For administrators and for the people who bill you. SpringFire may call your people something else (practitioners, workers, carers); this guide says "staff member" throughout.
Some of the people on your team are not employees. A contractor, a sole trader, or a small business works your rostered hours, and instead of being paid through payroll they send you a bill. Bills for work done lets those people raise that bill inside SpringFire from the timesheets you have already approved, and lets you approve it, pay it from your bank, and record the payment, all in one place.
Three things to know up front:
- It is off until you turn it on, first for your organisation and then for each person. Nobody bills you by accident.
- A timesheet is paid once. A person who bills you is left out of payroll export to Xero and MYOB, and a timesheet on a bill they have sent can't be billed again or deleted. The Payroll Report still shows their hours, marked Paid by bill, so you can see what you owe.
- SpringFire does not move money. You pay the bill from your bank as you do today. SpringFire records that you paid and adds the payment to your Finances as an expense, not as wages.
Who does what
| Administrators, and internal users with Invoicing access | Anyone who can edit a staff profile | The staff member | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Turn the feature on or off for the organisation | Yes (Invoicing → Setup) | ||
| Choose who bills you, their business name and GST status | Yes | Yes | Business name and GST status only |
| Enter bank account details | No. Only the person can. | No | Yes |
| Create, edit and send a bill | Yes | ||
| Approve, send back, cancel, record a payment | Yes |
A customer login can never be set up to bill you.
Part 1 — For administrators
1. Turn it on for your organisation
- Go to Invoicing → Setup and find the card Bills for work done.
- Switch on Let contractors bill you for their work.
- Set Days you take to pay (0 to 120). A bill is due this many days after it is sent to you. It starts at 14.
- Save.
Nothing changes for anyone yet. The next step decides who bills you.
2. Choose who bills you
- Open the person under Staff, then their details.
- In the card Billing for their work, choose Edit and switch on Bills us for their work.
- Optional: enter the Business name on their bills. Leave it empty and their bills are in their own name.
- Tick Registered for GST if they are. Their bills then add 10% GST and are titled "Tax Invoice". Leave it unticked and their bills carry no GST and are titled "Invoice".
- Save.
From this moment the person:
- sends you bills instead of being paid through payroll;
- is left out of timesheet export to Xero and MYOB (the Payroll Report still shows their hours, marked Paid by bill);
- still has their timesheets approved by you in the usual way. Only approved timesheets can be billed.
The person can also set their own business name and GST status from their My bills screen. You decide whether they bill you at all; they can't switch that on themselves.
3. What the person needs before they can send a bill
Their billing card tells you what is still missing. There are three things:
| Needed | Who enters it | Where |
|---|---|---|
| A valid ABN | You (or whoever manages their profile) | Their staff profile |
| A pay grade with an hourly rate | You | Their staff profile. Their hours are priced at this rate, locked in when the bill is sent. |
| Bank account details | Only the person | Their My bills screen, under Billing details |
You will see "Payment details saved" or "No payment details yet", never the account itself. The account appears to you only on a bill they have sent, so you can pay it.
4. When a bill arrives
Administrators get a bell notification, Bill received, naming the sender and the amount. The bill is under Invoicing, on the bills tab (named after your word for staff, for example "Practitioners bills"). The tab appears once the feature is on, and stays while any bills exist.
Filter the list by status:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Waiting for approval | Sent to you, not yet looked at |
| Approved, not paid | You approved it; payment is owed |
| Partly paid | Some of it has been paid and recorded |
| Paid | Paid in full |
| Sent back | You returned it with a note; the sender can change it and send it again |
| Cancelled | Closed without payment, by you or by the sender |
Open a bill to see each line. A timesheet line shows the date, the hours and the rate. Other costs show what they were for, the quantity and the price. GST appears only when the sender is registered.
Under What to do you can:
- Approve the bill. The sender is told it is approved and waiting to be paid.
- Send back a bill that needs changing. You must say what needs fixing; the sender sees your note, edits the bill and sends it again.
- Cancel bill when it shouldn't be paid at all. You must give a reason, which the sender sees. A bill with payments recorded can't be cancelled; remove the payments first.
- Download PDF for your records or your bookkeeper.
5. Paying a bill
- Approve the bill.
- Pay it from your bank. The Where to pay box shows the account name, BSB and account number the sender gave when they sent the bill, and the bill number to use as the reference.
- Choose Record a payment. Enter the amount paid, the date, how it was paid, and an optional reference. The bill becomes Partly paid or Paid.
You can record more than one payment against a bill. Each payment is added to Finances as an expense of the type Contractor bill, under the bill, so it is not counted in your wages figures. Removing a payment from the bill reverses that entry.
The sender is told each time a payment is recorded, and when the bill is paid in full.
6. Payroll, timesheets and Xero or MYOB
- The Payroll Report includes people who bill you, marked Paid by bill, with what they have not billed yet. Their pay is worked out at their pay-grade rate with no tax taken out, and the totals say how much is paid through payroll and how much by bill. Open a person to see each timesheet marked On bill INV-0003 or To be billed.
- Timesheets paid by bill are never exported to Xero or MYOB payroll. The export window counts only what it will send.
- A timesheet that is on a sent bill can't be deleted. Cancel the bill first if it really has to go.
- A person who bills you is never exported to Xero or MYOB payroll. Pushing their bills to Xero or MYOB as supplier bills is not built yet; record them there from the PDF if you need to.
7. Turning it off
For one person: switch off Bills us for their work on their profile. They can no longer start, change or send bills. Bills they already sent stay under Invoicing until you pay or cancel them. Their unbilled approved timesheets go back into payroll export, except timesheets on a bill they have already sent.
For the organisation: switch off Let contractors bill you for their work in Setup. The same applies to everyone at once.
Part 2 — For staff who bill
Where to find it
- On the web: open Time Sheets and choose My bills.
- In the SpringFire app: open Settings and choose My bills.
If My bills isn't there, billing for your work isn't switched on for you. Ask your administrator.
Set up your billing details first
Choose Billing details and fill in:
- Business name (optional). Leave it empty to bill under your own name.
- I am registered for GST. Tick this only if you are. It adds 10% GST to your bills and titles them "Tax Invoice".
- Where you are paid: account name, BSB and account number.
Only you can see or change your bank details. They are printed on each bill you send so you can be paid. Your administrator sees only that you have entered them.
Two things are set by your administrator, not by you: your ABN, which must be on your profile and valid, and your pay rate, which prices your hours. The screen tells you if either is missing.
Create a bill
- Choose New bill.
- Under Your approved timesheets, tick the timesheets you want to bill. Each shows the hours and the rate. A timesheet appears here once it has been approved, and disappears once it is on a sent bill.
- Under Other costs, add anything else you are charging: what it was for, the quantity and the price each.
- Add a note if you want one printed on the bill.
- Choose Save draft.
A draft is yours to come back to. Nothing is sent, and its timesheets are still yours to move to another bill.
Send it
Open the draft and choose Send bill. The screen lists anything still missing (ABN, pay rate, payment details) and won't send until it is all there.
When it is sent:
- it gets a bill number (INV-0001, INV-0002 and so on), today's date, and a due date based on your organisation's payment terms;
- your name or business name, ABN and bank details are printed on it as they are at that moment;
- it is titled "Tax Invoice" and includes 10% GST if you ticked GST, otherwise "Invoice" with no GST;
- you can open it as a PDF at any time.
Once a bill is sent you can't change it, unless it is sent back to you.
After sending
You get a notification at each step:
| You see | What it means | What you can do |
|---|---|---|
| Waiting for approval | Your administrator hasn't looked at it yet | Wait, or cancel it (its timesheets go back to your list) |
| Approved, not paid | It will be paid | Nothing yet |
| Sent back | Something needs fixing; the note says what | Edit it and Send bill again, or cancel it |
| Partly paid / Paid | A payment was recorded against it | Check the amounts under Payments received |
| Cancelled | It won't be paid; the reason is shown | Bill the timesheets again on a new bill if that is right |
If billing is switched off for you later, you can still see, download and cancel the bills you already raised. You just can't start or send new ones.
Common questions
A timesheet I worked isn't in the list. It is either not approved yet, already on a bill you sent, or was exported to payroll before billing was switched on for you. Ask your administrator if you're not sure which.
My bill says "Invoice", not "Tax Invoice". Tick I am registered for GST under Billing details. Only tick it if you are registered.
I entered the wrong bank details. Fix them under Billing details. Bills you have already sent keep the details they were sent with; tell your administrator before they pay.
Can the administrator raise a bill for someone? No. Only the person can create and send their own bill. The administrator approves, sends back, cancels and records payments.
Does SpringFire pay the bill? No. You pay from your bank using the details on the bill, then record the payment in SpringFire.
Does this change their tax or super? SpringFire takes no view on that. A person who bills you is paid as a supplier, not through payroll, and GST is added only when you mark them as registered. Check the arrangement with your accountant.