Craft the Perfect Contractor Bill Format for Planning with Ease

Contractor bill format for Planning

Bogdan Vachenko: All right. Hello, everyone, and thanks so much for joining me for yet another Jonas masterclass. Bogdan Vachenko: So, as some of you already know, my name is Bogden, and I'm an account executive here at Jonas construction software, and i'm the host of the Master Class Webinar series, Bogdan Vachenko: and the purpose of these Webinars is to educate viewers on best practices in the construction industry as well as how our software can help automate and streamline your business. Bogdan Vachenko: So before we start today's master class. Let's just run through a few housekeeping guidelines. So first and foremost, everyone's going to be muted for the duration of the presentation for a better listening experience. Bogdan Vachenko: Secondly, for any questions Please use the questions bar as shown on the right hand side, and i'll be taking questions at the end of the presentation; Bogdan Vachenko: and lastly, the presentation is going to be recorded and sent out to all attendees. So if you're unable to stay for the full half hour. No worries. You'll get a copy of the recording email directly to you. Bogdan Vachenko: All right. So for those of you joining me for the first time today, let me take a brief moment to talk about what our software is designed to do. Bogdan Vachenko: So Jonas provides an all in one full, fully integrated service and construction management software solution that is designed to take you from quote to financials across one-time services, maintenance contracts and construction projects. Bogdan Vachenko: It covers the entire scope of the end-to-end business process, which includes the preparation Bogdan Vachenko: uh, which includes setting up and tracking your customers and vendors, your jobs, work, orders your maintenance contracts your sub contracts and equipment. Bogdan Vachenko: It also handles the processing which provides you with the tools to manage your projects, scheduling your resources, capturing costs from the field, Bogdan Vachenko: and then it also handles the billing. Bogdan Vachenko: So whether you're doing progress, Billing tnm or cost plus, which will be covering in today's Webinar. It handles any kind of billing that you could throughout it. Bogdan Vachenko: And then, finally, all that ties in to your accounting, giving you a holistic view of your business through powerful reporting and financials, Bogdan Vachenko: and because everything is all under one roof, and all the field apps are integrated to the back office, you now have less data entry, less you and error for things like allocating to the wrong job, or the wrong accounts, or losing documents, and much more powerful reporting which which i'll get into in the course of the demo, Bogdan Vachenko: and you also a single software vendor, which means that there are less relationships to maintain less costs and a much more efficient operation. Bogdan Vachenko: So in short, Jonas is a true all in one software solution that can help streamline every aspect of your construction or service-based business all in one software, package. Bogdan Vachenko: So our software is designed to serve a wide range of industries. Everything from mechanicals, electricals, plumbing H. Back to civil and heavy highway and specialty contractors. Bogdan Vachenko: So for today's master class we'll be continuing our conversation on construction billing methods and best practices. Bogdan Vachenko: In our last master class. From October we covered Progress billing, which is an invoice practice of billing incrementally throughout the duration of a project. Bogdan Vachenko: And we talked about how you can, you know, automate that process in Jonas and some of the best practices and workflows, and today we'll be digging deeper into two similar contract pricing structures that are common in the construction industry uh which can be done, you know, along with progress billing. Bogdan Vachenko: These are T. And M. And Cost plus billing. Bogdan Vachenko: Now both are very similar in the way they are structured, and both allow for increased flexibility for billing. When the scope of work for a Project isn't as clearly defined, or when it's difficult to establish a firm estimate. So we're going to start off by defining Bogdan Vachenko: uh Tm. And cost, plus billing the similarities and differences as well as the pros and cons of each, Bogdan Vachenko: and then we'll also jump into Jonas, and we'll walk through how we can set up a job to accommodate both of these pricing structures uh defining all the rules and markups in the job profile. Bogdan Vachenko: And once we've set up the actual job profile and billing rules, we'll walk through the process of billing each type of job, and then discuss the workflow and and best practices in Jonas. Bogdan Vachenko: So let's jump right into it Bogdan Vachenko: all right. So Bogdan Vachenko: tnm and cost plus contracts are two ways that businesses particular in the construction industry, build clients for projects, both construction. Both contract types are useful when it's difficult to determine. A project's final cost before the work begins. So, rather than establishing a fixed price for a project, Bogdan Vachenko: both contracts stipulate hourly wages for labor material required for the job and associated indirect costs, and the complete estimate is left open to allow for flexibility. Should the scope of duration or duration of the project change. Bogdan Vachenko: Now the difference between the two is in the way. Each accounts for profit Bogdan Vachenko: in T. And M. Contracts, as we, as the name implies, the contractor establishes prices for labor rates, a maximum number of labor hours, and the cost of materials, including freight as well as a specified markup, Bogdan Vachenko: and then payment. Milestones are set and invoicing is relatively quick and easy, since rates are already determined. Bogdan Vachenko: A. T. No contract may also include a not to exceed clause which sets the ceiling for the maximum number of labor hours. Should the project grow Bogdan Vachenko: the price of the product, the entire project may be capped as well Bogdan Vachenko: now in cost plus contracts. Instead of charging a markup on labor materials, the contractor adds a separate percentage or set fee to the contract cost of the project, or a vote for overhead or other expenses. So in this way, instead of building profits into expenses, Bogdan Vachenko: the contractor bills for the actual cost plus its profit. Hence the name cost plus Bogdan Vachenko: a cost plus contract, may also account for increases in the cost of materials and include financial incentives. If, for example, a contractor hits all performance targets. Bogdan Vachenko: All right. Now let's take a look at some of the pros and cons of Tm. And Cos plus contracts. Bogdan Vachenko: So the biggest benefit of Tm. And cost plus is definitely the added flexibility which protects both contractor and the client. Bogdan Vachenko: The contractor assumes fewer risks because it can bill for added labor at already negotiated rates and or materials, while the client can see exactly what they're paying for Bogdan Vachenko: in cost, plus contracts, if costs and materials for materials, labor, and other expenses. Spike. Another added benefit is that the contract can build a client for the increases rather than having to absorb them, Bogdan Vachenko: but only if the contract stipulates this, Bogdan Vachenko: and this leads to another benefit which is focus on higher quality or greater quality work, because the contractor no longer has to focus on costs. If anything, there is less incentive to cut costs because the profit is based on the percentage of the project's total fee. Bogdan Vachenko: Both contract types also have added transparency. Bogdan Vachenko: In order to get reimbursed, the contractors must clearly document and justify their costs. Bogdan Vachenko: Uh adjusted adjustments are also easier if the client uh wants to modify the project, since there is no clearly defined scope, and that's the other benefit. Bogdan Vachenko: And also projects can start sooner, because the need for detailed estimation is alleviated so the quick to start benefit is also a really important benefit. Bogdan Vachenko: However, both contract types are without their disadvantages. Bogdan Vachenko: So because a contractor is required to justify why expenses are related to a project. This could require additional effort to manage and keep track of all related expenses Bogdan Vachenko: for disorganized contractors. A cost plus or Tm. Contract could really create some problems. Bogdan Vachenko: And then the next uh disadvantage is that because, uh, the contractor typically operate via reimbursement, meaning that the contract will need to front their own costs. So, considering how problematic cash flow can be in the construction industry, this form of contract can put an owner in a bind if they're not careful. Bogdan Vachenko: And then another drawback is disputes. So this fees can also arise when trying to recover construction related expenses Bogdan Vachenko: all right. So now that we've defined both T. And M. And Costs as contracts, and discussed their benefits and drawbacks. Let's jump into Jonas and walk through setting up a T. In on cost-speed job and billing it Bogdan Vachenko: all right. So let me jump into Bogdan Vachenko: the software. Bogdan Vachenko: So within Jonas Bogdan Vachenko: for tm and cost plus billing, Bogdan Vachenko: we have a specific module called construction management that allows you to go in and set up uh job profiles with all the established markups and rules. Um in order to get your Tm. And and cost plus billing out Bogdan Vachenko: um. So the first area will jump into is going to be the job. Bogdan Vachenko: So I've set up two jobs here. Um! And we'll talk about some of the different options. Um that you can set up for your jobs in order to get the the billing out. So the first job I have here is going to be Bogdan Vachenko: A. T. And M. Job, Bogdan Vachenko: and I mentioned earlier that you can do tnm or cost plus billing alongside progress billing as the billing method. So one of the jobs I set up is going to be an invoice based job. The Tm invoice job, and then one of them is going to be. The cost, plus Job is going to be also tied to a progress billing, and i'll show you how you can connect Bogdan Vachenko: your um cost plus or Tm job to an existing um, You know, Progress billing schedule of values, and that will actually help you get your progress billing out, and it will automatically capture all the costs and update your progress on the job. Bogdan Vachenko: So Bogdan Vachenko: when you're setting up a job uh from scratch in the job profile. You're going to be able to first off Bogdan Vachenko: Indicate um, you know a default markup. So if you're doing a cost plus job you're most likely gonna have, you know, a designated percentage. Um, that you're gonna be taking off the total cost of the job. Uh, because this one is A. T. And M. Job. I I kept the mark up as zero, so i'm gonna actually have specific markups set up for materials and for labor. Bogdan Vachenko: You're also going to be able to connect your default. Revenue cost item, and cost types to the job as well. Bogdan Vachenko: And then, if you're doing any sort of um construction management work. Um! You can also set up a separate construction Management B, and that will be a fee that's on top of the default. Mark up. So the the system is very flexible, and allow you to create all kinds of different rules and mark ups on the job. Bogdan Vachenko: Now you'll also see the billing method here. So, as I mentioned earlier, you can select whether you're going to be just invoicing directly out of the construction management module, or if you're tying it to a progress billing in Jonas, Bogdan Vachenko: and then when you're setting up these job profiles, you know Bogdan Vachenko: you can copy the rules from an existing template job. So one of the cool benefits of this module is the ability to go in and click on copy, and you can easily go in and select an existing job, maybe a template job, and you can select what specific mark ups or rates you want to copy over. So, for example, if you just want to copy over the charge out rates or the the labor billing rates from from one job. But then keep everything else the same. You can select what particulars you want to copy over from the template the job. Bogdan Vachenko: Now, when you're setting up your markups um, you can go in, and you can mark up Bogdan Vachenko: your cost types. You can mark up specific cost items. Bogdan Vachenko: Um, You can also set um, you know input your non recoverable. So you might have certain um, you know, costs on the jobs, such as maybe you know lunch expense, or you know, maybe uh expenses that you're not gonna be billing the client, you can set them up in the non recoverable. So any costs that come in for those specific cost, types or cost items are not going to be picked up. Bogdan Vachenko: Um! When you're invoicing Bogdan Vachenko: um the job, Bogdan Vachenko: then you can also set up specific labor, charge out rates or equipment, charge out rates as well. So this directly integrates with the payroll and equipment management module. Bogdan Vachenko: So in this case for this Tm. Job, because i'm going to be just marking up the materials, and you know the labor on the job. Um, I've gone ahead. And for the cost types I've gone ahead, and I've pulled in my material cost type, and I've marked it up fifteen. So any costs that come in um, for materials are going to be automatically marked up fifty percent. Bogdan Vachenko: However, if you wanted to mark up additional cost types. You can go in there, and you can add additional cost types. Maybe you want to mark up all you know labor uh using the same markup. So it's very flexible in how you set it up. I just set it up in in a way that that just captures all material at fifty percent. Bogdan Vachenko: And then, if you wanted to, you can also go in and you could set up specific markups on cost items, as I mentioned earlier, so you can go in and you can select specific cost codes or cost items and mark them up um, you know, separately. Bogdan Vachenko: And So for non recoverables, as I mentioned earlier, you can go in and you can Bogdan Vachenko: select specific cost items or cost types. Sorry I meant to Bogdan Vachenko: check off cost uh types there. Bogdan Vachenko: And so in my case I went in, and I, um, you know, went and Bogdan Vachenko: put in some travel expenses and telephone expenses as non recoverable as an example, Bogdan Vachenko: and then for the labor charge out rates once again it's going to pull in all of your occupation codes from the payroll module, so it's fully integrated. So you're going to be able to go in and designate what the charge out. Rates are going to be uh on your your different occupation codes from payroll. Bogdan Vachenko: So if you don't want a specific percentage markup, you can just go in and you can specify the actual charge. Our rate, Bogdan Vachenko: However, if you were doing a cost plus job which i'll get into later. Um! You would probably not have any markups in here at all. You would just have that default mark up in there, and it would just pull in the cost, and then mark up uh, you know, the entire cost of the project by a certain percentage. Bogdan Vachenko: So once again it's very flexible in how you set it up. Bogdan Vachenko: And so, just to show you how I set up the cost plus job. So my cost plus job here Bogdan Vachenko: for uh Roger Center. Um. So this one I don't have any particular mark ups for, you know my cost types or cost items. I don't have any um specific mark ups. I just have one default. Mark up percentage that's going to apply to the entire, Bogdan Vachenko: uh, you know, to all the costs of the job. And then my billing method is gonna be progress. So it's gonna actually tie into my progress billing on the job. So as I Bogdan Vachenko: pull in the cost and all the transactions, you know all the ap invoices uh all the the payroll time entries, all the materials that were charged to the job. That's gonna automatically mark it up by fifteen percent, and it's gonna add that against uh my contract amount in the in the progress billing, so you can track the progress of the job and Bill um in that way, so we'll we'll discuss that as well Bogdan Vachenko: all right. Um! And then, you know, you'll see here if you don't set up a specified markup on any of the specific um, you know, Costa items cost types or labor. It's going to say that it's just gonna essentially um generate the Billings uh, you know, based on the the actual costs. Um, So and that's what we want to do if we're doing a cost list trial Bogdan Vachenko: all right. So in order to create your billing, so we've talked about how you can actually set up your job profile, and how you can set up all your mark ups so to do the Billings um. You would go in first to prepare Billings Bogdan Vachenko: and how this works is. Um! You're going to be able to go in, and you know, select the job that you want to bill for, Bogdan Vachenko: and then you can select a date range um that you want to pull in all the transactions, all the cost for that job into your billing, and the way it works is, or the best practice for this is Um. Selecting the the start date of the job and then Bogdan Vachenko: doing it to the current months date. So that way you will pick up all the costs. Um, you know that maybe haven't been picked up new that we backdated um into the current billing. Um! So that way you can cover the entire range of the job up to today's date or to the date that you're billing. Bogdan Vachenko: You can also go in, and you can select maybe, specific cost items that you want to bill out, or a range of cost items. Um, You can also choose maybe, any extra items on top of that range that you want to bill out as well. So it's very flexible, and in which particular transactions is going to pick up. I'm just going to pick up everything for that particular range. Bogdan Vachenko: And then what's going to happen is once you pick up all those transactions. It's going to create a new batch for you, Bogdan Vachenko: and you can also go in, and it's gonna show you a quick audit trail to show you all the specific transactions that it picked up. Bogdan Vachenko: So in this case I have some labor. Um, some payroll. I think it's some actual, some piecework entries that got populated in um. I have some materials that were charged against the job, so you can see all the details and the billing amount, the markups. Bogdan Vachenko: And so now, once you've done that, the next step is to go um and go into your edit billing screen. So in here is where you can actually go in, and you can um see all the transactions, all the details in that batch. So i'm going to go in and pull up that job here Bogdan Vachenko: and pull up that batch Bogdan Vachenko: so you could have multiple batches going on at the same time. Um! And then in here you're going to be able to basically see all the transactions. Um, and you can adjust any of the details. So if you wanted to adjust specific markups, you know, on this particular um Bogdan Vachenko: on this particular batch, or if you wanted to, not, Bill, some of these line items, you can actually go in and change um. You know the billing column to end so that way. It's going to skip the this transaction for this current billing, and then you're going to be able to pull it up for a future billing, or you can put an X in that call. I mean, what that does, is it's going to actually prevent It's going to Bogdan Vachenko: never build that that billing line for future billing, so you can completely eliminate that from your um from your billing as well. Bogdan Vachenko: You can also go in and add additional billing lines. So, for example, maybe um, there's a scenario where you want to charge. Um, you know a specific for a specific um ap invoice that hasn't, you know, been received. But you want to charge that to the customer. You can add that extra billing line in there, and the details, and add the mark up Bogdan Vachenko: um, so you'll be able to add additional billing lines in as well. Bogdan Vachenko: And then once you've um, you know, set up for once you finalize this batch, Bogdan Vachenko: you can also cancel batches as well. So if you wanted to cancel that Billing is going to reinstate all those transactions back, and then you could pick it up for future billing. Bogdan Vachenko: So once that's done um, then you can go in and you can uh prepare the invoices. So i'm gonna go in and prepare the invoices for this Tm. Job. So i'm going to select the most data today, let's say, and uh, i'm gonna pull in that job here. Bogdan Vachenko: And so when you're um creating that invoice for the job, you're also going to be able to link it to a sales category. So let's say mechanical, Bogdan Vachenko: and you could choose which batches because it's going to show you all the batches that are currently available for this job. You can select which ones you want to invoice. So in this case I have this one checked off to invoice. There's only one batch, Bogdan Vachenko: and so the next step after you've prepped the invoice. Um, You can then go in and print the job invoice, so i'm going to go in and Bogdan Vachenko: print the invoice out of here Bogdan Vachenko: select the posting date. Um, You can do a preliminary print out first, or you can do the finalized invoice and update um. So i'm going to go ahead and do the final invoice, and you can. Do you know all the invoices that you've created? Um, you know, in the batch, or you can go in and choose a selected Bogdan Vachenko: um invoice. So if I go in, and instead of choosing all i'm gonna go ahead and choose print selected, and so you can select out of all the invoices that are on file. So I want to go ahead and and pick the invoice that I just created there, Bogdan Vachenko: and there it is. Here's the invoice total, Bogdan Vachenko: and then now I can uh go in and print or email out the invoice. Bogdan Vachenko: And one of the cool things about Jonas is the ability to actually customize and configure your templates. So if you wanted to customize your invoice templates, if you wanted to customize your you know your Po or your quote templates, we will form designer built in. So you can actually select which template you're using for different documents. So in this case I have two template templates that I've designed one for, you know, non Progress Billing, maybe T. And M. Invoices in one for progress billing. So i'm gonna go ahead and Bogdan Vachenko: create a Bogdan Vachenko: the invoice for this particular job, Bogdan Vachenko: and it's going to attach that to my customer's email there. Bogdan Vachenko: And uh, looks like I had some issue with my outlook. Okay, So in this case it's gonna ask me. Did it print? Okay, Um. In that case it didn't work for me. So i'm going to say no. So i'm gonna reprint it. I do apologize. I think something's going on with my outlook in the back end uh unrelated to Bogdan Vachenko: to Jonas. So let me go back and uh let me do that again. Bogdan Vachenko: So Bogdan Vachenko: here's that same job that invoice on file. I'm gonna go ahead and Bogdan Vachenko: email it out, Bogdan Vachenko: and it's going to generate that email for me and attach it to outlook. Just give it a second here, there it is. Bogdan Vachenko: And uh, so, before setting it out, you can review the invoice, and uh ensure that it looks good to go. Bogdan Vachenko: So in this case Bogdan Vachenko: it uh shows it as a lump sum against each cost. Item on the job, Bogdan Vachenko: and you can change. You know the invoicing parameters. Uh, if you want to more detail um, you know, if you wanted to show the actual line items, there's a report, a billing report that you can print as well that you can attach to the customer invoice. Um. So there's a lot of parameters there. And uh, yeah, we can definitely configure that. Bogdan Vachenko: So if that looks good to go, then I can send that out to my customer, Bogdan Vachenko: and then it's going to ask me. You know I did a print. Okay, so I can go in there and I can hit Yes this time. Bogdan Vachenko: And then yeah, So that's pretty much the process of creating a T. And M. Invoice. So it's super easy. So once again just to highlight um. Bogdan Vachenko: It will pull in all the transactions automatically from for a certain date range. It picks up all the time and material and equipment. Um, and then it follows all the mark up rules. Then you can go in and you can, you know, create an invoice, and it's going to mark it up ing to the drop profile. Now, if you're doing a Bogdan Vachenko: progress billing. Bogdan Vachenko: So we had that progress billing job that I set up Bogdan Vachenko: how it works is so. If I go into the job, Master, I just want to show you the setup. There is an extra um step that you need to do to set to actually set up the job for progress billing um. So in the billing lines, when you're setting up your scheduled values, Bogdan Vachenko: and I went through this in more detail on the previous month's, Webinar on progress billing. So if you're if you want to know how to do your progress billing and set it up. Um, you can definitely check that out. Um. But in the actual billing line screen, what you would do is to in order to be able to do a tnm or cost plus billing for your progress Billing, you would go in and you would have to connect um the cost items that are gonna you know us be associated with those billing lines um to that actual billing one. So you can go in and you can select which cost. Bogdan Vachenko: You're going to be uh linked to that billing line. So anytime transactions come in when you're using the the construction management module, and you're creating a billing. Um! It's going to update those progress billing lines in your progress billing. Bogdan Vachenko: So you have to make sure that you want to link them, because you know your your cost. Items might not be necessarily related to. You know the billing lines that you have. Bogdan Vachenko: So then, once you link them Bogdan Vachenko: the way that you would then proceed to bill out That job is um. You would go in and Bogdan Vachenko: you would um Bogdan Vachenko: update the progress to date on that pursuit. You see you first prepare the billing. So I would go in and select that job. Bogdan Vachenko: And uh, Bogdan Vachenko: it's like a date range. Bogdan Vachenko: Hopefully, have some transactions in that job. Bogdan Vachenko: Okay, Looks like I didn't have any transactions. But essentially what you would do is um. You would go in and you would set up um. The you would follow the same steps. Prepare the Billings. You can go in and edit the Billings if you want, and then you would go in, and you would up update your progress to date. Bogdan Vachenko: So you would select that same uh job, Bogdan Vachenko: and if there's any batches tied to it, you can then go in and update the progress billing, and then you would essentially follow the same steps. Um, you know that I outlined in the previous, where we can go in, and you can, um, you know, create your your job invoice, and it it's going to merge the Progress billing um, you know, with Bogdan Vachenko: uh your ar invoice, and then you can proceed to print the invoice, and it's going to automatically update the progress on your job based on the costs that have been pulled in um. So that's kind of the process of of doing a progress Billing, If you're using, you know, cost plus or a T Andm. Contracts Bogdan Vachenko: or contract structures, I should say Bogdan Vachenko: so. Yeah. So with that uh, we're kind of coming on the coming to the half hour, Mark now. Um, So i'm gonna go ahead and wrap things up, Bogdan Vachenko: and i'm gonna go ahead and see if there's any questions for today. Bogdan Vachenko: All right, So it looks like there's actually no questions today, so I guess it was pretty clear. Um. Bogdan Vachenko: And yeah, if you have any sort of questions after the factor, if you wanted to reach out and discuss Jonas in more detail, and how it can help benefit your business uh feel free to reach out to me. Um! And i'll be happy more than happy to set up a demo uh or get on a call with you. Bogdan Vachenko: Um. So yeah, thank you so much for attending this Month's Webinar um Hopefully, for the next month. Uh, I plan to cover more uh billing methods in future. Webinars. So you know, Unit price billing um is one that I want to cover in a future Webinar as well. Bogdan Vachenko: Um. So yeah, thank you. And uh, have a great rest of your month. Take care Bogdan Vachenko: no problem way. Bogdan Vachenko: Take care.