Billing controls before invoices go out
The billing controls an accounting firm can switch on in Achekam so invoices come only from approved time and larger ones need a second issuer.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
An accounting firm spends its working life checking other people's controls. Its own billing is often run on trust: whoever is free raises the invoice, the partner glances at the total, and it goes. Most months nothing goes wrong. When something does, it tends to be expensive and embarrassing at once.
A client receives an invoice for time that a manager had already decided not to charge. Another is billed twice for the same month because two people prepared invoices from the same work. A large invoice goes out with a typing error in the amount and is noticed only when the client phones, annoyed.
Billing controls exist to stop those things before the client sees them. Achekam lets a firm switch on several, and this article explains each and how they fit together.
Where billing goes wrong
Most billing errors fall into a few groups:
- Unchecked time. Hours that were never reviewed reach an invoice, including time booked to the wrong client.
- Double billing. The same work appears on two invoices.
- Unauthorised discounts. Time is quietly written off or down with no record of who decided or why.
- Errors on large invoices. One person prepares and issues a significant invoice with nobody else looking.
Each group needs a different control. The rest of this article takes them in turn.
Billing approved time only
Staff submit weekly timesheets that a manager, partner or administrator approves or returns. By default, time becomes billable only after someone other than the person who recorded it has approved it. The firm's client billing controls can also require approval of time before it is billed.
The point is not suspicion of staff. A reviewer who knows the engagement catches what the recorder cannot see: an hour on the wrong client, a task booked to an audit that belonged to the tax return, an entry that will make no sense to the client. Catching it at approval costs a minute; catching it after the client queries the invoice costs a relationship. The approval step in detail is covered in timesheet approval before billing.
Approved time sits in the WIP Register until it is billed. When a partner, manager or administrator bills it into a client invoice, those hours are consumed, so the same hours cannot be billed again from another invoice. That one rule removes the double-billing group almost entirely.
A second issuer above a set amount
The firm's client billing controls can require a second issuer for invoices above an amount the firm sets. Below that amount, the person who prepares the invoice can issue it. Above it, someone else must.
Choosing the amount is a judgement about risk and workload. Set it too low and partners spend their days approving routine monthly fees; set it too high and the control never fires. A reasonable starting point is the size of invoice that would worry the firm if it went out wrong, and then a review after a few months of seeing which invoices it catches.
Keep the second issuer meaningful. They should read the invoice against the engagement letter and the approved time, not just confirm that a total exists.
Write-down approvals
In the WIP Register a partner, manager or administrator can write unbilled time up, down or off, and every adjustment needs a reason. Write-downs above the firm's threshold, 10% by default, and every write-off wait for approval by another partner.
This closes the unauthorised-discount group. A small adjustment to round off an invoice goes through on the authority of the person making it. A larger one, or any write-off, needs a second partner to agree that the reason holds up. More on the register is in writing WIP up, down or off.
Why separate these steps? The ACFE's Report to the Nations studies thousands of occupational fraud cases, including billing schemes, how the frauds were detected and which controls worked.
Who may do what
Controls depend on roles being set up properly. Under SETTINGS > Permissions & RBAC a firm can allow or deny what each role may do, check why a member may or may not act, and grant named time and collaboration permissions per role or per person.
A table helps the partners agree it before anyone changes settings:
| Step | Who does it | Who checks it |
|---|---|---|
| Recording time | Every fee earner | Manager or partner at timesheet approval |
| Adjusting WIP above the threshold | Partner, manager or administrator | Another partner |
| Writing time off | Partner, manager or administrator | Another partner |
| Preparing an invoice | Billing staff or manager | The person issuing it |
| Issuing above the set amount | A second issuer | Not the preparer |
Use the permission check when someone says they cannot do something they should, or can do something they should not. It tells you why, which is faster than guessing at role settings.
The invoices themselves, with receipts, credit notes and statements of account, are kept in a receivables ledger on the server under BILLING & FINANCE, so there is one record of what was billed and collected.
A quick review of your set-up
- Is time approval before billing switched on?
- What is the second-issuer amount, and when was it last reviewed?
- Is the write-down threshold still the default, and is that deliberate?
- Can any one person record time, approve it and issue the invoice for the same client?
- Who has authority to change these settings?
Sit down with the managing partner, answer those five questions, and set the controls to match the answers before the next month-end billing.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
