Re-invoice expenses

If expenses are tracked on customer projects, they can be automatically charged back to the customer. This is done by creating an expense, referencing the sales order the expense is added to, and then creating an expense report.

Next, managers approve the expense report, before the accounting department posts the journal entries.

Finally, once the expense report is posted to a journal, the expenses appears on the specified SO. The SO is then invoiced, thus charging the customer for the expenses.

Important

Approving expenses, posting expenses to accounting, and reinvoicing expenses on SOs is only possible for users with the appropriate access rights.

See also

This document provides lower-level instructions for the creation, submission, approval, and posting of expenses. For fully-detailed instructions for any of these steps, refer to the following documentation:

Setup

First, specify the invoicing policy for each expense category. Navigate to Expenses app ‣ Configuration ‣ Expense Categories. Click on an expense category to view the expense category form. Under the INVOICING section, click the radio button next to the desired selection for Re-Invoice Expenses:

  • No: The expense category cannot be re-invoiced.

  • At cost: The expense category invoices expenses at the cost set on the expense category form.

  • Sales price: The expense category invoices at the sales price set on the expense form.

Create an expense

First, when creating a new expense, the correct information needs to be entered to re-invoice the expense to a customer. Using the drop-down menu, select the SO to add the expense to in the Customer to Reinvoice field.

Next, select the Analytic Distribution the expense is posted to. Multiple accounts can be selected, if desired.

To add another Analytic Distribution, click on the line to reveal the Analytic pop-over window. Click Add a line, then select the desired Analytic Distribution from the drop-down field. If selecting more than one Analytic Distribution, the Percentage fields must be modified. By default, both fields are populated with 100%. Adjust the percentages for all the fields, so the total of all selected accounts equals 100%.

Example

A painting company agrees to paint an office building that houses two different companies. During the estimate, a meeting is held at the office location to discuss the project.

Both companies agree to pay for the travel expenses for the painting company employees. When creating the expenses for the mileage and hotels, both companies are listed in the Analytic Distribution line, for 50% each.

Create an expense report

After the expenses are created, the expense report must be created and submitted, in the same manner as all other expenses.

Once the expense report is submitted, a Sales Orders smart button appears at the top-center of both the expense report, and each individual expense record being reinvoiced.

Ensure the customer to be invoiced is called out on the expense.

Important

Selecting the proper SO in the Customer to Reinvoice field is critical, since this is how expenses are automatically invoiced after an expense report is approved.

The Customer to Reinvoice field can be modified only until an expense report is approved. After an expense report is approved, the Customer to Reinvoice field is no longer able to be modified.

Approve and post expenses

Before approving an expense report, ensure the Analytic Distribution section is populated for every expense line.

If an Analytic Distribution entry is missing, assign the correct accounts from the drop-down menu, then click Approve.

The expense report with all the Analytic Distribution lines populated.

Note

The Approve button only appears after an expense report has been submitted.

The accounting department is typically responsible for posting journal entries. To post expenses to an accounting journal, click Post Journal Entries. Once an expense report is approved, it can then be posted.

The SO is only updated after the journal entries are posted. Once the journal entries are posted, the expenses now appear on the referenced SO.

Invoice expenses

After the expense report has been approved, and the journal entries have been posted, the SO is updated, and the customer can be invoiced.

Select the expense report, and click the Sales Orders smart button to open the SO. The expenses to be re-invoiced now appear on the SO.

Note

More than one SO can be referenced on an expense report. If more than one SO is referenced, clicking the Sales Orders smart button opens a list displaying all the SOs associated with that expense report. Click on a SO to open the individual SO details.

The expenses are listed in the SO Order Lines tab.

See the expenses listed on the sales order after clicking into it.

Next, click Create Invoice, and a Create invoices pop-up window appears. Select if the invoice is a Regular invoice, a Down payment (percentage), or a Down payment (fixed amount). Then, click Create Draft Invoice. Doing so creates a draft invoice for the customer. Click Confirm to confirm the invoice, and the customer is invoiced for the expenses.