Manual invoicing is where you can create an invoice from scratch by entering billing items manually or pulling in the WIP, and then making adjustments. This manual invoice enables you to create and edit an invoice for a project that might not have time and expenses logged to it. This is useful for new BQE CORE users who are implementing the software and need to enter past invoices and other historical information (alternatively, you can do so using the Opening Balances option from the Projects screen). It is also used to make exception billing, say a customer walks into the office and you need to charge them really quick. Check CORE Help Center for details.
Invoices transferred from your accounting software are saved as manual invoices. It is important to note that manual invoicing does not support joint or phased billing. Also, there is also no such thing as a 'draft manual invoice'. These invoices also do not obey certain project rules, say Prevent Time/Expense Entry rule.
While you can create most invoices using the batch billing method, there are situations when a manual invoice is a better option. For example:
- When you need to create a quick invoice from an existing estimate, a budget or a ‘% Done’ value for each activity or expense item
- When there are no significant services associated with a product, such as reselling of software, hardware, and so on
- When you want to create a quick invoice based on service and expense items
- When you want to enter historical invoices (summary or detail) from a previous accounting system
- When there are no time or expense entries charged to a project
- When you have to create a quick invoice from a billing schedule
- When you want to create an invoice and apply a payment at the same time