Using Billing Items

Billing Items (also called billing entries) allow you to accumulate charges for each property throughout the month. When you reach your billing date, for example the end of the month, you should have a collection of billing items that can be turned into an invoice.

Billing items are created in four different ways:

1 — Automatically generated each time you complete a report (please see the Introduction to Invoicing article for more information)

2 — Manually entering an item through either the web app or the mobile app

3 — On a regular recurring basis from the app.

4 — From a report or task, with + Add billing item in its Billing list (the charge is tied to that visit)

You can view the collection of open billing items at any time on the Billing Items screen, Current Billable Items tab:

You can also click on any of the entries to edit it, change quantities (like number of hours), etc. until you have an accurate list of entries.

You can have entries for each home visit, for concierge hours, for miscellaneous charges (like batteries, filters, etc.), or anything you wish to bill for.

Click Add item to enter a new charge and fill in the fields as necessary. Note that date and item are mandatory (of course so are property and price!). You can also add a billable item from the property’s Billing tab, or from a report or task itself with + Add billing item — that fourth way ties the charge to the visit, so the report shows it and the invoice can be traced back to the work (Tracing Billing Between Reports and Invoices). Once a billing item is on an invoice it is locked; void the invoice to change it. Billing items are never deleted by the system.

The Item list is empty? The list shows your active Item Codes, from Lists › Item Codes.

• No accounting system connected (HWIT Invoicing): an Admin adds items in Lists › Item Codes with Add New Item.
• QuickBooks or Zoho Books connected: you cannot add items in HWIT. Create them in your accounting system. They appear after the next sync.

Include invoiced (on the property’s Billing tab): the list shows only charges not yet invoiced. Turn on Include invoiced to also see the charges already on an invoice. It changes only what you see, not what goes on the next invoice.

If you wish to add charges to your customers each month (or week), on a regular basis, and those charges are not necessarily tied to a report, use the Recurring Billable Items tab. An example of a recurring item, which is not part of a report, would be monthly service or membership fees.

Recurring items can be added on a weekly basis (any day of the week), or every 1 to 12 months (any day of the month). Every 3 months is a quarterly fee. To see them, select the Recurring Billable Items tab at the top of the Billing Items screen.

This lists all of the recurring items already on file. Each item generates a billable item automatically each period.

To add a new recurring billable item click Add recurring item; to edit an existing item click its row. You will get the following form:

Fill in the schedule:

1. Recurrence: Weekly or Monthly.
2. Repeat on: the day of the week, or the day of the month.
3. Repeat every (Monthly only): 1 month, 2 months, 3 months and so on, up to 12.
4. Next charge: the date of the next charge. For a fee every few months, this sets which months. For example, every 3 months with a next charge of January 1 charges January, April, July and October.
5. End date (optional): no charges after this day.

For Monthly items, the system adds the charge on the 1st of its month, and gives it the date you picked. For example, if you pick 15, the charge is added on October 1 and dated October 15. If you pick the 29th, 30th or 31st, the charge is dated the 28th. The date matters because an invoice only picks up charges dated on or before its Cutoff date.

For Weekly items, the charge is added on the Monday of its week.

Select your item/service/billing code, and update the description if desired. Note that what is in the description is what flows directly to the invoice once created.

Enter the quantity and rate and click Save.

Note that you can also make entries Active or not if you wish to turn them on/off during various parts of the year.

Turning an item back on: the system also adds the charges for the periods it was off. If you don’t want those, change Next charge to the next date you want to bill before you turn it back on.

Charges are not added for an inactive property.

Once entered, all active items are automatically added to your Current Billable Items list based on the schedule described above.

A new item starts on its Next charge date. If that date is in the current month, the charge is added the next morning.

Billing in advance

Want to bill next month’s fee at the end of this month? Do this:

1. Set up the monthly recurring item with the day set to 28.
2. At month-end (the 29th, 30th or 31st), generate your invoices with a Cutoff date on or after the 28th.
3. The charge dated the 28th goes on that invoice. Treat it as next month’s fee.

If you set the item up after the 1st, set Next charge to this month’s 28th and the charge is added the next morning.

Monthly Fixed Billing

If you prefer a fixed monthly charge over billing for individual home visits, use a Recurring Billable Item (or a Subscription if the fee includes a bundle of services). To prevent double-billing, ensure the billing information fields are left blank on both the Schedule and the property’s Billing tab. If the system does not find a specific billing item or rate on a visit, it skips the individual charge, leaving only your recurring monthly item to be invoiced.

Pro Tip: You can suppress per-visit invoicing by leaving the billing fields blank at the property and schedule levels. This allows you to use recurring billing for a steady monthly rate without the system generating extra charges for every visit. If you would like the visit dates itemized on the invoice, go ahead and pick an item on the schedule and put in a rate of zero.