Billing in BQE CORE

Managing accounts receivable is one of the most important functions of BQE 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.

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.

CORE offers various billing methods with flexible options. You can choose any method according to your project type and situation. 

• Fixed Billing

  Fixed or flat fee billing occurs when a client is billed a portion of the total contract amount over a number of months. The project's contract type is fixed but the bill amount can be the same or vary in each billing cycle. When the project contract or company policy defines a different billing amount, you can use a billing schedule to define the billing records and amount. Check CORE Help Center for details.

• Hourly Billing

  This is the most common billing practice across service industries. It involves dynamic generation of billing records based on time and expenses logged to projects with an hourly contract. Only approved time and expenses (work-in-progress) are included in the selected date range. The invoice amount is the total of the bill amount for time entries and charge amount for expenses after any adjustments made during the billing process.

  Depending on your settings, CORE applies taxes to individual time and expense entries (Tax 1/2/3). It also applies a second level of tax (MST/MET) to the total billed services and expenses. Check CORE Help Center for details.

• Recurring Billing

  Recurring billing involves pre-defining amount billed to the client on a set frequency such as biweekly, monthly, quarterly, and so on. The billed amount is the same regardless of the hours expended. CORE allows you to reduce the expenses on the recurring bill or to add them to the invoice (in addition to the recurring amount). This depends on the type of recurring contract the project has.

  Frequency of billing for a project starts from the date of the invoice. When you select a recurring contract for a project, CORE generates the billing record according to the frequency and amount set in Projects screen. It does not automatically create an invoice but notifies you that bills need to be processed. Check CORE Help Center for details.

• Cost Plus Billing

  If you are an engineering, architectural or any professional services firm that works for federal or state agencies, you might have to use Cost Plus contracts. Cost plus billing adds a profit margin or management fee to the bill amount. You can set special bill rates in the fee schedules for the direct costs and set the fixed fee or percentage on the Projects screen. You can manually override it with a different amount in the Invoices screen, upon which CORE then re-calculates the net bill amount. However, if you change the net bill manually, it does not change the fixed fee.

  Cost + Fixed Fee contract can be used when you want to bill direct costs—time and expenses (if expenses are a part of contract)—plus a fixed fee or profit to the client. The total fixed fee is set in the Projects screen. CORE adds a portion of the fixed fee to the net bill before generating the invoice. CORE also tracks the fixed fee portion to ensure you do not over-bill. Check CORE Help Center for details.

  Fixed Fee Amount = Billable Amount x (Fixed Fee / Contract Amount)

  Net Bill = Service Amount + Service Tax + Expense Amount + Expense Tax + Fixed Fee – Discount – Retainer Applied

  Example:  If the Contract Amount = $1000, Fixed Fee Amount = $100, value of billable time and expenses = $500
  
  Fixed Fee = 500 x (100/1000) = $50

  Cost + Percentage contract can be used when you want to bill direct costs—time and expenses (if expenses are a part of contract)—plus a percentage of the costs or profit to the client. The total fixed fee percentage is set in the Projects screen. CORE adds the profit percentage to the net bill before generating the invoice until the project is complete.

  Fixed Fee Amount = Billable Amount x Fixed Fee %

  Net Bill = Service Amount + Service Tax + Expense Amount + Expense Tax + Fixed Fee – Discount – Retainer Applied

  Example:  If Contract Amount = $1000, Fixed Fee % = 10, value of billable time and expenses = $500
  
  Fixed Fee = 500 x (10/100) = $50

• Progress Billing

  In CORE, you can bill your clients as required even if the time and expenses are not yet ready and approved. You can send a progress bill or your monthly invoices with the projected value of the work done. Later, you can associate the time and expenses to the relevant invoices via batch update. When progress billing your clients, CORE adjusts the difference in the value of time entries by generating a write-up/down . Similarly, for expense entries, it generates a markup automatically. Progress billing helps to improve your cash flow by sending invoices on time even though your staff has not completed their time and expense sheets.

  Progress billing helps you to improve your cash flow by sending invoices on time even though your staff has not completed their time and expense sheets. This feature enables you to bill time and expenses in advance and later associate the recorded entries to already processed invoices. Your job cost and profitability information are updated. Moreover, if you need to reprint the invoice, the items you added will be there. Check CORE Help Center for details.

• Percent Complete Billing

  '% Complete' in CORE is the subjective determination of how far along a project is. Throughout the life of a project, the manager tracks and updates this value in the Projects or Invoices screen. You can calculate this percentage based on the contract amount spent and then bill the client accordingly. Percent Complete billing supports both single project and joint invoicing. You can bill project phases using % Complete values from each phase. Check CORE Help Center for details.

  Note: If you enter an amount instead, CORE reverse calculates the percentage value. You can use the $ symbol or key to enter amount for all currency values.

• Joint Billing

  You can bill different phases of a project or different projects of the same client on a joint invoice (also called a combined or consolidated invoice). For joint billing, CORE groups the projects based on a common client. In case of phased projects, it groups the phases based on a common parent project. You can decide to generate a joint invoice before billing by specifying that rule in the Clients or Projects screen, or as part of the billing process in the Invoices screen. Check CORE Help Center for details.

• Automatic Billing

  CORE simplifies the billing process for you by allowing you to define an automatic billing schedule at the project level. You can set the frequency and processing mode (manual or automatic) in the Project screen. This process releases the associated time and expenses automatically and does the write-up/write-down, as needed. Check CORE Help Center for details.

• Split Billing

  This feature is commonly used in the legal industry wherein the invoice is split into various parts to divide work among clients, firms or payers. You can enable the Split Billing option for your projects (matters). For example, you might want to split the invoice between a primary matter (root project in CORE) and a secondary matter in a proportion of, say, 20% and 80%. All the time and expense entries are logged to the primary matter, but later the billing is split between the clients of the two matters. The line item taxes and main taxes are included in the split billing percentage set at the matter level. Check CORE Help Center for details.