How to run the invoicing process end to end

This routine clears every due invoice for a billing cycle — at any frequency, monthly, bi-weekly, or custom. You work from the Invoicing tab: confirm each Project has a schedule, check the time behind each invoice is ready, generate, send, and mark sent. The detailed steps for building a single invoice live in the linked how-to; this guide is the cycle around it.

This routine is the billing mechanics at whatever cadence you invoice. How to run a month-end close is the broader monthly discipline that includes this step alongside time approval and financial review — use that one for the full month-end picture.

When to run it

Every billing cycle, on the schedule you bill clients on.

Who's involved

Invoicing is a chain, not a one-person job:

• Consultants submit (lock) their timesheets for the period.

• If approval flows are on, project managers — or whoever approves client work — approve those timesheets.

• Account managers, project owners, or finance then generate, send, and clear the invoices.

Whoever drives the cycle (often finance or operations) depends on the first two having happened — which is why the routine opens by checking the time is in and approved before anything is invoiced.

The invoicing routine

1. Make sure every project has an invoicing schedule

Move to the invoicing view on the sidebar first.

Under "Missing data," set a billing cycle — monthly, bi-weekly, or custom — for each Project. Projects without a schedule show only total uninvoiced hours, not the per-period breakdown the rest of this routine relies on.

2. Check the time behind each invoice is ready

When a Project's invoice period has ended, its Status shows where the time for that invoice stands (before that, it shows Upcoming):

• Not submitted — some of the people on the Project haven't submitted their hours for the invoice period.

• Approval pending — everyone has submitted their hours, but some are still waiting for approval.

• Ready for invoicing — all hours for the period are submitted and, with approval flows, approved.

In the toolbar, Projects that are Not submitted or Approval pending are counted together under Pending.

The Time entries and expenses column shows the status of the time that would land on this period's invoice, so you can confirm it's complete (and, if you use approval flows, approved) before you create it. Hover the indicator to see the breakdown.

With approval flows, the period splits into three states:

• Open days during period — time not yet submitted/locked, with the date each person is locked until (or "Never locked").

• Entire period locked, pending approval — time submitted and locked, but not yet approved.

• Entire period approved — approved time.

Without approval flows, there's no approval step:

• Open days during period — time not yet submitted/locked.

• Entire period locked — time submitted and locked.

Time should be locked — and approved, where approval flows are on — before you invoice. A Project under Pending needs chasing: Not submitted means consultants still owe time, and Approval pending means the approvers haven't approved it yet. See How to set up approval flows and How to submit (lock) a timesheet.

3. Generate invoices for the current cycle

Under "Ready for Invoicing”, whoever owns the client's billing — an account manager, project owner, or finance — creates the invoice for each ready Project; it then moves to "Invoices ready to be sent." See How to create and send an invoice for the per-invoice detail.

4. Send and mark as sent

For each invoice ready to send, export it as PDF (or send via API), send it through your finance tool or email, then mark it as sent to move it to the Sent tab.

5. Handle freeform invoices and credit notes

For charges not tied to Time entries — a fixed fee, a one-off item, an adjustment — create a freeform invoice, choosing the client and Project and adding your own line items. Switch the same dialog to a freeform credit note to issue a standalone credit.

6. Confirm the cycle is clear

When "Projects to be invoiced in [period]" is empty, every due invoice for the cycle has been handled.

End state

All due invoices for the current period are created, sent, and marked sent — the cycle is clear.