Project Billing Instructional Guide - Unanet Technologies

Project Billing in Unanet Version 9.5 

Instructional Guide 

Version 1.1 

December 5, 2011 

Page 1 of 48 

Copyright © 2011 Unanet Technologies

Table of Contents 

Overview of this document .................................................................................. 3 

Administrator Data Set up ................................................................................... 5 

Admin >> Setup >> Accounting >> Accounts .................................................... 6 

Admin >> Setup >> Accounting >> Billing ........................................................ 6 

Admin >> Setup >> Accounting >> Invoice Formats .......................................... 7 

Admin >> Setup >> Accounting >> Invoice Number Formats .............................. 9 

Admin >> Setup >> One-Time Charge Types .................................................... 9 

Admin >> Setup >> Payment Terms .............................................................. 10 

Project Billing Set up ........................................................................................ 11 

Accounts ...................................................................................................... 11 

Fixed Price ................................................................................................... 12 

Invoice ........................................................................................................ 15 

Pre-Bill Labor ............................................................................................... 17 

Project Processes ............................................................................................. 18 

Post ............................................................................................................ 19 

How the Post process handles different billing types: ......................................... 20 

Cost Plus Billing Type Projects ..................................................................... 20 

Time & Materials and Fixed Price Projects ..................................................... 22 

Post Process - Feedback ............................................................................. 28 

Unpost ........................................................................................................ 28 

Add Invoice .................................................................................................. 29 

Add Invoice Feedback ................................................................................ 30 

List Invoice .................................................................................................. 31 

Creating and Adjusting Invoice with Only One-Time Items ................................. 31 

Revising Invoiced Amounts ............................................................................ 31 

(1) Changes to “total” with another invoice ................................................... 32 

(2) Correct on the next invoice (via adjustments and/or one-time items) ......... 32 

(3) External reformat combined with one-time item ....................................... 32 

(4) Reverse Invoice and Include Items on Future Invoice(s) ........................... 32 

Reporting ........................................................................................................ 33 

New Detail Reports: ...................................................................................... 33 

Billing & Revenue Details ............................................................................ 33 

Fixed Price Details ..................................................................................... 34 

Invoice Details .......................................................................................... 35 

Journal Details .......................................................................................... 36 

New Summary Reports: ................................................................................. 37 

Billing & Revenue Summary ........................................................................ 37 

Journal Summary ...................................................................................... 37 

New Status Report: ....................................................................................... 38 

Invoice Status ........................................................................................... 38 

Exports ........................................................................................................... 39 

Fixed Price Schedule Export ........................................................................... 39 

Accounts Receivable Export ............................................................................ 40 

Journal Entry Export ...................................................................................... 42 

Glossary for Project Billing ................................................................................. 45 

Frequently Asked Questions ............................................................................... 47 

Historical Data ................................................................................................. 48 

Page 2 of 48 


Overview of this document 

Since inception, Unanet software has included features related to project 

billing and many releases have added new functionality to support the 

management of billable projects. 

Leading market analysts, such as SPI Research, define the category of 

Professional Services Automation software, in which Unanet is positioned, in 

the following diagram: 

Professional Services Automation includes support for: 

Engagement Management 

Project Accounting, and 

Invoicing 

Customers and prospects highlighted the need for the project managers and 

accounting personnel to be able to identify the difference between billed and 

unbilled charges as well as recognized and unrecognized revenue. 

This document focuses specifically on the enhancements starting with Unanet 

Version 9.4 and higher. 

Page 3 of 48 


The billing and invoicing process is shown at a high level in the following 

diagram: 

Admin Setup 

Accounting 

Data 

Define Project 

Items 

T&M, FP, CP 

Do Work 

Approve Work 

Complete 

Invoices 

Add Invoice - 

place billable 

items on 

Invoice 

Run ‘Post’ - 

What’s 

Billable & 

Earned 

AR, JE 

Exports 

In this major release, the following concepts were introduced: 

1. Billable expense markup – for organizations who “markup” the actual 

cost of certain billable expenses. Markup percentages can be specified 

by expense type at the system level and overridden at the project level. 

Where customers want to apply a ‘G&A markup’ on time and material 

projects to their ODCs, this feature should be used, rather than treating 

the project as Cost Plus. 

2. Two new roles, Billing Manager and Billing Viewer 

3. Administrators can now define the following items related to billing, 

revenue recognition and invoicing 

Define Account Codes for use when processing billable or revenue 

transactions 

Specify Billing Rules to determine how items are treated by the Post 

process 

Create Standard Invoice Formats 

Define multiple Standard Invoice Number Formats 

Define valid One-Time Charge Types 

Define Payment Terms for Use on Invoices 

4. Define schedules for billing and revenue recognition of fixed price items 

on a project, at the project or task level. 

Page 4 of 48 


5. Define pre-bill labor amounts on a project with the intent of billing in 

advance and then “earning” or “working off” the pre-billed amount 

through actual billable hours recorded on posted timesheets 

6. Projects can have a mix of fixed price, time and materials or pre-billed 

labor items. Cost Plus projects cannot include these items 

7. A Post Process to review those items that meet the conditions for billing 

or revenue recognition and calculate appropriate amounts for each item. 

8. Create invoices from posted, unbilled amounts, with the ability to defer 

items from an invoice. 

9. Complete Invoices. 

10.Report on project revenue using Project Accounting Reports (formerly 

labeled Project Costing), and via seven new reports, see billing, 

revenue, invoicing, fixed price schedule and journal data at summary 

and detailed levels. 

11.Export data to other systems, using new export templates for: 

Fixed Price Schedule Data 

Accounts Receivable, marking the Invoices as Extracted 

Journal Entries 

Administrator Data Set up 

New data entities related to billing are grouped under a new Admin >> Setup 

>> Accounting menu. 

Page 5 of 48 


Admin >> Setup >> Accounting >> Accounts 

When items are processed by Unanet Billing, journal Account Codes can be 

associated with these items representing Unbilled, Billed, Deferred Revenue, 

Recognized Revenue or Tax. This data can be used to export billing and 

revenue data to other systems, and also for reporting within Unanet based on 

Account Codes. 

The Admin user can define valid account code values, a description, whether a 

Type of Asset, Liability or Income, and whether it is a project default for that 

category. At the project level, these defaults can be overridden, if desired by a 

Billing Manager. Actual account code values used by organizations may vary 

widely, but common examples are shown in the screen capture above. 

The Type is specified so that on reports such as the Journal Summary or 

Journal Details, whether amounts associated with each account value are 

Debits and Credits can be displayed. 

If these Category Defaults change, they will not automatically update the 

current values at the project level. If a project wishes to use the new Default 

values, a Billing Manager should set these again in project billing setup. 

Admin >> Setup >> Accounting >> Billing 

This screen allows defaults to be established for use by the Unanet Post 

process. 

Page 6 of 48 


The Post process will use this data as follows: 

Cost Plus Bill Rate: determines which type of indirect cost pool rate 

(Actual, Provisional or Target) to use when calculating bill amounts on 

Cost Plus billing type projects. Provisional Rate is the default. 

Cost Plus Recognition Rate: determine which type of indirect cost pool 

rate (Actual, Provisional or Target) to use when calculating recognized 

revenue from Cost Plus billing type projects. Actual Rate is the default. 

Any difference between the billed and recognized amounts from Cost 

Plus projects will be shown as Deferred Revenue. 

Bill Labor: determines whether to use the Worked Date or Posted Date 

for an item when applying the ‘Include Actuals Through’ date selection 

condition. The default value is ‘Using Worked Date’. 

Bill Expenses: determines whether to use the Line Item Date, Voucher 

Completion Date or Posted Date (this is the optional date that can be 

stamped on Expense Line Items during the expense extract process) for 

an item when applying the ‘Include Actuals Through’ date selection 

condition. The default value is ‘Using Line Item Date’. 

This screen must be accessed and Saved prior to running the Post process. 

The Default button returns the values to the initial Unanet default settings. 

Admin >> Setup >> Accounting >> Invoice Formats 

Administrators can create and maintain the set of invoice formats that will be 

available for use by projects. There are two types of invoice layout: Standard 

and Cost Plus. The Standard format supports Fixed Price, Time & Materials and 

Pre-bill Labor items in addition to One-Time Items. If any of these items are 

not included on a particular invoice for a project, sections for these items will 

not appear. The Cost Plus format allows One-Time Items to be added, but 

does not include Fixed Price, Time & Materials or Pre-Bill Labor. 

These two invoice types can be customized by the Administrator to show 

certain fields and multiple versions of each type of layout can be defined. This 

includes the ability to show Inception to Date (as a single number for the 

Standard format, and for each row on Cost Plus format). 

Once these standard invoice formats have been defined, Billing Managers will 

be able to select one of these active formats from a list when choosing the 

invoice format to be used for a project. The formats available for selection are 

dependent on Project Billing Type. For example, a CP Billing Type project 

cannot select a Standard invoice format. 

Page 7 of 48 


The invoice configuration screen provides a visual preview of how the invoice 

layout will look with various options enabled. The example shows a 

configuration screen for a Standard invoice format. 

Page 8 of 48 


Admin >> Setup >> Accounting >> Invoice Number Formats 

Administrators can create and maintain different invoice numbering schemes 

that will be available for use by projects. Multiple invoice number formats can 

be created. 

Billing Managers will select a specific invoice numbering scheme when setting 

up project billing information on a project by project basis. 

Unanet invoice numbers are guaranteed to be unique but they will not 

necessarily be sequential without gaps. If you delete a draft invoice, that 

invoice number will not be reused. 

Common usage may be to have a single invoice number format for all 

projects, or to have specific formats for specific customers or your internal 

organizations. If a specific invoice number format is used with multiple 

projects, the invoice number uniqueness will be preserved across those 

projects and not within each project. 

Not that as the format is changed, the Preview shows the new format. 

Admin >> Setup >> One-Time Charge Types 

Administrators use the One-Time Charge Types setup screen to create and 

maintain the set of One-Time Charge Types that will be available for use when 

a Billing Manager is creating an invoice and would like to add additional onetime 

items, to represent items such as discounts or additional fees not defined 

in the project data. The Billing Manager can provide a description for each 

item added to an invoice, but must select one of these Charge Types when 

making that entry. Billing Managers can add one-time items when editing an 

existing draft invoice (accessible via the Billing >> List Invoices screen) or 

when initially creating a draft invoice (via the Billing >> Add Invoices screen). 

Page 9 of 48 


When defining One-Time Charge Types, the Administrator will specify Debit 

and Credit Accounts, i.e. which journal accounts the associated item will be 

associated with when the invoice is complete. The list of possible value for 

Debit Account or Credit Account are: 

 

 

 

 

 

Billed 

Deferred Revenue 

Recognized Revenue 

Tax 

Unbilled 

Typically, for a One-Time Charge Type such as a Fee or Discount the Debit 

Account would be the Billed Account for the project, while the Credit Account 

would be Recognized Revenue. 

Admin >> Setup >> Payment Terms 

Administrators can also define valid payment terms for use within Unanet. A 

Billing Manager will select one of these valid payment terms for use on a 

project during project billing setup. Unanet uses the ‘Days’ value associated 

with a Payment Term to calculate an Invoice Due Date using the Invoice’s 

Creation Date. 

Page 10 of 48 


Project Billing Set up 

For each project, a Billing Manger can define various parameters related to 

defining fixed price schedules, project invoicing, and bill and revenue journal 

accounts to be associated with the project. 

Project billing types of Time & Materials (including pre-billing for labor), Fixed 

Price and Cost Plus are supported. Projects can have a mix of Time & Materials 

and Fixed Price, but Cost Plus billing cannot be mixed with other billing types 

on the same project. 

A new menu, only accessible by Billing Managers or Administrators, is 

available for a selected project. The menu shows four options: 

Accounts - how bill and revenue data for the project is recorded 

against journal accounts 

Fixed Price – define bill and revenue recognition schedules for fixed 

price items on the project 

Invoice – select from standard invoice layouts, invoice number 

formats, payment terms, and specify other data to appear on the 

invoice such as Bill to and Remit to contact information, optional header 

information, and optional text to appear at the top of the invoice body 

(Description), or at the end (Invoice Memo) 

Pre-Billed Labor – for projects where labor is billed in advance of work 

being performed, Unanet allows one of more Pre-Billed amounts to be 

defined with an associated description and date for invoicing. When 

locked or extracted timesheets for the project are included in a Unanet 

Post process, the hours and associated billable amounts will be used to 

offset the existing pre-billed amount. When the pre-billed amount has 

been earned, any new labor hours posted will be billed in arrears. 

To aid in project billing setup, a new Copy Project feature has been added in 

Unanet 9.4. When using this feature, data related to the following billing 

information can be copied to the created project: 

Accounts 

Invoice parameters 

Pre-Billed Labor 

Fixed Price (Project level fixed price items only) 

Accounts 

The Billing Manager must specify a value for each account category Unbilled, 

Billed, Deferred Revenue, Recognized Revenue and Tax before the project can 

be included in a Post process. Alternatively, the Billing Manager can use the 

Default button to apply the system-wide values specified by an Administrator, 

under Admin >> Setup >> Accounting >> Accounts. Note that if the system 

default values are changed by an Administrator, the values stored at the 

project level will not be automatically updated. 

Page 11 of 48 


As noted on the screen, account values which match system defaults are 

shown in light grey. 

Note that Account Code values can be changed for a project when there 

already is posted data. The system will still create debits and credits from the 

appropriate current account categories and record the journal entries. For 

example, the Unbilled Account Code for a project was 1250 and a debit of 

$1000 was posted. If the Unbilled Category Account Code was then changed 

to 1251, when that item was billed, the 1251 account would be credited, 

leaving the 1250 account value unchanged. 

Fixed Price 

The Billing Manager role can define fixed price items in a number of ways, at 

the project or task level. 

Two options are provided for defining Fixed Price items: 

Adding an individual item to be billed, or 

Creating a schedule of billable items for a single total value. 

Page 12 of 48 


If adding a single item, the following screen is presented: 

In adding a single billable item, using 

can: 

the Project Manager 

 

 

 

 

 

 

associate the Fixed Price item with the project, or a task 

enter a Description for the Fixed Price item 

enter a Bill Date for the item 

alternatively, the Completion Date for the project or task can be used 

by checking the box. This links the item bill date to the WBS item. If the 

date is linked, for an item to be included in a Post as unbilled (and thus 

eligible to be placed on an invoice), the Completion Date must be 

entered on the project or task, AND the Percent Complete value must 

be entered at 100% (not calculated). Prior to item completion, the 

Revised End Date will be used for Revenue Recognition if necessary, but 

the Completion Date will determine inclusion in the Post process for 

billing 

enter the fixed price item bill amount 

specify how revenue will be recognized for the item: 

o When Billed – revenue will be recognized when the item is on a 

bill which is Completed. This approach is not favored by 

accounting standards but is often used by smaller organizations. 

o % Complete – revenue will be recognized when a Post process 

is run and calculated based on the bill value and the associated 

project or task Percent Complete value. This will be determined 

based on the entered value for the project or task, or calculated 

by Unanet in the normal manner based on the setting on the 

Project Profile Budget tab. 

o 

Custom Schedule – this allows the bill amount to recognized 

over dates and periods specified by the user, identifying the type 

of periods (week, month, quarter), the number of periods, when 

in the period recognition should occur and in what period it 

should start. For example, an organization might bill its client for 

Page 13 of 48 


an annual service agreement, but recognize revenue for this item 

monthly, quarterly or on some other schedule. In the example 

shown below, a quarterly revenue recognition schedule is used. 

Note the schedule items can be adjusted as needed, adding or 

removing items from the revenue recognition schedule (the 

‘Generate Schedule’ wizard just helps speed data creation). 

However, the total value of the revenue recognition schedule 

must match the bill value for the fixed price item. 

o 

Note also that Unanet treats the billable amount and the 

corresponding revenue recognition schedule as a single item 

which is maintained together (i.e. via edit or delete). Where a 

Billing Schedule is created with multiple billable items, after data 

entry, these are treated as separate, unrelated items. 

If the Fixed Price Billing Schedule option is used, 

the Billing Manager can: 

Page 14 of 48 


associate the Fixed Price item with the project, or a task 

enter a Description for the Fixed Price item 

enter an initial Bill Date for the item 

enter the fixed price item bill amount 

o When Billed – revenue will be recognized when the item is on a 

bill which is Completed. 

o % Complete – revenue will be recognized whenever the Post 

process is run, and calculate based on the bill value and 

associated project or task Percent Complete value. 

o specify a Billing Schedule, identifying the type of periods, the 

number of periods and when the period should start. In the 

example below, the total amount of $15k is being billed in three 

increments. 

Note that when this schedule is saved, each billable item will be 

treated as distinct, and must be edited individually. The purpose 

of this Add Fixed Price Billing Schedule is to quickly create 

multiple items to be billed, perhaps reflecting a recurring billing 

schedule, such as monthly subscription fees. 

Invoice 

The Invoice data for a project must be defined before an invoice can be 

created for the project. Absence of invoice data will not prevent a project from 

Page 15 of 48 


eing included in a post process, but the unbilled data will not be placed on an 

invoice and become billed until this information is entered. 

The Invoice menu option is where the Billing Manager can: 

identify if an invoice is required for the project 

choose from the valid active invoice formats for that project’s billing 

type. For example a CP project cannot select a Standard invoice format, 

and a FP ot TM project cannot select a Cost Plus format. 

choose the Invoice Number format to be used 

choose from the list of standard Payment Terms. 

 

 

specify Contacts – who will be shown on the Invoice as the Bill To: and 

Remit To: contacts along with their mailing address. 

specify Optional Invoice Header Information: 

o whether to show Project Code, Project Title, Project Funded 

Value, logo, Contract Number or Order Number on the Invoice 

o Include Description text, which appears below the Invoice Header 

and before the Invoice body, and Invoice Memo text which 

appears before the Invoice Footer. These can be modified on an 

individual invoice when it is in Draft status, but the values saved 

on the project are not modified. 

Page 16 of 48 


Pre-Bill Labor 

The final option on the Billing Menu allows a Billing Manager or Administrator 

to define amounts for labor to be billed in advance of work being performed. 

One of more Pre-Billed amounts can be defined for a project with an 

associated description and date for invoicing. When locked or extracted 

timesheets for the project are included in a Unanet Post process, the hours 

and associated billable amounts will be used to offset the existing pre-billed 

amount. An invoice will show pre-billed amounts, the labor performed and any 

remaining balance on the pre-bill amount. When the pre-billed amount has 

been earned, any new labor hours posted will be billed in arrears. 

Page 17 of 48 


Project Processes 

Once the relevant Admin setup has been performed and Project Billing data 

created, projects can have data included in a Post. This will identify time & 

materials items, fixed price or cost plus labor and expense that should be 

processed 

To ensure accurate calculation of recognized revenue for Fixed Price items 

using the Percent Complete method, a Budget Snapshot for the project should 

be performed. The Post process and billing reports will use Snapshot data if 

available. 

The new Billing menu offers a Billing Manager or Admin four options: 

Post – select projects for which to process eligible items (see below for 

definition of what is eligible). The process will calculate unbilled, 

deferred billed (for Fixed Price Items where billing has not occurred but 

revenue is being recognized), deferred revenue, and recognized 

revenue. 

List Invoices – show existing invoices, whether Draft, Completed or 

Extracted status 

Add Invoice – create invoices for the selected projects. This places 

data which has been Posted as unbilled, but not included on a prior 

invoice, on a new invoice for the project. 

Unpost – backs out the Post for selected projects, provided the data 

has not been placed on an invoice. 

Page 18 of 48 


Post 

A familiar Unanet Search screen is presented to select projects to be included 

in the Post. 

 

 

Include Actuals Through: allows the user to identify which previously 

unposted items will be included, using the criteria defined under Admin 

>> Setup >> Accounting >> Billing screen. 

Journal Date: specify what date the journal entries will show as their 

creation or posting date. 

The Post process will validate that each item is eligible to be included. This is 

described in detail below, but in summary 

For TM or CP projects, only extracted or locked labor and expense will 

be included. 

For FP, the criteria used when defining the billing and revenue 

recognition schedules, and the Include Actuals Through Date will 

determine what amounts are calculated for unbilled and deferred billed, 

and for deferred and recognized revenue. 

Having selected the projects to be included, the Billing Manager is presented 

with a screen which previews the amounts which will be posted. Drilldown into 

Page 19 of 48 


detail values shown by the Billing & Revenue Details report is available from 

this screen. Once the Billing Manager is satisfied which data will be included, 

projects can be selected or excluded, and the Post process run. 

The Post process can only be run if Admin >> Setup >> Accounting >> Billing 

has been defined for this Unanet system. 

How the Post process handles different billing types: 

This section describes what is included in a Post, based on billing type, and 

what journal entries are created. 

Cost Plus Billing Type Projects 

When the Billing manager clicks on the Post button initiating a post for one or 

more projects, the following measures are taken: 

Note that when posting cost plus, what is actually being posted is the 

summarized amounts by cost element (vs. any individual labor amounts). 

Preconditions: 

1. The project must have a billing type of Cost-Plus (CP) 

2. The project must have a defined cost structure 

3. The project must have an account mapping for all of the following 

account categories: Unbilled, Deferred Revenue, and Recognized 

Revenue. 

General: 

1. All labor costs are determined as hours multiplied by effective cost rate. 

2. All expense costs are determined as expense cost allocated to project 

being posted. 

3. All Indirect cost calculations are based on the pool rate as currently 

defined in Admin >> Setup >> Accounting >> Billing - Cost Plus Bill 

Rate. 

4. All revenue calculations are based on the pool rate as currently defined 

in Admin >> Setup >> Accounting >> Billing - Cost Plus Recognition 

Rate. 

5. Pool rate changes will result in the amount posted reflecting the balance 

for the period being posted. The system will check prior posted amounts 

and based on the current rate and direct costs calculate an amount for 

the period that will give the correct cumulative value. 

Page 20 of 48 


Labor: 

 

 

All qualifying labor for the project will be marked as posted. 

Qualifying labor must meet the following conditions: 

1. Must not be previously posted 

2. Must be associated with a cost structure labor element 

3. Must be from a LOCKED or EXTRACTED timesheet 

4. Must NOT be a pending adjustment 

5. Must have a comparison date > Setup >> Accounting >> Billing - 

Bill Expenses. 

Cost Plus Summary: 

 

Cost Plus Summary entries will be created for: 

1. Each distinct Labor Cost Element from the posted labor in an 

amount equal to the sum of costs for labor associated with the 

Labor Cost Element 

2. Each distinct ODC Cost Element from the posted expenses in an 

amount equal to the sum of costs for expenses associated with 

the ODC Cost element 

3. Each distinct Indirect Cost Element from all cost structures 

associated with any of the project, labor or expenses included in 

the post in an amount equal to the sum of costs for the Indirect 

Cost Element across all included cost structures. 

4. Fee, if the posted project has a defined Fee Method, in an amount 

determined by the calculations based on the Actuals Fee Formula 

and the Fee Amount 

Journal Entries: 

Page 21 of 48 


For each Labor and Expense Cost Plus Summary Entry created as a 

result of the post: 

1. An unbilled journal entry should be created in an amount equal 

to the Cost Plus Summary Entry. 

2. A deferred revenue journal entry should be created in an 

amount equal to the Cost Plus Summary Entry. 


amount equal to the Cost Plus Summary Entry multiplied by 

−1. 

4. A recognized revenue journal entry should be created in an 


 

For each Indirect and Fee Cost Plus summary Entry created as a 

result of the post: 


to the Cost Plus Summary Entry. 




amount equal to the revenue calculated for Cost Plus Summary 

Entry, using the Cost Plus Recognition Rate, multiplied by −1. 


amount equal to the revenue calculated for Cost Plus Summary 

Entry using the Cost Plus Recognition Rate. 

Time & Materials and Fixed Price Projects 

Preconditions: 

1. The project must have a billing type of Fixed-Price (FP) or Time and 

Materials (TM) 

General: 

1. All labor bill amounts are determined as hours multiplied by effective bill 

rate. 

2. All expense bill amounts are determined as expense bill amount 

allocated to project being posted. 

3. All eligible Pre-Billed Labor entries are posted prior to posting any 

eligible labor. 

Page 22 of 48 


Pre-Billed Labor: 

 

 

 

All qualifying Pre-Billed labor for the project will be marked as posted. 

Qualifying Pre-Billed labor must meet the following conditions: 


2. Must have a bill date > Setup >> Accounting >> Billing - 

Bill Labor. 

Qualifying labor must first be used to retire any outstanding pre-billed 

labor before being considered billable. 

Qualifying labor must retire outstanding pre-billed labor in a FIFO order 

based on comparison date. 

If the project has at least one qualifying labor item, the project must 

have an account mapping for Unbilled and Recognized Revenue. 

If the project has at least one qualifying labor item and an outstanding 

pre-billed labor balance, it must also have an account mapping for the 

account category Deferred Revenue. 

Expense: 

 

 

All qualifying expenses for the project will be marked as posted. 

Qualifying expenses must meet the following conditions: 


2. Must be from a LOCKED or EXTRACTED expense report 

Page 23 of 48 


3. Must not be for an ADVANCE or CASH-RETURN expense 

4. Must be billable — charged to a billable project type 

5. Must be charged at the project level and the project has a billing 

type of T&M, or must be charged to a task that has a billing type 

of T&M or that defaults to a billing type of T&M 

6. Must have a comparison date

All qualifying fixed-price percent complete revenue will be posted. 

If the associated fixed-price item has never been posted, it will 

be marked as posted. 

Qualifying fixed-price percent complete revenue items must meet 

the following conditions: 

1. Must be using percent complete revenue recognition 

2. Currently postable revenue must be non-zero, where 

currently postable revenue = sum of previously posted 

revenue - (current percent complete * fixed-price item bill 

amount) 

 

 

Budget data used to determine percent complete for the fixedprice 

item's associated project or task is obtained in the following 

manner: 

1. If project/task has a budget snapshot active as of this 

post's actuals through date, the budget snapshot will be 

used 

2. If no budget snapshot is active as of this post's actuals 

through date, the project or task's budget data will be 

used. 

Percent complete for the fixed-price item's associated project or 

task is obtained in the following manner: 

1. If project/task budget data has an entered percent 

complete, the entered value will be used 

2. If project/task budget data has NO entered percent 

complete, the percent complete will be estimated using the 

percent complete estimation rule defined on the project 

and labor and expense actuals associated with the 

project/task as follows: 

Time Actuals: 

1. Must be charged to the project/task 

associated with the fixed-price item. 

2. Must be from a LOCKED or EXTRACTED 

timesheet 

3. Must NOT be a pending adjustment 


3. Must not be for an ADVANCE or CASH- 

RETURN expense 


2. A recognized revenue journal entry should be created in 

an amount equal to the labor item's bill amount. 

 

For each Expense item posted: 


to the expense item's bill amount. 


amount equal to the expense item's bill amount. 

 

For each Fixed-Price related item posted: 

If the associated fixed-price item had not been previously 

posted: 

1. An unbilled journal entry should be created in an amount 

equal to the fixed price item's bill amount. 


amount equal to the fixed price item's bill amount. 

 

 

If posting fixed-price scheduled revenue: 


amount equal to the fixed-price recognition schedule 

amount multiplied by −1. 


an amount equal to the fixed-price recognition schedule 

amount. 

If posting fixed-price percent complete revenue: 


amount equal to the sum of previously posted revenue - 

(current percent complete * fixed-price item bill 

amount) multiplied by −1. 


an amount equal to the sum of previously posted revenue - 

(current percent complete * fixed-price item bill amount). 

Page 27 of 48 


Post Process - Feedback 

Once the post is run, the Billing Manager will see feedback written to the 

screen that will indicate the projects, and status of each project, included in 

the post. Should any unexpected issues be encountered, additional details will 

be written to the screen for the effected project. Note that any project that 

encounters an error during the Post, would result in no items being posted. 

Other projects within that same run that did not encounter an issue would 

have their data posted. 

Unpost 

The Unpost screen is used by a Billing Manager to undo a previous Post for 

one or many projects. Unposting a previous Post will permanently erase any 

evidence of a particular Post. When running an Unpost, there is no audit trail 

showing that the original Post occurred nor will there be any audit trail that an 

Unpost occurred. 

Once the Unpost is run, the Billing Manager will see feedback written to the 

screen that will indicate the projects and status of each project included in the 

Unpost. Should any unexpected issues be encountered, additional details will 

be written to the screen for the effected project. 

Page 28 of 48 


Add Invoice 

The Add Invoices screen is used by a Billing Manager to generate invoices for 

one or many projects. Once an invoice has been created, it can be further 

modified or removed via the List Invoices screens. 

Note that a project can only have one draft invoice in existence at any one 

time. To invoice items posted after a draft invoice has been created, you can 

either delete the draft invoice then recreate a new draft invoice (which would 

pick up all eligible items) or complete the existing draft invoice and then 

create a new invoice (to pickup just the newly posted items). 

The Through Date selection criteria can be used to narrow down the time 

frame for which details will be included in the output. In this control you have 

the option of specifying: 

 

Through Date -- You can specify a Through Date by either typing in 

the date directly or using the calendar control. Specifying this option 

will result in all eligible posted / un-invoiced details up to and including 

the Through Date to be included in the draft invoices. 

Page 29 of 48 


Named Date Range -- You can specify a named date range from the 

list of available built-in values. This approach may be particularly 

helpful if you plan to save the criteria. 

The Invoice Date field is used to supply the date that will be stamped on the 

resulting draft invoices created during the Add Invoice process. This date, 

combined with the Payment Terms value for the invoice will determine the 

invoice due date. 

The resulting list generated will be similar to the image below. 

The Billing Manager will place a check mark next to each project to be invoiced 

and click on the Generate Invoice button to initiate the process. Checking the 

check box at the top of the column will toggle all check box values (checked / 

unchecked). The values in blue can be clicked to see the detailed supporting 

data prior to generating an invoice for that project. 

Add Invoice Feedback 

Once the Invoice Generation is run, the Billing Manager will see feedback 

written to the screen that will indicate the projects and status of each project 

included in the creation process. Should any unexpected issues be 

encountered, additional details will be written to the screen for the effected 

project. 

Page 30 of 48 


List Invoice 

The List Invoices screen is used by Billing Managers to view, edit, delete, 

complete or reverse (void) existing invoices. 

It is also available to Billing Viewers for the purpose of viewing invoices. The 

resulting list of invoices displays summary information about each invoice, 

including amount, payment terms, invoice date, by whom and when an invoice 

was created, completed and extracted. Information on any reversed or voided 

invoices is also included. 

Billing Managers can use the draft invoice edit feature to accomplish the 

following: 

 

 

 

add One-Time Items, such as discounts, additional fees or tax. 

modify header, footer, description and memo details, and 

defer individual items from appearing on an invoice. 

If Payment terms are changed, the invoice will recalculate the due date from 

the invoice date. 

Note that when information is changed on a project invoice (payment terms, 

invoice memo & what other fields), the saved project values are not changed. 

When an invoice is Approved using the green check mark, it is set to complete 

and Unbilled (or Draft) items become Billed. Corresponding Revenue 

Recognition Journal entries are created where appropriate for the One Time 

Items and for Fixed Price Items where recognition occurs on bill completion. 

Creating and Adjusting Invoice with Only One-Time Items 

If you wish to create a project invoice and there are no billable items, on the 

Add Invoice Search page, check the box at the foot of the screen for ‘Include 

Projects with no billable data’. Then checking the project will create a blank 

draft invoice for on which One-Time Items can be added. 

Revising Invoiced Amounts 

To support the scenario when an invoice is sent to a customer and the amount 

is not accepted, the following options are available in Unanet 9.5. 

Page 31 of 48 


(1) Changes to “total” with another invoice 

 

 

 

Produce another invoice with One-Time item with a debit or a credit. 

This may be the only item on the invoice (select the option ‘Include 

projects without unbilled data’ under Add Invoice to do this) 

Use the memo field to indicate that this invoice is an addendum to 

the original invoice 

This invoice will have a different number 

(2) Correct on the next invoice (via adjustments and/or one-time items) 

Timesheets are adjusted and go through the normal process. 

Correcting expense reports could also be submitted, approved and 

posted. 

The next invoice includes these and/or One-Time item with a debit or 

a credit to the amount of the original invoice. 

This invoice will have a different number. 

(3) External reformat combined with one-time item 

 

 

A one-time item or adjustment on an invoice that is not sent to the 

client could be used to ensure correct bill and revenue balance in 

Unanet. 

The original invoice can be copied to Word or Excel and formatted as 

desired if the client requests that the original transactions are 

presented. 

(4) Reverse Invoice and Include Items on Future Invoice(s) 

 

 

 

 

In Unanet 9.5 support has been added to ‘reverse’ or void a specific 

invoice. 

This is accomplished by clicking on the Void icon in the Invoice List. 

When an original invoice is reversed (voided) in Unanet, the 

transactions included in the voided invoice are available for future 

billing in Unanet under one or more new invoices with different 

invoice numbers. 

An original invoice can only be voided once. Prior to voiding an 

invoice the user is presented with a warning. 

Page 32 of 48 


Reporting 

The various Project Accounting reports (formerly Project Costing) that include 

the Revenue entity can now make use of a new Revenue field that 

incorporates posted data and where necessary forecasts revenue using the 

same methods as the Post process. 

In addition to enhancements to existing reports, seven new reports have been 

introduced to provide information on billing, revenue, invoice and journal entry 

data. 

New Detail Reports: 

Billing & Revenue Details – can be run standalone or used as a clickthrough. 

The Post Preview, Add Invoice screens and the Billing & Revenue 

Summary Report all provide the ability to click on certain cells (shown in blue) 

to see the detail comprising a summary value. 

This report provides details related to what has happened in the system with 

respect to billing and revenue recognition. This report does not include any 

projected values. This report may be helpful for investigating the details that 

went into a particular cost element summary number, for example, such as a 

labor or ODCs that appeared on an invoice. 

When running this report, you will need to indicate whether the resulting 

output should include details related to Billing or Revenue but not both at 

once. Details can be included based on Item Date (when the item of interest 

happened) or Journal Date (the date associated with the item during the Post 

or Invoice Completion process). 

When running this report for Cost Plus projects, the labor and expense will be 

shown at the time cell / expense data allocation level. Indirect charges and 

fees (i.e. discount, fringe, G&A, overhead, etc) will be shown with the 

appropriate cost element's description. 

This report is available to the Administrator, Billing Manager, Billing Viewer 

and their alternates. 

Page 33 of 48 


Fixed Price Details - this report provides visibility of fixed price billing items 

and their associated revenue recognition schedules. The report can be 

configured to optionally display Unbilled and Billed amounts, Deferred and 

Recognized Revenue amounts, Revenue Recognition Schedules, and can also 

be used to show Past Due Fixed Price items (those configured to Bill on 

Completion). 



Page 34 of 48 


Invoice Details - this report provides a view of the data that is included on 

an invoice, not necessarily at the same level as the data displayed on the 

invoice. The output can include invoices having a status of draft, completed 

and those having been marked extracted (via the Admin >> Export >> 

Accounts Receivable export). 



Page 35 of 48 


Journal Details - this report will provide a view of the Unanet Journal detail 

information that has resulted from a Post or Invoice Completion process. This 

may be useful if attempting to investigate the supporting detail of a number 

display on other billing reports. 



Page 36 of 48 


New Summary Reports: 

Billing & Revenue Summary – provides one line per project, optionally 

showing bill data, revenue data or both. Drill-down from report cells to the 

Billing & Revenue Details Report with supporting data is provided. 

Journal Summary – group journal transactions by date and Account Code. 

Optionally show Project Code, Project Organization or Owning Organization. 

Page 37 of 48 


New Status Report: 

Invoice Status - Similar to the Timesheet Status and Expense Report Status 

reports, this provides a Summary or Detailed View of Invoices. If the Detailed 

view is chosen, a page break between each invoice is provided. 

Page 38 of 48 


Exports 

Three new exports are provided: Fixed Price Schedules, Accounts Receivable, 

Journal Entries. There are no new imports. 

Fixed Price Schedule Export 

The Fixed Price Schedule export screen with options and available fields are 

shown below. 

Page 39 of 48 


Accounts Receivable Export 

The Accounts Receivable export screen with options and available fields are 

shown below. This export will typically be used to feed invoiced data from 

Unanet to a down-stream system for accounts receivable. 

Page 40 of 48 


Page 41 of 48 


Journal Entry Export 

The Journal Entry export screen with options and available fields are shown 

below. 

If required, use lookup on Journal Type to identify revenue due to 

reimbursable expenses on Journal Entry export and translate to a different 

account code. 

Page 42 of 48 


Page 43 of 48 


Debits and Credits 

This section provides a brief guide 

how credits and debits are handled in 

Unanet for assets income and 

liabilities. The table shows how debits 

and credits increase or reduce assets 

liabilities and income. 

The sign with which the charge will be included in the reports is dictated by 

the combination of the Credit/Debit designation and the account type (Asset, 

Liability, or Income). 

In Unanet, the Accounts are mapped as follows: 

Billing transactions (Billed & Unbilled) -> Asset 

Revenue transactions (Deferred & Recognized) -> Income 

Tax -> Liability 

When a charge is posted to a journal, two journal transactions are generated 

in order to “hit” both sides, the debit and the credit. 

For example: 

Let’s say we wanted to bill a $200 labor charge with a $10 tax, and $5 

discount, where discount is expected to be billed and recognized as 

regular labor. Following are the entries generated in the Unanet 

General Journal: 

Date Account Debit Credit [Amount] 

1/1/2010 

(Post dt) 

Post(billing) – labor charge 

Unbilled (asset) $200 200 

Deferred Revenue (liability) $200 200 

1/1/2010 

(Post dt) 

1/2/2010 

(Invoice dt) 

1/2/2010 

(Invoice dt) 

1/2/2010 

(Invoice dt) 

Post(billing) – labor charge 

Deferred Revenue (liability) $200 -200 

Recognized Revenue (liability) $200 200 

Invoice – labor charge 

Unbilled (asset) $200 -200 

Billed (asset) $200 200 

Invoice - tax 

Billed $10 10 

Tax (liability) $10 10 

Invoice - discount 

Billed $5 -5 

Discount (liability) $5 -5 

Page 44 of 48 


Glossary for Project Billing 

Item 

Description 

Bill Statuses 

Deferred Represents items for which revenue has been recognized 

but are not yet billable, such as a fixed price item where 

revenue is recognized on a percent complete basis. This 

is a category shown on reports. Such items are actually 

stamped as Unbilled in the journal entries. 

Unbilled Represents items that are billable and have been posted, 

but are not billed. 

Draft Represents items on a Draft invoice on reports, including 

One-time items which do not yet have an associated 

journal entry, and items which have unbilled Journal 

Entries. One-time items will have a journal entry of 

Billed when the invoice is complete. 

Billed Represents items that have been on a completed invoice 

Revenue Statuses 

Deferred Represents revenue that is billable, but not yet been 

earned. 

Draft Represents the value of items on draft invoices 

Recognized Represents the value or work completed or earned 

Unearned Revenue The terminology Deferred Revenue is used in Unanet for 

this. 

Funded Value 

Authorized expenditure, equal to project budgeted 

revenue. Can optionally be shown in an invoice header. 

Pre-Bill Labor 

The ability to create a billable transaction for placement 

on an invoice for T&M projects. When the invoice is 

completed this item will have journal entries for Billed 

and Deferred Revenue. Billlable hours which are posted 

will offset the deferred revenue until it has all been 

earned, i.e. becomes recognized revenue. Invoices show 

Pre-Bill amounts and remaining balance. Oncec a Pre-bIll 

amount has all been earned, additional posted billable 

hours would be billed in arrears. 

Actual Indirect Cost 

Rate 

Computed by dividing the total amount of the cost pool 

by the total amount of the direct cost element(s). 

Example would be dividing the total dollars spent on 

fringe benefits by the total payroll dollars of the people 

receiving the benefits. The actual rate is dynamic and 

changes with each period as costs are incurred and 

recorded in the General Ledger. This rate is computed in 

the accounting system and keyed into Unanet as 

required. Unanet allows the effective date for the Actual 

Rate calculation to be stored so that reports can show 

how current the rate is. Actual Rate is typically used 

Page 45 of 48 


Provisional Indirect 

Cost Rate 

Target Indirect Cost 

Rate 

when performing revenue recognition on CP type 

projects. 

The rate determined by budgets or forward pricing and 

approved by audit of an outside firm or agency. This 

rate is static and only changes with authorization from 

the outside firm or agency. This rate is normally used in 

proposals and in billing for Cost Type contracts. This 

rate is keyed in. 

The rate determined by the company as a goal rate 

based on budgets. This rate may be the same as the 

provisional rate and is usually a static rate not changing 

but once or twice a year. This rate is keyed. Note, some 

accounting systems such as GCS support only two rates 

(Target and Actual). In such situations Target has the 

same meaning as Provisional defined above. 

Page 46 of 48 


Frequently Asked Questions 

Q: What roles are required to use the new billing functionality 

A: Admin role is required to set up standard data. This is done via the Admin 

>> Setup >> Accounting menu. Billing Manager Role is required to define 

project level data including Fixed Price Schedules, run a Post process, 

create invoices, delete or complete invoices. A Billing Viewer role allows 

users to see billing reports and invoices. 

Q: Which Unanet license is required to use this functionality 

A: The new functionality is only available to customers with either the Project 

Tracking or Project Portfolio licenses, i.e. Expense functionality is required 

and an equal number of time & expense licenses. 

Q: How are adjustments handled 

A: Labor adjustments are treated in the same was as other billable hours. 

Once locked or extracted they can be posted and will appear on an invoice. 

One-time items can be added to invoices as a means to create discounts, 

additional fees or other transactions with desired bill or revenue 

transactions. 

Page 47 of 48 


Historical Data 

This section in development … 

As the process for posting and invoicing creates many transactions, the best 

approach would be to post the historical data 

use Actuals Through date when posting to process all data for a 

historical period for projects of interest. 

create a single invoice and complete it for that period, resulting in all 

data being recognized and billed. Repeat for subsequent historical 

periods as desired. 

one-time items could be added to invoices if necessary to adjust 

revenue or billed amounts. (Unanet time adjustments would be treated 

in the same was as other time entries and processed by the post. 

Page 48 of 48

Project Billing Instructional Guide - Unanet Technologies

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?