Grouping Invoices: Process Activity

This activity will walk you through the process of configuring project billing to create a single invoice for the project or to create multiple separate invoices. You will learn how to bill the project with different billing rules assigned to the project tasks, how to bill a project task separately from the other tasks of the project, and how to bill project transactions that are processed by particular steps of billing rules with a separate invoice.

Attention: This activity is based on the U100 dataset. If you are using another dataset, or if any system settings have been changed in U100, these changes can affect the workflow of the activity and the results of the processing. To avoid any issues, restore the U100 dataset to its initial state.

Story

Suppose that the Thai Food Restaurant customer has ordered two juicers from the SweetLife Fruits & Jams company, along with the following services: site review, installation, and employee training on operating the juicers. The project accountant of SweetLife has created the project to handle the tracking and billing of the provided materials and services. The project has three tasks that represent three phases of the project execution:

  • Phase 1: Installation of the first juicer
  • Phase 2: Installation of the second juicer
  • Phase 3: Training on operating the juicers

The juicers have been delivered and installed, and SweetLife's consultant has provided the training. Before each invoice is sent to the customer for payment, the customer has requested that a pro forma invoice be submitted for acceptance.

Acting as the project accountant, you will bill the customer with a single invoice. After the first the billing, you will group the invoices in different ways based on the following customer's requests:

  • Create a separate invoice for the third phase
  • Create a separate invoice for the juicers

Configuration Overview

In the U100 dataset, the following tasks have been performed for the purposes of this activity:

  • On the Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form, the Project Accounting feature has been enabled to support the project accounting functionality.
  • On the Projects (PM301000) form, the TOMYUM9 project has been created and three project tasks have been configured.
  • On the Project Transactions (PM304000) form, the PM00000005 batch of project transactions related to the project has been created and released.

Process Overview

To bill a time and material project, you first will review and configure project invoices with the billing rule on the Billing Rules (PM207000) form and with the project tasks on the Projects (PM301000) form. Then you will bill the project on the Projects form. Finally, you will review the created pro forma invoice on the Pro Forma Invoices (PM307000) form.

System Preparation

Before you begin performing the steps of this activity, perform the following instructions to prepare the system:

  1. Launch the MYOB Advanced website, and sign in to a company with the U100 dataset preloaded; you should sign in as project accountant by using the brawner username and the 123 password.
  2. In the info area, in the upper-right corner of the top pane of the MYOB Advanced screen, make sure that the business date in your system is set to 1/30/2023. If a different date is displayed, click the Business Date menu button, and select 1/30/2023 on the calendar. For simplicity, in this activity, you will create and process all documents in the system on this business date.

Step 1: Billing a Project with Multiple Billing Rules

To bill the project with different billing rules assigned to the project tasks, do the following:

  1. On the Projects (PM301000) form, open the TOMYUM9 project.
  2. On the Cost Budget tab, review the cost budget of the project. Make sure it includes three lines with the PHASE1 project task, three lines with the PHASE2 project task, and one line with the PHASE3 project task.
  3. On the Tasks tab, in the line with the PHASE2 task, change the billing rule in the Billing Rule column to TM. When you bill the project, the system will use this billing rule to process unbilled transactions associated with this project task.
  4. Save your changes to the project.
  5. On the form toolbar, click Run Project Billing.

    The system creates a pro forma invoice and opens it on the Pro Forma Invoices (PM307000) form.

  6. On the Time and Material tab, review the invoice lines and notice that lines related to all the project tasks are in the same invoice, even though the project tasks have different billing rules assigned. You need to reconfigure the billing to prepare a separate pro forma invoice for each project task.
  7. Delete the pro forma invoice, so you can bill this project again when you change the configuration of project billing.

Step 2: Billing Project Tasks Separately

To bill the PHASE3 project task separately from the other project tasks, do the following:

  1. On the Projects (PM301000) form, open the TOMYUM9 project.
  2. On the Tasks tab, do the following to add a needed table column to those displayed on the tab:
    1. In the table, click the Column Configuration button, the leftmost icon among the column headers. The system opens the Column Configuration dialog box.
    2. In the Available Columns list of the dialog box, click the Bill Separately column.
    3. Click the Add Column button (the right arrow icon between the lists) to add the column to the Selected Columns list.
    4. Click OK to apply your changes to the list of columns and close the dialog box.
  3. In the row with the PHASE3 task, select the check box in the Bill Separately column to bill the task with a separate invoice.
  4. Save your changes to the project.
  5. On the form toolbar, click Run Project Billing, and review the generated invoices on the Invoices tab.

    The system created two pro forma invoices. One invoice includes the transactions related to the PHASE3 project task, and the other invoice includes the transactions related to the other project tasks.

  6. Open and review each created pro forma invoice as follows:
    1. On the Invoices tab, click the link in the Pro Forma Reference Nbr. column to open the pro forma invoice.
    2. On the Time and Material tab of the Pro Forma Invoices (PM307000) form, which the system opens in a pop-up window, review the lines of the invoice.

      Notice that the invoice with the total amount of $4,750 has lines related to the PHASE1 and PHASE2 tasks, whereas the invoice with the total amount of $400 has a line related to only the PHASE3 task.

    3. Delete the pro forma invoices, and return to the Projects form with the TOMYUM9 project selected.

You have deleted the pro forma invoices you created, so you are able to bill the project again when you change the configuration of project invoices again.

Step 3: Grouping Invoices by Steps of Billing Rules

To create a separate invoice for the juicers whose costs are tracked within the MATERIAL account group, do the following:

  1. On the Billing Rules (PM207000) form, open the TM billing rule.
  2. In the left pane, enter MATERIAL in the Invoice Group column of the 10 (Material cost plus markup) step.

    This step of the billing rule is used for time and material billing of transactions associated with the MATERIAL account group.

  3. Save your changes to the billing rule.
  4. Open the COMBINED billing rule.
  5. In the left pane, enter MATERIAL in the Invoice Group column of the 20 (Material cost plus markup) step.

    This step of the billing rule is used for time and material billing of transactions associated with the MATERIAL account group.

  6. Save your changes to the billing rule.

    When you bill the project by using these billing rules, the system will group invoice lines created with the steps of the billing rules with the MATERIAL account group in a separate invoice.

  7. On the Projects (PM301000) form, open the TOMYUM9 project.
  8. On the form toolbar, click Run Project Billing.

    The system creates three pro forma invoices, as shown in the following screenshot. The system has created one more separate invoice based on unbilled transactions with the MATERIAL account group using the steps of the billing rules with the MATERIAL invoice group.

    Figure 1. Pro forma invoices prepared during billing procedure


  9. Open and review each created pro forma invoice as follows:
    1. On the Invoices tab, click the link in the Pro Forma Reference Nbr. column to open the pro forma invoice.
    2. On the Time and Material tab of the Pro Forma Invoices (PM307000) form, which the system opens in a pop-up window, review the lines of the invoice on the Time and Material tab.

      Notice that the invoice with the total amount of $4,000 includes two lines with juicers related to the MATERIAL account group, the invoice with the total amount of $750 includes four lines related to the PHASE1 and PHASE2 tasks except the lines with juicers, and the invoice with the total amount of $400 includes one line related to the PHASE3 task.

    3. Close the pop-up window with the form, and return to the Projects form with the TOMYUM9 project selected.

You have configured the grouping of pro forma invoices for the project and performed project billing with the new billing settings.