The numbers look wrong

Billing numbers that don't match expectation almost always come from one of a handful of causes. None of them are arithmetic.

Unbilled WIP looks too low

The usual cause is time recorded as non-billable, not time never recorded.

Every time entry is billable or not. When you pick a task, the entry adopts that task's billable setting unless you've set it by hand. So a task marked non-billable produces non-billable entries, quietly, for everyone working it.

Check: the task's billable flag, then the entries themselves.

The second cause is time never entered at all. Phone calls are the biggest gap — a twenty-minute call is real work, and it's only captured if someone logs it or converts the call record into a time entry from the inbox.

Work you did isn't on the invoice

Three possibilities:

• The time is non-billable. Non-billable time never reaches an invoice.
• It's already been invoiced. Once billed, it's no longer unbilled.
• It's on a task with no client, which can't be billed to anyone.

The same applies to expenses. An expense marked non-billable never reaches an invoice, and that's the first place to look when expenses seem missing at billing time.

Receivables don't include an invoice you sent

Check whether it's still a draft. A draft invoice is work you did and never asked to be paid for. It's invisible in every aging report because it was never issued.

Filter the Invoices tab to Draft and check it weekly. This is the most expensive habit gap in a small firm.

The invoice total isn't what you expected

Rounding. Your firm's increment and mode change what time bills at. 6 minutes + Round up bills a four-minute call at 0.1 hours; 15 minutes + Round up bills the same call at 0.25. Across a season of short calls that's a policy difference, not an error.

Markup on expenses. Cost and billable amount are separate. An expense with markup bills above what it cost, deliberately.

Rates. Standard rate is per member, so a job worked by three people bills at three rates.

Realisation looks wrong or is missing

Realisation needs cost rate, not just standard rate. Without cost rates set, you know what you billed but not what it took, and a job can look profitable while losing money.

Cost rate is permission-gated separately, so it may be set and simply not visible to you.

A payment isn't reflected

Check the payment date. Recording a check received on the 28th as paid on the 3rd distorts aging on every report afterwards. The date field means the date received, not today.

Check for a partial. A partial payment leaves a balance and the invoice stays open, which is correct. Rounding a partial up to close the invoice makes the difference reappear later as a reconciliation problem.

Bank payments take a few days to clear and show as paid once they do.

A retainer isn't behaving like a payment

Because it isn't one. A retainer is a balance you hold against future work, drawn down as you bill. Recording one as a payment against an invoice breaks both the invoice and the retainer balance.

Where to check, in order

1. Unbilled WIP — is the work captured at all?
2. Invoices, filtered to Draft — is it billed but unsent?
3. Receivables — is it sent but unpaid?
4. The payment record — is it paid but recorded wrong?

Four tabs, four different problems, four different fixes. Working them in that order finds it faster than starting from the total.