Adding or editing a project charge

SECURITY  Permission to view projects. Refer to Project security settings.

NAVIGATION   > Projects > Search > Projects > click Search > context menu > View Project > Charges & Expenses

1. To create a new charge on a contract, project, or ticket, click New Charge.
   

NOTE  If you add a charge to a project or ticket associated with a contract that has a charge default configured for the material code that you select, the contract charge default will override the material code settings. Refer to the field descriptions in the table below.

2. Populate the following fields:

Field Name	Description
Product	To create a charge from a product, start entering the item name and select from the list of possible matches, or click the selector icon to the right of the Product field and select a product. For products that are inventory items, the Inventory Available column in the filtered results table shows how many items are currently available in inventory. If you select an inventory product, the Items Still Needed and Items Already Picked, Received, or On Order tables appear at the bottom of the New Charge and Edit Charge pages. Refer to Inventory tables on the Charge page. Permission to view Service Desk and Project internal cost data is required to see product cost information in the Product Selector.
Material Code	The material code is the required billing code for charges. It assigns a tax category to the charge. If you selected a product, the material code will be populated automatically but can be modified (not generally recommended). QuickBooks users, bear in mind that the material code may be the item name in QuickBooks. To create a charge for an item that is not on your product list, you leave the Product field blank and select a material code. The Charge Name, Description, Unit Cost , and Unit Price fields are populated with data from the Material Code list, and the charge name defaults to the material code name. You can edit the Charge Name and Description fields, if desired. In the Material Code data selector, cost information is only visible if you have permission to view internal ticket and project cost data. Refer to Service Desk or Project permissions in the topic Creating or editing a custom security level. If you are adding a material code to a contract that has charge defaults set up, or to a project or ticket associated with a contract, the contract charge defaults will override the unit cost, unit price, and billable settings set up in Admin. Refer to Charge Defaults. If the Mileage/Kilometrage Defaults system setting is enabled and you select the material code specified in the system setting, the Quantity field will default to the associated organization location's round-trip distance value and the Billable to Organization check box will be checked by default. The system setting also determines whether the Quantity, Unit Cost, Unit Price, and Billable to Organization fields are editable by the user or read-only. For block, retainer, or per ticket charges, this field will be disabled. By default, the material code name will be set to the system code that is configured in > Admin > Features & Settings > Finance, Accounting & Invoicing > Billing Codes > Material tab.
Charge Name*	By default, the charge name is populated with the product name (if you selected from the Product list) or the material code (if you selected from the Material Code list). You may enter a different charge name. For contract charges that are automatically created for block, retainer, or per ticket purchases, the charge name will default to [material code name] [purchase start date - purchase end date].
Description	By default, the Description field is populated with the product description (if you selected from the Product list) or the material code description (if you selected from the Material Code list). You may enter a different description. For contract charges associated to a block, retainer, or per ticket purchase, Description is blank, but can be edited.
Quantity*	Enter the quantity for this billing item. Note that this field accepts up to four decimal places. The quantity defaults to 1.000. NOTE  If you do not have permission to view internal cost data, the Unit Cost row is not visible. The editable Quantity field appears in the Unit Price row. If an inventory product was selected, the quantity cannot be less than the sum of units picked, transferred, and shipped/delivered for this charge. For contract charges created by a block, retainer, or per ticket purchase, this field will be read-only and list the number of hours (block contract) or tickets (per ticket contract) purchased. Quantity will always be 1.000 for retainer contracts. NOTE  If Procurement is enabled, increasing or decreasing the charge quantity will update the quantity on the associated PO.
Unit Cost	NOTE  If you do not have permission to view internal cost data, this field is not visible. If you selected a product from the Product list, the Unit Cost is populated from the Product Cost. When Inventory is enabled and an inventory product is selected, the actual cost of an item or unit captured during the receiving process is used. If you selected a material code and no charge defaults apply, this value is populated from the Material Code list. If contract charge defaults are configured for the material code selected, they will override the Admin settings for the contract, project, or ticket charge. This field will be disabled for contract charges created by block, retainer, or per ticket purchases. NOTE  If Multi-currency is enabled, this field or column is displayed in the internal currency. Accept the amount or enter a new unit cost.
Extended Cost	NOTE  If you do not have permission to view internal cost data, this field is not visible. The default value in this field is calculated as unit cost x quantity, but you may override this value. If you change this amount, the unit cost will be recalculated (extended cost/quantity = new unit cost). This field will be disabled for contract charges created by block, retainer, or per ticket purchases. NOTE  If Multi-currency is enabled, this field or column is displayed in the internal currency.
Unit Price	This field appears on entities that are part of the billing workflow. It is the customer price of the item before a discount has been applied. When you select the item, the Unit Price is populated from the source list (if available), but it can be edited. Charges: If you selected a material code and no charge defaults apply, this value is populated from the Material Code list. If contract charge defaults are configured for the material code selected, they will override the Admin settings for the charge. This field will be disabled for contract charges created by block, retainer, or per ticket purchases. By default, it will display the per-block, retainer amount, or incident rate for the purchase. However, if you used charge defaults to make these non-billable, the charge will not be billable to the customer. Refer to Charge Defaults for more information. NOTE  If Multi-currency is enabled, this field or column is displayed in the customer currency. Accept the amount or enter a new unit price. Note that it is possible to enter a negative amount, which will flow through billing.
Billable Amount*	The default value in this field is calculated as unit price x quantity, but you may override this value. If you change this amount, the unit price will be recalculated (billable amount/quantity = new unit price). Note that it is possible to enter a negative amount, which will flow through billing. For block, retainer, or per ticket purchases, this field will be dependent on your charge defaults. For more information, refer to Charge Defaults. NOTE  If Multi-currency is enabled, this field or column is displayed in the customer currency. NOTE  This field is hidden from co-managing resources.
Estimated Cost (Project Charges only)	The amount you expect the contract work or project charges to cost. If you do not have permission to view internal cost data, this field is not visible. NOTE  If you import quoted product charges from QuoteWerks, the quoted amount will be imported into this field.
Notes	Store additional details related to the charge here. You can enter up to 2000 characters.
Date Purchased*	The date when the item was purchased. This field will be disabled for contract charges created by a block, retainer, or per ticket purchases. By default, it will display the purchase date of the charges. This date defaults to the current date, but can be edited.
Billable to Organization	This check box will determine whether the charge will be billed to the organization that will appear in Approve & Post > Charges. If you are tracking a charge that should not be billed to the customer, clear this check box. This field is selected by default. If contract charge defaults are configured for the material code selected, its billable settings will override the Admin settings for the charge. For block, retainer, or per ticket purchases, the default setting is dependent on your charge defaults, but can be edited. For more information, refer to Charge Defaults. NOTE  All tracked charges will appear on the > Contracts > Approve & Post > Charges tab, whether or not the Billable to Organization check box is selected. The final billing decision lies with the financial approver.
Charge Type	Charge type categorizes how you handle charges for your business. You can select Operational or Capitalized, as appropriate. This field will default to Operational for contract charges created by block, retainer, or per ticket purchases. For information about the difference between CAPEX and OPEX, refer to this article.
Service/Bundle	Appears only if you have security level permissions to change the service/bundle on a ticket, project , or contract charge. This field is empty by default, but if the contract, project, or ticket associated with the charge are associated with a recurring service contract, you can select a service or bundle in the contract and associate it with the charge. If the selected contract is not a recurring service contract, or no contract is selected, this field is disabled.
Create Device	If you selected a product from the Product list and would like to associate it with the organization, select the Create Device check box. When the charge is saved, the Devices Wizard will launch automatically. For more information, refer to Installing a product as a device. This field will be cleared and disabled for contract charges created by block, retainer, or per ticket purchases.
Purchase Order Number	This field appears on entities that are part of the billing workflow, and is applied to labor and charges. If you assign a purchase order (PO) number to a quote (on the Terms tab), and then close the associated opportunity using the Won Opportunity Wizard, any charges created using the Won Opportunity Wizard will inherit the PO number. If you assign a PO number to a contract, the associated billing items inherit the contract's PO number. If you assign a PO number to projects, tickets, or tasks, that PO number will override the associated contract's purchase order number. The PO number appears on invoices. A separate invoice is created for each PO number. If an organization has multiple billing items that are assigned to different PO numbers, Autotask will generate multiple invoices for that organization. Refer to Working with purchase order (PO) numbers.
Internal PO Number	An internal purchase order number for a charge. It is for internal reference only and is not carried through to billing.
Internal Invoice Number	An internal invoice number for the charge used for reference only.
Status	This is the procurement status of the charge item. If Procurement is enabled, the status options are conditional based on the current status, and some statuses are set automatically. For details on charge status in the procurement process, refer to Introduction to Inventory. If Procurement is not enabled, you can manually select any status. For consistency, your company should set guidelines for charge status selection. If you set the status of a charge to Canceled, the Unit Cost and Unit Price fields are zeroed out and the charge is removed from Approve & Post. If an Estimated Arrival Date was added to the purchase order item, it is displayed in parentheses after the status.

3. Click Save & Close.

Billable and non-billable charges will appear here: > Contracts > Approve and Post > Charges tab.

1. Right-click the item on the Charges page of the associated contract, project, or ticket.
2. Refer to the table above for field definitions.

The following restrictions apply:

• If a charge has been approved and posted, you can edit only the Create Device check box and Status field. You can also make changes to the Items Needed and Items already Picked, Received, or On Order tables.
• The Product field is disabled for charges created for block, retainer, or per ticket purchases.
• You cannot edit the Quantity field when you edit a ticket charge associated with a device if all of the following conditions apply:
  • Device has been replaced using the Swap Device wizard
  • The item is serialized, and
  • The item was returned to inventory under the original serial number.

The first table shows a list of inventory locations where the items to fulfill the charge you are adding are stocked.

If you are able to pick all of the items needed for this charge from inventory, the Items Needed table no longer appears. Instead, you will see the Items Already Picked, Received, or On Order table.

Items not available in any inventory location will enter the procurement process. If approval is required, the status will be updated to Waiting Approval.

If you do not have enough units in inventory, both tables appear.

The table lists each inventory location from which the items were picked or ordered. In addition, if any items were transferred to a resource, the table lists the resource name, preceded by RESOURCE:.

IMPORTANT  Project change orders are completely unrelated to Change Management (refer to Change management). They are simply a way to track and optionally charge the customer when they change their mind about something in the middle of an ongoing project. Example: we want iPhones instead of the Android mobile devices that were originally specified. Change Management, on the other hand, is a way to manage change in you own organization.

A change order charge is associated with a task. It allows you to keep a record of labor that exceeds the original project estimate for the task. It can also record additional charges added to the project.

1. From the task context menu, select New > Change Order (Charge).
2. The Project Charge page opens. Most fields are identical to the standard Project Charge fields. The fields that behave differently are described in the following table.

3. When fields are completed, click to Save. The new change order charge appears on the Charges & Expenses page. A check mark in the Change Order column indicates that the change order was created from the task context menu.