Milestones and billing

Move contractual deliverables from submission through an evidenced invoice step. The engagement manager records milestone name, amount, due date, deliverable summary, engagement and owner. The milestone moves from pending to submitted for a delivery decision, then through approved and invoiced as billing proceeds.

• Set the milestone. The engagement manager records milestone name, amount, due date, deliverable summary, engagement and owner. The milestone moves from pending to submitted for a delivery decision, then through approved and invoiced as billing proceeds.
• Decide readiness. The delivery director reviews the submitted deliverable and amount before approving billing readiness. The milestone keeps its engagement reference so the invoice operation has a commercial context.
• Run the invoice step. The Milestone Invoice workflow acts on an approved milestone. It checks the amount and engagement before moving the record to invoiced. It writes a milestone invoice receipt, including a failed result when the milestone cannot advance.

The team can follow each decision through its source record. References connect work to the client engagement, while statuses keep the current queue readable. Review a record before changing its status so the next person can understand why it moved.

Agree what evidence the approver needs for a deliverable, who may mark a milestone approved and how invoice numbering is coordinated with the billing system. Decide how missed due dates are reviewed. Keep record ownership clear when a colleague is away. Use the status lists during a pilot to make sure submitted items are visible to the person expected to act.

A client engagement has a migration deliverable due at month end. The manager enters the deliverable summary and amount, then submits it. The delivery director checks completion evidence and approves it. The invoice workflow finds an amount and an engagement reference, moves the milestone to invoiced and records the operation. The billing specialist checks the status and receipt before preparing the invoice reference and linked payment.

After the invoice step, Billing Specialist checks the milestone status and its operation receipt together. If the attempt failed, the approved milestone remains in the billing queue; the manager corrects the source before another attempt. The invoice operation receipt records the attempted transition, while the linked payment record carries the later collection status.

• Service Milestones Ready To Invoice — Approved milestones with the due date and amount to review.
• Service Milestone Billing Exceptions — Missed or still approved milestones needing billing attention.

Follow the related process and review the data model when preparing a pilot.