Correcting billing errors
Sometimes items are submitted and approved, and even invoiced, with errors. Maybe an employee forgot they took a day off one week, and this error was missed during approvals, or perhaps a resource forgot to include some overtime hours they worked on a project.
If you become aware of an error in an item that will impact billing, there are a few possible ways to correct it; you may be able to:
- Reopen and correct the timesheet
- Correct the invoice itself, or
- Make negative entries in another timesheet to correct the error
Correcting the timesheet
Timesheets that have been included on an invoice can be reopened and edited, regardless of the status of the invoice. If you edit a timesheet that was included on an invoice, new billing items will be generated for each billing change.
You can include the new billing item on the original invoice if it's still in draft state, or you can include the billing item on future invoices, to correct the billing error. Refer to the table below for more information on how to make billing corrections on invoices with different statuses.
|
Status of invoice with error |
How to correct the error |
|---|---|
| No invoice - the timesheet hasn’t been invoiced yet | Reopen the timesheet and make the needed corrections, submit or approve the timesheet, and carry on with your normal invoicing process |
| Invoice has Draft status | Reopen and correct the timesheet, and then add the new billing item to the original invoice to correct the error |
| Invoice has Issued status1, but it hasn’t been sent to the client | Roll the invoice back to Draft status, and correct as described above for invoices in Draft state |
| Invoice has already been sent to the client | Reopen and correct the timesheet, and then add the new billing item to the next invoice for that client to offset the error |
Correcting the invoice
If an invoice has Draft status, you may be able to make corrections to the invoice itself. Refer to Making changes to a draft invoice for details.
Making changes to the invoice will not update the timesheet the hours were from. Typically, you should correct the timesheet that includes errors instead of amending the invoice itself, to fully account for time that was worked.
Using negative timesheet entries
If you can’t or don’t want to reopen an invoiced timesheet, there is another option for correcting such timesheets: enter negative time against the project to offset the error amount in a timesheet that hasn’t yet been invoiced.
However, you should never enter negative time in timesheets that are used for payroll, even to correct a billing error. This can result in incorrect or failed pay calculations.
For this functionality to be available, the timesheet’s template must include the Time Distribution Grid component, with the Allow negative durations option enabled.
FAQs
Why can’t we reopen an invoiced timesheet?
First, ensure the user who is trying to reopen the timesheet has permission to reopen timesheets.
If you see the following error when you try to reopen a timesheet:
This timesheet cannot be reopened because there are invoices using its data.
The timesheet’s template has the Prevent Changes to Invoiced Timesheets workflow condition assigned to it. Ask your Replicon administrator to remove that condition, then you should be able to reopen timesheets.
Changes to assigned timesheet templates take effect as of the next new timesheet generated. So, if you need to correct a timesheet that’s been invoiced and that workflow condition is in effect, you’ll need to either delete and recreate the timesheet, or use another method to correct the invoice.
If I correct a timesheet and then remove the erroneous billing item from the invoice, will the new billing item still be correct?
The amount of the new billing item will reflect the state of the timesheet at the time the item is added. For example, if you added a billing item for 32 hours to an invoice and then corrected the corresponding timesheet so it included 40 hours for the same user and project, the new billing item would be for 8 hours. However, if you first removed the 32 hours entry and then added the new item, the new billing item would be for 40 hours.
Can we allow only invoiced timesheets for certain projects or clients to be reopened and edited?
No. you can only limit which timesheets can be reopend by timesheet template; if the Prevent Changes to Invoiced Timesheets workflow condition isn't included on a template, any invoiced timesheet can be reopened and edited.
1 Could also applies to Paid status, if you’ve sent the invoice, but have asked the client to ignore that invoice.
Related links
Using Replicon for billing
How billing works
Setting up system billing rates
Generating manually-triggered custom billing items
Creating a new invoice
