Time and billing

Each client’s page has a Time tab where you record the work you do for them, either with a running timer or by logging minutes afterwards. Bokapsys prices each entry from your rate cards, and when you are ready, turns the unbilled time into a draft invoice in your firm’s own invoicing - one line per person per job.

Before you start

• To log time, your role needs permission to log time. To bill time, set rates and edit other people’s entries, it needs permission to manage time.
• Add at least a firm default rate (see Rate cards). Time with no matching rate cannot be billed.
• Billing creates an invoice in your firm’s own Invoicing. If the client is not one of your customers yet, Bokapsys adds them when you bill.

Record time

With a timer

1. Open the client and go to Time.
2. Click Start timer.
3. In the running timer card, choose the job you are Working on and describe What you are doing. You can change both without stopping the clock.
4. Stop the timer when you finish. In What did you work on?, check the Description - it is what the client sees on the invoice line - and the job it is Against. Optionally Charge a different rate instead.

While a timer runs, the console header shows the elapsed time and what you are on. Click it to return to that client’s Time tab. You can run one timer at a time, so stop one before timing another client.

After the fact

Click Log time, then enter the Minutes, the Date and What you did, and untick Billable if the time should not be charged. Click Log time to save it.

Change an entry

Any entry that has not been billed can be edited with the pencil on its row: the date, how long it took, what you did, which job it belongs to, whether it is billable, and its Hourly rate for this entry. Clear a rate you typed and the entry goes back to whatever your rate cards say.

Rate cards

Rates live in Firm settings under Hourly rates. Click Add a rate, choose what it Applies to, enter the Rate per hour and the date it is In effect from, then click Save rate.

Applies to	Use it for
One person, one client	A special price for one person’s work on one client.
One person, every client	That person’s standard rate.
A kind of work	A rate for everyone doing, say, payroll or VAT returns.
Firm default	The fallback when nothing else matches.

How a rate is chosen

The most specific rate wins:

1. A rate for this person on this client.
2. Otherwise, this person’s own rate.
3. Otherwise, a rate for the job’s kind of work.
4. Otherwise, your firm default.

If two rates of the same kind apply, the one with the latest In effect from date wins. The kind of work comes from the job template the entry’s job was created from - see Jobs and tasks.

An entry that matches no rate shows No rate. Set a rate on the entry, or move it onto a job whose kind of work has a rate, and it becomes billable.

Bill time

The top of the Time tab shows Unbilled time, Unbilled value and any entries Missing a rate.

1. Tick the entries you want to bill, or tick none to bill everything unbilled. Select all N ticks every billable entry, and Clear selection unticks them.
2. Click Bill N selected (or Bill all N).
3. Choose Bill which customer and the Revenue account the income should post to. Leave the customer empty to bill the client directly; Bokapsys adds them to your customers.
4. Under How your client pays:
   • If you have online payments switched on, the invoice carries a Pay button and bank details are optional.
   • If not, choose Pay into from one of your bank accounts, or type the Bank details on the invoice, and the invoice goes out as a bank transfer.
5. Click Create draft invoice.

The invoice is created as a draft in your firm’s Invoicing, so you can review and edit it before sending. Time is grouped into one line per person per job, such as “Ann Smith - VAT return Q1: 4.5 hours”.

Billing status

Every entry carries a status, read from the invoice it went on:

Status	Meaning
Unbilled	Ready to bill.
No rate	No rate card matches; it cannot be billed yet.
Non-billable	Marked as not for billing.
Awaiting payment	On an invoice that has not been paid.
Part paid	The invoice is partly paid.
Paid	The invoice is paid.
Overdue	The invoice is past its due date.
Written off	The invoice was written off.
Invoice voided	The invoice was voided.

When a client pays by card, the entries flip to Paid on their own. For a bank transfer, mark the invoice paid in Invoicing and the entries follow.

Note

Billed time is locked. Once an entry is on an invoice, it cannot be edited, deleted or billed a second time.

Related

InvoicesReview, send and track the invoice.

Online paymentsLet clients pay by card.

Jobs and tasksKinds of work and job templates.