On every service you add (to a sales process or project) you set an invoice method. A service in Simplicate is essentially a (price) agreement which you can put on both the quote and the invoice. For example: as an accountant you advise on financial matters. You might also offer compiling or reviewing an annual report. Another example: as an internet agency you build and maintain a website. Or: as a marketing agency you offer Google AdWords and SEO optimization.
You’ll probably be able to think of a whole series of services for your company. You’ll map them all out and create them as services in Simplicate. The question then is: how do I invoice this?
Invoice methods
Every service you provide can be invoiced in three ways: a fixed price, based on a subscription, or on the basis of Time and expenses.
You might agree on a fixed price, which you optionally invoice in installments. For a one‐off service, such as building a website, you could do that, but you could also work on an hourly basis. If there is regularity in the service provision, then you can think of a subscription form – the client takes a fixed number of hours from you each month.
With the service concept of Simplicate it does not matter what you agree with the client: subscription, fixed price and/or time and expenses. It’s all possible and can even be combined. For example you could wrap an AdWords service into a subscription and invoice the SEO work by the hour. You combine all agreements and thus create in this example two services: one for the subscription and one for the actual cost calculation.
Fixed price
When you want to invoice the service at once (or in installments) according to a fixed agreed price, then choose the invoice method fixed price.
The price of a fixed price service can be determined in various ways:
IF you do not want to register hours and/or costs: number × rate = total price In this example you create a service to be able to invoice something. You cannot register hours or costs for it.
IF you do want to register hours and/or costs: then the price is automatically calculated based on the total of the hours and/or costs. Note: you can deviate from this, but our advice is to align the selling price with the internal budget that you steer on.
This fixed price service can be invoiced at once. You do this by filling in a date at “to be invoiced from”. Fill in this date when you are sure that you can indeed invoice the invoice. If you don’t know this (yet) leave this field open. As long as this field is not filled, or if the date is in the future, you will see this service in the invoice module under “to be invoiced”, under “not yet ready for invoicing”. That is the extra check, so that you never forget something to invoice. As soon as you fill in the date and it is in the past (up to today) this service will automatically be placed under “ready for invoicing”, so that you can put it on a draft invoice.
The date you fill in here also has an influence on the revenue forecast. This amount is then placed in that month in the forecast. If the field is not filled with a date, then the revenue forecast will place this fixed price service in the column “date unknown”.
Tip: You can also fill in / change the date from which to invoice for all your services collectively. To do so: select your services and choose “adjust invoice start date”.
The fixed price service can also be invoiced in installments. In that case you check “Invoice in installments”. After you click Save you will see, next to the tab Services, the tab Installments added.
After you generate the installments, you only have to fill in the dates. The invoices are then automatically prepared under “to be invoiced”. Again: fill in the dates at the moment you know you can indeed invoice the installments. If you don’t know this (yet) leave this field open. As long as this field is not filled or if the date is in the future, you will see this service under “to be invoiced”, under “not yet ready for invoicing”. As soon as you fill in the date and it is in the past (up to today) this service will automatically be placed under “ready for invoicing” so you can put it on a draft invoice. The date you fill in in the installments also influences the revenue forecast. This amount is then placed in the forecast in that month. If the field “invoice date” is not filled, then the revenue forecast will place the amount in the column “date unknown”.
Budget: calculation of hours & costs
The hours and/or costs you budget for a fixed price service is the total you internally budget for the fixed price agreement. Note: this is your internal budget. The fixed price is what you invoice. So whether you spend more or less hours than you budgeted, this has no influence on the invoice. If you want to invoice the additional hours anyway, then you’ll have to create an extra service for this, and ideally transfer the extra hours into that.
Subscription
When you provide the service periodically (invoiced) for a certain amount, then choose the invoice method subscription. The next choice is the cycle:
• Per month
• Per quarter
• Per half-year
• Per year
After you have selected the cycle, you decide whether you want to register hours and/or costs and you determine the price of the subscription: number × price = total. The total amount is then automatically prepared as an invoice every cycle. When (in advance or afterward) and the method of calculation you determine once in the settings. As long as the end‐date of a subscription service is not filled, Simplicate will automatically continue preparing invoices.
Budget: calculation of hours & costs
Separately from the price you determined for the subscription, you determine via the hour- &-cost types what your internal budget is. The budget you fill in here is the budget per cycle. So if it concerns a monthly subscription, then you also fill in the budget per month. Simplicate will then automatically update this every cycle (increase), so that you can always manage your subscriptions on a total-level.
Time and expenses
When you have agreed to invoice your service based on the actual number of hours worked, then choose the invoice method actual cost calculation (nacalculatie).
Budget: hours & costs
You add hour and/or cost types to determine the rates (what you do at what hourly rate and what your margin is on purchases) and optionally to determine a budget. Note: this is purely a guideline so that you can manage your project. Because you have selected the invoice method actual cost calculation, all registered hours and/or costs will automatically be prepared in the invoice module. Whether this is under or over budget. For each hour type you can optionally uncheck the “invoice” box. All hours you register here will not be included in the invoicing and are therefore not considered “billable”. And also: all hours and/or costs in the future, you will in the invoice module see under “to be invoiced”, under “not yet ready for invoicing”. All in the past (up to today) will automatically be placed under “ready for invoicing”, so that you can put it on a draft invoice. In relation to actual cost calculation you can also add a hours check, so that you can only invoice after reviewing.
Combining invoice methods
Per project you can add as many services as you like with all invoice methods. So you can make multiple price agreements and manage and invoice them within one project.
Changing invoice method
When creating a service, based on the chosen invoice method a lot of things are created behind the scenes (read: budgets, invoices etc.). For that reason you can never change an invoice method afterwards. Think carefully about which invoice method you select and in case of doubt consult our support.