Contents of the Billing Groups Form

Use fields and options on the form to specify a main project and other elements of the billing group.

Fields

Field Description
Main Project Select the main project for this billing group. This project can be any project that has billing terms defined.

If your firm uses the Multicompany feature, you can select any project that your company owns (via the organization structure). Your company then controls invoicing for the entire billing group, even if some of the sub-projects are owned by other companies in your enterprise.

Consolidate Printing Select this option to consolidate all sub-projects in a billing group when printing the invoice. When you consolidate printing, the main project’s billing terms are used to calculate the invoice, and separate terms for the sub-projects are suppressed.
  • You must select the Consolidate Printing option if you are posting billing phase fees for a project that is in a billing group.
  • If you do not select Consolidate Printing but you do select Separate Terms, Vision uses each project’s billing terms to calculate the invoice. If no billing terms are specified for the project, no invoice is calculated.
  • If you select neither Consolidate Printing nor Separate Terms, Vision calculates the invoice using the billing terms of the billing group’s main project. If the main project has sub-projects, phases, or tasks, the invoice displays amounts at those levels.
  • If you select Consolidate Printing, the Print AR By, Print Billed-to-Date By, Print Interest By, Print Tax By, and Print Retainer By options are set to Group and cannot be changed.
Separate Terms Select this option to generate the invoice using the terms established for the individual projects making up the group. If terms are not established for individual projects, Vision uses the main project’s billing terms.
  • Select this option to list labor and expense amounts separately for each sub-project on the invoice.
  • Selecting this option has no impact on where the retainer prints if the Print Retainer by option is set to Group.
Consolidate All Posting Select this option if you want to consolidate the posting of revenue and accounts receivable invoice amounts to the main project. If you do not select this option, Vision posts revenue and accounts receivable amounts to the corresponding projects.
Consolidate Tax Posting If you are maintaining separate balance sheets by organization, it may be useful to consolidate tax postings:
  • When tax posting is consolidated in a multicompany system, all tax liability posts to the credit account assigned to the tax code of the main project’s company.
  • When tax posting is consolidated in a single company system, all tax liability posts to the credit account assigned to the tax code and the organization of the main company.
Overall Limit for Group Select this option to use the overall upset limit from the main project’s billing terms as the upset limit for the entire group. The limit will print at the end of the invoice.

If you do not select this option, you can specify upset limits for each project in the billing group. These upset limits are defined on the Misc tab of the sub-project’s Billing Terms form, and are only applied to the specific sub-project.

Print AR By Select an option to determine how accounts receivable amounts display on the invoice. Options are:
  • Group: Print outstanding accounts receivable charges on the invoice for the entire billing group. This option prints outstanding accounts receivable charges at the end of the invoice, consolidated for the entire billing group. If Consolidate Printing is selected, you must select Group.
  • Project: Print outstanding accounts receivable charges on the invoice separately for each project.
Print Billed-to-Date By Select an option to determine how billed-to-date amounts display on the invoice. Options are:
  • Group: Print billed-to-date amounts on the invoice for the entire billing group. This option prints outstanding billed-to-date amounts at the end of the invoice, consolidated for the entire billing group. If Consolidate Printing is selected, you must select Group.
  • Project: Print billed-to-date amounts on the invoice separately for each project.
Print Interest By Select an option to determine how interest charges display on the invoice. Options are:
  • Group: Print interest charges on the invoice for the entire billing group. This option prints outstanding interest charges at the end of the invoice, consolidated for the entire billing group. If Consolidate Printing is selected, you must select Group. When this option is selected, interest must be defined on the main project’s Billing Terms form. Interest defined on the Billing Terms forms of other projects in the group is ignored.
  • Project: Print interest charges on the invoice separately for each project.
Print Tax By If you print tax by project and select Separate Terms, the taxes defined for each project are calculated and printed on the invoice for each project.

If you print tax by project and do not select Separate Terms, the taxes assigned to the main project are calculated and printed for each project.

Multicompany

If your firm uses the Multicompany feature and consolidates posting, special guidelines apply.

If a billing group has the following characteristics, then taxes defined for each project are calculated:

  • Projects with components that belong to multiple companies.
  • Taxes calculated, and all posting or tax posting consolidated
  • Separate terms
  • Taxes printed by project.

Verify that the liability accounts assigned to the tax codes being calculated are available to all companies. If the liability account is not available to the company being consolidated to, Vision posts the tax credit to the main company’s fee revenue account and includes the tax amount in uninvoiced revenue and unbilled services postings.

Example

Billing Group:

Project 123, owned by Company A

  • Company A has tax code ABC set to post to account 250.
  • Account 260 isn’t available to Company A.

Project 456, owned by Company B

  • Company B has tax code XYZ set to post to account 260.
  • Account 250 isn’t available to Company B.

Both ABC and XYZ taxes are calculated on the respective projects. The tax calculated on Project 456 posts to the fee revenue account of Company A.

If your firm uses the Multicompany feature and does not consolidate posting, special guidelines apply.

If a billing group has the following characteristics, then taxes defined for the main project are calculated:

  • Projects with components that belong to multiple companies.
  • Taxes calculated and posting inot consolidated.
  • Using separate terms and Printing tax by Group OR.
  • Not using separate terms.

Be sure that the liability accounts assigned to those tax codes are available to all companies. If the liability account is not available to the company, Vision posts the tax credit to the company’s fee revenue account and includes the tax amount in uninvoiced revenue and unbilled services postings.

Example

Billing Group:

Project 123, owned by Company A:

  • Company A has tax code ABC set to post to account 250.

Project 456, owned by Company B

  • Company B has tax code XYZ set to post to account 260.
  • Account 250 isn’t available for Company B.

If ABC taxes from the main project are set up to calculate for all projects, the tax calculated on Project 456 posts to the fee revenue account of Company B.

Print Retainage By Select an option to determine how retainage displays on the invoice:
  • Group: Print retainage on the invoice for the entire billing group. This option prints retainage at the end of the invoice, consolidated for the entire project group. If Consolidate Printing is selected, you must select Group. When this option is selected, retainage must be defined on the main project’s Billing Terms form. Retainage defined on the Billing Terms forms of other projects in the group is ignored.
  • Project: Print retainage on the invoice separately for each project.
Print retainer by Select an option to choose how a retainer displays on the invoice:
  • Group: This option prints the retainer at the end of the invoice, consolidated for the entire project group. Retainers post to the lowest WBS level displayed on the invoice with billing terms defined for the main project in the billing group. If Consolidate Printing is selected, you must select Group. When this option is selected, the retainer must be defined on the main project’s Billing Terms form. A Retainer defined on the Billing Terms forms of other projects in the group is ignored.

    If a project has multiple WBS levels and this option is selected, only retainer amounts defined at the project level (WBS 1) print at the end of the invoice. If a retainer amount is defined for a phase (WBS 2) or task (WBS 3), even if Group is selected here, the retainer amounts for those lower levels print on the invoice sections for the corresponding phase or task.

  • Project: Print the retainer after the project where the retainer was entered. Retainers post to the last WBS level displayed on the invoice with billing terms defined for the project where the retainer was entered, or to the main project if Consolidate Posting is selected.
    • If Separate Terms is not selected, and Project is selected, the retainer prints only if the project in which a retainer was defined is the main project in the billing group.
    • If Separate Terms is selected and Project is selected, retainer amounts display on the invoice after each project where retainer amounts are defined, regardless of whether or not the project is the main project.

Sub-Project Grid

Field Description
Billing Groups Drop-down

Click the drop-down arrow on a grid header to complete any of the following actions:

  • To print grid data, click Print. On the Print Preview form, click File > Print to send the grid data to your default printer.
  • To export grid data to an Excel spreadsheet, click Export to Excel. When Microsoft Excel opens, use its features to modify, print, or email the grid data, or to save the spreadsheet file locally.
  • To turn on grouping for a grid, click Enable Grouping. When a field displays with the instruction: "Drag a column header here to group by that column," drag and drop column headers into the field, in the sequence that you want them to display.

Not all options are available on all grids.

Insert Click this option to add a sub-project to the billing group. When you click this option, the Project lookup displays. Select a project from the list.
Delete Click this option to delete a sub-project from the billing group.
Sub Project Vision displays the project numbers of the sub-projects that belong to the billing group.

If you use the Multicompany feature and your company owns the main project for the billing group (via organization codes), you invoice all the sub-projects as well. This is true even if one or more sub-projects are owned by other companies in your enterprise.

Conversely, if your company owns a sub-project but not the main project, the company owning the main project invoices all sub-projects in the billing group, including yours.

Parent Topic: Billing Groups Form