Add fixed charges to billing reports

todo.vu’s key features include tracking time on tasks at hourly rates, and using this data to automatically calculate total time and billing values for itemized billing reports.

todo.vu’s fixed charges feature allows you to add additional, item-specific charges to these billing reports in addition to your time-based charges.

This makes for more accurate billing data in todo.vu and a more seamless invoicing experience overall.

Here’s everything you need to know about adding fixed charges to your billing reports in todo.vu.

To learn first about creating billing reports in todo.vu, see our Help article here.

Why use todo.vu’s fixed charges feature?

You should use todo.vu’s fixed charges feature to add billable items to your billing reports that are not tied to your time.

This ensures that your billing reports – which you can use for business reporting, to provide transparency to your clients (minimizing the risk of invoice disputes), and to speed up the invoicing process – reflect the full extent of your charges to a client.

Take, for example, a web developer who charges by the hour but who also needs to charge clients a fixed domain registration fee. They can use todo.vu’s fixed charges feature to add the charge to their time billing report. When it’s time to invoice, todo.vu’s billing report can quickly and accurately reflect the web developer’s total time-based and additional charges.

How to add fixed charges to billing reports

1. Add fixed charges to a billing report via a task

Beneath the comment editor on each individual task in todo.vu are a row of options represented by icons at the left-hand side – one of which is a currency symbol.

This currency symbol option allows you to add fixed charges to that task (which will, in turn, make them available to include in billing reports). Simply select the symbol, then fill out the fixed charge’s details on the pop-up modal that appears.

Fixed charges created on tasks will automatically appear in the ‘Unbilled’ section of the billing report editor for the client to whom the task belongs. Here, you can add the fixed charges directly to a draft and then published Billing Report — learn how to create Billing Reports here.

On the pop-up fixed charges modal, you can add:

• a date of the charge
• a unit price
• a quantity
• a description
• a client/project/task. (When you add a fixed charge to a task, your fixed charge automatically inherits the client and project the task belongs to*. These details can easily be changed, however, which moves the charge to the new chosen client/project/task.)

Your fixed charge’s total will be automatically calculated based on the information you input on the modal.

*Note

You may want to revisit this Help article to understand the relationship between tasks, projects and clients in todo.vu.

In short, tasks can be standalone or linked to projects and clients. As billing reports are created based on client profiles in todo.vu, tasks (and task charges) need to be linked to a client before they can appear on billing reports.

So, ensure your tasks are always linked to the right client, so that your task-specific charges can be included in your billing reports accordingly.

2. Add fixed charges to a Billing Report via the billing report editor

You can also add fixed charges to a Billing Report straight from the billing report editor itself.

Here’s how:

• Go to your Billing Dashboard and select the client from the left-hand side to whom you need to bill a fixed charge.
• Remain on the existing default billing report editor page, which is auto populated with your unbilled time (if any). Or, select the plus (+) icon to the right of the ‘Billing reports’ section to create a new billing report for editing.
• On both the default editor and the editor that opens on a new report, you can add fixed charges with the plus (+) icon to the right of the ‘Charges’ section header.

You can add and edit your fixed charge with the same pop-up modal that appears.

When you add a fixed charge to a billing report, your fixed charge will automatically inherit the client the billing report is for.* Again, these details can be changed, which can move the charge to a different billing report if you update the charge to a different client altogether.

How fixed charges appear in the billing report editor

Fixed charges created via a task:

Fixed charges created via a task automatically appear in the default ‘Unbilled’ section of the billing report editor for the client to which the task belongs.

They are organised in the billing report editor under the ‘Charges’ section according to their associated project and task.

Fixed charges created via the billing report editor:

When fixed charges are added within the billing report editor, they’re not connected to either a task nor project. They are connected to the client only. However, you can connect them to a project and task within the billing report editor when editing a fixed charge; see below.

How fixed charges appear on published Billing Reports

On published billing reports, fixed charges — whether they are associated with a task/project or not — are consolidated together within a ‘Charges’ subsection after your usual time-based charges; see the screenshot below.

Tax on fixed charges

In todo.vu, if you have configured taxes (such as sales tax) within your billing settings, these are added at the end on top of the final charge of your billing reports. This includes your fixed charges.

So, if your fixed charge already includes a sales tax, ensure you omit this when you add the fixed charge to todo.vu, to avoid adding tax twice.

Edit fixed charges

You can edit any detail on a fixed charge, including the date of the charge, the unit quantity and price, the description, and the task/project/client to which the charge belongs, if any.

To edit a fixed charge on a task:

• Find the charge you want to edit from the timeline underneath the comment editor on a task.
• Ensure that the charge hasn’t already been recorded on a published billing report. If it has, you will see a bill number next to it and it will be uneditable. (If you still want to edit it, you will have to unpublish the report via the billing section of todo.vu using the ‘Retract’ option at the top right of the published report Then, you can proceed with editing the charge.)
• Hover over the charge and select the pencil icon that appears on the right to open the charges modal for editing.

In the screenshot above, a user is free to edit a fixed charged via a task as it has not yet been billed to a client.

To edit a fixed charge from a billing report:

• Ensure that the charge you want to edit hasn’t already been recorded on a published billing report (if it has and you still want to edit it, you will have to unpublish the report via the billing section of todo.vu using the ‘Retract’ option at the top right of the published report).
• Hover over or select the charge you want to edit under the ‘Charges’ section of the unpublished report.
• Select the pencil icon that appears on the left as you hover OR the ‘Edit charge’ button that appears at the bottom of the report if you have selected the charge.
• Use the pop-up fixed charges modal that appears to edit your charge.

Batch edit fixed charges

If you want to edit more than one fixed charge at once, you can do so via the billing report editor.

For this reason, you can only batch edit fixed charges that have been charged to the same client.

Here’s how:

• Ensure the charges you want to edit haven’t already been recorded on a published billing report (see first dotpoints above).
• Select the charges you want to edit; you can select as many as you want.
• Select the ‘Edit charges’ button that appears at the bottom of the editor.
• Use the modal to batch edit your charges.

Note

Even though you can edit multiple charges at once, you can choose to edit only specific aspects of the charge, keeping other aspects the same.

For instance, if you want to edit the description of your charges to the same description, but keep their separate charge value/quantities the same, you can do so. Just edit the description in the modal.

Delete fixed charges

To delete fixed charges, follow the same steps as above to navigate to the fixed charges modal for a charge you want to delete. Then, select the bin icon on the top right of the fixed charge modal that appears to delete the charge.

Fixed charges and your reporting

Fixed charges will soon appear in your Reporting section in todo.vu – stay tuned for more information.

READ NEXT:

Learn about Reporting in todo.vu. Read here >>