Common billing terms

A pass-through cost is billable cost to the client on the invoice without any markups applied.

On a billing rate table, select the Pass Through check box for an item (Setup > Billing Rate Tables > General tab > Labor, Expense, or Consultant subtab).

Billing type

A billing type is the method for handling billing that reflects the contractual agreement with the client.

When you assign one of these billing types to a phase, Ajera reports cost for the phase but does not create work-in-progress (WIP) and spent value for the cost.

Fee-based vs. Time & Expense billing types

In Ajera, fee-based projects or phases are identified with a billing type of Fixed Fee, Percent Complete, Unit Price, or Percent of Construction Cost. With these billing types, the project or phase is contracted to bill for the value of the work performed, not for the actual time and expenses expended.

When setting up and changing invoice formats, you will notice a Fee Type tab and a Time & Expense tab so that you can tailor your invoices to best reflect these different types of billing.

How billing types work

The billing type affects the way the invoice is created in Ajera. A Time & Expense invoice uses the WIP detail to create the invoice amount. A Fixed Fee invoice allows you to enter an amount for that invoice. Percent Complete and Percent of Construction Cost allow you to enter a percent to bill, and Ajera calculates the invoice amount from the entry made.

Ajera prints different information on an invoice depending on the billing type of the project. For example, with a Time & Expense billing type, Ajera prints actual transaction detail. With a fee-based billing type, Ajera prints an amount to bill that may not be based on the actual work performed. An invoice can contain both Time & Expense and fee-based types of billing.

While setting up a project and selectomg a billing type, you indicate the way the client is billed according to the contract. You can change the billing type at any time during the project life cycle (Setup > Projects > Project Info tab > Billing subtab).

It is also common to set up invoice formats, which determine the look and content of client invoices, for different billing types.

Phase groups, billing groups, and invoice groups

Phase groups

A phase group groups phases together so you can subtotal them on project reports.

For example, you may have contracts where phases are being billed as fee, and other phases that are being billed as time and expense. A phase group of the fee-type phases would give a subtotal on your project reports that does not include the Time & Expense phases.

Billing groups

A billing group groups phases together so you can subtotal them or summarize them on a client invoice.

A billing group is similar to a phase group, except it affects the client invoice. A phase group has no effect on the client invoice.

Invoice groups

An invoice group determines how many draft invoices are needed for a project and what phases appear on each invoice.

You see the invoice group only in Manage > Client Invoices, in the Project Command Center on the Snapshot report, and, if you are not using ajeraCore, on the Invoice tab when previewing an invoice.

Make the phase group a billing group

Nonbillable

The term nonbillable appears in Ajera as follows:

As an account type on general ledger accounts Example

As a status for WIP
As a billing type

Nonbillable describes cost directly related to completing a deliverable on a project that you are not getting paid for by the client (either through Time & Expense billing or fee-type billing).

Examples include pro bono work, or work you must redo on a project because of an error.