While adding Line Items to your Jobs, you may have noticed the two check boxes labeled Actual & Billable, these settings determine what information is shown on the documents visible to customers and crew (proposals, invoices, and work orders)
It is common for Items to be both Billable and Actual - but you do have the ability to select if Items are one and not the other. Unless Items have been configured to default to the unselected state, they will usually default to have the box checked - so be sure to deselect the checkbox if one characteristic should not appear for that line item.
Billable
Checked | Line Items that have the Billable box checked will appear on the proposal and invoice and contribute to the invoice total. |
Unchecked | Line Items that do not have the Billable box checked will not appear on client facing documents nor contribute to the invoice total. |
Actual
Checked | If the Actual box remains checked, the Line Item will appear on the work order for the crew to see. |
Unchecked | Line items that have the 'Actual' box unchecked will not appear on the work order, but they will contribute to both the job costing and the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) calculation provided the billable box is checked. |
Common Combinations
Because Billable and Actual are independent checkboxes, an Item can land in any of these states:
Billable and Actual both checked: appears on the proposal, invoice, and work order, and is tracked as an actual cost.
Actual checked, Billable unchecked: appears on the work order but not the invoice, and is still tracked as an actual cost.
Billable checked, Actual unchecked: appears on the invoice and contributes to the invoice total, but not the work order, and still contributes to job costing and COGS. To confirm what the client will see, use the proposal preview feature. This is especially useful for verifying visibility of system-generated items like the "Rounding Factor," which do not appear on client-facing proposals.
Billable and Actual both unchecked: does not appear on the proposal, invoice, or work order, and does not contribute to job costing or COGS.