Contents of the Options Form
Specify how your firm prepares client invoices for billing.
Video: See related video below
Global Billing Options
This section displays only if you use multiple companies.
Field | Description |
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Use Retainers | Use this option to enable the retainer feature, which streamlines the capture of your client’s retainer in your accounting, billing, and reporting systems. You track and apply the retainer to invoices based on your organization’s accounts receivable categories.
After the project has other accounts receivable activity, you can track the amounts applied, and the retainer balance, on the Accounts Receivable Ledger report. The retainer is also included in Current Receipts on the Office Earnings report. |
Use Retainage | Use this option to enable the retainage feature, which allows you to put a portion of the invoice "on hold." Retainage is a percentage of billings contractually withheld on the invoice, which is billed to the client upon the project’s completion. The Billing application withholds the percentage specified in Billing Terms on the total billings or any combination of the six possible components of an invoice: labor, consultants, expenses, fees, units, or add-ons.
After the retainage on the invoice is calculated, Vantagepoint posts and tracks it through Billing, Accounts Receivable, Project Control, and the General Ledger. |
Display Invoice Leading Zeros | Set this option to No if you do not want leading zeros in a billing invoice number to display in certain dialog boxes and reports. With fewer digits displayed, invoice numbers may be easier to read. |
Store PDF of Final Invoice | Use this option to enable or disable the store final billing invoices as PDFs feature. To use this feature, you must have Microsoft's SQL Server's FileStream enabled. If you use the
Vantagepoint Cloud product, the Deltek Cloud Ops Team maintains FileStream for you.
If you set this option to Yes, billing invoices and credit memo invoices are saved to the FileStream database as follows:
This feature allows you to preview and reprint exact copies of the original billing invoice or credit memo invoice at a future date in the following applications:
Aside from previewing and reprinting, you can also email an invoice or credit memo in the following applications: When you void or delete a billing invoice or credit memo invoice, the PDF file that was created for either of them (or the file type of the uploaded invoice) is deleted from the FileStream database. Deleting an invoice or credit memo removes only the ability to preview, reprint, or email it. The invoice posting data is not deleted. When you set this option to No, reprinted invoices and credit memo invoices are regenerated from the data in the Vantagepoint database instead of the PDF of the original invoice (exact copy). If you previously turned on this feature, the invoice and credit memo PDFs and other file types for uploaded invoices remain in the FileStream database and you can continue using them for previewing, reprinting, and emailing. System administrators can view the invoices in PDF Files for Final Billing Invoices. in the desktop application. For more details, see |
<Company Name>
If you track multiple companies in Vantagepoint, the name of the company that you are logged in to displays as the section heading. Enter company-specific invoice settings in this section.
Field | Description |
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Invoice Numbering | Select a method for automatically assigning numbers to invoices and credit memos that you create in Interactive Billing and Batch Billing. The options are:
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Allow Changes to Next Invoice Number | Specify whether or not you want users to be able to change the automatically assigned invoice number for invoices and credit memos in the following locations:
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Next Invoice Number | This field is displayed when you select
Companywide in the
Invoice Numbering field. Enter the next (starting) invoice number to use.
This number prefills in the Next Compamy Invoice Number field on the Billing Session Options dialog box in Interactive Billing or Batch Billing when you create an invoice. When you override the prefilled invoice number on the Billing Session Options dialog box, the Next Invoice Number field on the Options form of the Billing Options form is updated with that invoice number. |
Use Invoice Approvals | Use this option to enable or disable the Invoice Approval feature. This toggle enables/disables the following:
For projects that are set up before the Invoice Approval feature is enabled, you enter invoice approval settings in a project’s billing terms. You can also use the use Search and Replace utility to enter the appropriate approval process for a group of projects. If your firm uses multiple companies, you enable invoice approvals for each company. When you select Yes for this option the Use Markup on Draft Invoices option displays in this section. |
Default Invoice Approval Process | Select the invoice approval process to use for projects that require invoice approvals when the
Approval Process field on the Summary pane in the Billing Terms form in
for a project is not defined.
Although this default approval process is used when no approval process is entered for a project in Billing Terms, it does not prefill in the Approval Process field in a project's billing terms. The default approval process that you enter on the Summary pane of the Default Terms form in prefills in the billing terms for new projects that you create. |
Use Markup on Draft Invoices |
This field displays only if you set Use Invoice Approvals in this section to Yes. When You Set Use Markup on Draft Invoices to Yes Set this option to Yes if you want to give billing invoice approvers the ability to enter annotations and comments directly on a draft invoice that is displayed as a PDF file in Vantagepoint. This is helpful when you don't give approvers the ability to make changes to invoices (changes to the fee percent or the billing status for labor, expense, and unit transaction detail). In this scenario, approvers can mark up the draft invoice PDF to show a biller the invoice changes they want the biller to make before the biller accepts and sends the final invoice to the client. The biller can also enter annotations and comments on the invoice. For example, a biller can add replies to an approver's specific markup and can indicate that they applied the approver's specific edits. The draft invoice PDF file that you can mark up:
Viewing Markup Entered on Draft Invoices for Final Accepted Invoices On the Invoice History tab in Interactive Billing and Draft Invoice Approvals, you can view annotations and comments entered for the draft invoices for final accepted invoices. In the invoice grid, click the icon in the Draft Invoice field. Multiple Companies If your enterprise tracks multiple companies in Vantagepoint, you enable this feature for each company. Files Administration Utility When you turn on the Use Markup on Draft Invoices feature: In View Draft Invoice PDF Files in Files Administration. in the desktop application, an administrator can view, print, or save draft invoice PDF files to another location. For more information, seeVantagepoint uses Microsoft's SQL Server's FileStream and stores the draft invoice PDF files in the Vantagepoint FileStream database. IMPORTANT Information About Turning On This Feature When you turn on the Use Markup on Draft Invoice feature, any draft invoices currently in the approval process will continue without using a draft invoice PDF for marking up. The feature only applies for draft invoices going forward. IMPORTANT Information About Turning Off This Feature If you want to turn off this feature after it has been turned on and PDF files for draft invoices have been created:
When You Set Use Markup on Draft Invoices to No Using markup on draft invoices may not be necessary when you give approvers the ability to make their own changes to invoices (changes to fee percent or the billing status for labor, expense, and unit transaction detail). In this scenario, approvers don't need to show a biller what invoice changes to make since they are making the changes to the invoice themselves. When you don't use markup, approvers and billers can still add comments for draft invoices, but the comments are not made directly on the invoice PDF. Instead, they enter comments in a separate comments pane and dialog box as follows:
Draft Invoice Comments Dialog Box Whether or not you use the markup on draft invoice feature, you can enter comments on the Draft Invoice Comments dialog box that opens automatically when you submit and approve invoices in Interactive Billing and when you approve or reject invoices in Draft Invoice Approvals. You can also access this dialog box at any time for viewing, editing, or entering comments by clicking More in the Draft Invoice Comments field in the Draft Invoice Information section of the General tab in Interactive Billing or Draft Invoice Approvals. The same Draft Invoice Comments dialog box opens from either application and contains the same comments that were entered in either application. |
Print Invoice Number on Draft Invoice | Use this option to specify whether or not you want assigned invoice numbers to print on draft invoices in Interactive or Batch Billing. The invoice number that you enter in the Assign Invoice Number form in Interactive Billing prints on the first page of the invoice, in the header on subsequent invoice pages, and on the Billing Backup report when you generate draft invoices.
<Draft> also prints below the assigned invoice number on the first page of the invoice.
In Interactive Billing, the assigned invoice number also displays when you select Invoice, Edit to edit an invoice in a third-party software application. For an invoice edited outside of Vantagepoint, you must manually delete <Draft> before printing final invoices. |
Use Pre-Invoices | Use this option to enable or disable the Pre-Invoices feature for the active company. This feature allows you to produce a "request for payment" invoice that is not recorded in the general ledger.
When you select this check box, the following are enabled:
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Pre-Invoice Receipt Offset | This field is enabled when you select the Enable Pre-Invoices. Enter or select the general ledger account to credit when cash receipts are posted to pre-invoices. This account must be set up as a balance sheet account or an Other Charges account (type of account). This account is typically a liability account. |
Interactive Billing Session Options
Field | Description |
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Default to Show Non-billables | Specify whether or not to include all non-billable transactions by default on the Labor and Expenses detail tabs in Interactive Billing.
Vantagepoint does not display these items on the invoice.
By default, the detail tabs will show all expense/unit charges (units billed as expenses) posted to reimbursable expense accounts and labor charges posted to any labor code except the non-billable labor code. This feature is useful to find items that may have been posted to the wrong account or labor code. If you select this option, the following transactions appear on the detail tabs in Interactive Billing:
Typically, this feature can be used with fee jobs. By displaying non-billable transactions, you can better estimate the fee amount or the fee percent complete. This option may also help you catch any item that was incorrectly posted for a non-fee project. Deltek recommends enabling this feature. |
Allow Changes to Show Non-billables | Select this check box if you want users to have the ability to change the Show non-billables on detail tabs option on the Billing Session Options dialog box during Interactive Billing. |
Default to Disable Upset Limits | Use this option to specify that you want Vantagepoint to calculate final invoices by default in Interactive and/or Batch Billing without applying any upset limits. This feature is useful if you are using upset limits to budget your projects, but do not bill them in this way. |
Allow Changes to Disable Upset Limits | Use this option to specify that you want users to have the ability to change the
Disable Upset Limits option on the Billing Session Options dialog box.
Use the Disable Upset Limits option if you want to calculate final invoices in Interactive and/or Batch Billing without applying upset limits. This feature is useful if you are using upset limits to budget your projects, but are not required to bill them in this way. |
Batch Billing Options
Field | Description |
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Print Invoices with only AR | Select this option to print an invoice if there are outstanding accounts receivable on file for the project (and no billable detail), and one or more of the
Print AR options in the project’s billing terms is selected.
This feature is used only with Batch Billing (both draft and final). |
Detailed Transactions
Field | Description |
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Release Holds Automatically | Use this option to specify that you want all Held (H) detail items for a project to be changed automatically to Billable (B) when you accept an invoice. |
Non-billable Labor Code | Enter the labor code (for example, A009) or labor code mask (for example, ___9) or use the lookup to specify a labor code that you want Vantagepoint to treat as non-billable. If employees enter this labor code combination on their timesheets, the billing rate for the timesheet line item is 0. |
Enable Effective Dates for Labor Billing Rates | Use this field to establish multiple billing rates that each apply based on a different effective date. This is helpful if you have escalating billing rates that span multiple years for projects.
Select Yes to add an Effective Date field to the following billing rate tables in : Billing Labor Rate Tables, Billing Labor Category Tables, and Billing Labor Override Tables. When you select this check box, the following apply:
After you enable this feature and create rate tables with effective dates, you cannot turn off effective dates for rate tables until you delete all effective dates from existing rate tables. However, it is probably rare that this feature will ever be turned off once turned on. |
Include Add-ons When Reporting at Billing Rates | Select Yes to include add-on fee charges when billing extensions are calculated for project reports at billing rates. This setting lets you include add-ons in the billing extension calculation in postings and in the Refresh Billing Extensions utility. |
Save | Click this button to save changes on the form. |
Video
Title | Description |
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Learn how to set up Billing, including selecting options for preparing and formatting client invoices and tracking revenue and taxes. |