At the end of each month, check the time is right, see how profitable the project is, and send the invoice, all from the project.

What
Approve the month's time, review budget and profitability, create an invoice and send it to your accounting software.
Why
Invoicing from logged time means you bill for every hour worked, and you see each project's profit before the next month starts.
Who
Project managers with billing permission, project administrators and site administrators.

This is step 7 of 7 in the Project Manager onboarding path. About 30 minutes each month.

Close your month

1. Make sure all time is logged and approved

  1. Remind your team to log any missing time for the month.
  2. If you use timesheet approvals, approve all submitted timesheets.
  3. Check that billable and non-billable time is marked correctly. Fix any entries before you invoice, because invoiced time can no longer be edited.

2. Review budget and profitability

  1. Open the project's Finance section.
  2. On the Budgets tab, check how much of the budget is used.
  3. On the Billing tab, open the Profitability panel to see profit, total costs, profit margin and billable total against your budget targets.

Profitability uses each person's cost rate and the billable rates on the project. If figures look wrong, check the rates with your site administrator.

3. Create the invoice

  1. In Finance, open the Invoices tab and select Add Invoice.
  2. Enter the invoice number, issue date and currency.
  3. Choose the pricing type: Time and expenses for hourly work, or Fixed price for an agreed amount.
  4. For time and expenses, select Add unbilled time and Add expense to add the month's items.
  5. Optionally add a PO number or notes.

4. Send it to your accounting software

Export the invoice to Xero, FreshBooks or QuickBooks, depending on what your site uses. See Edit and Export Invoices.

5. Report back to your client

Share a short month-end summary with your client: what was delivered, hours or budget used, and what is planned for next month. A project report can help. See Generating a Project Report.

Done when

  • All the month's time is logged, checked and approved.
  • You have reviewed the project's budget and profitability.
  • Your first invoice is created and sent to your accounting software.

You have finished the Project Manager path. Repeat steps 6 and 7 each week and month. Use step 1 each time you start a new project.

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