6.14 How to Create Time Based Invoices

Challenge

Creating invoices based on time spent on particular tasks, e.g. hours of design work, days of consulting etc, is an accurate and efficient way of invoicing particular types of products. Ensuring this time is tracked accurately and allocated to the correct can be a time-consuming task with a measurable impact on invoicing and related processes.


Solution

Creating Time-Based Products

As of version 2.131, it is now possible to invoice time-based products in ADvendio through the use of timesheets and timesheet activities. To create time-based invoices for an item, simply set Time Tracking to true on the Campaign Item either through an automated process or the Media Configuration. If this field isn’t visible, your Salesforce Admin will need to add it to the layout and tab setup.

Setting a Campaign Item to Time Tracking true on creation will set Linear to False, as per the Workflow Rule 'Set_LinearDistribution'. Once time tracking is set to true, all related timesheet activities will be rolled up to the relevant Revenue Schedules and used for invoicing.

Logging Activities

To log activities for a given Campaign Item, press new on the Timesheet Activities in the Related List of the Campaign Item, your Salesforce Admin will need to add it to the page layout.

The created Timesheet Activity needs to be linked to a Campaign Item and Timesheet (See setup automated Timesheet creation for more information on Timesheets). You can enter the duration and date of the activity (this is crucial to know where and how much to invoice), additionally you can add a description of the logged activity.

The entered activities will automatically be summed up in the relevant Revenue Schedule or Revenue Schedule Daily, based on the date in the Timesheet activities. These values will then be used for invoicing.

Creating Time-Based Invoices

Create Pre Invoice Records, through any of the usual processes and update the delivered quantity, either through a scheduled job or directly on the Pre Invoice using the Update Delivered Quantity

Updating the delivered quantity will do two things:

  1. Update the delivered quantity of the relevant Invoice Items for delivery data and time-based items

  2. Link the relevant Timesheet Activities to the Invoice Items for more transparency and enhanced reporting

Cancellation handling

Important note: Cancellation wizard should not be used. We highly recommend using the Optimization wizard (Optimizer) to cancel invoices and campaign items.

In the case of cancellations, the relation of Timesheet Activity to Invoice Items is handled differently depending on whether or not a new non-cancellation Invoice Item is created. For example:

  • Through the Optimizer or Cancellation Wizard where an invoiced Campaign Item is directly cancelled

    • A cancellation Preinvoice and Invoice Item will be created during the cancellation process matching the invoiced quantity of the originally Invoiced Item. The Timesheet activities will stay allocated to the original Invoice Item.

  • Through the Optimizer or an Invoice Cancellation, where the Campaign Item isn’t cancelled or where a new Campaign Item will be created (as in Order Amendment)

    • A cancellation Preinvoice and Invoice Item will be created during the cancellation process matching the invoice quantity of the originally Invoiced Item. When a new preinvoice is created, and the delivered quantity of the Invoice is updated, the activities will be reassigned to the new Invoice Item.


Setup