Work in progress and realization¶
Two questions every firm asks about its time: what have we done that isn't billed yet, and when we bill it, how much of its value do we get? Time › Unbilled answers the first, Billing › Reports › Realization the second. Both are for managers, partners, admins and owners.
Unbilled time¶
Time › Unbilled is your work in progress: the billable time nobody has billed yet, with what it's worth at each person's billing rate.
- Group by Client, Person, Service or Partner (each client's partner on its team). By client, a client with time on several services shows a line for each.
- How old it is: each line splits its value into 0-30, 31-60, 61-90 and over 90 days, from the day the time was logged. Time over 90 days old is in red.
- Download CSV gives you the table as a spreadsheet, with each line's oldest entry.
Time with no billing rate has no value: a note above the table says how many hours, and where to set the rates (see Billing rates).
On a past day¶
As of shows your work in progress on an earlier day, such as a month's or a year's end for your books: the billable time logged by then and not yet billed on that day. Time billed later counts, as it wasn't billed then. Today comes back to now.
Bill it¶
Grouped by client, as of today, each client has two buttons:
- Invoice time makes an invoice from the client's time, entry by entry (see Invoice unbilled time). To put time on an invoice you already made, see Add time to an invoice.
- Mark billed is for time you invoiced outside Firmdesk: choose the day you billed it, the last day of time it covers and, if you like, the invoice number. The time leaves Unbilled and is locked.
Recently billed, below the table, lists the latest time billed. Mark unbilled brings a batch back to Unbilled. Time on a Firmdesk invoice goes back when it's taken off the invoice, or the invoice is voided or deleted.
Fixed-fee work¶
Time on a deadline billed as a fixed fee isn't in the work in progress total: the fee covers it. It's apart, under Fixed-fee work under way, by client, until the deadline is done. See Budgets and fixed fees.
Realization¶
When you invoice time, you often change the amount: less than the time was worth (a write-down), or more (a fixed price over the time). Billing › Reports › Realization shows what that came to for the time on sent invoices dated in a period, By client, By person, By service or By partner:
- Time value: the hours at each person's billing rate.
- Billed: what the invoices charged for that time, after an invoice's discount.
- Credited: what credit notes dated in the period took back of it. When an invoice has time and other fees, a credit note takes back from the time its share of the invoice.
- Written down: the time value less what it brought in. Below zero, the time was written up.
- Realization: what it brought in as a share of its value. 100% is billed at your rates.
By person: when one invoice line covers several people's time, what it billed is shared between them by the value of their time.
A fixed fee counts when its deadline is done: the fee against the value of the time it covered.
On a client's Billing tab, realization this year gives the same for that client since January 1.
Time marked billed outside Firmdesk, and time billed with no billing rate, have no amount or no value to compare, so they aren't in the report; the note above the table says how many hours.
Good to know¶
- Only billable time is work in progress. Internal time and time marked non-billable never are.
- Billed time is locked: to change it, take it off its invoice, or Mark unbilled first.
- When the billing rates change, Apply to unbilled time under Settings › Billing rates reprices the time not billed yet. Billed time keeps its rate.