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- Invoicing & Billing System
- Features
- Billable work
Billable work
Bring approved expenses and recorded time into the right customer invoice. A consultant can record time for a named customer on the date the work occurred, with a description that will make sense on the invoice. A receipt for reimbursable travel belongs to the same customer only after attribution is checked. Personal notes and non-billable work should not become customer-facing charges simply because they were recorded together.
OverviewBillable Expenses×
Invoicing & Billing System · Billable work
New
Billable Expenses
Expenses
| Expense number | Expense date | Vendor | Client | Amount | Status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EXP-15915 | 28 Oct | Pine Street Printworks | Marlow Creek Bakery | 920 | Recorded | |
| EXP-42653 | 29 Oct | North Quay Hosting | Stonepath Consulting | 770 | Recorded | |
| EXP-52796 | 26 Oct | Cedar Paper Supply | Marlow Creek Bakery | 610 | Recorded | |
| EXP-78648 | 14 Oct | Bluewater Courier Co. | Harbor Lane Interiors | 250 | Recorded | |
| EXP-62457 | 28 Oct | Willow Creek Photo Lab | Willowbend Florals | 280 | Recorded |
6 of 6 records
Pine Street PrintworksExpenses · EXP-15915
RecordedExpense date28 Oct
ClientMarlow Creek Bakery
Amount920
What you can do
Keep the business context together
Capture the work date, client, description, time or expense amount and supporting receipt before billing. Keep original source references on invoice lines so the team can explain the charge. Billable and non-billable entries share a history without being mistaken for invoices or completed payments.
When the bookkeeper builds the invoice, source links connect each charge to its time or expense entry. Those links make a customer question answerable: which day the work was done, which rate was used and which receipt supported the expense. The issued line preserves the billed amount even if a future rate changes.
Give each decision a clear owner
Assistant manages their own entries. Bookkeeper reviews customer attribution, rate and any markup before adding them to a draft invoice. Marking a source as billed is tied to the successful creation of its invoice line; the state must not change when the invoice operation fails.
Two people preparing invoices at the same time may both find the same unbilled expense. Only one draft can reserve that source for billing. If the invoice-line creation fails, the source remains available; if an unissued draft line is deliberately removed, its reservation can be released with the reason retained.
Handle exceptions with the original record
Prevent the same expense or time entry from appearing on competing invoices. Removing an unissued draft line releases its reservation with an audit event. Correcting work already billed requires a documented invoice correction; changing the original hours must not silently alter a sent document.
A fixed-fee agreement and hourly work require different descriptions. Recording hours can still support internal review without making every hour billable. The bookkeeper should choose the agreed rate and billing treatment, verify any markup and ensure that non-billable entries remain excluded from the invoice total and customer document.
Find the work that needs attention
Use the billable expense and time views to review work before the billing cutoff. Entries missing a customer, date, description or receipt need attention before invoicing. Filtering the queue by customer helps group the work, but access still follows the assistant or bookkeeper role and the underlying business scope.
Configure it around your business
Configure default items, allowed rates and supporting-document requirements around the services you actually sell. Review one mixed invoice containing time, expenses and a non-billable entry. Its customer total should include only the selected billable sources, and its retained links should explain those charges without exposing another employee’s restricted work.
What your team sees
- Billable Expenses — Review the work and supporting records for this module.
What it keeps track of
Data model- Expenses
- Lightweight expense capture — a vendor, an amount, a category, and a snapped receipt photo. When
BillableToClientis true and a Client is set, the Expense becomes available to add as a line on the next Invoice for that Client. - Time entries
- Lightweight billable hours capture. When
Billable = trueand a Client is set, the time entry becomes available to add as a line on the next Invoice for that Client at the entry’s Rate. - Invoice lines
- Per-line detail on an Invoice. Snapshots Item info at line creation. Carries the tax-rate resolution and the optional billable-source link to an Expense or time entry that this line came from.
- Invoices
- The bill the Client owes. Draft becomes Sent after validation and sealing; the first permitted view may mark an unpaid Sent document Viewed. Recognized receipts derive partial paid or Paid from the issued balance. An unpaid Sent, Viewed or partial paid invoice becomes Overdue only after its due date. Paid never becomes Overdue merely as time passes. An evidenced refund or reversal can reopen a positive balance into partial paid or Overdue. An authorized void produces terminal Voided; viewing, reminders or delayed callbacks cannot undo it. Generated by direct user create, by
estimate-converts-to-invoice, or byrecurring-invoice-generationon theRecurringSchedulescadence. The rendered invoice PDF and the line-snapshot are frozen on Send. Line snapshot is a sealed JSON snapshot frozen at Status: Sent — never edited; for the live editable line set see invoice lines. - Clients
- The customer record — kept light. Email is the natural key for dedupe. Carries a default payment term that overrides the business default at invoice creation time.
- Items
- Reusable line-item catalog. Items can be services (priced per hour / day / project) or tangible goods (priced per each).
IsTaxablecontrols whether sales tax is added at invoice line time.
Who uses it
Permissions- Owner / Admin
- Owner / Admin works within the record, field and action scope below.
- Bookkeeper
- Bookkeeper works within the record, field and action scope below.
- Assistant
- Assistant works within the record, field and action scope below.
Set up Invoicing & Billing System your way.
Start free, then use Proto to change fields, steps and approvals before your team goes live.