Billing

Accounts or PM runs the period invoice workflow. T&M Invoices accumulate approved billable time entries and expense items in the period. Milestone Invoices fire on project phase status = Complete and an approved client approval for the phase’s milestone amount. Fixed-fee Invoices follow the contract billing schedule (e.g. 30 / 30 / 40) independent of time. Retainer billing policies draw down a retainer pool against logged hours or flat monthly fees. Draft Invoices route through PM review → Accounts → client send (Draft → pending approval → Sent). AR handles cash application through the accounting GL integration; amount paid rolls up.

At month-end, prepare a recognition proposal using the approved method and contract allocation. Calculate cumulative earned consideration first. For percent complete, use the approved actual hours divided by a positive approved estimate at completion, capped at the allocated contract value. The current-period movement is cumulative earned consideration minus prior confirmed net posted recognition. Compare cumulative earned consideration with cumulative issued billing net of approved credits to calculate unbilled and deferred balances. Submit only the independently reviewed movement and retain the accounting acknowledgment before marking it Posted. For example, a 100,000 contract moving from 20% to 35% complete earns 35,000 cumulatively; after 20,000 was previously recognized, this period adds 15,000. With 50,000 cumulatively billed, deferred revenue is 15,000. Draft invoices contribute nothing to that billed balance.

Accounts may release an independently reviewed invoice while the accounting connection times out. Keep the source allocations, invoice identity and original command key. The timeout does not mean the external system rejected the request, and it does not prove a journal was posted. Reconcile the original command before retrying or creating a replacement.

Approved source time, expenses and billing installments can each be consumed once. An existing client invoice or installment Invoice reference identifies prior consumption. A new billing run checks those links and returns the earlier result for an identical retry. Retainer invoices also identify the retainer account whose confirmed balance they consume; concurrent drawdowns cannot exceed the remaining amount.

Recognition is another controlled lifecycle. The approved recognition policy supplies the method and relevant contract allocation. A percent-complete calculation needs a positive approved estimate at completion hours and must remain within the policy’s allocated consideration. Prepare the schedule for review and record the observed accounting acknowledgment before marking it Posted. A generated schedule alone does not establish accounting compliance.

• Invoices Awaiting Release — Review prepared invoices and their accepted delivery sources before independent release.