Purchase orders, bills and invoices on the budget
Put a project on a purchase order and it is committed on that project's budget when confirmed. Its vendor bill turns the commitment into actual cost, and customer invoices with the project count as revenue.
PLANSScale only
The problem it solves
- A licence or a piece of equipment is ordered, and the project budget does not show it until the bill is paid.
- The same cost is counted twice: once as the order and again as the bill.
- Bills and invoices sit in accounting with no link to the project, so its margin is a guess.
- An order goes over budget and nobody sees it before it is sent to the supplier.
How it works
- On a purchase order, choose the Project and the Budget Category (Software and Services to start with).
- Confirm the order. What is left on the budget line is checked first: it warns and notes it on the order, or blocks it, as your setting says.
- Confirmed, its amount before tax is committed on the line.
- The vendor bill made from the order carries the project and category. Posted, it becomes actual cost, and the order's commitment goes down by the bill's amount.
- A customer invoice with the project, posted, is revenue on the project's ledger and on Profitability.
- Cancel the order, or set a bill back to draft, and its rows come off the budget.
Everything it does
Purchase orders
- Project and Budget Category in the order header, set while the order is a draft
- Confirming checks the line's available amount against the order's untaxed total
- Committed once, in the project's currency (converted from the order's currency)
- Cancelling releases what is still committed
- A project's budget line is found by the category, else by the cost type Purchases
Vendor bills
- Project and Budget Category in the bill header, while it is a draft
- Posted: its untaxed amount is actual cost; a credit note lowers it
- A bill from an order releases that order's commitment by the billed amount, never below zero
- A bill with a project and no order is actual cost on its category, Purchases when empty
- Bills made from a project expense are skipped, since the expense is already the cost
- Subcontractor bills post to the Subcontracts and Freelancers line by themselves
Customer invoices
- Project in the invoice header, while it is a draft
- Posted: its untaxed amount is revenue; a credit note lowers it
- Invoices made from payment milestones carry the project by themselves
- Invoices from billing runs do not carry the project yet: set it on the draft invoice before posting
Corrections by hand
- A Projects Administrator can add a ledger row and link a confirmed purchase order, or a posted bill, invoice or credit note
- Linking fills the reference, the untaxed amount, the date and the kind
- A document is on a project's ledger once; when it later posts by itself, its own row replaces the one by hand
Where you see it
- The budget's committed, actual and available per line, and the Budget Ledger with the source of each row
- Purchase order and invoice lists can be filtered by project
- Profitability reads the same rows: revenue, cost and what is still committed
Who uses it
Buyer or office staffPuts the project and category on the purchase order and confirms it.
AccountantPosts the vendor bills and customer invoices with the project, and credit notes when needed.
Project managerSees the order committed and the bill spent on the budget, and gets the alerts.
Projects AdministratorLinks a document by hand when it was made without the project.
Where you use it
- Web: Purchase > Orders, and Accounting > Vendors > Bills and Customers > Invoices (Project and Budget Category in the header)
- Projects > Money > Budgets > Budgets and Budget Ledger
- Projects > Reporting > Profitability
What you control
Settings
- Budget Category on each order or bill: Software and Services on orders to start with
- When a cost goes over: Off, Warn (to start with) or Block, per entity
- Alert at (%): 80 to start with
Approvals
- Budgets and budget changes go through approval; purchase orders, bills and invoices follow your accounting's own steps
Notifications
- Project Budget Alert: to the project manager when an order or bill takes a line to the alert % or over 100 %. It goes in the app and by email
Questions
Is tax counted on the budget?
No. Orders, bills and invoices count at their amount before tax.What if the bill is less than the order?
The bill's amount moves from committed to actual. The rest stays committed until another bill comes or the order is cancelled.Do invoices from billing runs count as revenue?
Only if the invoice carries the project. Invoices from billing runs and milestones set it by themselves.Can a purchase order be stopped when the budget is used up?
Yes. With budget control on Block, confirming an order larger than what its line has left is refused.Which plan has it?
Scale. It needs project budgets, which are in Scale too.Related features
MONEYProject budgets by OPEX and CAPEXEach project gets a budget by cost category, marked OPEX or CAPEX, approved before it counts. Time, expenses, orders, bills and store issues fill it by themselves, with alerts at 80 % and over 100 %.MONEYMaterial requests from the storeMaterial asked from your store for a project is committed on its budget when approved, at the items' cost. What the store sends becomes actual cost, and the store buys only what it does not have.MONEYProfitability per projectOne row per project with revenue, cost, margin and budget used, read from the project's budget ledger. Time is costed at each person's cost per hour, and filters show the projects losing money or over budget.MONEYSubcontract work orders with certified measured workGive work to freelancers and subcontractors on a work order with item lines and rates. Work done is measured and certified by a Projects Manager. Running bills work out retention, advance recovery, back-charges and withholding tax.ACCOUNTINGFull accounting with GST returnsKeep the books in the same system as your projects. You get journal entries, the chart of accounts, matching payments to invoices, and full reports from ledgers to cash flow. For Indian entities, GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B are worked out from the posted invoices and bills.PROJECTSPayment milestones with draft invoicesGive a project a payment plan, such as 30 / 40 / 30. Its milestones fall due by hand, on a date, at a stage or when a key event is done. The client is told, a draft invoice is made, and an unpaid milestone can hold the project in its stage.
See your next project on it.
Tell us how many people keep time, how you bill your clients today (hours, fixed price, retainers) and what you use now. We will set up one of your real projects with you.