Custom Invoice - Consulting

[HappyCamper436]

Trying to figure how to create a customer invoice with the following information;
Column Description
1. Date of service
2. Employees Name
3. Emp Title ie Analyst, Senior An (Activity Item)
4. Long Description
5. Units ie Number of Hours billed
6. Rate per hour
7. Extended Total billable amt

We will also need to bill in detail for out-of- pocket expenses ie Airfare, Hotel, Meals etc. (Charge Item)
Our customers require this level of detail on their invoices. Other option may be a "Summary Invoice" with totals and an "Invoice Attachment" with all the details. These issues are very important in that if we cannot create an invoice acceptable to our clients, then we may not be able to use Peach Tree

Thank you for any assistance

John Wilson

[dringstrom]

I'm a consultant, and I use Peachtree for my billing. It can work, you just have to be a little flexible:

1. Date of service - I put this at the start of the description field

2. Employees Name - I put this in the Item ID field (each employee is set up as a non-stock inventory item)

3. Emp Title ie Analyst, Senior An (Activity Item) - There's not a good place for this, so your best bet would be to append this to the employee name as part of the item ID. An alternative, if you only have a few employees, would be to put a grid at the bottom of the invoice that listed all employees and their titles.

4. Long Description - There's an obvious place for this, but you're limited to 160 characters in a single line. In the case of lengthy descriptions, I carry things down onto the next description field, and start with "cont'd:".

5. Units ie Number of Hours billed - the Quantity field works for this.

6. Rate per hour - The unit price field works for this.

7. Extended Total billable amt - The total field works for this, Peachtree will multiply the quantity by the unit price.

I actually do much of my invoicing process outside of Peachtree. Each employee logs their time into their Palm, then interfaces that data with an Excel spreadsheet. Everyone e-mails their Excel spreadsheet to me, which I combine into a master spreadsheet, then review. I then have a macro that converts this into the import format for Peachtree, and print the invoices from Peachtree. This system has worked well for me, and I've implemented it for a couple of my clients.

Hope this helps!

[HappyCamper436]

I wonder if I am taking the wrong approach in wanting to import the information from our Timekeeper system into the Daily Timeticket Tab. We will be using Mobile Timekeeper, a part of the Solomon Advanced Project Series, for Time and Expense Reporting.
All employees are salaried/exempt and charge all their time to a Project. Some are administrative ie General Office, Personal Leave, Training, Marketing, etc and others are billable. We need to track the Units(hours) for both Revenues and Expenses. It sounds like you are importing into the invoice screens? Our billing rates are based on the "Project" and "Title" of the employee.
Thanks for your input and assistance
John Wilson

[dringstrom]

You're exactly right, I'm importing directly into the invoice screen. In your case, I'd create an application that will convert data from the TimeKeeper software into the Peachtree format. If it were me, this would be an automated Excel spreadsheet. Since you have the data in another application, there's no need to import it into the time ticket screen, then apply it to an invoice. I'd just transform the invoice data in Excel, then import into Peachtree for A/R tracking and invoice printing purposes.

[HappyCamper436]

Thanks David
You stated in your original reply that there is not a good place to put "Emp Title" and to make it a part of the item ID. The employee title changed based on his function. He may be a Project Manager at 1 rate for 1 job and Senior Analyst at a different rate for another job. It also seem like eventhough you are a consulting company you are using a Product type Invoice and not the Service type?

[dringstrom]

I'm using the product invoice. In your case, the best bet it so include the employee title in the description field, something like:

01/02/02 - Project Manager - This is the consulting work that was performed today.

[HappyCamper436]

David
I looked at the Import/Export options for AR and did not notice an option to import Invoices? Noticed the Sales Journal option, but I assumed this report/file is after Invoices have been created and posted. What is the option to import directly into an invoice.
Thanks
John Wilson

[dringstrom]

You use the Sales Journal. You leave the invoice number blank on import, then Peachtree assigns the invoice numbers when you print.