Time & Costs is the queue between doing the work and billing for it. Hours worked for a customer, and costs bought on their behalf, wait here until an invoice picks them up. On the invoice, TIME & COSTS lists what is waiting for that customer; tick what to charge and it becomes invoice lines. Entries you decide not to charge are written off — kept on the job with a reason, but taken off the bill.
Time here is not payroll: recording an hour here does not pay anybody (see Timesheets for that). It decides what the work is worth to the customer.
Opening it
Customers ▸ Add Time/Costs opens the Time & Costs screen.
Recording time
- Click Record time.
- Fill in the Record time form (Hours against a customer or a job, ready to be charged for).
- Click Save.
| Field | What to enter / what it means |
|---|---|
| Day worked | The date of the work. |
| Hours and Minutes | How long. |
| What was done | The customer reads this on the invoice. |
| Who is charged | The customer. Left empty: Nobody yet — it will not appear on an invoice. |
| Job | The customer's job, or No job — general work. See Jobs. |
| Bills as | The service item the hours are billed as (for example "Labour"). Its income account is where the charge lands. If you have none: No service items yet… — create a non-stock item such as "Labour" first. |
| Rate per hour | Starts at the item's selling price; change it for this entry. |
| Charge | Charges $… — hours × rate — or No time entered yet. |
Re-chargeable costs
A cost you want to pass on — materials bought for a job, a permit, a courier — is recorded on the bill or expense where you pay for it: code the line to the customer (and job) and tick it as billable. It then waits in Time & Costs as a Re-charged cost. See Enter Bills and Enter Expenses.
The Time & Costs screen
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Date | The date of the work or cost. |
| What | The description (or Time / Re-charged cost). |
| Customer | Who it is charged to. |
| Job | The job, if any. |
| Who | Who did the work. |
| Hours | Hours, for time. |
| Amount | What it will charge. |
| Status | Waiting, Charged or Not charged (written off — shown greyed). |
| (menu) | What to do with this one: Edit…, Do not charge for this…, Put it back on the bill, Delete…. |
A menu above the list chooses Waiting to be charged (the default), Already charged, Not charged or Everything. With nothing waiting: Nothing waiting. Record time against a customer and it… appears here. The list can be exported.
Not charging for something
Do not charge for this… asks Why is this not being charged? — a Reason (goodwill, quoted fixed price, …) — and Write it off. The hours stay on the job, so it still shows what the work really took. Only the charge goes. Put it back on the bill reverses a write-off.
Deleting
Delete… asks Delete this entry? — It disappears from the record of what this job took. If you simply decided not to charge for it, write it off instead — that keeps the hours and takes them off the bill. Choose Write it off instead, Delete or Cancel.
Adding time and costs to an invoice
- On Create Invoices, choose the customer first (otherwise: Choose the customer first — this lists what is waiting for them.).
- Click the TIME & COSTS tile (Add…).
- Time & costs — Waiting to be charged to (customer) — lists every entry waiting for them. Tick the ones to charge. Ticked lines are added to this invoice.
- Click Add to invoice.
Each entry becomes a line: the service item (or the cost's item), the agreed amount and the description. SeroBooks confirms (n) line(s) added. They are marked as charged when you save. The tile then reads (n) added. If you remove the lines or abandon the invoice, the entries stay waiting.
What posts
Recording time or marking a cost billable posts nothing by itself: the cost was already posted when the bill or expense was entered. When the invoice is saved, the lines post like any invoice line — debit Accounts Receivable, credit the item's income account (and tax where it applies) — and the entries are marked Charged, so each is billed exactly once. A write-off posts nothing; it only stops the charge.
Common problems
| Problem | What to do |
|---|---|
| An entry is not offered on the invoice. | Check Who is charged is this customer, and that it is still Waiting. |
| Not on this till yet: … after adding | The service item has not reached this computer yet; wait for the sync or add the line by hand. |
| This server has not been updated for time and expense billing. | The feature is not available on your company's server yet; contact support. |