In this article:
Overview
LMN is designed to carry the financial logic of a job forward instead of rebuilding it at every stage. The core flow is:
Budget → Price List → Estimate → Contract/Billing Setup → Job → Crew/Timesheet or Milestone → Invoice → Customer/LMN Pay → Payment → QuickBooks
The most important operating principle is simple: when a feature or record is directly connected to the next stage, configure it once and preserve the connection. A default budget, price-list item, billing type, contract schedule, service, cost code, tax setting, payment method, and QuickBooks mapping can determine what appears later—and what does not.
This guide explains the happy path, the two main billing models, the direct connections to protect, and the checks to perform when the next step does not populate as expected.
At a Glance: What Connects to What?
Starting point | Directly connected to | What carries forward | Why it matters |
Operating Budget | Default Standard or Service Estimate | Labor burden, overhead recovery, profit targets, and pricing assumptions | An outdated or incorrect default budget can produce estimates that do not recover the company’s actual costs. Budget Types |
Budget | Price List | Labor, equipment, material, subcontractor, and other cost/pricing logic | Price-list catalogs use budget assumptions so estimators do not have to recreate markup math manually. How LMN Calculates Overhead, Labor Burden, and Profit |
Price List | Estimate | Catalog items, production rates, templates, taxes, and reusable pricing | Standardized items make estimating faster and keep prices consistent across estimators and divisions. Price List: Production Rates, Taxes, & Templates |
Estimate | Job | Work areas/services, estimated hours, crew notes, and—when configured—billing setup | Importing an estimate turns its work areas/services into job tasks and can carry crew notes into LMN Crew. Jobs: Setup & Management |
Estimate billing setup | Invoice schedule or billing plan | Per-season payments, design-build milestones, single-invoice plan, deposit, dates, and totals | The contract or billing plan is the bridge between what was sold and when the customer is billed. Create an Invoice |
Job services/timesheets | Generate Invoices | Completed services, hours, rates, materials, and invoice candidates | For service work, completion and submitted/approved time are what make work available for billing. Invoices: FAQ |
Approved invoice | Customer email and Customer Portal | Published invoice, payment link, and customer-facing details | Sending or publishing is the customer handoff; LMN Pay can make the invoice payable online. LMN - Payments Articles |
Invoice | Payment record | Payment method, payment amount, date, balance, and transaction status | Applying payment to the correct invoice keeps A/R accurate and makes the accounting handoff traceable. [Payments Tab |
Invoice/payment | QuickBooks | Invoice, payment, status, and mapped customer/job/service information | Invoice-first and correct mapping prevent duplicates, unapplied payments, and overpayments. QuickBooks Online: Payments |
1. Start with the Budget: Establish the Financial Source of Truth
(AKA: Know Your Numbers!)
What the Budget does
The LMN Operating Budget is the foundation for pricing. It uses forecasted sales and detailed inputs for labor, equipment, materials, subcontracting, and overhead to calculate overhead recovery and default profit targets. LMN can also use separate budgets for standard/design-build work and service/maintenance work. Budget Types
Before creating live estimates, build or review the budget that should govern the work. At minimum, validate:
Sales forecasts and division mix
Field wages and labor burden
Overtime and unbillable assumptions
Equipment ownership or operating costs
Material, subcontractor, and other direct costs
Overhead expenses
Overhead recovery method
Target profit margin
Activate the budget and assign it as the Standard and/or Service default, as appropriate. New estimates then point to the selected default budget for overhead recovery and profit information. Budget Types
⚠️ Important: A user can technically create an estimate without a budget, but the recommended workflow is to create and activate the company’s customized budget first. Otherwise, pricing decisions may be based on sample data, old assumptions, or manual overrides. Estimating | FAQ
Why the Budget-to-Estimate Connection Deserves Special Attention
LMN’s pricing logic is not just a display preference. Labor burden is configured in the budget and applied through the labor catalog; overhead is recovered according to the selected method; and profit is applied separately. The resulting price is intended to cover direct cost, overhead, and profit rather than relying on a separate spreadsheet calculation. How LMN Calculates Overhead, Labor Burden, and Profit
When a budget changes, review whether existing estimates, templates, and price-list items should be refreshed. Be especially careful with estimate-level price overrides: refreshing pricing can replace custom prices with current Price List values. Estimating | FAQ
2. Price List: Turn Budget Assumptions Into Reusable Estimating Components
The Price List is where the budget becomes usable by estimators. It contains the catalog and reusable structures that can be added to an estimate, including:
Labor, equipment, material, subcontractor, and other items
Production rate calculators
Work Area/Service Templates
Material categories and pricing defaults
Purchasing and sales taxes
Customer notes and crew notes
Production rate calculators translate measurements such as square feet, linear feet, yards, or units into labor time. Work Area Templates can package labor, equipment, materials, calculators, client notes, and crew notes into a reusable estimating structure. Price List: Production Rates, Taxes, & Templates
Direct Connection: Budget → Price List → Estimate
The Price List should be reviewed after the Budget, not treated as an unrelated catalog. Budget changes can affect labor burden, overhead markup, and profit defaults used by catalog items. Material categories can also apply shipping, warranty, purchasing tax, and profit-margin defaults when items are added. Price List: Production Rates, Taxes, & Templates
The estimate line, cost code, and rate are the values that later support billing and accounting mapping. QuickBooks Online: Payments
Before estimating, confirm:
The correct Standard or Service budget is selected as the default.
Labor items use current wage and burden assumptions.
Material costs and taxes are current.
Production rates reflect the company’s actual crew performance.
Templates include the items crews will need to perform and document the work.
Cost codes and tax settings are mapped consistently with the accounting workflow.
3. Build the Estimate: Define Scope, Price, Billing, and Field Execution
Create the appropriate estimate type:
Use a Service Estimate for maintenance and recurring service work.
Use a Standard Estimate for design-build/install work.
An estimate normally contains the work areas or services, quantities, labor, equipment, materials, taxes, notes, and customer-facing scope. The estimate should answer two separate questions:
What will the work cost and sell for?
How will the customer be billed?
Keep those questions connected but distinct. The Work Areas + Pricing portion defines the work and price. The Billing Setup or Contract portion defines the billing plan. In the newer standard-estimate billing experience, work-area details, line items, cost codes, and taxability can flow from the estimate into the invoice instead of being re-entered. LMN - Payments Articles
Choose the Billing Path Deliberately
Service and maintenance billing
Service Estimates support three common billing types:
Per Season: the service is included in the contract and is billed through scheduled contract payments.
Per Visit: the service is billed when the completed visit is recorded.
Per Hour/Unit: the service is billed from the exact time or units recorded.
⚠️ Important: Service Types are essential to two downstream functions: Scheduling and Billing. The Service Type helps LMN determine how the service is scheduled and whether it belongs in recurring contract billing or is billed from completed visits, hours, or units. Confirm the Service Type before converting the estimate into a job and before building the invoice schedule. Jobs: Setup & Management Create an Invoice
A service estimate can combine billing types. For example, a recurring maintenance contract can be billed per season while extra work is billed per visit or per hour. The billing type controls whether the service belongs in the recurring contract or waits for field completion. Create an Invoice
Standard and Design-Build Billing
For design-build/install work, create a contract or billing plan with the intended payment structure:
A deposit plus milestone payments
Multiple milestone payments tied to project stages
A single invoice for the completed project
The payment total should equal the contract total. Each scheduled payment becomes its own invoice when generated. Create an Invoice
⚠️ Important: A contract in LMN is the payment schedule or billing plan; it is not the customer proposal itself.
Direct Connection: Billing Setup → Job billing
Complete the billing setup before creating the job whenever possible. For recurring work, use the contract/payment schedule to define the number of payments, billing day, start date, and total. For standard estimates, define the deposit and milestones or the single-invoice plan. This gives the job a billing structure that can be generated later without rebuilding the schedule. Create an Invoice
4. Convert the Approved Estimate into a Job
Once the customer approves the work, create the job from the estimate. Importing the estimate can carry forward:
Work areas/services as job tasks
Estimated Crew hours
Crew notes as task notes
Billing configuration, when the estimate has been set up for billing
In LMN, the estimate is the commercial plan and the job is the operational record. The job is where scheduling, crew execution, field time, completed services, materials, and billing activity come together. Jobs: Setup & Management
Direct Connection: Estimate → Job → LMN Crew
A crew cannot create an accurate downstream invoice from a vague job. Make sure the job includes the services or tasks crews will actually use, the correct hourly rates (where applicable), billable materials and equipment, estimated hours, and useful task notes. Crew notes from the estimate can become task notes visible in LMN Crew when the employee clocks into the task.
For hourly billing, the job must have hourly billing tasks, rates, billable materials/equipment where needed, and job invoicing activated.
The job’s Billing view exposes the invoice plan carried into operations, including the deposit, milestones, subtotal, tax, and total. LMN - Payments Articles
For a contract or monthly billing job, confirm the invoice activation and invoice schedule. Per Visit and Per Hour/Unit items are treated as extra billing outside the fixed seasonal amount. Jobs: Setup & Management
5. Execute the Work and Capture Billable Completion
The field execution step is where the planned work becomes actual work. Scheduling and LMN Crew are not separate from invoicing: they provide the completion, time, materials, notes, and proof that billing relies on.
For service work, the usual chain is:
Schedule → Crew completes service → Service is marked complete → Timesheet is submitted/approved → Work appears in Generate Invoices
Marking a service as completed is what allows LMN to identify the work for billing. If an invoice does not generate, check that the job was scheduled, the crew clocked in and out correctly, the service was completed, invoicing is active, and hourly rates or billable settings are present where required. Invoices: FAQ
For milestone or single-invoice work, field completion may not trigger every invoice. The billing plan and project stage determine when the office generates the planned invoice. LMN - Payments Articles
6. Generate, Review, Approve, and Send the Invoice
Service and Time-Based Work (T &M)
Open Invoices > Generate
Set the date range and apply filters such as Invoice Group, job, or billing type.
Review the completed services, hours, rates, and materials.
Select the jobs to bill and run the invoices in bulk or individually.
Review the invoice details and make corrections before approval.
Set the invoice to Approved.
From Invoices > List, send the invoice to the customer and optionally publish it to the Customer Portal.
The Generate screen is the control point between field completion and customer billing. Editing service or material details from the Generate screen can permanently update the underlying timesheets and billing reports, so review changes carefully. Invoices: FAQ
Standard Estimate and Milestone Work
For standard estimates using milestone or single billing, the billing plan is reflected on the job. Generate the scheduled invoice from the job’s Billing area, review it, and send it. Deposits may be created from the estimate; milestone or single invoices generally require the estimate to be converted into a job before generation. LMN - Payments Articles
Direct Connection: Invoice Status → Customer Payment Options
An invoice usually needs to be complete and approved before it is sent. Publishing or sending the invoice is what exposes the customer-facing invoice and payment experience. If LMN Pay is enabled, the customer can use the payment link in the email or Customer Portal to pay by the accepted online methods. LMN - Payments Articles
7. Facilitate Payment Through LMN Pay, the Customer Portal, or Manual Methods
Customer Self-Service Payment
With LMN Pay Powered by Stripe, the customer can open the invoice from the email or Customer Portal, review the balance, and choose an accepted payment method such as card or ACH. A successful payment updates the invoice to Paid with a zero balance and creates a payment record in LMN. LMN - Payments Articles
Customer-facing checkout connects the published invoice to card or ACH payment. LMN - Payments Articles
One-Time Payment by an Administrator
An administrator can open the invoice and choose Add Payment. Depending on the setup, the payment can be:
A one-time card payment
A saved card or bank account on file
A manual payment such as check, cash, direct deposit, or e-transfer
Online payments processed outside the LMN app must be manually recorded on the LMN invoice if the business needs the invoice balance to reflect the payment. LMN Pay with Fiserv & Payrix | FAQ
Payment Runs for Saved Payment Methods
Payment Runs are designed for customers with a default payment method on file. Before running payments, confirm that invoices are generated, approved, sent or published as required, and associated with customers who have an eligible default payment method.
Open Payments > Payment Runs or the equivalent Payment Runs screen in your account.
Filter by invoice due date or invoice date.
Select the eligible unpaid invoices.
Click Payment Run
Type "CONFIRM" and run the payment
Review successful and unsuccessful transactions
Open Payments to review transactions, payout timing, and QuickBooks status.
An invoice that is not eligible generally needs one of the following corrected: it is not approved, it has not been sent, it lacks a default payment method, or the customer’s payment method or limits need attention. LMN - Payments Articles
Payment Runs filters invoices before processing saved payment methods.
Where Payment Methods are Connected
Payment methods are managed at the customer level in CRM and in payment settings. A saved default payment method is what allows LMN to run a payment on the customer’s behalf. Teams can request payment methods from customers by email or add permitted payment methods according to their process.
Payment settings also determine which manual methods are available when recording a payment. LMN Pay with Fiserv & Payrix | FAQ
The CRM Payment Methods tab is the customer-level connection used for saved payment methods and Payment Runs.
Teams can request a payment method from the customer before attempting a saved-card or ACH Payment Run.
8. Review Payouts and Reconcile the Payment
After an online payment is captured, use the Payments area to review:
Payment status and type
Invoice applied and amount
Processing fee, if applicable
Payout date
Net amount expected in the bank account
QuickBooks export status
The Payouts view shows the balance, funds on the way to the bank, upcoming payout timing, and the transactions that make up a payout. LMN - Payments Articles
Payout detail connects customer payments to fees, adjustments, and the net bank deposit.
9. Export Invoices and Payments to QuickBooks in the Correct Order
QuickBooks is the accounting destination, but LMN is typically the operational and billing source of truth. The safest general sequence is:
Finish and approve the invoice in LMN
Send or mark the invoice as sent
Export or sync the invoice to QuickBooks
Confirm that the invoice is present and mapped to the correct customer/job.
Record or capture the payment in LMN
Export or sync the payment to QuickBooks
Confirm the invoice is marked paid in QuickBooks and the LMN payment status is exported.
Payments applied to an invoice should follow the invoice into QuickBooks. The invoice must be in QuickBooks before the related payment is exported in supported QuickBooks workflows. QuickBooks Online: Payments
After payment is captured, the invoice stage changes to Paid and the balance becomes zero before the accounting handoff is completed.
Processing-Fee Caution
If LMN Pay processing fees are enabled, the payment total can differ from the original invoice total. The current guidance is to leave the invoice approved until payment is captured, then export the paid invoice and payment so the fee line and payment total remain aligned. The processing-fee cost code must also be mapped to the appropriate QuickBooks service item.
Processing-fee settings change the customer-facing total and therefore affect the QuickBooks export sequence. LMN - Payments Articles
Direct-Connection Checklist
Use this checklist when training a team or diagnosing a break in the workflow.
Budget and Estimating
Is the intended budget active?
Is the correct Standard or Service default selected?
Are labor burden, overhead recovery, and profit assumptions current?
Are Price List labor, equipment, material, and subcontractor costs current?
Are templates and production rates consistent with current production?
Are taxes and cost codes set correctly?
Estimate and Job
Is the estimate type correct: Service or Standard?
Is the billing type correct: Per Season, Per Visit, Per Hour/Unit, milestone, or single invoice?
Does the contract or billing plan total equal the estimate/contract total?
Was the job created from the approved estimate?
Did services become job tasks and did crew notes carry over?
Is job invoicing active where required?
Job and Invoice
Was the job scheduled and completed?
Did the crew submit the timesheet?
Was the service marked complete?
Are hourly rates and billable materials configured?
Does the item appear in Generate Invoices?
Was the invoice reviewed and approved before sending?
Invoice and Payment
Was the invoice sent or published to the Customer Portal?
Does the customer have the intended online payment methods enabled?
If using Payment Runs, is there a default payment method on file?
Does the invoice show the correct balance after payment?
Do the Payments and Payouts views show the expected transaction and deposit timing?
QuickBooks
Is the customer/job match correct?
Are cost codes mapped to QuickBooks service items?
Are tax and payment methods mapped?
Was the invoice exported before the payment?
Is the QuickBooks status Synced/Exported rather than Queued or Sync Error?
If processing fees are enabled, was the processing-fee cost code mapped and was the paid invoice exported with the correct total?
Common Breakpoints and the Fastest Check
Result encountered | Symptom/breakpoint | First place to check | Likely connection to repair |
The estimate total is not what the team expected | Estimate price is unexpectedly high or low | Budget, default budget, Price List, estimate pricing overrides | Budget → Price List → Estimate |
The crew cannot find the expected work instructions | Job does not contain expected tasks or notes | Estimate import settings and job task setup | Estimate → Job → Crew |
The office cannot create the expected service invoice | Service invoice does not appear in Generate | Job invoicing activation, scheduled service, completed service, submitted timesheet | Job/Crew → Generate Invoices |
A recurring contract payment is not available to bill | Seasonal invoice is missing | Contract/payment schedule, billing day, date range, invoice status | Estimate Billing Setup → Invoice Schedule |
The invoice is not available for batch collection | Payment Run does not show an invoice | Invoice approval/sent status, customer default payment method, payment limits | Invoice → CRM Payment Method → Payment Run |
LMN shows payment, but accounting does not | Invoice is paid in LMN but not QuickBooks | Invoice export status, customer/job mapping, payment export status | Invoice → QuickBooks → Payment |
QuickBooks balance is higher than the LMN invoice | QuickBooks shows an overpayment after online payment | Processing-fee workflow or invoice exported before final payment total | LMN Pay → Invoice → QuickBooks |
Organization & Analytics
Organization is the Prerequisite for Granular Analytics
LMN can only report at the level of detail that the team consistently creates and maintains. The same organizational structures used to segment customers, move jobs through operations, and batch billing become the dimensions that leaders can use to filter, compare, export, and investigate data. Treat CRM Tags, Job Groups, and Invoice Groups as operating controls—not as labels to add after the fact. CRM | FAQ LMN Reports
The Three Organization Layers
Organization layer | Use it to organize | What it enables | What to protect |
CRM Tags | Contacts and leads by segment, market, program, customer type, or campaign | Filter and export targeted contact lists; run Tag Analysis across estimated sales by Pending, Lost, and Won status | Use consistent names, apply tags to the correct contacts, and replace or retire obsolete tags instead of creating near-duplicates. [CRM |
Job Groups | Jobs by operational stage, service line, season, division, route, or batch | Filter Job Lists, job reports, Job Listing Analytics, Job Cost Analysis, and operational reviews | Assign every job to the intended group and use a clear naming convention. A job in the wrong group can disappear from a leadership view or be included in the wrong operational analysis. |
Invoice Groups | Jobs or job sites that should be treated as one billing population | Generate invoices in batches, filter invoice workflows, and analyze billing activity for a defined customer or billing segment | Add the job to the correct Invoice Group before the billing cycle begins; otherwise, the group will not help the office find or batch the intended invoices. Invoice Groups |
Recommended Organization Rules
Choose a naming pattern that makes the purpose obvious. For example: Residential – Maintenance – 2026, Design/Build – In Production, or Snow – Per Visit.
Separate the purpose of each structure. CRM Tags describe the customer or lead; Job Groups describe the operational population or stage; Invoice Groups describe the billing population.
Assign the structure at the handoff where the record is created or converted. Add the CRM Tag when qualifying the contact, assign the Job Group when creating or moving the job, and add the job to the Invoice Group before generating invoices.
Avoid using multiple labels to mean the same thing. Duplicate names such as Snow 2026, Snow – 2026, and 2026 Snow make filters harder to trust and exports harder to combine.
Review inactive or past jobs when reconciling historical data. Several job reports require the Show Inactive option for inactive jobs or groups to populate. LMN Reports
How the Organization Becomes an Analytics Pull
Start with the business question. Decide whether the question is about customers/leads, operational execution, or billing and collections.
Choose the corresponding LMN structure. Use CRM Tags for customer segmentation, Job Groups for work populations and stages, and Invoice Groups for billing populations.
Apply the same date and scope filters. Match date range, division, salesperson/estimator, job group, invoice group, and status before comparing Analytics to a report.
Drill from summary to detail. Start with a dashboard or summary tile, then open the listing or export to identify the exact customers, jobs, invoices, cost codes, or assignments behind the total.
Save repeatable views. For recurring weekly or monthly reviews, save the view with the same filters so the team is comparing like with like. Community Success - Analytics & Reporting
Practical Analytics and Reporting Recipes
Question the business is asking | Organization needed | Suggested LMN pull |
Which customer segment has the most pending, won, or lost estimate value? | CRM Tag | Reports → CRM → Tag Analysis, filtered by date range and the relevant tag. LMN Reports |
Which jobs are currently in a particular stage or service population? | Job Group | Analytics → Jobs → Job Listing, filtered by Job Group, Division, and date. Compare estimated versus actual values for the selected jobs. Community Success - Analytics & Reporting |
Which jobs are running over estimated hours or underperforming on profitability? | Job Group, optionally Division or Crew Lead | Analytics → Jobs → Job Cost Analysis, then filter to the relevant Job Group and other job attributes. Community Success - Analytics & Reporting |
Which jobs should be invoiced together for a billing cycle? | Invoice Group | Invoices → Generate, filter by Invoice Group and date range, then review and generate in bulk. Invoice Groups |
What billing activity belongs to a specific service, customer population, or job population? | Invoice Group and/or Job Group | Use invoicing reports such as Job Billing – Detailed, Invoice Summary, Invoice Summary by Cost Code, or Services + Materials Completed; filter by Job or Job Group as supported by the report. LMN Reports |
Which salesperson, division, or customer segment needs follow-up? | CRM Tags plus estimate status and salesperson assignment | Analytics → Estimates → Sales Pipeline or related sales dashboards; filter by Division, Estimate Status, Date Range, Salesperson/Estimator, CRM Account, or Jobsite. Community Success - Analytics & Reporting |
Important Analytics Caveats
Analytics is not necessarily real-time. A newly sold estimate, changed job, or newly created invoice may not appear until the next data refresh. Check the dashboard’s Updated timestamp before treating a difference as a data problem.
When a result looks wrong, first widen the date range and clear Division, CRM Account, Salesperson, Job Group, Job Status, and Invoice Group filters. Then reapply each filter one at a time. Also confirm that the estimate, job, or invoice exists in LMN, has the expected status and date, and is not excluded from statistics.
Support tip: When escalating a missing or mismatched Analytics result, provide the company name, dashboard, exact filters, the LMN estimate/job/invoice name or ID, and screenshots of both the source record and the Analytics view. That makes it much easier to separate a setup/filter issue from a refresh or backend issue.
Final Takeaway
The strength of LMN is not any single screen. It is the chain between screens. The Budget establishes the economics; the Price List makes those economics repeatable; the Estimate defines what is sold and how it will be billed; the Job and Crew workflow prove what was done; Invoicing turns that record into an approved receivable; LMN Pay and the Customer Portal shorten the path to collection; and QuickBooks carries the finalized invoice and payment into accounting.
When a downstream step is missing or incorrect, go upstream to the last direct connection and verify the setting there. In most cases, the fix is not to recreate the invoice—it is to repair the budget, price-list item, billing setup, job activation, completion record, payment method, or accounting mapping that should have fed it.