Billing a client

A bill is a collection of amounts due that can be submitted to a client as an invoice. When you create a bill, you are generating the content of an invoice.

A bill can be paid, unpaid, and partially paid, as indicated on the Billing > Transactions page.

When do amounts become available to bill?

In Polaris PSA, project billing is based on bill plans that project managers create for their projects.

These plans define exactly when amounts are available for billing, and when. Hours worked and expenses entered do not have to be approved before they become available, unless that’s specified as part of the bill plan.

To create a bill

Go to Billing, and select Transactions.

Or,

Select Projects in the side menu, choose a project, and click the Billing & Invoicing tab. Then, click the Edit button located at the top, right-hand corner of the page.

Hover over the icon located at the bottom, right-hand corner of the page, and select the Bill icon (not the word ‘Bill’).

An Add Bill panel opens.

Select a client to bill, enter a reference number, and update any other fields, if needed.

The client field will be automatically populated if you’re adding the bill from a project page.

Click Add Bill. The bill will be created, and editable fields will display where you can add amounts.

Click the

icon if you ever need to update details in the header of the bill.

To add amounts to the bill

A bill has three sections: Line Items, Payments, and Credit Memos. The Line Items section is where you’ll include the amounts you plan to bill to the client.

You can bill:

Amounts available to bill - these amounts become available automatically based on the project’s bill plan, or when resources submit billable expenses against a project
Ad hoc amounts against a project - you might occasionally need to add an ad-hoc charge for services performed or costs incurred for a project that weren’t covered in the bill plan, or
Ad hoc amounts against no project - you might add this type of ad hoc charge if an unplanned service isn’t associated with a specific project

Or, you can bill any combination of these, on any one bill. The bill will be saved automatically as you make changes.

At any point, you can add payments the client has made or credit memos to offset the billing amounts.

To add amounts available to the bill

Create or open a bill, then click + LINE ITEM.

In the Add Line Items dialog, with Available to Bill selected, all available amounts display automatically.

Click the check box beside each item you want to add to the bill.

Then, click Add Line Items, and the amounts will appear on the bill.

If many amounts display, to help find the specific amounts you’re looking for, you can:

Click + to view the project, task, resource, or billing rate associated with the item
Enter a search term into the search field, and/or
Click the icon to apply additional search criteria and click Search

To remove an amount from the bill, click the

and click Remove Line Item.

To add ad hoc amounts against a project

Create or open a bill, then click + Project.

Select a project name.

A line for the project with an amount of 0 will display on the bill.

Update the amount to the value you want to bill.

To add ad hoc amounts against no project

Create or open a bill, then enter the amount in the blank row available by default.

If no blank row is available, you can add no-project rows by clicking + LINE ITEM, selecting Custom and choosing None for project, then entering an amount.

FAQs

Why aren’t the amounts I’m looking for available to add?

If no items display in the Line Items dialog, no billable amounts are available to add to the bill – either because no amounts came available based on the project’s bill plan or expense submissions, or because available hours were already included on another bill.

When might we need to add an ad hoc amount?

You might add an ad hoc amount for any work or expenses you need to bill to the client, that aren’t covered in the project’s bill plan.

Can you create a bill for a project that doesn’t have a billing plan?

Yes, you can. In this case, no amounts will become available to bill, but you can enter ad hoc amounts.

What’s a payment term?

A payment term is the length of time the client has to pay the bill. For example, Net 30 means payment is due within 30 days of the invoice date.

How do I delete a bill?

To delete a bill, open it and click the icon to enter edit mode. Then, click the icon located beside the Cancel button, and select Delete Bill.

Help Project Managers