Subtitles of the Movie

Progress Billing is very commonly thought of for the construction industry but it's not the only one. Very often consultants will also have to submit their invoice as progress develops. For instance, in the computer profession it's very common that consultants putting together a networking system will bill out as the job progresses. The use of Estimates makes this very easy and also makes sure that I bill for all of the expenses that I put in my Proposal. Let's start by going into an Estimate, go to a previous screen and look at creating the Invoice. Now, first, notice the Estimate Active Button on top. If this is not selected, you will not be able to actually create the Invoice. You'll get a message telling you that it's inactive. We just need to go back and put that checkmark there. Now that I have an active Estimate, let's create an Invoice. When we do, because I just switched this Estimate sign, it wants me to save my transaction and that's good for me. Here's where I have my Progress Invoice. Lots of options; I can create it on the entire Estimate, for a percentage of the entire Estimate or for specifics. Let's do some specifics with Albert. I'm going to say OK and it now brings me a screen that allows me to choose what I want to bill out. I have lots of choices here. First, if I do not want to go by Quantity and Rate, I can turn that off and go strictly by percentages. Each of these columns can be adjusted so that I can see what's been billed out and what I'd like to currently bill. If I'd like to work with Quantity and Rate, I can reverse those checkmarks and actually bill out per hour. Let's go back to our Percentages and I'd like to say that we will bill out 25 percent of one line item. Now I'll hit OK and when I do, I'm to a new Invoice. You'll notice that the Progress Invoice has at least one zero. That's because I only chose one item. Of course, if I don't want to see the screen in the future, I can put a checkmark there and say OK. I have now created an Invoice that shows the entire Estimate but only billing for one item. This is nice so that your client can see exactly what's going to be coming in the future. When I'm happy, I hit Save and Close, Spell Check comes up, Close once again and I'm done. Now, the key to Progress Billing is to track the reports. So let's go down to our actual Jobs and Time Reports and you'll notice that there's a Job Progress Invoices Versus Estimates. When I open that report, you'll note that it shows me each of the Estimates for Albert, what the total was and how much that I've billed out to date. Notice on the bottom it gives me the percentage of totals so that I can check them. There are a number of great reports that allow us to track individual items. For instance, back up to Reports, back down to My Jobs and Mileage and this time I'd like to go through maybe Item Estimates Versus Actuals. When I select it, each one of my services and inventory items pop up. This can be a little overwhelming, so let's collapse it for a moment. And we were working with Albert. So let's go to Modify a Report. I'll go back to Filters, go back to Name and, of course, I'm going to choose Albert and say OK. When I do, you will now notice each of the individual items that affect any one of Albert's jobs, what my Estimate was, what my cost was and how I'm doing to date. These reports are invaluable when tracking our actual Progress Invoices. You'll want to study them and find out which work best for you. Again, under the Jobs, Time and Mileage, there's a number of different reports. You'll want to do just as I did with customizing them. If you're unfamiliar with how to modify the reports, of course, just take a tour of the Introduction Video and it will take you through the step-by-steps of how to get the most out of each of these reports.