Expense Tab of the Interactive Billing Form

Use this tab to view and select the expense charges to bill on the next invoice for the selected project. You can also choose to hold, write off, delete, modify, or transfer expense charges.

Contents

Expenses Grid

Each row in the grid contains an expense charge (transaction) that was entered through expense reports in My Stuff, AP Vouchers, AP Disbursements, Cash Disbursements, Employee Expenses, Miscellaneous Expenses, Prints and Reproductions, and Journal Entries in Transaction Center, or billing expense inserts in Interactive Billing for the selected project.

The transactions that display in the Expenses grid are based on the settings that you select on the Billing Session Options dialog box. You can display transactions based on bill-through dates or a bill-through period. You can select whether or not to include non-billable transactions in the grid or whether or not to display all data for all WBS levels of a project.

Review all the expense transactions in the grid and determine which ones to include on the next invoice for the billing session. Select an expense transaction in the grid by clicking the check box at the beginning of its row. Then click one of the action items (Bill, Hold, Write-off, and so on) in the grid actions bar.

Billing Expense Inserts

To add a new expense charge to bill, click + Add Billing Expense below the grid. This opens the Billing Expense Insert dialog box where you enter the information for the new expense charge. This inserts an expense transaction for billing purposes only. No cost entries are made to your general ledger. A common example of using a billing insert is when you want to bill a client for a consultant expense before you receive the accounts payable invoice from the consultant. Later, when you receive the AP invoice from the consultant and you enter it as an AP voucher in the Transaction Center, be sure to select the Suppress Bill option for the transaction, so that the transaction is not double billed. This applies the expense to project costing without adding the expense to bill again in the Billing application.

Expenses Grid Toolbar Options

Field	Description
Summary	Click this option to open the Billing Expense Summary dialog box. On the dialog box, you can view a summary of the total cost and billing extension amounts for unbilled expense transactions, grouped by their billing status: Bill, Hold, Write-Off, or Delete.
	Click this icon to expand the grid to a full screen display. This expanded view reduces the need to scroll through long lists of records. Click this icon again to return to a standard grid display. For more information, see Maximize the Grid View.
	Click this icon to add, remove, or change the order of columns in the grid. The columns available for the grid include both standard fields and user-defined fields that are used in the corresponding Vantagepoint application area. For more information, see Select Columns for a Grid.
	Click this icon to export the grid contents to a comma-separated values (.csv) file. Expand the WBS structure that you want to include prior to clicking the Export icon. For more information, see Exporting Data to a .csv File.
	Click this icon to display the column filter options. Use the filter options to restrict the grid contents. For more information, see Filter the Grid Results.

Expense Grid Actions Bar

Select one or more expense transaction in the grid by clicking the check box at the beginning of a transaction's row. Then click an action in the actions bar below the grid toolbar to apply that action to the selected expense transactions. Using these actions allows you to change the status of an expense transaction or a portion of it or modify or transfer a transaction.

To use these actions, your security role must give you access to the actions. These security settings are in Settings > Security > Roles on the Accounting tab in the Billing Security: Interactive Billing and Invoice Approvals section.

Field	Description
Bill	Click this action to change the status in the Status field for one or more selected expense transactions from Hold, Write-off, or Delete to Bill. A Bill status indicates that the expense transaction will be added to the next invoice. When you select one expense transaction in the grid and click the Bill action, the Bill Expense Release dialog box displays for the transaction. If you want to bill only part of the transaction's amount in the next invoice for the project, change the number in the Amount field, and enter the amount to bill. When you return to the Expenses grid, the original transaction has been split in two. One transaction has the amount to bill with a Bill status. The other transaction has the remaining amount to bill later and has the status that the original transaction had before the split. You can select more than one expense transaction in the Expenses grid and then click Bill to change the status of all of them to Bill at one time. The full amount for all the transactions will be billed. The Bill Expense Release dialog box does not display. For the Bill Expense Release dialog box to display, you must select only one expense transaction in the grid before you click Bill.
Hold	Click this action to prevent the selected transaction or a portion of it from being billed on the next invoice. In the Billing Expense Hold dialog box that displays, specify the amount that you want to hold back from being billed. You can take the hold off the transaction when you are ready to bill it. The Hold action is enabled when you select a expense transaction that has a status other than Hold in the Status field.
Write-off	Click this action to write off all or a portion of the selected transaction. In the Billing Expense Write-off dialog box that displays, specify all or part of the transaction's total number of regular, overtime, or overtime-2 hours that you will not add to any billing invoice. The transaction (or a portion of it) is removed from the Expenses grid when you final accept the next invoice. The written-off transaction still exists as posted for project control and other accounting purposes, but it is marked in the database as written off for billing purposes. The Write-off action is enabled when you select an expense transaction that has a status other than Write-off in the Status field.
Delete	Click this action to delete all or part of the selected transaction. In the Billing Expense Delete dialog box that opens, specify all or part of the transaction's amount that you do not want to bill on any invoice. When a transaction's status is changed to Delete, it is removed from the set of billable transactions and the Expenses grid when you final accept the next invoice. The transaction is not actually deleted from the Vantagepoint database. It is only removed as a billable transaction in Interactive Billing. The transaction still exists as posted for project control and other accounting purposes. This allows you to run reports that distinguish between write-off transactions (amount charged but cannot be billed) and transactions that were entered but removed before invoicing, possibly due to a data entry error. The Delete action is enabled when you select an expense transaction that has a status other than Delete in the Status field.
Modify	Click this action to modify certain details for the selected transaction. In the Billing Expense Modify dialog box you can change information, such as the transaction date, description, amount, and tax code overrides. The changes you make are not posted to the general ledger the project. The changes affect only the billing invoice.
Transfer	Click this action to transfer (reclassify) transactions within the same project, phase, or task or transfer transactions to another project, phase, or task. In the Billing Expense Transfer dialog box for the transaction, enter the transfer information.

Expenses Grid Fields

You determine the fields (columns) that display in the grid by clicking on the grid toolbar. For more information see the help topic: Select Columns for a Grid.

The following is a list of all possible fields that you can include in the grid:

Field	Description
Check Box Icon	Select this check box at the beginning of a transaction's row to select the transaction, and then click an action (Bill, Hold, Write-off, and so on) above the grid. For Bill, Hold, Write-off, and Delete, you can select multiple transactions to apply the action to. For Modify and Transfer, you can select only an individual transaction to apply the action to.
Invoice Status	If invoice approval is enabled for the project, this field displays the approval status for the transaction: Submitted, Approved, or Rejected: The transaction was linked to the invoice at the time it was submitted for approval. Its approval status in this field is the same as the current approval status of the invoice. New: Based on the billing session options for the invoice, the transaction is eligible to be included on the invoice, but either the invoice has not yet been submitted for approval, or the transaction was not linked to the invoice at the time it was submitted for approval. For example, a transaction that was transferred to the project after the invoice was submitted would have New in Invoice Status. If the invoice has been submitted, a transaction with New in Invoice Status will not be included on the invoice. If you want to include all transactions with New in Invoice Status on a submitted or approved invoice, click Invoice on the Interactive Approvals toolbar and click Include New Transactions on the menu.
Status	The status determines whether or not the expense will be included on the next invoice. Select one of the following statuses: Bill: Include this transaction on the next billing invoice. Hold: Save the transaction for billing at a later date. Write-off: Write off the transaction amount and do not bill it. This prevents the transaction from being billed, but allows the amount to appear on reports. When you write-off a transaction, no accounting entries are made. Delete: Remove the expense transaction from the set of billable transactions. Changing the status to Delete does not actually delete the transaction from the Vantagepoint database. It only removes it from Interactive Billing. The transaction still exists as posted for project control and other accounting purposes. The status of Delete allows you to run reports that distinguish between write-offs (charged amounts that cannot be billed) and a transaction that was entered but removed before invoicing, possibly due to a data entry error. Transactions with a status of Hold, Write-off, or Delete can be changed to Bill. The options that are available in this field depend on your security role's access rights as set in the Billing Security area of the Accounting tab of Role Security. For example, if you belong to a role with Allow Delete selected, the Delete option is available in the Status field.
Billable	This field indicates whether a transaction is billable. A transaction is generally not billable if you post it to a direct expense account (by default, 600-level account). You can only view non-billable transactions if you selected the Show Non-billables on Detail Tabs check box on the Billing Session Options dialog box in Interactive Billing.
Date	Vantagepoint displays the date associated with the expense charge as entered in Expense Reports, Transaction Entry, or Interactive Billing as a billing expense insert.
Phase	If you select to view the project level from the Phase/Task lookup for a project with phases, all of that project's phases display in the grid. The phase number displays in the Phase column, and all detail that corresponds to that phase displays in that row. You can also choose to select a particular phase from the Phase/Task lookup to view just the detail for that phase and any associated tasks in the grid.
Phase Name	I f a transaction has a phase, this field displays the name of the phase.
Task	If you select the project or phase level from the Phase/Task lookup for a project with tasks, all of the tasks for that project or phase display in the grid. The task number displays in the Task column, and all detail that corresponds to that task displays in that row. You can also choose to select a particular task from the Phase/Task lookup to view just the detail for that task.
Task Name	If the a transaction has a task, this field displays the name of the task.
Account	This field indicates the expense account to which this expense was charged. This account is the account to which the charge was posted during transaction entry, or the account you specify or on a Billing Expense insert. This field can only contain an expense account. This account is by default a 500-level account in the Standard Chart of Accounts. If the account is incorrect, you can perform a Billing Transfer to charge the transaction to the appropriate account.
Account Name	This field displays the account name for the expense account to which this expense was charged.
Transaction Type	This field displays the type of the transaction, such as EX (expense from an employee expense report in My Stuff or Transaction Entry), MI (Miscellaneous Expense), AP (AP Voucher), and JE (for billing expense inserts).
Reference Number	This field displays the reference number (often the invoice number) for this transaction as entered through transaction entry or on a billing expense insert. Leading zeros always display in the invoice number in this grid if your firm uses leading zeros.
Additional Description	T his field displays the additional description entered for a billing expense insert.
Description	If you entered a description for this expense charge in transaction entry or on a billing expense insert, it appears here.
Amount	This field displays the cost amount for this expense charge.
Invoice Amount	This field displays the amount to include on the current invoice for time and material billing, not fee-based billing. The column displays an amount if the row has the Status field set to Bill and the Billable check box is selected. If a draft invoice exists that is submitted or approved (indicated in the Invoice Status field), the Invoice Amount field displays the value for the submitted or approved transactions. If a draft invoice does not exist, this field displays a value for new transactions, so you can see the value for billable transactions before an invoice is submitted. The amount in the Invoice Amount field matches the amount displayed on the invoice.
Billing Extension	This field displays the billing value of the expense transaction based on the current billing terms for the project. For fee-based invoices, it displays the billing value for unbilled transactions at reporting rates if the Rates for Reporting (Not Invoicing) check box is selected in the Expenses section on the Rates tab in Billing Terms for project.
Document	When the expense charge has no supporting documents, displays in this field. Click the icon to open the Supporting Document dialog box and upload supporting documents for the expense charge. You can also view the contents of the supporting documents and choose whether or not to print each of them with the next invoice. When the expense charge has supporting documents entered for it (entered for the original transaction, such as for an AP voucher or expense report or entered directly in Interactive Billing), displays in this field. Click the icon to open the Supporting Document dialog box and view the supporting documents, upload additional documents, and select whether or not to print each document with the next invoice. You can upload files only if your security role has the Allow Changes to Supporting Documents check box selected in the Billing Security: Interactive Billing and Invoice Approvals section on the Accounting tab in Settings > Security > Roles. For transaction types that cannot have supporting documents, the Document field is empty and does not apply. If you use the Vantagepoint on-premises product, this field displays only if you have configured the Transaction Document Management feature. For more information see Transaction Document Management.
Tax Code Override 1	This field displays the tax code override 1 entry made for this transaction on the Billing Expense Transfer dialog box or the Billing Expense Modify dialog box.
Tax Code Override 2	This field displays the tax code override 2 entry made for this transaction on the Billing Expense Transfer dialog box or the Billing Expense Modify dialog box.