Progress Claims and Invoicing

This page covers the three features you use together each claim period:

• Percentage invoicing: invoice each task by percentage complete.
• Contract variations: record variations and send the client a Contract Variation report.
• Progress claim report: produce the Payment Claim / Tax Invoice for the period.

Retention is deducted from each claim automatically. See Retentions.

Percentage invoicing

On fixed-price contracts you claim progress payments based on how far through each part of the work you are, for example "the foundations are 60% complete". Standard Business Central invoices project planning lines by quantity, so you'd have to work out the quantity for each line on every claim.

With percentage invoicing, you enter the percentage complete for each task. The app calculates the amount due for this claim and creates the invoice.

Why you need it

• It matches how the contract works. Claims are agreed as a percentage of each part of the contract, not as quantities of items.
• It avoids over- and under-claiming. You enter the cumulative percentage complete, and the app claims only the difference from what has already been invoiced.
• It saves time at month end. The invoice, retention, posting, sending, and WIP posting can all run in one batch.

What you get

• A To Invoice % on each task, with a preview of This Invoice Amount and This Invoice Cost before you run the invoice.
• A % Invoiced column that shows how much of each task has been claimed to date.
• A Create Sales Invoice batch job that can also post or post-and-send the invoices, calculate and post WIP, and complete the project on the final claim.
• The retention line added to each invoice automatically when retentions are set up.

Setting up

1. Turn on Use Percentage Invoice in Projects Setup if you want new projects to use percentage invoicing by default.
2. On each project, check Use Percentage Invoice on the Invoice and Shipping FastTab. When it is on, the percentage columns appear on the project's task lines.

How it works

Enter the percentage for each task

On the project card, in the Tasks part:

Column	Description
% Invoiced	The percentage of the task's billable value already invoiced.
To Invoice %	The cumulative percentage you want to have invoiced after this claim. It must be higher than % Invoiced, and no more than 100.
This Invoice Amount	The amount this claim will invoice: billable total price × (To Invoice % − % Invoiced).
This Invoice Cost	The cost that goes with this claim, based on the task's forecast final cost.

You can enter To Invoice % only on tasks of type Posting. Leave it blank on tasks you're not claiming this time.

Example. A task has a billable value of 100,000, and 30% has been invoiced so far. You enter To Invoice % = 50. This Invoice Amount is 20,000.

Create the invoice

1. On the project card or the project list, choose Create Sales Invoice.
2. Fill in the options:

Option	Description
Posting Date	The posting date of the invoices. Defaults to the work date.
Create Invoice per	Project creates one invoice for the project. Project Task creates one invoice for each task.
Post	Posts the invoices straight away. On by default.
Post and Send	Posts the invoices and sends them using the customer's document sending profile. You can't select both Post and Post and Send.
Calculate and Post WIP	After posting, calculates WIP for the project as at the work date and posts it to the G/L. On by default.
Auto Complete Job	After posting, sets the project to Completed. Use this on the final claim.

3. Choose OK.

Only tasks with a To Invoice % are included. For each billable planning line on those tasks, the quantity to invoice is the line quantity × the percentage being claimed, so lump-sum lines are invoiced as a fraction (for example 0.2 of a quantity of 1). Retention is added to the invoice as described in Retentions.

When the batch finishes, To Invoice % is cleared on the tasks it processed, ready for the next claim.

tip

If you want to review invoices before posting, turn off Post (and Calculate and Post WIP). To Invoice % is still cleared, and the draft invoices keep the amounts. Delete a draft invoice if you need to redo the claim.

Posting options on the standard invoicing actions

The standard Create Sales Invoice action on the project task lines and the Create Sales Invoice action on project planning lines (Project Transfer to Sales Invoice) get Post and Post and Send options too, so you can post invoices created from those places in the same step.

Things to know

• If an unposted credit memo exists for a task, you can't change the task's To Invoice % until the credit memo is posted or deleted.
• When Revalidate Customer on Invoice is turned on in Projects Setup, the project's customer details are refreshed before the invoices are created, so address changes carry through.
• When invoices are posted from the batch, the app also updates the task budgets to match the forecast final cost. See Keeping the budget in line with the forecast.
• Calculate and Post WIP uses the Project WIP Nos. number series in Projects Setup and the project's WIP method.
• To print the claim for the client, use the Progress Claim report.

Contract variations

Most contracts change once work starts. The client asks for extra work, the design changes, or site conditions turn out different from what was expected. Each variation has to be priced, submitted, and approved, then tracked and claimed separately from the original contract.

This feature lets you keep the full record of each variation on the project and produce a Contract Variation document to send to the client.

Why you need it

• Variations are often where margin is won or lost. Work done without an approved variation is hard to get paid for.
• Clients and quantity surveyors expect variations shown separately from the base contract on every progress claim.
• You need an audit trail: when the request came in, when you submitted the price, and who approved it and when.

What you get

• A variation detail record on each variation task: client document reference, received, submitted, and approved dates, approval reference, a description of the variation, and extra comments.
• A Variation Line indicator on the task lines, so variations are easy to pick out.
• A Contract Variation report that sets out the variation, its priced lines, and its total for the client.
• Variations listed separately from the base contract on the Progress Claim report, with their approval details and amount claimed to date.

How variations are structured

A variation is a group of tasks, set up the same way as any other section of the project:

• A Begin-Total task and an End-Total task that group the variation's work.
• One or more Posting tasks in between, with the budget and billable planning lines for the variation.

The variation details are recorded on the End-Total task. Any End-Total task that has variation details is treated as a variation. All other End-Total tasks are treated as base contract.

How to record a variation

1. On the project, add the Begin-Total, Posting, and End-Total tasks for the variation, and enter the planning lines.
2. On the End-Total task, drill down on the Variation Line field.
3. On the Project Task Var. Dtl. page, fill in the details:

Field	Description
Document Reference	The client's reference, such as their instruction or request number.
Variation Detail	A description of the variation. Printed on the Contract Variation report.
Additional Comments	Extra notes. You can choose to leave them off the report.
Received Date	When the variation request was received.
Submitted Date	When you submitted the priced variation.
Approval Reference	The client's approval reference.
Approved Date	When the variation was approved.

You can add several lines, for example to record a resubmission.

Variation Line is then checked on the task.

note

If you delete a task, its variation details are deleted with it.

Contract Variation report

To produce the variation document for the client:

1. On the project card or the project list, choose Contract Variation Report.
2. Choose whether to Hide Variation Comments.
3. Print or send the report.

For each variation on the project, the report shows:

• Your company details and logo (Report Logo in Projects Setup), the project, site location, and client address.
• The variation reference (project and task number), the client reference, and the received and submission dates.
• The variation description and detail.
• The planning lines under the variation, with quantity, unit of measure, unit price, and amount, plus the Total Variation (GST Exclusive).
• Additional comments, unless you hid them.

The report uses the project manager's full name as the contact.

Variations on the progress claim

On the Progress Claim report, the base contract and the variations are shown in separate sections. For each variation, the report shows the submitted and approved dates, the approval reference, the variation amount, the percentage claimed, and the amount claimed to date. The totals show Total Base Contract Complete to Date and Total Variations Complete to Date separately.

Progress claim report

The Progress Claim Report produces a Payment Claim / Tax Invoice for a project. It sets out what has been claimed on the base contract and on variations, the retention held, and the net amount due for the period, in the format clients and quantity surveyors expect.

Why you need it

• A standard sales invoice doesn't show progress. On a claim, the client wants to see the contract value, the percentage complete, the amount claimed to date, and the deductions for each section, not just this month's amount.
• The claim has to satisfy the contract and the law. The report states that it is a payment claim under the Construction Contracts Act 2002, and that it becomes a GST invoice on certification.
• It removes a manual step. The numbers come directly from posted invoices and the retention ledger, so there's nothing to re-key in a spreadsheet.

Before you run it

• Projects Setup: upload a Progress Claim Logo.
• Company Information: fill in the company address, GST Registration No., and bank details. The bank details are printed as the direct credit payment instruction.
• Structure your project tasks with Begin-Total and End-Total groups. Each End-Total task is printed as one line of the claim.
• Post this period's project invoice(s) before you run the report.

Running the report

1. Set your work date to a date in the month you're claiming for. The claim period is the calendar month of the work date.
2. On the project card or the project list, select the project and choose Progress Claim Report.

What the report shows

Header

• From (payee) and To (payer) details, the project description, the site location, and the contact (the project manager).
• Claim No., which is the number of posted sales invoices on the project.
• Claim Date, Invoice No., and Due Date for Payment, taken from the invoices posted in the period.
• Period From / Period To, the claim month.
• Order No. (the project's external document no.) and Our Reference (the project no.).
• FINAL CLAIM, when Final Claim is turned on for the project.

Base contract One line for each End-Total task that isn't a variation, showing the contract value, the claim %, and the claim to date.

Variations One line for each variation, showing the submitted and approved dates, the approval reference, the variation amount, the claim %, and the claim to date. See Contract variations.

Basis of calculation The retention rate or bands that apply to the project (for example "5.00% to $10,000.00", "3.00% thereafter"), and "50% Retention Claim" or "Final Retention Claim" when those levels of retention have been claimed back.

Totals

Line	Meaning
Total Base Contract Complete to Date	Invoiced to date on base contract tasks.
Total Variations Complete to Date	Invoiced to date on variation tasks.
Gross Claim to Date (Incl. Retentions)	The two lines above added together.
Less Retentions	Retention held to date.
Net Claim to Date (Excl. Retentions)	Gross claim less retentions.
Less Previous Net Claimed Amount	What was claimed net in earlier periods.
Net Claimed Amount (Excl. GST)	This period's net claim.
GST	GST on this period's claim.
Total	The amount due.

Things to know

• The report takes its figures from posted invoices and credit memos. Draft invoices aren't included.
• The claim % for each line is the percentage of the task group's billable value invoiced to date. It uses the same figure as % Invoiced in percentage invoicing.