Working with Estimate to Complete fees

Practice Manager only

Estimate to Complete fees are used to raise bills for client work that has not yet been entered as WIP. They are also known as interim fees.

You can add an estimate against any client assignment (AE)/job (AO), regardless of whether it has WIP against it. The Estimate to Complete task code must be set up in the system to add these entries.

An Estimate to Complete fee is added in Stage Two of the Billing Wizard / the Bill Amounts window.

An estimate fee when posted will credit the client's WIP ledger and leave a carry forward credit amount.
When work commences on the job and timesheets are input to record the work done so far, these entries will debit the WIP ledger and reduce the credit balance.
When the work is finalised, you will process a final or zero fee to absorb the estimate bill and bill out the timesheet lines to ensure employee billing productivity reports are correct.

In MYOB AE, estimates previously raised can be viewed in the Misc/Est tab of the relevant Assignment Details page.

An automatic estimate is created when a bill is raised in excess of the amount of available WIP. This is also known as overbilling.

The system alerts you when an automatic estimate is created (by adding a yellow warning to the AE (Automatic Estimate) column on the Bill Amounts window.

MYOB don't recommend using this facility.

To add an assignment/job level estimate during billing

Create a draft bill for the client or assignment/job you want to bill. See Creating bills for clients using the Billing Wizard.

If you want to add the estimate to an existing draft bill, double–click the draft bill to open it in the Billing Main page. Ensure that you are in Edit Bill mode, see Editing and unlocking draft bills.
In Stage Two of the Billing Wizard, click Create Estimate
. The Select Client Assignment/Select Client Job window opens.

If you require an assignment/job that is not listed, click Find to open the Find Assignments/Find Jobs window. From here you can search for any client assignment/job in the system. Click OK. The Find Assignments/Find Jobs window closes and the selected assignment/job is added to the Select Client Assignment/Select Client Job window.
Select the assignment/job to record the estimate against from the list.
Click Add. The Create new estimate to complete window opens. The Implemented by field defaults to the employee creating the estimate and the In Employee’s Time Period field defaults to the current time period selected for the employee. The Transaction date field defaults to the current date.
Change the Transaction Date by entering a date in the format dd/mm/yyyy or selecting it from the drop-down calendar.
Select the required Type from the drop-down.

The Type of estimate to complete you select will determine if the final bill includes GST or not. To check the tax rate set-up on the the code, go to Maintenance > Miscellaneous > Code Types and expand the Est to Complete code type.
Enter the net amount to be charged in the Amount field.
Enter internal notes to explain the charge in the Notes field.
Click OK. This will close the window.
Click Close. The Select Client Assignment window closes. The bill amount of the estimate is displayed in the Bill Amounts window in the Bill field against the relevant assignment/job as a future credit in the Carried Forward field. The bill total increases to reflect the new charge.
To view the estimate in the Bill Amounts window drill down through client/assignment/job or group the items by Code Type to show estimates as their own item.
Continue through the Billing Wizard and add Paragraphs, reviewing address details and the amounts being billed and click Finish.

All estimates for a client will be displayed as one item in the Bill Paragraphs window, whether entered before or during billing. Manually create separate line items in the Bill Paragraphs window if you want them to display individually in the client’s bill. Ensure that the individual item amounts are amended to match the total estimates amount or you will be unable to post the bill.

To report on unabsorbed estimate fee amounts

At some point, you will want to report on clients with estimate fees where the entries have not been absorbed/cleared from the WIP ledger. To report on these clients:

Click Reports
. The Reports page opens.
From TASKS, scroll down & click the WIP heading. The WIP reporting area expands.
From TASKS, select Aged WIP by Client. The WIP - Aged WIP by Client reporting area displays in the middle of the screen.
Double-click the Aged WIP by Client Partner report. The Report Fields window opens.
Select the date you want to run the report up to.
Apply any filters if applicable and click OK. The Aged WIP by Client Partner report displays.
Either print the report or review the amounts in the Estimates column on screen to see which clients still have unabsorbed estimate amounts to determine when you will raise the final/zero fee to clear these amounts.

To absorb an estimate fee (AE) - Example

Let's say you've raised 4 estimate bills for $2,500 each throughout the year for the compliance assignment. The work has now been completed, and you want to absorb the estimate bills and clear the WIP ledger for the client.

In the WIP ledger for the client, you have timesheet transactions totalling $11,590 but the bills issued so far have totalled $10,000 (which was the quoted amount).

The following procedure shows you how you'd manage the WIP using these example figures.

To clear the WIP and bill the time out for the various employees

Click the Billing drop-down and select Billing Wizard.
Complete the details in window and click Next. Stage Two of the Billing Wizard appears.
Drag column headers to the grey grouping bar to group the transactions by Assignment and then perhaps by Code Type or by Employee. This lets you to see the estimate bill amounts under the relevant assignments for the UNSPEC employee, bill out the related WIP for each employee and offset this against the original estimate bill amounts.
In the Bill column, enter -$10,000 against the UNSPEC employee or the estimates code type.
In the Bill column, bill out the time against each employee.

Maximum of $10,000. Allocate the write-off to one or more employees totalling $1590, which is the difference between the quoted amount and the charged amount of WIP to the client.
Check that the total of the:
- Bill column is 0
- Write-Off column is $1590.
- Carry Forward column is 0.
Click Next and complete the next stages of the Billing Wizard.
Submit, authorise and post the bill.

To absorb estimate fees (AO) -Example

Let's say you've raised 4 estimate bills for $2,500 each throughout the year for the compliance job. The work has now been completed, and you want to absorb the estimate bills and clear the WIP ledger for the client.

In the WIP ledger for the client, you have timesheet transactions totalling $11,590 but the bills issued so far have totalled $10,000 (which was the quoted amount).

The following procedure shows you how you'd manage the WIP using these example figures.

To clear the WIP and bill the time out for the various employees

Click the Billing drop-down and select Billing Wizard.
Complete the details in window and click Next. Stage Two of the Billing Wizard appears.
Drag column headers to the grey grouping bar to group the transactions by Job and then perhaps by Code Type or by Employee. This lets you to see the estimate bill amounts under the relevant assignments for the UNSPEC employee, bill out the related WIP for each employee and offset this against the original estimate bill amounts.
In the Bill column, enter -$10,000 against the UNSPEC employee or the estimates code type.
In the Bill column, bill out the time against each employee.

Maximum of $10,000. Allocate the write-off to one or more employees totalling $1590, which is the difference between the quoted amount and the charged amount of WIP to the client.
Check that the total of the:
- Bill column is 0
- Write-Off column is $1590.
- Carry Forward column is 0.
Click Next and complete the next stages of the Billing Wizard.
Submit, authorise and post the bill.

To report on unabsorbed estimate amounts

At some point, you will want to report on clients with estimate fees where the entries have not been absorbed/cleared from the WIP ledger.

To report on these clients:

Click Reports. The Reports page opens.
From TASKS, scroll down & click the WIP heading. The WIP reporting area expands.
From TASKS, select Aged WIP by Client. The WIP - Aged WIP by Client reporting area displays in the middle of the screen.
Double-click the Aged WIP by Client Partner report. The Report Fields window opens.
Select the date you want to run the report up to.
Apply any filters if applicable and click OK. The Aged WIP by Client Partner report displays.
Either print the report or review the amounts in the Estimates column on screen to see which clients still have unabsorbed estimate amounts to determine when you will raise the final/zero fee to clear these amounts.