Create Contract Billing

•Client - Enter the client to be billed on the project. This field will be filled in automatically from the Owner field located on the Update Jobs > Billing Info Tab of the job list screen.

•Invoice No - An invoice reference number will be generated automatically. This invoice number must be unique, and can be changed if desired.

•Billing Application Number - Enter the billing application number for the current job. The system should supply the next application number automatically. The application number represents how many times a billing has been generated for the project. The first billing on the job would have a billing application of "1", the second billing on the job would have a billing application of "2", etc.

•Desc - The system will provide a default billing description using a combination of the job number and the billing application number. The default description can be changed if desired, just remember that the description entered here will be stored as the transaction description for all related transaction files when the billing is posted through the system.

•Billing Period - Enter the beginning and ending dates for the billing period. These dates should represent the construction period that the customer is being invoiced for on the project.

2.	After the basic billing information has been entered at the top of the screen, the individual billing items may then be billed. The system will display each item with the totals from the most recent contract billing. The items may be billed manually or with one of the automatic billing options:

Manual Entries - Select the desired line and then click on the Edit button at the bottom of the screen to change the billing amounts. The fields will vary depending on the billing format of the job. Most of the billing formats will include the percent complete, amount complete, retention percentage, and the retention total fields. After entering the amounts for the selected item, select Save and repeat the process until all desired items have been entered.

•The AIA Format will contain an additional field for stored materials. You may not bill more than 100% of the item value.

•The unit billing format will only allow for the units completed-to-date to be entered. The amount completed-to-date on a unit billing will be extended automatically based on the unit price. You may over bill the contract quantities on a unit billing. This will allow projects to be billed more in line with state and federal projects where the scheduled units can end up over billed or under billed at the end of the project and simply adjusted at the end on the final billing. You will need to enable the option titled "Allow Completed Unit Overruns on Contract Billings" in the Job Cost > Properties screen in order to use this function. Important Note: For Work in Progress Schedule (WIP) reporting, you will want to adjust your contract amounts for overbillings in order to avoid accelerating the percentage of completion on the project.

The retention amount calculated on each line item is based on the retention percentage found on each detail item. The amount may be manually adjusted by either changing the retention percentage and/or retention amount on the screen. If you manually adjust the retention on the contract billing screen, you will be prompted whether to recalculate the retention the next time that you bill the job. The system compares the retention percentage on the prior billing to the retention percentage on the billing detail item itself. If you tell the billing screen to recalculate the retention, then it will reapply the original retention percentage to the item which will cause the system to apply the difference to the current billing. If you don't choose to recalculate the retention, then the system will retain the retention amount from the last billing, however, the retention percentage itself will appear based on the original retention percentage setup on the item. Therefore, if you bill the item again, the system will try to reapply the original retention percentage, so you may want to consider changing the retention percentage on the detail item prior to creating the contract billing.

The retention amount may also be affected by the new field 'Retention Adjustment %' found on the Update Jobs > Billing Info Tab. This field is used to recalculate the retention percentage of all contract items and is particularly helpful if a fraction of a percent is required (ie. 2.5%). The retention percentage field on the detail items can only hold a whole number so if a fraction is required, you must enter a percentage in the Retention Adjustment % field. For example, if you are reducing retention on the job from 10% to 2.5%, then enter 25% in the Retention Adjustment % field (10 x 25% = 2.5). This percentage of adjustment will be noted on the contract billing screen. Note that the original retention percentage does not change but the amount calculated will factor in the adjustment.

The contract billing screen has a check box to manually 'Flag Billing as Retention' in circumstances where you cannot use the Auto Retention feature (see the Automatic Billing Options below). Normally a contract billing is flagged as retention only when the Auto Retn button is used. If you bill for partial retention, the invoice is not flagged as retention unless you check the 'Flag Billing as Retention' box. If the box is checked, the invoice will display on the aging schedule under the retention column and the entry is given a source 21 indicating a retention billing. The billing description will not reflect that it is retention unless you manually change the description before posting the invoice.

Fixed % Billings - The fixed percentage option will apply a constant percentage to all line items on the billing. For example, if you want to bill all line items at 75% complete, you would use this method. Enter the fixed percentage in the Fixed % field, and then select the Fixed % button. The system will extend all billing line items at the stated percentage.

Automatic Billing Options - Click on this button to select from the following options:

•Automatic 100% - Select this option to automatically bill all contract items at 100% less the retention percentage that were set up with each item.

•Automatic Retention - Select this option to automatically bill all contract items at 100% plus any retention amounts. If the job has not been billed out completely, it is recommended that the Automatic 100% option be carried out first, so that the retention billing will only include retention amounts.

•Automatic Schedule % - This option imports the percentage complete on each item from the Scheduling module.

•Automatic Sub Payment Sheet % - This option allows you to manually generate sub payment sheets first and then use those percentages of completion to update the current billing to the customer. The sub payment sheet percentage must be higher than the existing billing complete in order for the billing percentage to be updated.

•Automatic Job Cost % - This option will calculate the percentage of completion on each job cost phase that is linked to a billing phase. The calculation will divide the total costs, including open payables, by the total estimated cost to determine the percent complete. If the calculated percentage is more than the current percentage for that item on the billing, the new calculated percentage will be used to update the billing item. If the costs to date are more than 100% of the estimated cost, then 100% will be used.

•If there are multiple items on the billing with the same billing phase, the calculated percentage will be applied to each item on the billing. For example, if phase 1000.00 Mobilization is 73 % complete based on the job cost totals, and there are 3 billing items linked to billing phase 1000.00, all 3 billing items will be set to 73% so that the roll up overall total on phase 1000.00 of the billing should be 73%.

•Important Note on Linked Projects - If the job is linked to multiple jobs for contract status purposes, the user will be prompted during the percentage calculations to determine whether the individual job should be used for the calculations or if all linked projects should be queried for estimates and costs in order to obtain the total percentage of completion. This could be very useful where the contact is set up on one job number but the costs for different phases or buildings etc are tracked on separate job numbers.

• Automatic PO Buyout % - Use this option to compute the percentage of completion based on the vendor / subcontractor invoiced amount entered to date on the associated order line item. The percentage is calculated by dividing the invoiced amount by the order amount.

This feature is very useful for completing the ONLINE subcontractor payment process which handles submitting invoice amounts from the field, routing submitted amounts through the AccuBuild AP Approval Process and then submitting owner billings based on the approved subcontractor percentages.

5.	If you need to exit the billing screen without completing the invoice, click on the Close button, and the current billing entries will be preserved until the billing screen is displayed again. If you want to exit the billing screen and delete the current billing, use the Cancel button.

Click on the Post Button to spread the billing information through the accounting system, and update all associated historical transaction and master files. During the posting process, the general ledger will be updated using the three accounts: two receivable accounts for handling the current and retention portion of the billing, and the income account for handling the gross amount of the billing. Refer to the Job Cost > Properties for more information.

If you cannot complete (Post) the current job billing before needing to work on a different job billing, then be sure to use the Save Draft button to save your work. The draft copies will be stored in your user folder and can later be recalled for revisions and / or final posting through the system. Only the user that saved the draft copy will be able to open the draft copy. A single user may have more than one draft copy saved but the user will be limited to only one draft copy per job. Refer to the documentation called Contract Billing Draft Copy for complete information on how to use this feature.

If you have created previous billings and then changed the contract billing items to a lower retention percentage, then you may want to create a separate contract billing to bill out the difference in the retention withheld. The system will notify you that the retention percentage has changed since the last billing and will ask if you want to recalculate the retention amount on the current billing. If you answer yes, then a billing will be created based on the last percentages complete and retention withheld will be calculated based on the new retention percentage. The difference between the retention withheld previously and the retention currently calculated will be the amount of the new invoice.