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For like 90% of my invoices, which are usually sent monthly to clients for whom I do a lot of work, I bill for multiple ongoing projects on one invoice. But when I go to create an invoice in FreeAgent it only seems to allow me to pick one project and I can't see how to add another. Can someone let me know how to bill for two or more projects on one invoice?
Thanks!
Two projects on one invoice?
Official
Response
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EMPLOYEE
I’m
confident we'll get there.
Hey there.
I wonder whether our concept of a 'Task' is closer to what you call a 'Project'? Each FreeAgent project can have many tasks (against which you can track time if you like).
We will soon be expanding Tasks to include a time/value budget, which is our next step towards producing Estimates.
Does it help to think of it in this way, or is there something about Projects which you need to use? Budget, Start/stop dates etc? If so, or you really do need client-level invoicing (which makes tracking project budgets somewhat difficult) then we'll need to have a think.
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EMPLOYEE
I’m
confident we'll get there.
Hey there.
I wonder whether our concept of a 'Task' is closer to what you call a 'Project'? Each FreeAgent project can have many tasks (against which you can track time if you like).
We will soon be expanding Tasks to include a time/value budget, which is our next step towards producing Estimates.
Does it help to think of it in this way, or is there something about Projects which you need to use? Budget, Start/stop dates etc? If so, or you really do need client-level invoicing (which makes tracking project budgets somewhat difficult) then we'll need to have a think.Comment -
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Perhaps. I guess then I'd have to make the projects so general as to only really be representative of clients, and then add tasks as "projects"
For example, for one client during one month I completed both an annual report and a newsletter. I just assumed that it would make sense to list those both separately as projects.
But if I look back at the interface, I have to select both a client and then also a project name. I guess I'd have to create only one project for each client, something generic, and then only track tasks from there? I haven't really checked out the tasks but I can look into it.
The only thing though, is it seems to make the projects the exact same thing as the clients. Do you see what I mean? -
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I’m
hoping this will happen
I'm in a similar situation. My clients (whom I often subcontract for) think of a project as "create this blog" or "prepare this presentation", and these are very distinct in both our minds. I'd like a way to keep the current projects (with budgets, tasks, etc, etc) and be able to represent more than one project on an invoice. -
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I’m
hopeful
1ooo I was almost sold on this until I found you cant add more than one project to the same invoice. I know my clients would get a bit annoyed with individual invoices.
But yes if you can work on that then I consider having a look again in a few months. -
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There's just an extra step that's all. Here's what you can do:
* Create an invoice for the first project, adding time and expenses as required.
* Edit the invoice details, switching to the second project and again adding time and expenses from that one.
* Rinse and repeat
The invoice will be recorded against the last-selected project's budget (if you use that facility) and invoice history, but it can certainly contain time and expenses from more than one project.
What we could work on is a way of allocating rebilled time and expenses across their parent projects' budgets, but any manually added items will clearly be assigned to the last-selected project before the invoice was sent.
Would that help? -
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I’m
unsure
Nice idea Ed, but seems a little long winded to me when at the moment I just tick box the projects and hit an invoice button, bish - bash - bosh! :)
Rinse and repeat editing here and there just doesn't fit in a sole traders time schedule! :) -
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Can't compete with your existing bish - bash - bosh solution at the moment, then!
But I just created an invoice that included time and expenses from three test account projects and it took me 6 additional clicks and 14 seconds to add in the time and expenses from each of the additional projects.
If your existing solution also generates nice PDFs, accounting data, income tax & VAT calculations and an invoice timeline calendar feed from your invoices then those extra seconds are indeed wasted ;->
Of course we can do better, and I want to reduce those 6 additional clicks to just one... -
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I too need to invoice several projects in the one invoice. Each project has it's own set of tasks and additional invoice items but instead of printing out 10 invoices I'd just want one.
Other than copying out all the info from freeagent and into an indesign invoice template I've got, I don't see how I can do this within FA. You say:
* Create an invoice for the first project, adding time and expenses as required.
* Edit the invoice details, switching to the second project and again adding time and expenses from that one.
* Rinse and repeat
But how do you "switch" to a subsequent project and then add all the tasks assigned to that project? -
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Tony,
Re-select the 'Edit' button once you've created the invoice (adding the first project's unbilled items while you were at it).
Change the project on the 'Edit Invoice' screen and choose your 'Add Unbilled Time and Expenses options, which will now relate to the project you just switched to.
The new tasks etc will now appear on the invoice.
Of course you can add additional invoice items at anytime.
Does that make sense?
We're looking hard into 'Client-level' invoicing, in which case it may be that the Unbilled Time and Expenses will relate to all that client's projects, as well as expenses that might be rebilled to a client directly. Still some work to do there...- view 1 more comment
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Would love to have client-level invoicing
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I’m
confused
1Hmm...
I'm not very happy with the way multiple projects need to be added to one invoice.
Bothisbetter describes pretty much my feeling: "I guess I'd have to create only one project for each client, something generic, and then only track tasks from there? The only thing though, is it seems to make the projects the exact same thing as the clients. Do you see what I mean?"
I've tried the suggested "solution" and it works. However, it's not very clear how it can be achieved.
Tony Cook gives a good description of my confusion doing it the first time: "But how do you "switch" to a subsequent project and then add all the tasks assigned to that project?"
Once done, the invoice is still identified by "Contact and project". That is: one project. In my case, the last added project (if I'm right). Not any indication that there are multiple/other projects billed at the same invoice.
All in all, it's not that straightforward as I'd love to see. -
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I’m
hopeing thing will improve
That's correct. The invoice is classified as belonging to the last project that was added.
ie if you have three projects: ProjectA total £10, ProjectB total £10, & ProjectC total £10. You then add all three to one invoice sequentially. You will then have the projects listed for "Already Invoiced" as this: ProjectA total £0, ProjectB total £0, & ProjectC total £30.
This is inaccurate as they have all been invoices but just on a combined invoice, but it only looks as Project C has been invoice but not for the correct sum. This makes referencing past invoices complicated.
I think that this all stems from the way 'Projects' and 'Tasks' have been defined by FA. To me a project is 'design website', 'design stationary' etc and a task is 'create concepts', 'colour correct photos', 'artwork' etc
Hopefully this will be improved in time... fingers crossed. -
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I’m
unsure
1Wouldn't this solve it...
Lose Project/Contract from the invoice creation page...
And stick it to the ADD item list...
That way projects can be added with Tasks assigned to them and all the projects on the one invoice would be under the same invoice number. Ideally it would be ideal to have the project creation page assign a unique project number to each created project so they show on the invoice itemisation aswell. (note Im added project numbers myself in the project title)
Yes? -
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I’m
thinking that's a good idea
Yes that would work to a degree, although the Project/Contact could be listed several times on some jobs - for example if a project as a print element to it (or other external costs) - if the project total is made up of several components. But even so, you method would seem more logical, as each item listed on the invoice would be tagged with the Project/Contact code so each Project/Contact would be able to track what has been invoiced for it and then the "Already Invoiced" field would be accurate.
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I’m
hoping this can "solve" the issue
Looks indeed more logical to me.
However, if I try to add an invoice item there's no drop down field for "Project/Contract" here :\
I can see Qty, Details, Unit Price and VAT (=BTW in the Netherlands), but no Project/Contract. How do you guys get that field over there? -
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I’m
amused
I just made it up in Photoshop newoceans, it's not like that here either :)
(I was just suggesting thats how it should be) :) -
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I’m
amused too. Lol!
You're a genius! :D
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I’m
unsure
@ Tony, wouldnt the other elements of the same project be listed as Timeslips and tasks though? eg....imagine this is the one invoice...
Inv. No. 232 - CLIENT NAME
Project No.321 - 40 page A4 brochure
(timeslip) Design
(task) Layout of the pages = £1500
(task) Corrections = £200
(timeslip) Photography
(task) 2 day shoot = £500
_____________________________________
Project No.322 - 2 page leaflet
(timeslip) Design
(task) Layout of the pages = £100
Is that what you mean? -
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I’m
?
@ andy, there is no such field as 'timeslip'?
But yes, you're right. But my point was as each invoice item will contain the "Project/Contract", 'details', 'qty' & 'unit price' fields - by using you idea the invoice would be laid out like:
Inv. No. 232 - CLIENT NAME
Project No.321 - 40 page A4 brochure: 15hrs: (task) Layout of the pages = £1500
Project No.321 - 40 page A4 brochure: 2hrs: (task) Corrections = £200
Project No.321 - 40 page A4 brochure: Service: (task) 2 day shoot = £500
Project No.322 - 2 page leaflet: 1hr: (task) Layout of the pages = £100 -
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I’m
hopeful
Ah yes good point, that'll get messy.
The add Timeslip button shows up on the new project page...
I also think these buttons should be swapped around, with invoice on the far right so its more of an natural order...
Create Project
Add Timeslip
Add Task to that Timeslip
Do work and track time
Job Done
Invoice.
:) -
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You still don't have a timeslip field listed on your invoice - this page is just a means of adding time to a given task.
You're right with the button order - it make it more logical. We never add timeslips via this screen, we tend to use the 'time tracking' screen or the stand alone app 'Timepost' which integrate into FA.
Everyone uses FA slightly differently so having mulitiple ways of accesses various elements of FA is a good thing. -
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I’m
hoping it can be improved.
Yer me too, I was just suggesting that when a project is added to a invoice (rather than invoice to project as it is now), you'll get the option to add all the tracked timeslips already linked to that project to it. i.e by the time you come to invoice, the projects are all packaged up in their own little packages of time tracked and if you want to you can still add individual items to it....for those jobs that don't need any time tracking.
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I’m
unsure...
Nice discussion going on here ;)
To make it even more complex: I'm not sure if projects need to be related with invoices. Imagine, there's a huge project split into several invoices...
I'm not sure (just started using FreeAgent with a trial), but the way I look at it is:
- One project can contain many timeslips.
- One timeslip however, can be assigned to only one project.
- One task can be added to many timeslips.
- One timeslip however, can contain only one task. (not sure here)
- One invoice can contain many timeslips.
- One timeslip however, can be added to only one invoice.
The normalization of a relational database would give this result.
Hence, the invoice is not related to projects vice versa, but to timeslips. And when all timeslips of a project are added to an invoice, it's clear that the complete project is being invoiced.
Does this make any sense? -
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I’m
confused and wondering how FA developers look at it...
Hmm, now I see there's a thing called timesheet too. Haven't used this, so don't know how to add this to the scheme...
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@andy
"you'll get the option to add all the tracked timeslips already linked to that project to"
You already can?
@newoceans
One project can contain many timeslips.
One timeslip however, can be assigned to only one project.
One task can be added to many timeslips (for that particular project only)
One timeslip however, can contain only one task.
One invoice can contain many timeslips.
One timeslip however, can be added to only one invoice.
All statements correct
Additionally:
One project can contain many invoices.
But they way it is set up at the moment: One invoice can be linked to only one project. Which is the problem we would like to see changed. -
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I’m
possibly right?!
I feel your confusing newoceans....I was and think I still am a little confused over all this timeslip/tasks malarky.....hehe....I think though for a big project that warrants several invoices, (this is how I would tackle it anyway)....for example say a website had 2 parts of design and build...both needing to be on separate invoices, I'd just create two projects for it....eg.
Job No. 231 Website design - Inv. No.1
Timeslips/tasks enclosed
Job No. 231 Website build - Inv. No.2
Timeslips/tasks enclosed
The job numbers would be the important thing here so you can see that 2 invoices are for the same job (I also name the job folders on my Mac with the same Job number).
Two invoices, same project assigned to same client ...and each with their own Tasks listed.
Timesheet I would say is for mass adding of weekly times....more specific to people on contract/retainers with companys working fixed hours a week. -
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Yer Tony, sorry I meant to say that was the bit to keep in. :)
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I’m
hopeful
@tony
One project can contain many invoices.
I do agree ;)
That's also what the scheme says:
- One project can be billed by many invoices
- One invoice can contain many projects
The relation via timeslip makes this possible, because that's how project and invoice - I think - should be related.
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@ Andy
Yes, I can imagine creating two projects (for what actually is one and the same project) because it makes invoicing easier. However, this can't be the way it's meant to be - I guess ;) -
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I personally don't see how creating multiple projects for the same project would make this simpler - surly it's makes it more complex? You can already have multiple invoice listed under a single project. We part invoice on bigger projects.
We either invoice a job with a fixed price (from a quote - which is another feature which should be added) or it's based on our hourly rate, the Timesheets are used to either give us the total to invoice or to see how close our original quote was (so we can learn from our under quoting mistakes).
I think we all agree that the current method of adding multi projects to one invoice is a little lacking... and figures crossed will be improved in future builds, as I for one have more the 50% of invoices with multiple projects on them.
Hopefully Ed will see this thread and incorporate Andys suggestion of moving the project/contact field into the add task window. -
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I’m
trying to prevent misuderstandings
To prevent misunderstandings (my English terrible, I know;)
I agree that creating multiple projects for the same project is not a good idea. Just wanted to say I can imagine some people prefer to split up a project into multiple projects.
Personally, I don't. -
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I’m
learning!
Don't worry newoceans you're doing fine with the english....I bet mine is worse at times! :)
Ahh I didnt realise you could do multiple invoices for the same project.
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I’m
not misunderstanding you
The Dutch have a better grasp of the english language then some english do!
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I’m
amused
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I’m
hopeful
Wow, what a thread. I'd like multiple projects in one invoice too. Ed's technique does work but again, I don't really like it. I think choosing the project in the 'Add Invoice Item' area makes sense. Allow the user to add their items in the Invoice creation screen by inserting rows much like you do when you add timeslips. -
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I’m
thankful for workaround but that is what it is.
I totally agree with Lee. Not intuitive as it stands. I have to say I love everything else though. I look forward to the update. -
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I’m
amazed
Wow!..this thread is a year old!
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I’m
still hopeful
@andy. And we are still waiting for some sort of simplified combined invoicing within FA, other than the long winded way it has to be done now.
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I’m
miffed
Has this still not been sorted?, its very frustrating -
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I’m
still hopeful
I'm hoping this is actually on their to-do list, fingers crossed.
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I’m
reconsidering things
A major concern this one. I'm a new user and really love the simplicity of FreeAgent but I'm fearful it may also be it's undoing. During my implementation i have come across two potential deal breakers with request threads like this one over three years old. Automatically created incremental project numbers was my other wish. Something I was able to create in a filemaker solution 15 years ago but also strangely lacking in FA. My biggest worry is the development response time. you Would think that over three years a seemingly simple feature such as multiple projects on one invoice would be possible. There must be hundreds of users screaming for this.-
Agreed steve, as a fairly new user im finding these issues too with job numbers, i have to keep a separate book of jobs so i know what the next project number is, there seems to be no urge from FA to continue its development and keep improving. Pull your fingers out FA!
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I’m
dissapointed
1I agree, I'm evaluating FA on a trial too and I invoice each client for several different projects at the end of every month. It's easier for them that way. I really need to be able to send them one combined invoice. Disappointed that there doesn't seem an easy way to do that yet. I've been using Studiometry up to now which when you generate an invoice simply has a checkbox for 'multi-project' invoice, you then simply select the projects you want to include and the invoice is generated. Seems simple enough? Other than that, FA seems good but I'm still undecided as to whether I can switch because of this.
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2This is the first real missing feature I have found. Perhaps 'projects' should really be called 'clients' if never going to fix. Disappointing that this thread is three years old but no solution. FA great otherwise.
Roy -
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I’m
amused
I agree with comment just above. I have a Client, (a consulting firm) where each of their clients I work with are separate projects. Some require a lot of invoice detail and some less. My primary client (the consult firm) wants just one invoice, but with each of thier clients (projects) set out separately in that invoice. no matter what Ed says, FreeAgent does not do that. The 'edit' approach mixes up the work and it aint slick. Shame, as the rest of the system is great. So what I think we need, is a "Primary Client" level, then project levels that can auto flow into a single invoice at 'project level'. I wait with baited breath.
I cant find anything else to grumble about though, and I highly recommend this service overall. -
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I’m
frustrated
Currently trialling FA. Would dearly love to use it, but this not being able to add multiple projects on one invoice thing is a big stumbling block for me.
I do a lot of work on different projects for a lot of clients and I don't want to issue multiple invoices to clients each month and neither do they want me to.
Three years and still no solution to something this simple? What's the plan with this please? -
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I’m
frustrated
I agree this is a big problem with FreeAgent. I, like many other freelancers, often work on multiple projects for a client. I have tried the proposed work-around of editing an invoice, changing the project, adding billable time, then repeating for each project. The problem with this is the total invoice amount get added to the last project associated with the invoice, which affects the project breakdown. There appears to be no way for me to see how much has really been billed for each project. The fact this thread is now three years old and with no acceptable solution, leads me to believe this problem will not be fixed any time soon. I am currently exploring other online accounting systems as this flaw is a cause of great frustration and a real deal-breaker for me. It's a real shame, as everything else about FreeAgent is awesome.
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I’m
frustrated
The thing I've found with all online/cloud based services is that they all lack one important feature that would make them truly useful. I'm persevering with Freeagent during the trial period, basically experimenting to see if it's right for me.
To get around the lack of multiple projects on one invoice I've basically assigned one project to each client and then each project becomes a task. I then enter timeslips against each task (project) as a whole rather than individual tasks of the project. I've been using Toodledo for task management for a while now and although it's not perfect it does the job of tracking what I've been working on anyway so I don't necessarily need my accounts application to also track time at the task level. It would be nice, but I think I'm ok with summarising the time spent on a project for accounting purposes. If the client wants a breakdown (which they never do) I can run off a report from elsewhere.
When it comes to invoicing I simply add all unbilled time and group timeslips by task, which effectively gives me one line for each project. I can also still see how many hours have been billed for each project (in the task list for a project) but it does mean I can only see how much I've billed for each client rather than each project. I haven't come across any other problem with this. Yet.
I guess no application is ever going to be perfect, but this seems like such a big oversight that would prevent many people in our situation from using FA to it's full potential. -
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Frankly speaking, whilst FA is a god-send, 3 years waiting for a pretty popular request is hard to accept.
What is the complication? -
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I’m
frustrated and dissapointed
"We're looking hard into 'Client-level' invoicing" - 3 years to get it working? I've had to work with some less than productive developers in my time, but even they could have got this working quicker than that!
I'm in the same boat as everyone else, clients with multiple projects that I want to track individually but invoice on a single invoice. *Please* sort this out as it's a major flaw in the system.
In the mean time if you insist that we use tasks to identify our projects at least change "Project Profitability" to "Client Profitability". Another shame as this is something that would be quite nice to know at a project level. -
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I’m
frustrated
Quite unbelievable. I can't figure out why I would ever want to keep track of more than one project at a time for a client if I can't actually bill them on this basis.
Surely on the invoice creation page, where you decide whether to include time, expenses or estimates this simply needs to have a "Choose a project" drop down there rather than at the top (and should already be filled in if you came here from any specific project or timesheet screen).
Choose one, fill in the normal options > create invoice. Edit to go back round again and add items from another project. Once the items are added they are linked to the invoice (just as they are now) so they are counted as billed, can't be added to a different invoice, can't be edited etc, just as is the case now. -
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EMPLOYEE
I’m
wishing we could please everyone
Hi there,
I realise there's a lot of strong feelings about this, but it just hasn't been something that we've prioritised, as is probably fairly apparent.
I'll be totally honest and say this isn't on our short term roadmap right now, as there's some other really highly requested features that we're working on.
We won't forget about this, but it's not going to happen soon unfortunately.
Sorry to disappoint everyone. -
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I’m
indifferent
Like sometime in the next decade? how hard can it be to add a drop down option to the invoice so you can add multiple projects?
Also a bit embarrassing for you guys that it took you 4 years to reply to this post, clearly it is in demand, suppose an android app isn't either?- view 3 more comments
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While I realise this would take a chunk of coding, it does not appear to need a major re-structure of how the data is stored or linked. Timesheets and expenses (and estimates if you use them) are already linked to invoices, and locked when that is done so they can't be changed or linked to a different invoice. They are also linked to a project to help measure project profitability. None of this changes. The only thing that does as far as I can see is that each project which has some elements on an invoice would need to include the invoice on it's page for related invoices.
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Ok i understand about the android app, but i run a web design/developemnt agency, so i know how long these things take to do, if you have a developer worth his salt (which i no doubt you all are) then this isn't a task that will take months and months to acheive, especially if they know the structure of free agent like the back of their hand. Would just save a lot of sending separate invoices for small amounts that tend to get lost in clients 'to do' lists
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I’m
indifferent
That's a shame, Roan... I'm sure you will get there one day.
The work around is okay, but not ideal as it means that some of the functionality of FA is unused (in my case), for example the "Invoiced (Net)" column on the projects page is mainly £0 until you get to the project which includes all the projects on "it's" invoice. Plus the "Project Profitability" section under Summary within an actual project is useless. -
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I'd rather have bank feeds, for example, by a very, very long shot.
I invoice _weekly_, 2 projects (my wife and I) for the same client. It's a mild pain in the arse, but not enough to bump more useful stuff.
Like Bank feeds. Hint hint. Or the new API. Or...-
Hint taken!
As you know the new version of our API has just gone into beta.
And progress is going really well with bank feeds too. -
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Yup, sadly I've not had time to play with it... :(
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So, when I have to send three or four invoices to a client at once, that becomes a pain for several reasons:
- more admin for me (only very minor since all the data is already in and I just press the buttons. Arguably one or several is almost identical effort)
- more admin for my client (they are having to do more data entry for every invoice they receive)
- bank reconciliation becomes more painful, since in most cases clients will send me a single payment for their several invoices. Auto-reconciliation simply can't do it (so bank feeds might be nice but I would still have to hand-reconcile all of the transactions). I have to go to each payment and choose the appropriate invoice, and key in how much of the payment to allocate to this (no idea why it can't default to the full amount), then add the the next invoice, etc. -
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@AdamV
Imagine how I feel, we have a handful of clients that we can easy do 20-30 individual projects for in a month that all need to be added to one invoice. These projects all have mulitple tasks within each one so we can't as some people have suggested use the FA term 'tasks' to represent our projects.
I just have two browser windows open, one with the projects list open and one with an blank invoice open and build up the invoice manually.
The manual way of creating one invoice is doable, it just doesn't link the projects to the invoice, which means you look some FA functionality as I mension a few comments above this one. -
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I use 1 project per Order (because clients want to track their orders separately so they usually require separate invoices, even if they are submitted monthly), and then use "Tasks" for individual projects carried out within a single order.
That seems to be the way FA was designed to work, though it may only apply to some of the client base.
WHAT's NEEDED HERE
is an option to do client level invoicing, perhaps as SUMMARY invoices containing the individual projects as sub-"invoices"
and an option to bring up all outstanding timesheets/estimates/expenses, all pre-ticked for inclusion, and then untick the ones you don't want on this invoice (perhaps by project - format determined by project?)
I also need to apply budgets to individual tasks, so I can track what is going on. And the ability to cost my time even though I get a salary, to cross-reference the profitability of each task taking into account the amount of unbilled time spent -
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To add in my 2p:
We have the situation where I've been working on 3-4 different projects for the same client. The client pays the routine expenses and then passes on the hours and any specific expenses to their own clients.
So what I want to be able to do is have Project1, Project2, and "General Expenses" as projects associated with the client, book my time and expenses to a project as appropriate and then bill the client for the whole lot.
I can't use tasks because expenses can't be associated to tasks so I can't differentiate between those to be passed on and those not.
We'll try the changing the project half-way through method, but it'll screw up the reporting :-(
It seems like it ought to be a standard feature that you can include multiple projects on the same invoice if you want to. -
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I would prefer to be able to pick how I bill - sometimes a single project per invoice for some clients and for others all projects in a single invoice.
My clients don't appreciate having to process a large number of separate invoices - all of them for small amounts. -
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I’m
anxious this won't get developed soon.
what's the status on this feature request? it is important to me as well.
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I’m
excited that there is a solution now!
This has been running as long as I can remember - so long in fact that my own brother has come up with a solution - which basically allows you to choose what goes on the invoice, with a kind-of template so you can choose to do client level invoicing or project level invoicing.
OK his solution is designed for small professional services companies (up to 50 staff, plus associates) rather than for single freelancers, but it's pretty clever, cloud based, and will be (it's still in beta) an excellent solution based on a lot of user feedback. Mail me if you are interested because we're looking for beta testers (you'll probably need to continue with FA during the beta period so you don't lose anything, so FA won't lose out) hugo@minney.org subject: client-level invoicing -
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I’m
jittery, but watching the progress for now
I have just activated my account after testing it a while back, and now I remember why I never activated it. My clients do not want to get 5-10 invoices from me per month, just one. This feature request (which should be standard) is over 4 YEARS old, with only 1 response from the devs. As a new user, it makes me a bit nervous that hte devs are not listening to their user base. Devs, care to comment?
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Well, they did respond (6 months ago), but it wasn't the response most people here wanted.
I work around it by having a single client with a single project, and two tasks (one for me, one for my wife, with different daily rates). I assign work to the tasks, and make an invoice with tasks on seperate lines (one line per task).
Works perfectly. FOR ME. Might not work for you. Eg, I dont get project-level profitability on each of the two tasks, but thats not something I care about in this case. -
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There is an official workaround (that Ed stated - posts 5 and 9). I do something similar. I just have two browser windows open, one with the projects list open and one with an blank invoice open and build up the invoice manually by copy pasting project details across. Just did the invoices today and one contained 27 projects on it.
The manual way of creating one invoice is doable, it just doesn't link the projects to the invoice, which means you loose some FA functionality. This is the way we have done it for 4 years now. -
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First problem - the names of the concepts are wrong (yes, just plain wrong: Instead of "Project" FA should use "Contract" - ie for one client i have to send in separate invoices each month for two different pieces of work I'm doing. Instead of "Task" they should use "Project" so all projects can be billed at once. It would still be nice to automatically sort by Task rather than Date if I want to)
Second problem - FA is designed to solve a simple problem, how a small business can get stuff billed with minimum effort. In order to keep the effort to a minimum, it doesn't have lots of options. That means it will always fall over on something. I'm currently reviewing a product at beta stage which is much more comprehensive, but at the same time needs a bit more configuration. This will prepare invoices for all contracts or all projects and prepare a summary report for the customer, so they have all the detail if they want to read it (or send it out to the individual project managers), and procurement has the summary of what they need to pay. As i say, this gives you all you need, but it isn't quite as simple to use (it has more options) as FA. If you want to know more, mail me hugo@minney.org subject "client level invoicing", but recognise that FA will continue to be the best solution for a great many small businesses that just want to send out their invoices on time -
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@hugo
Personally I don't think that there is anything wrong with the Client/Project/Tasks implementation that FA uses. For one client last month, one of the many projects we did for them was a HTML Newsletter and the tasks would have been design/coding/testing/admin – and using the task allows you to use the timesheets correctly. Using your renaming method would mean that you are no longer able to breakdown a project on timesheets into various tasks which may be all priced up different hourly rates. -
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@tony
For one of my clients, I work on 5 different projects. My time for each of these is then rebilled (potentially including other stuff) to their clients.
The only satisfactory way I've found of doing this is to have these as separate projects in FA and then generating 5 invoices, but that's a pain for me and for them. I'd really like to generate just one invoice for everything for this client, grouped by project.
So, the best option for me would be just to have a invoice customer, all projects, rather than just one.
Alternatively, if expenses could be allocated to tasks within projects, I could use tasks and the invoicing would work (as long as the expenses could also be grouped by task).
I've looked at the option of having two windows and manually adding all the items by hand but then of course you loose the tracking that says that these timeslips and expenses have been billed, and I really like this functionality. -
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@Denis
I agree with you, having multiple invoice for each client is a pain and manually building up one invoice per client is also a pain as you loose all the tracking functionality. The most elegant solution would be for Ed & Co to set it up to have multiple projects per invoice. But as you can see from the age of this thread and the reply from Roan 6 months ago they are in no rush to implement it.
So it seems that we all have to work within the confines for what FA can do to get this invoicing problem to work for each of us. For me it's going without the tracking, for others it's using tasks as projects.
For one I can't believe that this isn't an issue for more people, you're only the 29th person with a vested interest in this being fixed, for FA to put it on their roadmap. -
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I’m
disapointed
Just to add, that I would also like the ability to invoice multiple projects on one invoice. -
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Hi Nic,
Many thanks for your email.
We have this suggestion on our Features Request List for the technical team to consider and there are lots of things we'd really like to add and over time this will hopefully happen. Here's what we're currently working on and what we've recently delivered: http://depot.freeagent.com
If it helps, there is a workaround for the issue of reflecting multiple projects over a single invoice.
When you edit an invoice you can change the project and choose to add in time and expenses from that project instead. If you do this repeatedly you'll be able to handle multiple projects in that way. The invoice (when sent), unfortunately will only be assigned to the last selected project (or no-project, of course) for the purposes of comparing it against the budget.
I hope this helps,
Kind regards,
Charissa -
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I’m
Disappointed and slightly frustrated
I would like to add my wish for this feature. Freelancers in the entertainment industry almost always have to add multiple projects to one month end invoice to their clients and I am no different. Having this very very simple feature added would be, without overestimating its importance, a game changer for people in my industry. I'm a new subscriber and although I subscribed knowing this lack of feature I did so in the hope that as it was on the feature request list it would be with is shortly. With the announcement that you guys are now developing a whole new site for the American audience that hope is fading very quickly into the distance!!
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I’m
still waiting after 4 years.
@Ben Welcome to this old old thread, like you, I too would have thought that this was a "no brainer" feature. But after 4 years of this thread being posted, new features such sending a new user a "invitation email" is a more important feature for the user. Hopefully the new redesign, when it's launched, will have some tasty improvements.
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I’m
thinking this may be a long slog!
@tony thanks for the welcome. I have had a look through and can see that it seems this feature request seems to be falling on deaf ears, no matter what comments have come out of the admins. shame that they think that the lengthy and, from project budgeting perspectives, inadequate workaround seems to be the solution.
My idea for implementation of it in a way that i would hope would cause them too much of a issue would be to create an entirely separate type of invoice, lets call it a 'client invoice'. So your 'client invoice' acts as just a master container for all your smaller invoices. So you create your invoice, lets call it invoice number 1 As you add each project to the master invoice it creates almost a sub invoice, so invoice 1am for every project you add. It then sums the total and produces a master invoice for you, whereas hopefully the freeagent system would see it almost as 5 invoices that all happen to be being sent at the same time. Then when payment comes through again it could just treat it as 5 invoices being paid in one combined payment.
By the way anyone from freeagent, does the system support a client sending me say a £2000 payment that actually covers 4 x £500 invoices?
Anyway my twopenceworth. Obviously i dont know how freeagent is written but it doesnt seem to be too hard to do it. I just see that solution as similar to the workaround we currently have, but the system does the work, not the user, after all isnt that what freeagent likes to say it does, takes work away from the user!
Ben -
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I’m
in a good mood for a change
@Ben:
"By the way anyone from freeagent, does the system support a client sending me say a £2000 payment that actually covers 4 x £500 invoices? "
I'm not from FreeAgent, but I do this all the time. You just open the bank statement line, change the amount from the total to the single invoice amount and select the invoice. Then do it again for the other 3 (the total for all 4 needs to match the total of the payment). (yup, wanted to be able to tick 4 invoices once, but I think it's quite a way down the back log)
Not obvious at first, but once you do the second one, it makes perfect sense. -
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"By the way anyone from freeagent, does the system support a client sending me say a £2000 payment that actually covers 4 x £500 invoices? "
Yes, when you get the payment in you explain it against invoice1 and make sure to change the amount to allocate to be £500. Then the remainder is still "unexplained" and you can go and explain the other parts.
I do this quite often for bigger clients where I have sent several invoices (one per project). -
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Nic and Adam - thanks both for explaining this! Here's an extract from our Knowledge Base where this is illustrated http://www.freeagent.com/support/kb/b...
Kind regards,
Emily -
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Coming back to the multiple projects on one invoice problem, which is still a monthly problem for us.
Could someone at FreeAgent let me know if using the API I could associate timeslips and/or expenses from different projects to a single invoice?
In other words, could I build myself a web-based tool that allowed me to make up for this missing functionality, or does the underlying model mean that I can't? Actually, looking at the API, it seems that invoices are associated with projects, not individual invoiceItems. That's the fundamental problem I suppose. If invoiceItems were associated with projects, then this functionality would be easy to implement. Even better, if invoiceItems could be (optionally) associated back to timeslips or expenses, then it would be easy to tell if an expense or timeslip had been invoiced yet or not. It would make it much easier to check which things needed to be invoiced.
On a similar note, we put our times and expenses in as we go along. The problem we get if we don't create the invoice on the 1st of the month is that when you add unbilled time and expenses (so somehow it must know???) then it adds not just last month's, but also everything to-date. It'd be great to be able to pick "add unbilled time and expenses up until or last month or whatever).
I really hope all these posts will have some effect. FA is a really good tool, but this missing functionality makes it a real pain for me an my customers. -
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1"On a similar note, we put our times and expenses in as we go along. The problem we get if we don't create the invoice on the 1st of the month is that when you add unbilled time and expenses (so somehow it must know???) then it adds not just last month's, but also everything to-date. It'd be great to be able to pick "add unbilled time and expenses up until or last month or whatever). "
I've had to do this before for clients who want strict billing per calendar month, but I don't get round to the admin until a few days after month end. I simply set the invoice date to first day of the month, add all the unbilled time, expenses etc - it only includes items taking place before the invoice date (not today's date as you may have assumed).
I then edit the invoice to change the date if necessary, although arguably you could/should still date it the 1st if that is a truer representation of the period for which the work was done. -
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