Time and materials billing is a billing method where a client is charged for the actual billable time worked and the actual billable expenses or materials used on a project.
In Project Insight, teams can support time and materials billing by capturing billable time and billable expenses on a project, creating an invoice record from those entries, and pushing the invoice to QuickBooks Online for accounting and payment processing. Project Insight also helps prevent duplicate billing because time entries that have already been added to an invoice line are no longer available to be added to another invoice.
What does time and materials billing mean?
Time and materials billing means the invoice is based on actual project activity instead of one fixed project price.
The “time” portion usually includes billable hours worked by team members, consultants, developers, or other resources.
The “materials” portion usually includes billable expenses or charges related to the project, such as travel, supplies, reimbursable costs, or other expense types your organization tracks.
For example, a time and materials invoice may include:
- Development hours
- Consulting hours
- Travel expenses
- Site visit charges
- Other billable project expenses
This billing method is often used when the project scope may change, when work is billed as it is completed, or when clients need invoices based on actual time and expenses.
How does Project Insight support time and materials billing?
Project Insight allows teams to capture billable time and billable expenses directly on a project. Those billable values can then be reviewed and added to an invoice record.
From the project, users can open Invoice Records and Proposals and create a new invoice record. Once the invoice record is created, billable time and expenses can be added as invoice lines.
This allows teams to build an invoice from real project activity instead of manually recreating project charges in a separate spreadsheet or accounting system.
How do you review billable time and expenses on a project?
Before creating a time and materials invoice record, review the project for billable values.
For example, users can add columns such as Billable Hours and Billable Total to the work breakdown structure. This helps show whether the project has billable time or billable expenses that still need to be handled.
Reviewing these values first helps teams confirm what should be included before creating the invoice record.
How do you create a time and materials invoice record?
To create a time and materials invoice record from a project:
- Open the project.
- Go to Invoice Records and Proposals.
- Select + Invoice Record.
- Enter the needed invoice record details.
- Add billable time entries.
- Add billable expense entries.
- Review the invoice lines.
- Save the invoice record.
- Push the invoice to QuickBooks Online when ready.
The invoice record can be created ad hoc, which means it does not have to come from a fixed billing schedule. Users can create the invoice when they are ready to bill selected time and expenses.
How do you add billable time to an invoice record?
From the invoice record, select + Time to add billable time.
Users can search and filter time entries before adding them to the invoice. For example, time entries can be filtered by resource, date, or other available criteria.
Once the correct time entries are selected, Project Insight can calculate the invoice line from those time entries. Users can add a description for the invoice line, such as development billing, consulting work, or progress billing.
Project Insight also allows calculation options to be adjusted. Depending on the billing need, users may calculate from time entries, use a fixed total, or adjust quantity, total, and rate values.
How does Project Insight help prevent duplicate billing?
Project Insight helps prevent the same time from being billed twice.
Once time entries are added to an invoice line, those time entries are no longer available to be added to another invoice. This helps teams avoid accidentally billing the same time entry more than once.
If a time entry needs to be changed before the invoice is finalized, users can remove it from the invoice line and search for other entries.
How do you add expenses to a time and materials invoice?
Expenses can be added to the invoice record in a similar way to time.
From the invoice record, users can add an expense line and select the appropriate billable expenses. For example, a project may include travel charges or other reimbursable expenses.
Expense charge types can match charge types in an accounting system such as QuickBooks Online. This helps keep project billing details aligned with accounting categories.
Can invoice lines be grouped?
Yes. Project Insight allows users to bulk add time or expense line items and group them in different ways.
For example, time can be grouped as:
- One line per time entry
- One line per person
- One line per time code
- One line per resource type
This gives teams flexibility in how much detail appears on the invoice record. Some clients may need detailed line-by-line billing, while others may prefer summarized billing by person, role, or type of work.
Can time entry descriptions be included on invoice lines?
Yes. Project Insight supports concatenation rules that can bring time entry descriptions into invoice line descriptions.
For example, if time entries include descriptions of the work performed, those descriptions can be added to the invoice line. This can help provide more context for the client and reduce the need to manually rewrite billing descriptions.
Can Project Insight send time and materials invoices to QuickBooks Online?
Yes. After billable time and expenses are added to an invoice record in Project Insight, the invoice can be pushed to QuickBooks Online.
This allows project teams to build the invoice from actual project work in Project Insight while keeping accounting and payment processing connected through QuickBooks Online.
Why use Project Insight for time and materials billing?
Using Project Insight for time and materials billing helps teams connect project work, time tracking, expenses, and accounting.
Instead of manually gathering hours and expenses from different places, teams can create invoice records from the billable project data already captured in Project Insight.
This helps teams:
- Bill from actual project time and expenses
- Reduce manual invoice preparation
- Avoid duplicate billing of time entries
- Group invoice lines based on client or accounting needs
- Keep project billing connected to QuickBooks Online
- Maintain better visibility into what has and has not been billed
Frequently asked questions
What is time and materials billing?
Time and materials billing is a billing method where a client is charged for actual billable hours worked and actual billable expenses or materials used on a project.
Does Project Insight support time and materials billing?
Yes. Project Insight supports time and materials billing by allowing teams to create invoice records from billable project time and expenses.
Can Project Insight create invoice records from time entries?
Yes. Users can select billable time entries from a project and add them to an invoice record. Project Insight can calculate invoice lines from those selected time entries.
Can Project Insight add expenses to an invoice record?
Yes. Billable expenses, such as travel or other project charges, can be added to an invoice record.
Can Project Insight prevent the same time entry from being billed twice?
Yes. Once time entries are added to an invoice line, they are no longer available to be added to another invoice.
Can invoice lines be grouped?
Yes. Time invoice lines can be grouped by time entry, person, time code, resource type, or other available grouping options.
Can Project Insight push invoices to QuickBooks Online?
Yes. Invoice records can be pushed to QuickBooks Online for accounting and payment processing.
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