Create an Invoice Template
Navigate to Settings > Templates > Invoices. You need the User Permission ‘Billing Templates’ to access this page. Select Add New Invoice Template at the top of the page. The Create Invoice Template page will open. The first thing that you'll want to do is name your new template. Also on the page, you'll need to choose Blank, to start from scratch, or one of the following: Invoice, Agency Invoice, Barter Invoice, Installment Invoice or Invoice Template with Tear Sheet.
Once you've made your choice to start from scratch or use a ready to customize template, click Submit. At this point, you'll start on the Edit (Your Template Name) page. You can drag and drop from the elements on the right-hand side of the page or customize any that have already been placed on the template.
At anytime during the design and edit process, you can preview your template by clicking on PDF Preview in the upper right corner. This will open a preview of your template in another window. You can also add a header or footer by clicking on Layout. Be sure to save your Layout choices.
Also in the upper right corner, you'll see the Settings link. Click here to set up additional items for your template:
Paid Stamp - Have a PAID stamp show on your paid invoices, with or without the paid date.
Date Format - Choose how you want the date displayed on all invoices that use this template.
Show and Items with Zero dollar gross – If set to Yes, this will show all line items on a Master Invoice that have a gross price of $0. Set this to No if you do not wish those items to show.
Show All Line Items on Date Based Installment Invoices - If set to Yes, this will show all line items on a Date based Installment Invoice even if that line item is not contributing to the specific installment fees. Set this to No if you wish to only show items that contribute to the installment fees.
Send Invoice Emails Automatically - Determine whether the system should automatically generate invoice reminder emails for invoices that use this template. System Configuration to automatically send invoice emails must be enabled to change this setting.
Once you've finished designing your template, it will be included in your drop-down list to choose from during invoice creation.
Time Entry Element on Invoice Templates
To show customers information about the hours recorded to tasks that they are being billed for, you can add the Time Entry element to your Invoice and Special Invoice Templates.
Setting up the Element
To add the element, navigate to an invoice template in your system by going to Settings > Templates > Invoices, and using the ellipsis actions to edit the template. You could also create a new template. On the template edit page, simply drag and drop the Time Entry element onto the invoice.
By default, the element will be a table that shows the Project Name, Service, Task Name, Person (resource), Date, Hours, Notes, and the Service Rate as its columns. To edit the element and configure it to your liking, click the edit icon.
In the edit popup, there are various ways you can configure the element to present the information how you would like. As with all our template elements, you can change the font, color, and size, as well as the alignment. The Time Entry element also allows you to configure the table by resource, change the sorting, and group the data.
Resource: The resource field allows you to choose which resources you would like to show on the element – all, internal, or vendors. When you choose all, hourly information from both your employees and any vendors will display in the table. If you choose either internal or vendors, then only hourly information will show about that type of resource and will exclude the other.
Sort By: By default, the table will be sorted by resource in alphabetical order. However, you can change this to sort the data by date the hours were recorded, or by the task name.
Grouping: If you would prefer to show a summary of the information, rather than all the details, you can group the table by resource, task, or day.
Resource: When grouped by resource, the table will only include the person’s name who recorded the hours, as well as the number of hours they recorded.
Task: If grouped by task, the table will show the project and task name, the service, and the number of hours recorded to that task.
Day: When grouped by day, the element will only show the date that hours were recorded, as well as the total hours recorded on that date.
The Time Entry element is also available on Special Invoice templates. Depending on how your organization utilizes the project management module, for example if you use No Contract Billable projects, you may also wish to add the element to your special invoices.
Using the Time Entry Element
It’s important to note that not every task that hours are recorded to will show up on the Time Entry Element. The element will not show up on the invoice unless there are items that meet the following criteria.
There must be hours recorded for the task. If a task meets any of the following criteria, but there are no hours recorded for it, it will not show up in the element.
Billable Projects
If a project is billable, and it is created from an order, then fixed tasks, partially billed tasks, percent milestone complete, and T&M tasks will all show up on the time entry element. When a project is created from an order, it creates a skeleton outline for the project. Each service item from that order is tied to a milestone on the project, which in turn is tied to a single task. When that task has recorded hours, it will show up in the Time Entry element.
Note
There may or may not be information that shows up in the time entry ‘Service Rate’ column, depending on the type of task and service. Tasks that use a T&M billing group will always have a rate show up in the Service Rate column. Additionally, if there is a billing rate set on a particular task, its rate will also populate the Service Rate column. If a task doesn’t fit those two criteria, then there will not be information in the Service Rate column.
No Contract Billable Projects
For No Contract Billable projects, both Percent % Milestone Billing and T&M Task Billing items will show up in the Time Entry element.
Note
Percent % Milestone Billing items will not have any data show up in the Service Rate column on the element.
For more information about No Contract Billable projects and how to create and use Percent % Milestone and Task T&M Billing, click here.
Added 9/28/2022
Updated 11/03/2022