What Happens After Conversion?

The actual conversion of time to money takes places when the labor item is approved and posted. Approve & Post is the last step where a user can make changes to time entry settings that affect the conversion of time to money (security level permission is required). After the conversion has taken place, the monetary values flow through several other areas of Autotask. This following sections describe these areas.

Un-Posts and Adjustments

Once a labor item has been approved and posted, that item can no longer be edited. If you need to modify the labor item, you have 2 options:

Un-Post

Un-posting a labor item effectively reverses or "un-does" the approve and post action. The item will become editable and will need to be approved and posted again before it can be invoiced. There will be no record of the original approve and post transaction. Un-Post is the recommended workflow when a labor item is posted erroneously or when there was an issue with the labor item itself (it had the wrong rate, wrong number of hours, it was applied to the wrong contract, etc.).

Adjustment

Adjusting a posted labor item creates a credit (or debit) transaction that cancels or modifies all or part of the original posted transaction. A separate line item is created for the adjustment and it will display on the next invoice you create for that customer.

NOTE  If the original transaction has not been invoiced yet, the adjustment will appear on the same invoice as the original transaction; if the original transaction has been invoiced, the adjustment will appear on the next invoice created for the customer.

Adjustments can be in terms of money (amount) or hours (for block hour contract labor). Adjustments are recommended for situations where you need to credit or debit a customer, but still keep track of the original transaction. For example:

  • A customer calls to complain that he was over-charged. In this case, you could create a credit transaction to refund some of his money.
  • A customer calls to complain that the work performed on the block hour contract took longer than it should have. In this case, you could create a credit transaction to give back some of the hours so they can be used on future labor items on that block hour contract.
  • After sending the original invoice, you realize that you didn’t charge the customer enough for your services. In this case, you could create a debit transaction.
  • After sending the original invoice, you realize that you didn’t deduct enough hours from the customer’s block hour contract. In this case, you could create a debit transaction, which would result in additional hour(s) being deducted from the block.

NOTE  From the Adjustments screen, you can also move a time entry from its current block/retainer purchase to another block/retainer purchase, from its current block/retainer purchase to a non-block deduction (bill at the role rate), or from a non-block deduction to a block/retainer purchase.

Invoicing

Once an item has been approved and posted, it will be available for invoicing. There are a few different ways to create an invoice in Autotask:

Items to Invoice

The Items to Invoice screen ( > Contracts > Invoices & Adjustments > Invoicing/Items to Invoice) is the primary place from which users can create invoices.

Ticket page > Tools > Invoice Now:

If you are viewing the Ticket page and you want to quickly create an invoice for the labor and cost items on the ticket that have not already been invoiced, you can use the Invoice Now feature. This feature will approve and post all labor and charges that are associated with the ticket that have not been approved and posted, and then it will create an invoice for those items. This workflow can be useful for walk-in service desk work, where you need to create a quick invoice or receipt for the customer.

NOTE  Invoice Now requires the security level permission "Can create invoices from Ticket and Won Quote Wizard".

Items that may not appear on invoices

There are some items that are not eligible to appear on invoices and are not included in the totals displayed on the Items to Invoice page.

  • Labor with a non-billable work type (unless the time entry is set to “Show on Invoice”)
  • Ticket, Project, and Contract Charges that are not billable to the customer

There are labor items that do not normally appear on an invoice but can appear if the invoice template is configured to show them. The invoice Billable Amount shows as "Covered by Contract".

  • Labor items on a recurring service contract
  • Labor items on a fixed price contract

Invoicing via Third Party Accounting Software

Autotask also provides options for users who prefer to use a third party accounting software for invoicing.

Autotask QuickBooks Extension

Autotask provides two options for users who prefer to invoice through Intuit's QuickBooks. The Autotask QuickBooks Extension for desktop allows you to export your billing items from Autotask and invoice them through QuickBooks. A separate integration is available for those using the English version of QuickBooks Online.

Export Wizard

Once an item has been approved and posted, it will be available for exporting via the Export Wizard ( > Contracts > Tools / Setup > Export Wizard). Once data is exported, it can be imported into a third party accounting system.

Files can be exported in any of the following formats:

  • Comma-separated (.csv)
  • Extensible Markup Language (XML) posted to a URL: the XML data will be posted to a URL, and Sage accounting systems (Sage Line 50 and Sage Line 200) can retrieve the data from this URL

Generic XML Export

Data for invoices that have been created in Autotask can be exported in XML format. This is done from the Invoice History page ( > Contracts > Invoices & Adjustments > Invoice History). Once exported, the invoice data can be imported into a third party accounting system.