A deposit or pre-payment amount for a job can be entered in the ‘Job Billing Details’ page in Abtrac.
This could be an initial deposit or an advance paid for a job or re-imbursement of expenses paid (application fees, etc.).
Set up a job with pre-payment required
Create a job. You can send a proposal from Abtrac, or elsewhere which mentions the pre-payment amount required.
From Clients, Contacts & Jobs >> click on the relevant contact name to go into the ‘Details for’ page >> click on the Jobs tab on the left >> click on the ‘Add Job for this Contact’ button to add a new job.
Add the required fields in the Job Details screen, save and then click on the Job Billing Details tab.
Enter Pre-Payment Amount
Enter in details of any Pre-Payment Amount (deposit) required in the Job Billing Details screen here.
Use Job Status (Optional)
You can also create job statuses for pre-payments and update it in the Job Details screen.
You can then filter jobs by their job status in the search screen.
Setting timesheet alerts for the job (when the pre-payment is unpaid)
You can set up a warning in system settings when people are putting time on a job for which a pre-payment hasn’t been received.
From Administration >> Settings >> System Settings >> Timesheets tab >> tick the box for ‘Prompt user if Pre Payment amount not paid’
Then, if the pre-payment amount has not been paid for a job, the below popup will appear when the user tries to enter time against that job.
Send an invoice for the required pre-payment
When you get confirmation that the job can proceed, create an invoice for the pre-payment.
By matching an invoice to the pre-payment, you can ensure that your invoiced numbers and your time spent stays accurate.
Payments from your accounts can also accurately match to your pre-payment invoice.
Types of Pre-Payments and Types of Invoices
Type 1: Percentage or fixed amount pre-payment required
Some businesses stipulate in their contract a percentage of the job fee amount or a fixed amount to be paid as pre-payment before they start the work.
For example, if the whole job fee is $3000, the contract would mention half the payment (i.e. $1,500) or simply a fixed amount before they start.
A blank invoice can be generated and you can add a line manually.
The pre-payment amount is a text/value line.
Conveying fee for project information (optional)
You can also create a text and units line with rates only to convey the total fee information.
The invoice will preview as below.
Type 2: Pre-payment for application fees
Sometimes this invoice is a pre-payment for council application fees. For example, surveyors may need payment for council application fees.
You can load these fee details as an office disbursement and assign them to the pre-payment invoice as required.
Create an invoice with a line for the pre-payment amount. You can do this based on a disbursement in Abtrac or by manually creating an invoice line.
Add the Office Disbursement
From Time & Disbursements >> Office Disbursements >> add the office disbursement to the relevant period ending date.
Create an invoice for your pre-payment in the usual way
Pre-payment invoices in Abtrac are created as you would normally create an invoice, then add an invoice line and enter the pre-payment amount required.
Create the invoice line based on the disbursement in Abtrac
To automatically create a line for the disbursement amount, first highlight the unbilled line then choose add. This will automatically assign the disbursement to the line amount, and enter the correct line amount for you.
The line with time automatically assigned will show as below.
Or, assign the disbursement to the invoice after the invoice line is created
Alternately you can create the invoice line and assign the disbursement to the invoice at a later stage.
The invoice will preview as below.
Recording the pre-payment as paid
Setting the pre-payment as paid in Job Billing details
Once the pre-payment is paid, you can put a tick in the ‘Pre-Payment Amount Paid’ tick box in the Job Billing Details page.
This way people can log time against the job confidently.
Recording the pre-payment invoice payment
You can record the pre-payment invoice as paid in Invoices & Payments, or pull through the payment automatically from your accounts sync.
Update the job status (optional)
If you use Job status to track jobs you would also update the status at this point.
Managing future invoices for Jobs with pre-payments
Once a pre-payment has been marked as paid, you will see this pop up as a reminder when you try to generate the next invoice for the job from the Invoices > Generate Invoice screen.
Create your next invoice in the usual way (based on task, time etc)
If you bill based on fixed fee or stage amounts, then when the next stage is ready to bill, the subsequent invoice can be generated for the full amount of time spent as usual.
Type 1: Percentage or fixed amount pre-payment required
Adjusting the next invoice to reverse the pre-payment amount (optional)
You can then add an extra invoice line with a negative amount and mention that in the narration. For example, “Less deposit paid (Invoice 8025)”.
Conveying the total fee quoted and payment history (optional)
The other option for subsequent invoices is to use text/units lines to show the previous fees quoted and charged with the line amount on the invoice being only the total due.
Reporting the Pre-Payment Amount
Some timesheet and project reports include the job billing details pre-payment amount and status, as well as the total quoted amount or project estimated fee.
Abtrac KB# 2160