Adjustments on time (write-ups and write-downs)

Throughout the project lifecycle you may want to adjust time up or down for a number of reasons, for example:

1. Adjust time to a rounded unit of time (e.g. rounding a 55 minute time entry to 1 hour), even though more or less time was worked (writing-down or writing-up time); or
2. Discount a piece of work, as it has taken longer to deliver than initially quoted (writing-down time); or
3. Invoice all time for a fixed price, regardless of how long the work took to complete.

This article includes information on:

• Making adjustments on time before invoicing

  • Access control

• Making adjustments on time when invoicing

• Carrying forward time entries

• Pro-rating invoiced amounts to time entries after invoicing

• Troubleshooting

How to make adjustments on time before invoicing

If your invoicing Billing Method is T&M (based off time and expenses), you may wish to adjust the number of hours that are included in an invoice. Users with access to make adjustments to time can adjust the billable hours of a time entry that has not been invoiced from any Time Entry list screen. These screens include:

1. My Time Entries;

2. All Time Entries; 

3. Person > Time Entries; or

4. Project > Time Entries.

Read more about access control →

 The adjusted number of hours will be pro-rated across the selected time entries that can be adjusted, and the values entered for any time entry adjustment fields will be saved to all the time entries. For example, if the following four time entries have been selected:

1. 0.92 Hrs;

2. 0.92 Hrs;

3. 1.17 Hrs;

4. 1.17 Hrs;

and adjusted to 4 hours, then the selected time entries are pro-rated down to 4 hours in total:

1. 0.88 Hrs;

2. 0.88 Hrs;

3. 1.12 Hrs;

4. 1.12 Hrs; 

If you are wanting all of the above time entries to be 1 hour, you would need to:

1. Select the 0.92 hour time entries and adjust to 2 hours, and

2. Select the 1.17 hour time entries and adjust to 2 hours.

If time entries have been adjusted, the adjusted hours × rate will be available for invoicing. Up until the date that the time entries have been invoiced, the adjusted hours will be:

1. Reflected in the 'Uninvoiced Time” column in the Project and Budget WIP screens; and

2. Reflected in the the “Not Invoiced” column in the Month End Billing report.

Access Control

Projectworks users who “Can make adjustment” to time can:

1. Adjust billable hours;

   1. This does not impact the cost of the billable time, but enables the adjusted hours to be invoiced without adjusting the hours in an invoice, and updates the uninvoiced time entry value in the WIP (Work in Progress) and Month End Billing reports to reflect the adjusted hours rate; and

2. Write-off time;

   1. This prevents the time entries from being invoiced and removes the time from the project’s WIP.

Projectworks administrators can enable “Can make adjustment” for access levels that have access to:

• “Can view other’s” time; and

• Can see dollars. 

How to make invoice adjustments on time

If time entries have not been adjusted prior to invoicing, if you are creating or editing an invoice you can adjust the time associated to an invoice budget line by ticking or un-ticking time that has been logged against the project for that invoice line. 

There are a number of ways to make an invoice adjustment on a time entry on an invoice:

1. When using a manual billing method, the qty, rate or amount can be edited;  

2. When using the forecast or a manual billing method, time entries can be ticked or unticked for the budget;
3. When using any billing method, the “Hrs” or "Days" for one or more time entries that has been selected can be overridden;

If the billing method for a budget line in the invoice is Forecast or Manual, uninvoiced time can also be associated to the invoice line in a manager or finance approved invoice, which will update the invoice adjustment, but retain the revenue amount that has been invoiced. 

How to carry forward time entries

In some instances, a client may not be invoiced for work that has been carried out until a later date. When creating an invoice, you can carry forward time entries to invoice at a later date by simply unticking the:

1. invoice budget line; or

2. time entries

that will be carried forward.

Pro-rating invoiced amounts to time entries after invoicing

Adjusting the time associated to a finance approved invoice is especially beneficial when you are doing a fixed price piece of work, and invoicing incrementally. This enables the revenue to be invoiced prior to the work being completed, and then allocated across the time entries as the work is undertaken.

e.g. A new contract for $100,000 is won:

• $20,000 to be paid on signing of the contract (February 2025) for the work that will be undertaken through to the end of October.

1. A deposit invoice is raised in February, approved and sent to the Client for $20,000 against the “Delivery” budget.

   1. 3 hours of the Account Manager’s time (at $150 p.h.) associated to the invoice = $450.

      1. Invoiced Delta = $19,550 ($20,000 minus $450)

2. The development team enter 300 hours of time against the “Delivery” budget after February (at $100 p.h.) = $30,000 value of billable work

3. The Project Manager retrospectively edits the February deposit invoice (for $20,000) to also include the development time.

   1. The Account Manager’s time is recalculated to $295.57 ($450 divided by ($450 + $30,000) multiplied by $20,000)

      1. Invoiced delta = -$154.43 ($295.57 minus $450)

   2. The development team’s time calculated to $19,704.43 ($30,000 divided by ($450 + $30,000) multiplied by $20,000)

      1. Invoiced delta of -$10,295.57 ($19,704.43 minus $30,000)

Invoiced Delta

The Invoiced Delta displays the delta between the Invoiced Amount and the value of billable work (Hrs x Rate). The Invoiced Delta is displayed in a number of places, so you can view the write-ups and write-downs on time at a number of levels, e.g. by Project Manager, Person or Project.

You can view the Invoiced Delta on any time entry screen:

• Time > My Time Entries

• Time > All Time Entries

• Person > Time Entries

• Project > Time Entries

Select the Hide/ show/ group filter and select to view the “Invoiced Delta” column. The All Time Entries screen gives you the ability to see all time entries, and group these time entries in a number of ways to give you access to the invoiced delta at a person, project or organisation level.

You can also download a CSV, so that you can more easily interrogate the data.

Troubleshooting

The total is not shown

If the grouping you are viewing the time entries for includes invoiced amounts in various currencies, the values cannot be shown on the screen. Hover over the “Total Not Shown” to view a breakdown of the values.

The time entries are displayed in the incorrect unit (e.g. hrs instead of days)

When you create an invoice, the time entries will be displayed in the unit of time that your project invoicing setting is saved to.

Read more about invoicing with day rates →

I cannot override a time entry to more than 24 hours

As there are 24 hours to a day, you can only override a time entry’s time to a maximum of 24. If you enter a greater amount than 24, the Override Time will automatically revert to 24.

If your project invoicing setting is set to days, the maximum days will be 24 DIVIDED BY Default hours per day on rate cards.

Read more about how to set up invoicing with day rates →

The overridden time entry is displaying an odd amount

Much like timesheet entries, overridden time can be entered in hours or minutes i.e.:

1. If you enter an amount in hours, with a decimal place, this will calculate to hours and minutes, e.g. 1.30 = 1 hour 18 minutes

2. But if you enter an amount in hours with a colon, this will remain as hours and minutes, e.g. 1:30 = 1 hour 30 minutes

If the project invoicing setting units are set to “days”, then the hours and minutes will be converted to a day quantity. For example, if the Default hours per day on rate cards is set to 8 hours, and the time entry is overridden to 1 hour and 18 minutes, then the day rate will be displayed as: 0.1625 days (78 minutes DIVIDED BY (8 × 60 minutes))

I don’t want to adjust time entries to 0.00 in my invoices

Time entries can also be written-off, as opposed to adjusted to 0.00 in your invoices.

Read more about writing-off time →