Managing accounts receivable is one of the most important functions of CORE. All projects with billable time and expenses, or that are set up for recurring billing, eventually need to be billed to the clients. Typically, billing managers handle these functions in CORE, although they can delegate these tasks to accountants or admin staff. CORE provides you with a lot of flexibility and options in terms of billing rules, methods, payment terms, invoice formats and related decisions. Billing decisions determine what information prints on an invoice.

Note: You can get a visual overview of this feature in CORE from the Accounts Receivable flowchart.

In CORE, you can create invoices in two ways:

1. Manual Invoicing
2. Batch Invoicing

Billing can vary from contract to contract. CORE generates billing records based
on three key business rules:

• For projects with a Fixed Fee, Hourly, Hourly Not To Exceed, Percentage or Cost Plus contract type: There must be one or more time or expense entries charged to it and approved for billing. Exception: If a project has the Always show in Create Batch Invoice rule set (in the Projects screen), then regardless of the contract type, a billing record will be included.
• For projects with Recurring, Recurring with Cap or Recurring + Expenses contract type: A billing record is generated, whether there are time or expenses charged to it and approved for billing. In essence, the recurring contract type pre-defines the billing record based on the recurring frequency chosen (in Projects screen). You also have an option to Bill Maximum for Recurring Contract Type. When this option is checked, CORE recommends the larger amount for billing.
• For a project with any contract type (other than Recurring): Having a billing schedule assigned to it, its billing records transfer to the Invoices screen. You predefine the billing record and dates in Billing Schedules, which determines when it displays in the Invoices screen.

CORE offers various billing methods with flexible options. You can choose any method according to your need and situation. Check out various billing methods in CORE.

• Fixed Billing
• Hourly Billing
• Recurring Billing
• Cost Plus Billing
• Progress Billing
• Percent Complete (%Complete) Billing
• Joint Billing
• Automatic Billing

Note: You can choose an invoice template at the project level. If no particular template is selected, the default template from Settings is used, based on the type of invoice and project contract. Check out some samples here.

From the accounting view, creating invoices debits (increases) your A/R; on the other hand it credits (increases) your income account.