Partial Billing of Projects
Tutorials and guides for the features of Octaved Flow
For longer running work packages, partial invoices can be created for e.g. the last month or the last quarter. The function Partial billing in Octaved Flow is exactly for this use case and allows to bill work packages that are still open and running for a period of time.
Menu item Partial billing
In the menu item Partial Billing projects are displayed in which there is at least one work package that is a candidate for partial billing for the specified period.
First, select the time period. The last month is selected as default.
The partially billable work packages for this period are displayed. A work package is partially billable if the following applies:
- There are time bookings for the selected period ("last month").
- These time bookings have not yet been settled.
- The work package is billed according to effort.
For better orientation, projects are displayed complete with all work packages. Work packages that are not partially billable are displayed in gray.
Create a partial billing
To create a partial billing, select some or all partially billable work packages of a project:
A partial settlement can only include work packages of one project. If you want to partially settle multiple projects, simply create multiple partial settlements.
Then click the Bill 1 button at the top.
List of billings
As with Bill, the created billings are displayed in the List of billings menu item for further processing.
Settlement preparation and status "Closed"
Settlement preparation is intended for final settlement of work packages, not for partial settlement. The purpose of billing preparation is to set work packages to Completed status.
However, with the status Completed no more time bookings can be made, which contradicts the idea of partial billing. This is because in partial billing, work is still being done on the work packages.
Lock by time
The status has several functions in Octaved Flow. One of them is to lock the time posting so that the list of time postings cannot be changed with the start of the billing process. If a time entry is added after the timesheet is created, it will logically be missing from the payroll. The Completed status ensures that this cannot happen.
However, for a partial payroll, the status should remain Open since work is still being done on the work package. What is the solution?
When a partial settlement is created, a date is set and the work package is
locked for time bookings up to and including this date. For example, if November is partially settled at the beginning of December, then the freeze date is set to 11/30.
It is then no longer possible to edit, delete and add time bookings before and on 11/30.
The freeze date can be edited in the work package settings if it was set manually. If the freeze date was created by a payroll, it cannot be edited.
Final settlement for existing partial settlements
If partial settlements exist for a work package, the hours already settled and the hours not yet settled are displayed in the table from the menu item "Settle":
When clicking on the work package, the information of the work package is displayed. There are all settlements including partial settlements for this work package:
The procedure described in this tutorial ensures that booked times are actually settled. For the special case, which can be constructed only with difficulty, that there are not accounted time bookings from the past, these are contained in the final account and are thus considered at the latest at this time.
Links to other tutorials in this topic area.
