cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
jmarshalldesign
Level 2

How do I bill/invoice hours in advance and track them?

I am a freelance graphic designer who bills hourly. One of my clients is cutting vendor spending starting in April because of market uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. They still need my help though, so they've asked me to invoice them in advance for a set number of hours to use during Q2 that they can pay for now before their spending cuts kick in next week.

 

For the sake of argument, we'll say they want me to bill them today for 50 hours of work to be done in April. Is there a way to do this so I can also track my actual work hours next month against the invoice? Thank you in advance!

Solved
Best answer March 27, 2020

Best Answers
Jovychris_A
Moderator

How do I bill/invoice hours in advance and track them?

Welcome back to the Community, @jmarshalldesign.

 

You can go to the Home page and then create an Estimate first then ask for a cash advance. When they've decided to post the invoice income, that'll be the time to convert the estimate into an invoice then apply for the cash advance.

 

Please feel free to leave a message to this post if you need more help. I'll be around to guide you. Have a good one!

View solution in original post

4 Comments 4
Jovychris_A
Moderator

How do I bill/invoice hours in advance and track them?

Welcome back to the Community, @jmarshalldesign.

 

You can go to the Home page and then create an Estimate first then ask for a cash advance. When they've decided to post the invoice income, that'll be the time to convert the estimate into an invoice then apply for the cash advance.

 

Please feel free to leave a message to this post if you need more help. I'll be around to guide you. Have a good one!

jmarshalldesign
Level 2

How do I bill/invoice hours in advance and track them?

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction! I really appreciate the help.

Evolv3
Level 1

How do I bill/invoice hours in advance and track them?

Does this approach work for quickbooks online as well? Is there a way to request the cash advance within Quickbooks or does this happen outside the system?

JessT
Moderator

How do I bill/invoice hours in advance and track them?

Hello Evolv3!

 

In QuickBooks Online, we can also enter an estimate and send it to your client. That way, they can give you their allotted cash as an advanced payment.

 

To record an estimate:

  1. Click on +New.
  2. Choose Estimate.
  3. Enter your Hours item, the qty, and the rate.
  4. Click Save and close or Save and send.

 

Here's an article about recording an advanced payment in QBO: Record a retainer or deposit.

 

When the right time comes, you can copy the estimate into an invoice and apply the advanced payment to it. The steps are included in the article about a retainer.

 

On the other hand, we don't create a proforma invoice in QBO which is suitable for this scenario. However, if you really want to send them an invoice in advance, you can do that at your discretion.

 

Feel free to go back to this thread, feel free to go back to this thread.

Need to get in touch?

Contact us