Getting started with Invoicing
Invoicing bills your clients for the people you place with them. It takes payroll and attendance data you already hold and turns it into an invoice, so what you bill matches what you paid — without anyone rebuilding it in a spreadsheet.
Where: Invoices You need: invoicing rights — see Invoicing user rights
The four decisions that define an invoice
Everything else follows from these, and they are usually set per client:
| Decision | Options | Means |
|---|---|---|
| Invoice type | Dedicated / Timesheet | A fixed amount per employee, or billed from actual attendance |
| Billing type | Cost Plus / Contracted | Bill your costs plus a fee, or bill an agreed rate |
| Billing method | Advance / Arrears | Bill before the period, or after it |
| Fee components | Management fee, other charges, billable wage | What makes up the amount |
Dedicated vs Timesheet is the biggest fork. A dedicated invoice bills a set amount for each placed employee regardless of hours; a timesheet invoice bills what they actually worked. Choose by the contract, not by convenience.
Cost Plus vs Contracted decides whose numbers appear. Cost plus exposes your costs and adds a margin; contracted bills an agreed rate and keeps costs private. This is a commercial decision with a transparency consequence.
Advance vs Arrears decides timing, and it is the one that causes reconciliation questions — an advance invoice bills for a period that has not happened yet, so it needs truing up afterwards.
How an invoice moves
ready → processing → pending → approved → paidTwo separate ideas are at work, and it is worth keeping them apart:
| Tracks | |
|---|---|
| Processing status | Whether KAMI has built the invoice — ready, processing, error |
| Approval status | Whether a human has agreed it — pending, approved, paid |
An invoice in error was not produced. It is not waiting on anyone's decision; it needs attention.
Who appears on an invoice
Employees are picked up by cost centre for a date range. Two rules control it:
- A picking rule puts an employee on the invoice for a cost centre over a period
- A skipping rule excludes them, with a reason
That is how a person who moved mid-month, or who should not be billed at all, is handled without editing the invoice by hand. See Picking and skipping rules.
Where to go next
Running invoices
- Creating and processing invoices
- Reviewing, approving and issuing invoices
- Payments, deposits and transactions
Setting up
- Clients
- Invoice templates
- Fee components
- Picking and skipping rules
- Currencies and FX rates
- Invoice numbering
What Happens Next
- Approved invoices are issued as documents and become receivable.
- Payments and deposits are recorded as transactions against the client.
- Amounts roll up into the receivables views in your reporting currency.
Tips
- Set the four decisions per client at onboarding, from the contract, and record them. Nearly every later billing dispute traces back to one of them being assumed rather than agreed.
- Run one invoice for a new client and read every line before sending it. Templates and fee components interact, and the invoice is where you see the result.
- Do not fix a wrong invoice by editing the document. Fix the rule, the template or the fee component and reproduce it, so the next period is right too.
- Watch invoices in error. They are not waiting on anybody and will sit indefinitely.