Manage the billing backlog
Project Operations has two dedicated views to help you work with and manage the billing backlog:
- Fixed Price Milestones
- Time and Material Billing Backlog
To select a view, in the Sales area of Project Operations, on the left navigation page, select Billing, where the billing backlog links are stored.
Fixed price milestones
The Fixed Price Milestones view lists all fixed price milestones across all project contract lines in the system. Single or multiple milestones can be marked as Ready to Invoice or Not Ready to Invoice from this view. When you mark a milestone as Ready to Invoice, the milestone becomes available for a draft invoice.
When multi-customer contract lines have a fixed price billing method, one milestone is created for each customer on the contract line. The user creates a milestone, and that milestone is split into customer-specific milestone records internally, according to the billing percentage split that is defined for each customer on the contract line. In the Fixed Price Milestones view, you will see individual customer-specific milestone records. Each milestone record can be marked as Ready to Invoice separately from this view. When one or more of the related milestone splits are marked as Ready to Invoice, the header moves to a status of In Progress from Not Started. When all milestone splits have been invoiced, the header milestone status becomes Completed.
A milestone on a draft invoice is shown in this view with a billing status of Customer Invoice Created. When the draft invoice is confirmed, the billing status on this record is updated to Customer Invoice Posted. Updating this status value by using custom code isn't recommended. Project Operations won't function correctly if these status values are updated with custom code.
Time and material billing backlog
The Time and Material Billing Backlog view lists all unbilled sales actuals that haven't been invoiced across all project contracts in the system. Single or multiple unbilled sales actuals can be marked as Ready to Invoice or Not Ready to Invoice from this view. Marking an unbilled sales actual as Ready to Invoice makes it available to be put on a draft invoice.
Unbilled sales actuals that have a Not-to-Exceed status of Failed can't be marked as Ready to Invoice. If these actuals need to be marked as such, reset the status on other actuals on the contract line that are committed, and then evaluate the Not-to-Exceed status.
In the case of multi-customer contract lines that have a time and material billing method, when time and expenses are approved, an unbilled sales actual is created for each customer on the contract line according to the billing percentage split that is defined for each customer on the contract line. In the Time and Material Billing Backlog view, you'll see these individual customer-specific unbilled sales actuals. Each of these unbilled sales actuals records can be marked as Ready to Invoice separately from this view.
An unbilled sales actual on a draft invoice is shown in this view with a Billing Status of Customer Invoice Created. When the draft invoice is confirmed, the billing status on this record is updated to Customer Invoice Posted. Updating this status value when it is in this state by using custom code isn't recommended. Project Operations won't function correctly when these status values are updated with custom code.
Improved project invoicing usability and performance
In project-based industries, it's typical to generate invoices for extensive teams engaged in recurring projects. Each invoicing cycle encompasses numerous transactions spanning time, expenses, and material usage activities across projects. These transactions require thorough review and validation before generating invoices for the clients.
To better support the needs and tasks of the project manager, the improved project invoicing usability and performance allows you to review the billing backlog for the next invoice cycle. This includes reviewing lines, details, and proposed invoice totals. You can also manage the billing backlog for time and material, products and advancements, milestones, and more. The time required to rectify project-based line items on proforma invoices is substantially reduced due to the enhancements to the invoice correction process.