Billing and Project Consolidation
Consider the following points when using billing schedules with the Consolidate Projects on Sales Transactions preference. For more details on the consolidation preference, read Using the Project Consolidation Preference.
Billing Schedule Types and Consolidation
Billing schedules can be edited on the project sales order. With the Consolidate Projects on Sales Transactions preference disabled, the standard sales order form includes a billing schedule field. When you select the customer and project on the sales order form, the billing schedule associated with the project autofills the billing schedule field.
Because you can change the billing schedule associated with a project when creating a sales order, it is possible to assign a fixed bid billing schedule to a time and materials project, or a time and materials billing schedule to a fixed bid project. Verify that the schedule type is the same on the project and its sales order before billing.
Project and Sales Order Schedule Synchronization
On a sales order form, if the billing schedule is set at the header level, there can be only one billing schedule for that sales order. If there are multiple projects on the sales order, then each of the projects could have a different billing schedule specified on the project record.
In this case, the header-level billing schedule takes precedence over the project-level billing schedules and is used for all projects. This result can be confusing because the information about the individual projects may not be the same as the billing schedule on the sales order.
To avoid this confusion, if you enable Consolidated Projects on Sales Transactions preference, use a sales order form with line-level billing schedules. Then, when you add project items to the sales order, the billing schedule for that project comes to the sales order with the item, and the billing schedule on the sales order and the project match.
For more information, see To customize a sales order form for per-line billing schedules:
It is also important to determine billing schedules for estimates and sales orders at the same level. For example, if an estimate uses a header-level billing schedule, the sales order should also.
Fixed Bid, Milestone Project Billing with Consolidation
With the Consolidate Projects on Sales Transactions preference enabled, you must customize the standard sales order form to show billing schedules on item lines to bill Fixed Bid, Milestone projects.
For example, on the Items subtab on a standard sales order, you select a project with a Fixed Bid, Milestone billing schedule, in the Refresh Items from Project field. When you click Refresh, NetSuite adds the services items from the project to the sales order, but the Billing Schedule field on the form (header level) is not populated. To bill this type of project, follow the steps below to customize the sales order.
To customize a sales order form for per-line billing schedules:
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Open the standard sales order you need to customize.
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Click Customize.
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Click the Screen Fields subtab.
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On the Columns subtab, check the Billing Schedule box.
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Click Save.
Then, when you use the customized form to create a sales order, the billing schedule for each line item defaults to the billing schedule identified on the project, if any.
Fixed Bid, Milestone Billing without Consolidation
If you disable the Consolidate Projects on Sales Transactions preference, always verify that the schedule selected on the project and sales order match.
For example, you specify a Fixed Bid, Milestone type billing schedule on the project, but select a standard billing schedule on the sales order. Viewing the project record, you would expect milestones to be billed. But due to the schedule selected on the sales order, they would not be.
If you select a project-based billing schedule (Time and Materials, Fixed Bid, Interval, or Fixed Bid, Milestone) on the sales order, all line items for the order will be invoiced based on the project billing schedule whether they are project items or not.
For example, you specify a Fixed Bid, Milestone billing schedule type on a project and source that billing schedule onto the sales order. If you then add non-inventory items to the sales order, these items will be billed in the same milestone percentages as the service items from the project.