How to Write Off Time

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Sometimes you have leftover time for a job/project that you just can’t invoice. The best way to clear that time is to write it off.

There are a few things to think about when writing off time in Abtrac.

You can write it all off the time that is over budget – either by assigning to the last invoice, or by creating a new zero value invoice.

If you are writing off time from the Manage WIP(Work in Progress) screen buttons you’ll need to set rules for automatically writing off time. You should set a maximum value of time that can be written off with a click of a button. Another thing to think about is what date you want to mark this time as written off – particularly if it’s been current/unbilled work for a long time past the last invoice.

Lastly you can write off partial time, or write off time as you progress through the job. By assigning any over budget time to an existing invoice line. The amount charged is then less than the amount assigned – this still shows as a write off in reports.

Write off all time

Writing off time from the Manage WIP screen

There are two buttons from Invoices >> Manage WIP >> Unbilled Work Quick Summary used to write off time.

Here you can find the client or job/project that you want to write off the time for, then usually on the far right of the row there are three buttons.

You may need to scroll the grid to the right to see these options, depending on your grid settings.

Assign all current WIP to last invoice

You can Assign all current WIP to the last invoice by clicking the $ symbol, or

Create a new zero value write off invoice and assign all current WIP to it

by clicking on the plus button. (Click on the third button to generate a new invoice)

If you see the prompt below when you click on the + button you’ll need to set up admin rules for write off buttons.

Setting rules for write offs

Set a Max WIP Assigned Amount (Bulk WIP assign value)

When auto assigning WIP, you’ll need to set up some predefined rules in System Settings before you start. You will need to assign a maximum value of time and cost that could be written off. This prevents big overruns of time being dumped and write offs from being hidden.

From Administration >> Settings >> System Settings >> click on the Invoices tab on the left >> under Assigning Time to Invoice Lines, enter the Bulk WIP Assign Max Value and save.

What happens if my WIP is greater than my Max Assign amount?

You’ll be able to automatically assign up to the max amount. But any unbilled WIP higher than the max value will have to be written off in a separate write off invoice.

Set a date limit for when WIP is assigned long after the invoice date

Also make sure that you have chosen the appropriate selection under Invoicing : When Assigning Time (for the generate invoice screen) and Invoicing : WIP Assigning Options.

The first option (selected) for Invoicing : WIP Assigning Options says that when assigning WIP to an invoice, if it is more than 21 days past the invoice date, then record the time being assigned as at today and not as at the invoice date.

This is for businesses that prefer to lock in monthly reporting. So that if you run a report, it will show the same values regardless of when you run it e.g. a WIP or write-on/off report as at 30^th September won’t change if I run it in December with a September 30^th end date.

The second option is for situations where you can post-date an invoice and then the WIP assigned will report as being written off as at the invoice date i.e. earlier than is actually the case.

Tracking Write off reasons

Usually for large write off amounts a zero value invoice is manually created, and a write off reason is included for reports in both the invoice comments (hidden from clients) and the reason for write offs module.

See article on Reason for Write offs and Write ons.

Write off some time (Over-assigning time)

To partially write off some of your time, you can assign your timesheet lines to an invoice line as you normally would, and then change the amount you assign to that invoice line as shown below, rather than leaving it as the default calculated amount.

From Invoices >> Load Invoices, click on the relevant invoice number.

Expand ‘Invoice Lines, Narratives and Amounts’. Under ‘Invoice Line Details’, click on the edit button for the relevant invoice line. ‘Create/Edit Invoice Line’ pop up appears.

You can see on the right how the full value of time assigned to this invoice line is $3950.00 but on the left, you are only charging $1750.00 for this invoice line.