Sending Invoices

The process for collecting payments from clients is as follows:

1. The project lead enters the billing information for the relevant time period in the Financial Planning spreadsheet.
2. A member of the Finance Working Group (WG) creates an invoice and sends it to the client using QuickBooks Online using the information from the spreadsheet.
3. The Operations Coordinator settles the invoice payment after it is received.
4. Monthly bookkeeping and reconciliation of books.

1. Populate Financial Planning Spreadsheet (Project Lead)

If this is the first time the client is being invoiced:

• Confirm with the client which currency they will be invoiced in, and in what country their financial institution is based.
• Work with the Finance WG to set up the right invoice template and cost centres.

Go to the Customer Invoices sheet of the Financial Planning spreadsheet and fill in the details for the invoice:

• Period: It should match the upcoming Service Period at the top of the sheet.
• Service Date: The end date of the provided service. If a client is billed monthly, this would list the last day of the billed month.
• Description
• Qty
• Rate (<currency>)
• Sales Tax
  • Notify the Finance WG that the invoice data is ready.

Access to the Financial Planning spreadsheet is controlled by the Finance WG.

2. Send Invoice in QuickBooks Online (Finance WG)

Go to Quickbooks Online.

If the client has not been set up:

1. Open the Customers & leads menu and select Customers.
2. Click New customer.
3. Enter the client details and click Save.

If the project has not been set up:

1. Open the Projects menu.
2. Click New project.
3. Enter the project details, including the correct client, and click Save.

To create an invoice:

1. Open the Sales menu and select Invoices.
2. Click Create invoice
3. Select the Project from the dropdown menu. QuickBooks will autofill all the client information.
4. Copy and paste all the line items from the Financial Planning spreadsheet:
   • Service Date
   • Description
   • Qty
   • Rate
   • Sales Tax
   • Leave the Class column blank
5. At the bottom of the page, click Customize to select the invoice template listed in the Financial Planning spreadsheet.
   • If a new template is required or the payment information needs to be changed:
     • Select the Content tab, click on the bottom section of the template preview to reveal the Add payment details and footer section.
     • Enter the applicable payment information, you can look at a previous invoices for examples.
     • Review the invoice preview, then click Done.
6. Click Preview and review the information. The calculated total must match the one from the Financial Planning spreadsheet.
   • If this is the first time the client is being invoiced, the invoice must be reviewed by the project lead before it is sent out.
7. Click Save and Send to send the invoice to the client.

3. Accounts Receivable on client invoices (Operations Coordinator)

Before sending new ones, review invoices from the previous month(s) in Quickbooks, and send reminders on any items that are overdue.

Ensure each client has paid their invoices each month, and these payments have been matched and applied to invoices in Quickbooks (QB). Most of these come through Wise, or by cheque and direct deposit to our Desjardins account. Refresh feeds in QB to ensure the most up-to-date transactions are available. Invoices are Net 15, and are due roughly mid-month depending on when they were sent out

4 Monthly bookkeeping hand-off

Monthly checklist for hand-off to bookkeeper

1. Accounts Receivable - Match previous month's payments to the client invoices in QB, and send out reminders on any overdue invoices.
2. Make sure all of the receipts have been forwarded to QuickBooks, including contractor invoices
   • Login and download invoice from the Amanah account
3. Desjardins: Login to the account and download the bank statement and Visa statement. Add to the Desjardins folders in Drive.
4. Wagepoint: Login into the account and download Payroll Register and Posting Journal documents. Add to the Payroll Information folder in Drive. There is usually an email notification from Wagepoint when these documents are available by the 9th or 10th of the month.
5. Ensure that all of the bank feeds in QB have been refreshed and are up to date.
6. Notify the bookkeeper when everything is ready for them to do the monthly bookkeeping
7. The bookkeeper sends a follow up email with their reports when they have completed the bookkeeping for the month.

5 Prepare spreadsheet for next cycle

After all the invoices for the current service period have been processed, the Finance WG must create a snapshot of the Financial Planning spreadsheet and place it in the Financial Planning Snapshots folder.

1. If there are any invoices that have not been populated completely, check with the Project Lead to see if they still want to submit an invoice.
2. Click "Make a Copy".
3. Enter <YYYY>-<MM> Financial Planning in the Name field.
4. Select the Financial Planning Snapshots folder.
5. Check the following boxes:
   • Share it with the same people
   • Copy comments
   • Include resolve comments
6. Click "Make a Copy".
7. Close the newly created file.
8. Back in the Financial Planning spreadsheet, set the "Service Period" cell to the next month.