A Project record in NetSuite allows for several different billing types: Fixed Bid Interval, Fixed Bid Milestone, Time & Materials and Charge-Based. The first three options (Fixed Bid Interval, Fixed Bid Milestone and Time & Materials) are basic options for projects that only allow for one billing type throughout the life of a project. The last option, Charge-Based Billing, handles more complex billing scenarios through rule based configurations. Some examples of billing scenarios handled by Charge-Based Billing include, contracts will different billing types (i.e. milestone and time and materials) and subcontractor mark-ups (i.e. charge 20% markup on all subcontractor costs).
When enabling Charge-Based Billing on a project, do not assume NetSuite’s native invoices will mirror the functionality found with the other billing types. Specifically, charges related to time will not print employee level detail on invoices without additional configurations. Natively, time will be grouped by service item, which is not enough detail for a typical T&M invoice.
The configurations below allow for capturing this detail on invoices:
- Add a custom field, such as Invoice Description, to the Charge record.
- Using workflow, set this field value to the Employee field value on the Charge record.
- Add a custom Transaction Line field to the invoice that sources the custom field value from above.
- Update the Advanced PDF/HTML Invoice form to include the field for printing.
The steps above can be used to capture additional details for charge based invoices. Some examples include milestone descriptions, expense report details, and vendor bill details.
If you would like more information about charge-based invoices with employee details or anything else with NetSuite, please contact us at any time! You can also learn about more great tips for NetSuite on our YouTube playlist or our other blog posts.
