How to generate a pre-bill?

A detailed guide to generating a pre-bill invoice in Synergy

Updated over a week ago

Edition: Professional, Business, Enterprise

User-level: Project Manager, Director, Assistant Administrator, System Administrator

One of the invoice methods available in Synergy is creating an invoice prior to work taking place. This is known as pre-billing. This allows you to create an invoice without any transactions required.

Once the invoice has been issued, you can retrospectively add transactions to the invoice to make up the amount that has been invoiced in advance.


Case 1: No transactions have been entered on the stage

If no transactions have been entered for the project, but you want to invoice your client for an amount, follow these steps:

  1. Select the stage you want to invoice. With no transactions on the stage the billing method will automatically be set to Pre-bill.

  2. Enter how much of the stage fee you want to invoice, either as a percentage of the fee or as an ex-tax dollar value.

Once you Save and Finalise this invoice the system will create a Pre-bill Balance transaction applied to this invoice for the value of the invoice.


Case 2: There are existing WIP transactions on the stage.

If you are creating a pre-bill invoice for a stage that does have transactions on it, you will need to adjust the invoice method for the stage.

After you have selected the stage to be invoiced, click on the stage name to open the stage view. This will show you a list of all the transactions available to invoice on this stage. By default, all transactions will be selected.

You have 3 invoice methods to choose from:

  • Pre-bill - Selecting this method will deselect any transactions and not allow you to select any at all. The stage will be a prebill stage and a pre-bill transaction will be created. The invoice will display the amounts you have entered in either the Invoiced % or the Total ex. Tax fields. You can choose to invoice the WIP transactions later, write them off or attach them to the pre-bill.

  • Mark up/Mark down - This is the default invoice method when you have WIP on the stage. When this method is selected transactions will be marked up or down depending on if you are entering a value greater or lesser than the WIP transaction value.

  • WIP + Pre-bill - With this method your WIP cannot be marked up or marked down. It will be used at charge value. If your invoice value is greater than your WIP transactions value, the remaining balance will be the pre-bill.
    Example: You have WIP amounting to $400 but want to invoice $1000. When you create an invoice with this method, it will create a $1000 invoice using the $400 in WIP and $600 as a prebill.


Tips!

  • A pre-bill invoice can only be created for stages with Fixed Fee or Percent of Contract fee types.

  • You can still only invoice up to the fee cap.


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