Billing Expenses to Customers

Billing expenses back to customers enables you to bill customers for the costs you incur while working on a project for them. For example, a locksmith can bill a customer for subcontractor fees incurred to install a safe for a customer in another state.

To bill expenses back to customers, you first need to enable the feature. An administrator can go to Setup > Company > Enable Features. On the Transactions subtab, check the Bill Costs To Customers box, and then click Save.

When the feature is enabled, you can bill an expense to a customer. You can bill expenses to customers on purchase orders or other purchase transactions.

Note:

For OneWorld accounts, you must also set up at least one tax schedule because Advanced Taxes is enabled in all OneWorld accounts.

Note:

In accounts without OneWorld, you can bill costs to customers using items created before enabling the Advanced Taxes feature. If you enable Advanced Taxes after creating an item, you must assign a tax schedule to the item to bill a customer.

To bill expenses to customers using purchase orders:

Enter a purchase order for an expense you want to bill to a customer.

When you enter a purchase order for a billable expense, select the expense and identify the customer or project, and then check the Billable box.

Note:
You must bill the purchase order before you can bill the customer for the billable expense.

To enter a purchase order for a billable expense, go to Transactions > Purchases/Vendors > Enter Purchase Orders.

For more information about purchasing billable expenses, read Entering a Purchase Order.
Bill the purchase order that includes the expense you want to bill to a customer.

The bill for the billable expense must identify the customer or project and have the Billable box checked.

To bill a purchase order, go to Transactions > Purchases/Vendors > Bill Purchase Orders.

For more information, read Billing a Purchase Order With Advanced Receiving.

After the purchase order is billed, this expense can show on the Billable Expenses subtab of the customer bill.
Enter an invoice or cash sale to bill the customer for the billable expense .

When you create an invoice, apply the appropriate billable expense on the Billable Expenses subtab. Click Mark All or Unmark All to check or clear all expenses that show on the subtab.
- To create an invoice, go to Billing > Sales > Create Invoices.
  
  For more information about creating an invoice, read Creating an Invoice.
- To create a cash sale, go to Billing > Sales > Enter Cash Sales.. For more information, see Cash Sales.
  
  For more information about creating a cash sale, read Entering a Cash Sale.
If you track class, department, and location at the line-item level, you can change these settings for this billable item.

When you have created the invoice or cash sale, the customer is billed for the expense.

To bill expenses to customers using checks:

Enter a check to pay a vendor for the item you want to bill to a customer. For more information, read Adding Expenses to a Check.
On the Expenses subtab of the check, select the expense you want to bill to the customer.
Identify the customer or project and check the Billable box.
Complete additional fields on the check as necessary.
Click Save.

Now, this expense can show on the Billable Items subtab of the customer bill.

To bill expenses to customers using credit card transactions:

Enter a credit card transaction to pay a vendor for the expense you want to bill to a customer. For more information, read Entering Company Credit Card Charges.
On the Expenses subtab of the credit card transaction, select the expense you want to bill to the customer.
Identify the customer or project and check the Billable box.
Complete additional fields on the credit card transaction as necessary.
Click Save.

Now, this expense can show on the Billable Expenses subtab of the customer bill.

Expenses Billable By Default

You can also enable the Expenses Billable by Default preference to check the Billable box by default when you are entering purchase orders. Then, when you select a customer on an item line of a purchase transaction, the Billable box is automatically checked.

The Expenses Billable by Default preference is enabled at Setup > Accounting > Preferences > Accounting Preferences > Time & Expenses subtab. This preference is dependent on the Bill Costs to Customers feature.

Copy Expense Memos to Invoices

You can also set a preference for invoices to include memos entered on billable expenses. To set this preference, go to Setup > Accounting > Preferences > Accounting Preferences > Time & Expenses. Check the Copy Expense Memos to Invoices box and then click Save.

Note:

When you enable this preferences, the memos you have already entered on existing expense records show on invoices you create.

When billing expenses back to customers, you can choose to include the date of service on all custom invoices except finance charge invoices. This is the date the bill for the expenses was entered.

To bill expenses to customers using purchase orders:

To bill expenses to customers using checks:

To bill expenses to customers using credit card transactions:

Expenses Billable By Default

Copy Expense Memos to Invoices

Related Topics