Product billing and margin

Product billing turns approved and delivered products into client invoices, tracks payment, and produces the accounting handoff. It is a capability of the Procurement module — available on Professional and Studio — not a separate module.

Plan access

Product billing is unlocked by the Procurement module entitlement on Professional and Studio. Foundation does not have access. A Professional firm sees “Product billing” in the dashboard; Time Log, time approvals, and time‑derived invoice items require Studio.

Project selection

When creating a new invoice, the designer chooses a project. Any project containing approved products — even with zero time entries — appears as an invoiceable project. Professional sees only product-derived billable value; Studio sees product and time value combined.

Snapshot draft

The designer initiates invoice generation, which creates a snapshot draft from the project’s approved and unbilled products. The draft is reviewed before send — it is not auto-generated and not edited inline. The designer can add tax, apply credits, and set payment terms before sending.

Tax and credits

A percentage-based tax rate can be applied at the invoice level. Credits from returns or cancellations can be applied to reduce the invoice total. Tax and credits are visible on the branded PDF and client portal.

Reviewed send

Sending an invoice produces a branded PDF, emails it to the client, and surfaces it in the client portal. A Stripe pay link is added to the invoice only when client payments are enabled at the firm level (environment-gated). When client payments are not enabled, the invoice is still sent without a pay link and can be reconciled with a manual payment record.

Manual payment recording

Payments received outside the online pay link — by check, wire, or other method — can be recorded against an invoice. The designer enters the amount, date, and method. The invoice balance updates accordingly.

Accounting CSV handoff

Invoices, payments, and credits can be downloaded as a CSV formatted for manual import into Xero or QuickBooks Online. There is no live accounting sync. The download is a point-in-time export that the firm’s accountant imports manually.

Margin Rail behavior — draft versus billed

The Margin Rail tracks the lifecycle of every approved dollar. An invoice in draft status moves its items to the “Drafted not sent” bucket. Once the invoice is sent — regardless of payment status — those items move to the “Billed” bucket. If a sent invoice is cancelled, the items return to the appropriate unbilled bucket.

Double-billing prevention

The service prevents an approved product from being billed both as a per-item product line and as part of a single lump procurement-markup line. Only one billing representation per item is allowed per invoice. If a product line is included, a lump procurement markup for the same project cannot also cover that item.