Invoice Formats

When you initialize the Manage Project Billing Information screen, you must establish billing formats and link them to projects being invoiced. The calculate billings process uses these formats to summarize and format invoice line items.

Costpoint currently supports two types of Billing Formats: Govt 1035 Billing and Generic Billing formats. The 1035 format supports government invoicing format requirements. There are three types of 1035 formats: Cost, T&M, and Govt Form 1443 standard invoices. If you select a 1035 format for a project, no further initialization is necessary. The Govt Form 1443 format should only be selected if your billing formula is Progress Payment.

If Generic Billing formats are needed, you must first initialize them on the Manage Generic Billing Formats screen. This process involves identifying invoice line types (cost, units, hours etc.), and transaction groupings and lines. You also identify line items within primary break or subtotal groups. You link accounts to the lines where the account totals should be included. You can have direct costs shown on the lines alone or the line can include direct costs as well as burden, fee, and cost of money amounts. Additionally, you establish header information and the printing options for T&M and Unit Billing Formats. If burden is separately stated on a separate line, you can suppress the burden rate.

After you have determined Generic Billing formats, you assign them to projects based on billing requirements. Invoice formats are assigned at the billing level of the project. Any detail bills included on the Detail Levels subtask can be printed using the invoice format selected for the billing level if you select the Detail Invoices check box on the Print Standard Bills screen. If the Govt 1035 Billing Format option is selected, the S_BILL_FRMT_TYPE column is updated with a value of "1035" and the Billing Format Code is set to null in the PROJ_BILL_INFO table. You can select a Cost, T&M, or Govt form 1443 formats, and the Government 1035 Type field is updated in the PROJ_BILL_INFO table.

If you select a generic format, the S_BILL_FRMT_TYPE column in the PROJ_BILL_INFO table is updated with a value of GENRIC. The BILL_FRMT_CD column is updated with the generic billing code selected. You must also select the account level to which to costs should roll up. In this situation, Costpoint uses the following predetermined billing format group numbers to group costs:

  • Group 1: Direct Labor
  • Group 2: Other Direct Costs
  • Group 3: Burdens
  • Group 4: Fee
  • Group 5: Cost of Money

Costs are summarized and printed by these groupings at the account level specified. On a standard 1035, no line item detail is identified, with the exception of burden amounts. For burden amounts, costs are grouped by the combination of pool number and sequence number to arrive at line items. The pool and sequence number are concatenated to arrive at a unique line number. For example, three costs pools exist, with pool numbers of 1 (Fringe), 3 (Overhead), and 7 (G&A). The processing sequence number for Fringe is "1," for Overhead is "2," and for G&A "3." The line numbers created on the 1035 are 11, 23, and 37. A line is printed on the invoice for each pool amount, with a subtotal for total indirect costs.

For transactions, accounts at the level specified are identified with labor and non-labor groupings based on the function code assigned in the Account Group Setup table.

If a T&M 1035 format is selected, additional detail is provided for direct labor. Within the Direct Labor format group, additional line detail is generated. Lines are created for each unique combination of labor category and billing rate. For example, assume two labor categories exist for a given project: Project Manager and Senior Engineer. The billing rate for the Senior Engineer has been increased during the period covered by this invoice. Labor costs have been incurred by this labor category under both billing rates. In this situation, three lines will be printed on the invoice. The first contains the hours, billing rate, and billing amount for the Project Manager labor category. The second and third lines identify the hours, billing rates, and billing amounts for hours incurred under each of the billing rates for the Senior Engineer.

If a Generic Billing Format is assigned, then you must enter a format code on the Manage Project Billing Information screen. The billing format code in stored in the BILL_FRMT_CD column in the PROJ_BILL_INFO table. Costs are summarized by the groups and lines identified by that format. Charges at the account level are rolled up to their assigned lines. For groups assigned a Line Type of Cost on the Manage Generic Billing Formats screen, one line prints on the billing for each cost line. For groups assigned a Line Type of Hours, additional breaks occur by labor category and billing rate. For groups assigned a Line Type of Units, breaks occur by CLIN/Catalog, Item, Revision, Price, and Sales Tax Code. So although one line may exist for a given billing format, if a line type of Units or Hours is assigned, multiple lines are printed based on the break groups identified.

If no format group or line number is found for a billable amount, costs are assigned a group of OTHER and a line number of "0."  If you find this problem when you are reviewing your bills on the Manage Standard Bills screen, you can go to the Detail subtask and determine which accounts make up the OTHER line. After you have this information, you can change your Generic Billing format to include the missing accounts.

When billings are computed, billing line and format information is stored in the Billing Edit Detail table. The program looks at the project and account to which transactions were charged. It then looks at the billing format that corresponds to the format code stored on the Manage Project Billing Information table. It identifies the group, line number, and line type assigned to the account to which transactions were charged. The group, line number, and line type assigned to the account charged are stored in the Billing Edit Detail table for each billable amount. The group and line label are also stored. This facilitates recreation of an invoice, in that transactions previously billed and stored in Billing Detail History can be summarized by these fields.