There are three methods with which you can bill a client: advance billing, billing based on actual charges, billing based on an estimate. The bookkeeping of the three follows.

Advance Billing

Advance Billing (Deferred Revenue) is simply that. You bill a client in advance of the work to be performed. Advance bill invoices are identified as type ‘A’. When the invoice is posted, the pretax amount of the invoice is posted to the account you specify (in the Company Setup section) as Advance Billing.

Billing based on Actual Charges

This type of billing can be generated from either the Job section or the Batch Bill feature in the Jobs menu. You can manipulate the dollar amounts of the charges to be billed in the Job Charges window (described in the previous section); you cannot manipulate the item billing amounts in the billing window. If you bill from the Job section, you can:

  • Change the item tax flag and the tax amounts.
  • Enter a note for each line.
  • Enter the amount of the advance bill balance and advance bill taxes to be applied against the invoice - if there are any balances.

In the batch billing window, you can indicate that if advance bill balance is greater than the invoice amount, you want to apply the whole amount to the invoice, thereby creating a credit balance on the client job.

Billing based on Estimate

e·silentpartner automatically invokes billing based on estimate IF the job un- billed amount is zero. When this occurs, you’ll be prompted to enter a percentage (of the estimate) on which to generate the client bill. The amounts in the billing window will then default by line item to the percentage (of the line item’s estimate) you entered. Estimate invoices are identified as type ‘E’.

If you answer no, the bill as a percentage, you can literally go into the billing window and enter any item and any dollar amount you want.

None of the three scenarios have any impact on general ledger, A/R, or WIP until the invoices are posted (discussed below). The amounts you bill will be subtracted from the un-billed amounts of the line items and the job. If an advance bill was applied to a production invoice, the amount applied will also be subtracted from the advance bill balance on the job.

Additionally, the specific job charges linked to the invoice will be marked as DRAFT. This prevents you from billing the same charges again.