Billed

Term Definition
Billed indicates that resources have been invoiced to the client. Work that has been performed for a project is then billed to the client. A statement of fees is presented with the expectation that payment will be made.

Small organizations may use spreadsheets or simple accounting software to bill clients. One person may be assigned the billing task and it is their responsibility to gather information related to billable resources, prepare and send the invoice to the client. Once an invoice is submitted to the client it would be marked as billed and then tracked for payment. The payment would then be posted to the account and the invoice closed.

Small to mid-sized companies use spreadsheets to track work, expenses, and leave time. The information is then re-entered or manually imported from spreadsheet files into the company's accounting, payroll and project systems. This process is highly error prone and can result in significant payroll and billing errors and lost or duplicate entries. Consolidating this kind of data later frequently results in conflicts and errors that are often difficult to identify or address. A time tracking software that is integrated with your accounting system and provides point of entry data validation, policy-based approval, and notification setup will eliminate such errors. Studies have shown that eliminating duplicate systems, manual processes and entry/approval errors can save you up to 3% of total payroll costs and increase your billable hours by as much as 4%.

In larger organizations, the accounting process may be integrated with time and billing software, facilitating the process of invoicing clients and tracking payments. Time and billing software can eliminate redundancy, reduce errors and maximize productivity.

Time and billing software enables clients to set billing rules, such as cost plus, or split billing. It may include transaction and item cost/billing, permit automated billing of non-time-related items such as project overhead, bonuses, interest charges, discounts, subscriptions, licenses and equipment sold or material used. This allows billable charges to be included in an invoice or chargeback.

Area of Application
Cost Accounting
Project Accounting

Related Terms
Time and Billing
Time and Expense
Time and Material

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