Category Archives: Time & Cost

Importing Disbursements

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Importing Creditor/Supplier Invoices, Bills etc. into AbtracOnline

AbtracOnline allows you to import disbursements via two methods.

 

If you are using MYOB Account Right or Xero the available API connections to these systems will allow you to import your disbursements with the click of a button.

If you don’t use MYOB or Xero, or if you want to import things such as PaperCut files, Linz Fees, Uber Receipts etc., then you can import your disbursements through a file-based import.

Either way,  with our import disbursement functionality you don’t have to spend hours re-keying information that you probably have available from other systems.

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Simple reports to get started with invoicing

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Getting started with your invoicing normally starts with a few reports to see who you’re invoicing and for how much. This can then be checked with project managers to confirm they are ready to invoice the clients and if they are happy with the amounts.

There are two basic reports that can get you going. Unbilled Work Quick Summary and Timesheet Entries.

Unbilled Work Quick Summary

Unbilled Work Quick Summary is found in the invoicing section and as the name suggests this will be a summarised report that you can run against one or all jobs to see quickly whats outstanding out of all your billable time.

UnbilledWorkQuickSummarySelection

UnbilledWorkQuickSummary

Timesheet Entries (Billable WIP Only)

The Timesheet entries reports are found in the Timesheet Entries section and can be used for invoicing and also general reporting. The trick is to tick ‘Billable WIP’ (shown below) to only show information that hasn’t yet been billed.

The timesheet entries report shows information based on timesheets which may be easier for a project manager to confirm what’s billable, what to hold for the next billing cycle or what may need to be written off.

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As mentioned this is the simplest way to get information to show what may be billed. Both of these reports have a number of grouping and filtering which can change the information shown, and there are also other reports that show the information in greater detail. If you would like to know more about reports used for invoicing please contact us.

Managing Sub-consultants

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You can use sub-consultants in Abtrac if you outsource work to third parties, and need to manage them over the duration of one or more projects.

They may submit invoices for you to authorise and pass on directly to your client for payment. Alternately they may submit invoices to you which you pay and then you invoice your client as if the sub-consultant is part of your team. At that stage you may also apply a margin to the sub-consultant invoice.

The essential feature is they are submitting their claims as a series of creditor invoices as they work through their contract requirements on projects for your clients. You need to know what they have already invoiced, what is this particular invoice for, and how does it fit within the contract agreements you have with them.

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Creating a Purchase Order

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A purchase order can only be created for an entity we call a Sub-Consultant.

Sub-consultants and contractors are managed and linked to projects in Abtrac through the tasks module.

Before creating purchase orders you’ll need to have created Sub consultants within Abtrac. For more information on Sub consultants and sub consultant invoices please refer to this knowledgebase article.

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Employee Charge Rates: Specific Rates

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Employee Charge Rates in Abtrac can be as simple or as flexible as required.

It’s possible to enter unique charge rates for specific clients, jobs, projects, tasks, stages or activities. These unique rates will override the default charge rate for the specified employees (or in the case of activities the rates will apply for all employees)

Here’s how to ensure you have the right charge rates in the right location for your billing requirements.

There’s a bit of a hierarchy as to which rate is applied when, read on for details.

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Tasks or Activities, Which should I use?

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One Frequently asked question from new Abtrac users is whether to use Tasks or Activities in their timesheets.

Here’s the difference between the two: Tasks are Quantitative, Activities are not.

Tasks are where you enter the budget for the job.

2016_TasksTasks are also sometimes called Stages or Phases.

They should be exactly the same as budget items on the fee agreement you document to the client.

You give each task an estimate of both time and fees, and then analyse them later using reports such as Actual vs Budget by Task, or Invoice Preparation Information Report. These reports compare your proposed amounts, time spent, and amount invoiced.

You can learn from them over time to see how good staff are in getting through work allotted to them as well as how good you are in your estimates. If necessary you can modify your thinking and estimating to more correctly budget the next job based on what you’ve learnt from previous jobs.

Examples of Tasks (depending on your line of work): Concept Design, Feasibility Study, Developed Design, Media Monitoring

Activities are not Quantitative.

2016_Activities.pngIf Tasks are the bits of the job you’re working on, Activities are what you’re doing on each bit.

Really activities are to save you typing the same comments over and over again.

There are limited reports based on activities other than those used when reviewing timesheet entries and preparing descriptions for invoice lines.

Activities are generic across all jobs whereas tasks and the values associated with them are very much specific to a particular job, especially when there are variations and extras on a job by job basis.

Examples of Activities (again depending on your line of work): Office Work, Travel, Research, Meetings, Site Visit

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Bulk Edit Timesheets

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This screen is useful when you need to update timesheet details in bulk, it eliminates the need to open and edit individual users timesheets .

This timesheets maintenance screen is most typically used in the following situations:

  • Updating Employee rates
  • Editing Stage/Task or Activities that have been incorrectly assigned
  • Changing the job code an employee is assigning time to
  • To check if/when timesheets have been billed and
  • To check which invoice the WIP has been assigned
  • To obtain data not available in performance reports for specific employees, in particular to view timesheet data for employees who are no longer current.

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Flexible Timesheet Layouts with User Control Settings

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Check out our new articles on Timesheets and Customisations using the links below.

Timesheet views

Layout Customisations

We talk timesheets every day with our clients and we understand there’s often a bit of resistance to that dreaded daily data entry.

Some companies use incentives, and some use penalties to ensure that accurate timesheets are entered. But another technique for getting comprehensive timesheets – is just to make it really easy to enter the data.

We’re preaching to the converted a little bit here – if you’re reading this email then you’re already using a pretty flexible and simple timesheet entry system 🙂 But have you tailored your timesheet layout specifically for your staff and jobs? Or are you still using the ‘off-the-shelf’ layout?

Take time to adjust your Timesheet Control Settings in Abtrac and make your daily data entry just that little bit simpler. Continue reading →

Timesheet Entries Reports

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The Timesheet Entries report shows : timesheet comments, timesheet units and the total charge/cost extension for each timesheet line. It also provides detailed entries for employee and company disbursements.

There are quite a few variations on the ‘basic’ timesheet entries report with options for lots of different filters, groups and sub-groupings.

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Write Offs and Profitability Reports

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Some management reports in Abtrac review data by invoice, others do it by individual invoice lines. In particular some Employee Profitability, Fees Earned, and Write Off reports go into this detail.

If you want to analyse write offs (ons) at the employee or invoice level then the method you use to write off time is important.

When choosing an existing invoice line to assign WIP you need to be aware that this write off time will affect these reports. And reports already circulated will then have different recovery numbers which will obviously confuse some people.

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