In AE & AO, when a bill is created for a client, it is held as a draft bill until it is posted. When a user opens the draft bill in Edit Bill mode, the bill is then locked and cannot be edited.
Draft bills can be viewed from the:
Draft Bills page—which lists all current draft bills for the practice.
Bills tab on the client page—which lists all the draft bills for the selected client, whether raised at the client level or assignment (AE)/job (AO) level.
(AE) Bills tab on the Assignment Details page—which lists all the draft bills raised for the selected assignment.
The Draft Bills area within the Bills tab on the clientpage (and in AE, the Bills tab on the Assignment Details page) lists the draft bills that have been created. It displays the following columns:
Column
Description
Draft No.
This is a system–generated number that cannot be edited. It is different from the invoice number which does not get assigned until a bill is posted. The invoice number and draft number are not linked and will not be the same.
Date Created
This displays the date the draft bill was created.
Entry Status (AE)
In AE, this displays whether the bill is in Draft, Submitted or Authorised status.
Lock Status (no column title)
This displays whether the draft bill is locked by the current user (indicated by ), locked by another user (indicated by ) or unlocked (no icon is displayed).
When you view a list of draft bills from any of these places, you also see the date when the bill was created.
In AE, the entry and authorisation status are also displayed. The Draft Bills page also includes the name of the employee who created the bill, any write-off amount and the bill total.
On some occasions you may receive the message "Draft fee is locked for editing by <UserName>" when you try to open a draft bill. This occurs where a user has crashed out of Practice Manager whilst working on the bill. As a result the bill remains locked for editing as it has not been properly closed and you will need to unlock it to allow updates to the bill.
In MYOB AE, if you are responsible for authorising bills and are set up to have either the Partner or Practice view of the main homepage, you can choose to display the Bills approval window. This lists any bills that are ready for your authorisation and also shows the current status of each bill. From here you can click an item to go to the relevant client or employee homepage. You can also authorise the items directly from here using the buttons at the bottom of the window.
Double-click the draft bill in the list Alternatively, right-click the draft bill that you want to edit and select Edit. The Billing Main page opens in Edit Bill mode. or If the draft bill includes transactions already in another draft bill, the Bill includes transactions already in another draft bill window opens displaying the draft bills that have already been allocated with the same transactions. Click OK to continue. or If the draft bill includes transactions that have been added after the creation date, the Bill includes transactions dated after invoice date window opens. Click OK to continue.
You cannot open a draft bill in Edit Bill mode if it is locked and being edited by another user. When you open a draft bill in Edit Bill mode that is being edited by another user, the Bill is already being edited window opens. Click Yes to open the draft bill in View Only mode or click No to cancel. If you want to unlock and edit or delete a locked bill, see Editing and unlocking draft bills.
Edit the draft bill as required.
Open the Bill Amounts window to allocate WIP to the bill value.
Open theBill Address window to select the billing address.
Open the Bill Paragraphs window to modify the bill paragraphs.
If you change the bill amounts so they are different to the original draft bill, you must open the Bill Paragraphs window and change the values so they equal the new bill amounts. If you click Regenerate the bill paragraphs will be regenerated using the original default bill paragraphs and the new bill amounts — so don't do this if you want to keep any edits you have made to the original default paragraphs.
When you have finished editing your bill, you can:
Click Post to finalise your bill and open the Bills Ready to Print window.
Click OK to save your changes and close the Billing Main page.
Click Cancel to close the Billing Main page without saving your changes.
To unlock a draft bill
From Practice Manager, open the Client record. If you're using AE, you can also open the Assignment Details.
Click the Bills tab.
Right-click on the locked draft bill and choose click Unlock. The message "Draft Bill <#> is marked as being edited by <UserName>. Are you sure you want to remove this editing lock?" appears.
To unlock a draft bill for editing, you'll need to have the Setting up task permissions " #Bills #Can Unlock Bills " enabled. If you can't see the option to Unlock a bill, speak to your Practice Administrator to unlock the bill or, to provide access to unlock bills.
Click Yes. The lock status icon disappears from the lock status column in the Bills tab and the draft bill can be opened and edited.
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To unlock a draft bill for editing, you'll need to have the Setting up task permissions " #Bills #Can Unlock Bills " enabled. If you can't see the option to Unlock a bill, speak to your Practice Administrator to unlock the bill or, to provide access to unlock bills.