How long does it take you to add up the hours you spent on a job to prepare the invoice for your customer? If it takes too long, your invoicing could be late, and it could also possibly create cash flow issues. Have you ever considered QuickBooks to be your time & billing solution?

If your company invoices based on the time and materials you have in a job, QuickBooks may be the right solution for your billing needs. Each week, every employee completes a simple timesheet. This timesheet is in spreadsheet format listing the customer or job the employee was working on, what they did, how the employee will be paid and the hours spent on that activity.

Once completed, this timesheet goes two directions. First of all, it pulls to the payroll function automatically and your payroll preparation time is reduced significantly. Secondly, the information pulls to the invoicing function. When it is time to prepare an invoice for your customer, you are provided with a list of all of the unbilled time for that customer or job. You can pick and choose which time you want to include on the invoice you are creating.

Once on the invoice, you have full flexibility to change the wording or the billing rate on the invoice. This feature gives you more accuracy and consistency with time tracking and prevents omitting hours that you could be billing for. In addition to time, you can invoice for materials, other expenses, and mileage in a similar fashion.

For more information on this Time and Billing solution, please contact the QuickBooks Pro Advisor at your local Rea & Associates office.

-By Marcia Calhoun, CPA (Senior Accountant, Millersburg office)

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