Invoicing a contract

A contract can raise its own invoices, or leave it to you. Either way the contract knows what belongs on the bill — the recurring fee, and the jobs done in that period.

Automatic or manual invoicing

• Automatic — the system raises each period’s invoice on the frequency you set, and can email it to the client with the job sheet attached.
• Manual — you raise the invoice when you are ready. The jobs performed in that month (or quarter) are gathered onto it for you to check before sending.

When you raise one by hand, the contract does the gathering for you. Fetch & Link opens by itself and offers everything that belongs on that period’s bill:

Add Invoice → Fetch & Link

There are two things on offer:

• The contract fee — the recurring amount, already ticked and labelled from Contract, together with any deposit. This is what the client owes regardless of what happened during the period.
• The jobs done in the period — each with its status, dates and amount. Ticking one pulls that job’s items into the invoice.

That second part is the rate card rule again: a job whose services sat inside the free quota brings nothing to charge, while a job carrying priced items adds them to the bill. Narrow the list by date range, job code or status if you need to; anything you leave unticked simply stays off this invoice.

You can switch a running contract between automatic and manual from the billing panel.