back to unassigned, select "Unassigned" from the dropdown menu.

Select when the task needs to be completed as the number of days. You can also set this as 0 (zero) days to make the task due immediately.

If Custom is selected, an additional Days field will be displayed, allowing you to enter a value up to 365 days.

When creating a task, you can set Blocking as "On" so that the process stops until a Task created in the automation process is set as "Completed". When the Task is set as "Completed", the next step in the process commences.

Note: If the process only holds one step, ensure you do not set a task that is created with Blocking as "On" as the process will show as outstanding until the status of the task is set as "Complete".

The method used to calculate the time assigned to the task.

Fixed - The Default Time value entered in the next field will always be used when the time entry is created, regardless of the size of the client or the Job Time Budget. Relative is used to calculate the time for the Task relative to the total estimated hours for a Job.

Relative - Calculates the time relative to all of the tasks on the job. the total of the Default Times for all the Tasks in the Process is calculated. This is then compared to the Estimated Hours for the Job and any "Relative" times are then calculated and proportionately increased or decreased based on the total for the Job that is being considered. For example:

• The total of all Default Times in the Tasks in the Process is 10 hours.
• A Task has been set up as Relative, so it will allocate the time proportionate to the estimated total of the Job.
• The Default Time of this Task is 30 minutes (00:30).
• The Estimated Hours for one of the Jobs that triggered the Process is 30 hours. For this Job, the Time allocations for this Task will be increased by three times the Default Time. The time allocated for this Task, for this Job, will be 1 hour 30 minutes.
• The Estimated Hours for a different Job that triggered the Process is 2 hours. For this Job, the Time allocations will decrease and allocate it as one-fifth of the Default Time. The time allocated for this Task, for this Job, will be 6 minutes.

Set as the estimated time that the action or Task would take.

Time can be added using the hours and minutes format (hh:mm), a whole number, or as a decimal. Decimals will be converted using 6-minute increments. Once entered, the time will be converted to display using the hours and minutes format (hh:mm). Refer to Time Overview.

For example, to add 12 minutes you could enter:

• 00:12
• 12
• 0012
• 0.2

Used to update the Custom Fields when a time entry is created after completing a task.

If you select a Custom Field, a new field will be added to the drawer.

Once a Custom Field has been selected, it will be removed from the options available in the Custom Field drop-down list. You can add additional Custom Fields by selecting them from the drop-down.

Update the added Custom Field by selecting a value from the drop-down, or clicking the Merge Field. When updating a Custom Field that is a Date, this is set as the "Current Date" by default.

Custom Fields on the time entry will be updated using the selections made in the Automation step, along with any values inherited from the job.

Note: To inherit from the Job, the Custom Fields must be enabled for both Job and Time.