Progress Billing is an invoicing method for One-Off Jobs that lets you bill clients based on completed work or as needed. Built with Design/Build projects in mind, it gives you more control over how and when a Job is invoiced.
Manual Progress Billing is ideal if you need flexibility in selecting which Items to include on each invoice. This option allows you to create customized invoices that don't need to match the Job's Line Items directly. With Manual Progress Billing, you can include both existing Items from the Job and/or new, ad-hoc Items, assigning any dollar amount up to the Job Total.
In this article:
Enable Manual Progress Billing on a Job
Navigate to either the
Proposals page ,
Active Jobs page,
Completed Jobs page, or
Approved Jobs page
On the Job page, find the Progress Billing section and check Enable Progress Billing.
Once Enable Progress Billing is checked, the Progress Billing Types appear. Select Manual.
When you're finished setting up the Job, select Save & Close.
Generate a Progress Billing Invoice
Invoices for Jobs with Progress Billing must be generated manually. Follow the steps below to create an Invoice for a Job that has Manual Progress Billing enabled.
Navigate to:
Invoices
Click More in the top right corner and from the dropdown, select Progress Billing Invoices
On the Progress Billing Invoices page you will find a list of Jobs set up with Progress Billing that still have an un-invoiced amount. Once the un-invoiced amount is reached, those Jobs will disappear from this page. To generate an invoice, select + Invoice (under Actions).
Select + Add Item to manually add Items to the invoice.
Note: If Visit-Splitting is used on the Job, Items from completed visits will pre-populate on the invoice (see video below). These Items can be removed if needed. For more information on using Visit-Splitting, check out this Help Center article.Select an invoice date (required)
Make any changes to the Items, quantities, and totals, then select Save & Close. This generates the Invoice, syncs it to QuickBooks, and makes it ready to send to your client.
This Invoice can be found on the Invoices page
Manual Progress Billing Video
Note: Some of the content in this video may reflect a previous version of SingleOps. For a more accurate guide, please refer to the steps listed above.
Troubleshooting & Things to Look Out For
Before you start
Progress Billing only appears on One-Off Jobs. If you don't see the Progress Billing section on a Job, confirm it isn't set up as a Recurring Job.
Splitting Visits is optional for Manual Progress Billing. You can build an Invoice from existing or ad-hoc Items and assign any amount up to the Job total, so you don't have to split Visits first. Splitting simply pre-populates completed Items for you and keeps billing tied to finished work.
Turning Progress Billing on or off at the wrong time
Enable Progress Billing before the first Invoice is created — and, if you're collecting a deposit, before payment is received. Toggling it after billing has started is the most common source of Progress Billing problems.
You enabled Progress Billing by accident. The Job may show a $0 Invoice, or no standard Invoice at all, until a Progress Billing Invoice is created manually. If you don't need Progress Billing yet, unchecking Enable Progress Billing on the Job may let the standard Invoice appear again.
You saved the Job with Progress Billing enabled, then turned it off later. SingleOps won't go back and auto-generate a standard Invoice. Re-enable Progress Billing and create the Invoice manually from Invoices > More > Progress Billing.
You enabled Progress Billing after a normal Invoice, deposit, or payment already existed. Invoice totals, balances, or deposit application can become inconsistent. The cleanest fix is usually to finish the original billing separately, then start a new Progress Billing Job for the remaining balance.
Setting up the Job
Notes in the wrong field. Client Notes appear on the client's Proposal and Invoice, while Invoicing Notes are internal only. Keep anything you don't want the client to see out of Client Notes.
Generating an Invoice
You can't bill more than the Job total. Across all Manual Progress Billing Invoices, you can assign any dollar amount up to the Job total — but not beyond it. Once a Job is fully invoiced, it drops off the Progress Billing Invoices page.
A Job is missing from the Progress Billing Invoices page. This page lists only Jobs with an un-invoiced balance. If a Job has dropped off, it's fully invoiced (balance reached $0) — not an error.
Items don't have to match the Job's Line Items. With Manual Progress Billing you can add, edit, or remove Items freely, including ad-hoc Items that aren't on the Job.
Save & Close is blocked. An invoice date is required before you can generate the Invoice.
Visit Splitting (optional for Manual Progress Billing)
The Split button won't work / you can't split. Visit Splitting requires at least one entire Line Item to move to the next Visit. If the Job has only one Item, or you need to bill only part of a single Item, add or split the Line Item on the Job first, then split the Visit.
Unexpected Items appear on the Invoice. When Visit Splitting has been used, Items from completed Visits pre-populate on the Invoice automatically. Remove any that shouldn't be on the current Invoice.