Authorize time and generate invoices.
- All Apps
- Dec 9, 2022
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 7
All time that was logged in the Time Log table will need to be authorized through the Billing department. If you still need to set up your billing, please refer to this post.
Depending on your user access, you will be able to perform certain features in this department, or you will not be able to access the department at all.
The features covered in this post include:
1. Setting up
In order for your invoicing to reflect correctly, you will need to:
Set up your billing in DataGrows.
Integrate with Sage or Xero. This is not a compulsory step, but it will streamline your billing.
Next, set up your invoice details and time rounding.
To do this:
Go to the Firm Settings Table under Setup.
Click on the record for your firm
Complete your firm details in the Company Info section.
Select a rounding from the time rounding dropdown in the System Settings section. The rounded time in your Time Log table will display according to this selection.
Then set your invoicing settings in the Firm Invoicing Details section.
Save
2. Authorizing Time
As a Partner or Admin user, you will have access to the Time Authorize table in the Billing department. This is where you will review and approve the time logged by your team. We recommend doing this weekly so that any queries are still fresh in the minds of your team members.
You can adjust any time by clicking on a record and changing the start or end time.
You will then authorize the time records to establish what needs to be included in the current billing cycle.
To do this, please:
Select the records through the boxes on the left.
Go to Actions
Select the applicable option from the menu.
Mark Invoiced: For tasks that have already been invoiced. These records will move to the Time Log Archive table.
Mark Invoice Pending: These are the tasks that you want to include in the current billing cycle. These records will move to the Time Invoice Pending table in order to generate invoices.
Mark Internal: For non-billable work where your firm will absorb the costs. These records will move to the Time Log Archive table.
Mark Written-off: For other tasks that you want to move to the Time Log Archive table, without billing for them.
Mark Deferred Billing: Streamline long-term unauthorised time tracking with our Deferred Billing table. Move time records from the Time Authorise table with just a click. Once you are ready to authorise the Deferred time, you can go to the Deferred Billing table, select the records and one of the Actions.
View all records in the billing cycle
The Time Invoice Pending table contains all the time records that will be included in this billing cycle.
This table can be exported by clicking on Menu and Download for record keeping.
You can make changes in this table or move records back to the Time Authorize table to exclude them from this billing cycle and hold them back for the next cycle.
You can get an overview of the totals that will be billed per client by accessing your billing report.
To access the report:
Click on Firm Reports
Then click on the icon in the billing record.
You can expand any area in the report through the + icon
4. Generating Invoices
Once you are happy with the records in the Time Invoice Pending table as discussed above, you can generate invoices.
To action invoices:
Go the Process Table under Setup.
Then select one of the two generate records
The Generate Adhoc invoices record will include all the time logged in your Time Invoice Pending table but exclude monthly retainers and recoverable expenses.
The Generate Month-end invoices & Retainers record will include all the time in the Time Invoice pending table as well as retainers and recoverable expenses.
Next, select Process from the Action dropdown.
Save
You can also schedule the process to run on a specific day each month by selecting a date from the Schedule dropdown and clicking Save. The invoices will automatically be generated on this day each month. If you set a Schedule Repeat, then the invoices will run according to this frequency.
After running the process, go to the Invoice table under the Time Log department.
You can see your latest invoices by sorting descending on the invoice date or by filtering on the applicable period.
You can adjust the invoices if need be by:
Clicking on an invoice
Then going to invoice lines
Making the needed adjustments
From here, invoices can be:
To post to Sage Business Cloud Accounting or to Xero:
Select the invoices you would like to post by clicking on the squares to the left of the table.
Then click on Actions,
Post to Sage or Post to Xero.
If you have not integrated your DataGrows account with Sage or Xero yet, please follow the steps in the posts linked below.
The Accounting System Issues column will update if any issues occur, while the Accounting System Invoice Number will update to reflect the invoice number according to Sage or Xero.
Download the invoices manually
If you are not using Sage or Xero and you would like to download the invoices manually:
click on the hyperlink icon
The invoice will open in a new window. It can be downloaded by clicking on the save icon in the top bar.
5. Time Log Archive Table
Once time log records have been processed to invoices or if they have been marked as Internal, Invoiced or Written-off, they will move to the Time Log Archive table for record-keeping purposes.
For any assistance or if you have questions, please email support@mydatagrows.com
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