Subcontractor Invoices

Subcontactor Invoices fulfill a specific purpose in Projector. They are for reimbursing subcontractors that enter their time in Projector. If your subcontractors just submit invoices and don't enter time, then you should be using a vendor invoice instead. Even if your subcontractors are entering their time in Projector, you may still choose to use a vendor invoice. However, SIs have benefits over vendor invoices that we'll outline in this article.

Let's first assume that your subcontractors are already entering their time in Projector. This is useful because it helps you set and track budgets. It also gives you one place where you can track both internal and external employee performance. Now keeping budgets in mind, a subcontractor invoice solves a budgeting problem introduced by vendor invoices. In Projector, budgets are either for time or for cost. They are not for time+cost together. This presents a problem with vendor invoices. Each of your subs has an internal hourly rate that you are paying them. This counts against project profitability, as well it should. However, when you then create a vendor invoice for their time, you double count their expense. Once on the time side and again on the cost side. This impacts the appearance of project profitability. There are workarounds to this dilemma that allow you to continue using Vendor Invoices, but a Subcontractor Invoice neatly solves it by gathering up time cards, turning them into a cost, and being smart enough to make sure all your reports and budgets know about it.

Subcontractor invoices introduce a new term to the Projector lexicon. You should already be familiar with time cards and cost cards. Here, we introduce RDC cards. An RDC card is created from a time card and always has a one time card to one RDC card mapping. The RDC card holds the cost of an hour worked and how much the subcontractor must be paid.

A subcontractor invoices is a type of expense document. Please see these additional help topics if you don't know what an expense document is.

Permissions and Settings

Subcontractor invoices require proper configuration across several areas of the product. Please carefully read this section.

RDC Card approvers can view reimbursement hours and reimbursement amount. Based on this they can easily back calculate RDC rates. If RDC rates are sensitive, limit your approvers.

Configuration

A lot of base settings need to be configured properly before you can start using SI. Please see the In Practice at the bottom of this page for a setup walkthrough.

To create, modify, or delete SI requires the cost center permission Maintain Subcontractor Invoices.

Each subcontractor must have their resource profile set to hourly-paid and subcontractor invoice enabled. You may want to set up a resource type so that these settings are easily inherited to new subcontractors.

If a subcontractor is reimbursed directly, then you don't need to do anything. If they work for a vendor, then make sure that vendor is enabled for subcontractor invoices.

You will need a unique expense type that is only allowed for subcontractor invoices. Optionally create an expense type group for these.

Settings

There are quite a few permissions that affect subcontractor invoices. As a SI is a type of expense document, you should review that help page so that you understand what higher level permissions inherit down to here.

To create or edit subcontractor invoices you must have the cost center permission Maintain Subcontractor Invoices.

Create subcontractor invoices from the Expense Browser.

Find existing subcontractor invoices from the Expense Browser.

Edit existing subcontractor invoices from the Expense Document Editor. In addition to the editing options outlined there, please see the Manage RDC Cards section of this page for actions specific to subcontractor invoices.

When a subcontractor invoice is created, it is assigned a disbursing cost center. The cost center is determined by the vendor's disbursing cost center. Once the document is created, the cost center cannot be changed.

Many settings that affect the workflow of subcontractor invoices are available on the System Settings Editor Cost Tab. Please review that help page if you are unfamiliar with high level expense document permissions.

Subcontractor expense approvals are a two step process as opposed to a three step process followed by other expense document types. To learn more about how to approve expenses, please see the help page Expense Approval.

Workflow approval - initial approval to allow the card into the system. You cannot approve your own expenses ever.
Reimbursement approval - the resource or company credit card will be reimbursed for their outlay

Unlike other expense documents, you can add new RDC cards to a subcontractor invoice at any time. The document is not locked down once all cards are Approved to Pay.

RDC Cards and Time Cards

As mentioned in the introduction, subcontractor invoices introduce a new type of card into the system called an RDC card. RDC cards are created from time cards. A lot of different fields get mapped when they are created, but the below table shows the most important ones.

Time Card Field	RDC Card Field
Work Date	Incurred date
Task Name	Description
Hours	Hours Worked
Project Code	Project Code
Resource	Resource
Resource Location	A resource's location on the time card's work date determines the RDC card's location. This location is used for VAT calculations.

Blocked Time Card Actions

Because time cards and RDC cards are linked, we sometimes need to block certain actions. For example, you can't delete a time card that has an RDC card associated with it. The table below outlines what you can do when an RDC card is unapproved vs. approved. You might find the actions allowed a little counter-intuitive because in many areas of Projector, we limit what you can do once cards are approved. RDC cards work differently. You can actually do more once they are approved. Reason being, once you approve to pay for completed work, we assume you are good to go. If down the road you need to edit the time card for invoicing purposes, perhaps by changing task, project, or description - then we don't want to block that.

Time Card Action	Unapproved RDC Card (Draft, Submitted, Rejected)	Approved RDC Card	Notes
Transfer to Project	Blocked	Allowed.	The RDC card project will also change.
Split	Blocked	Allowed.	The RDC card will be split too. The amount of RDC card on each new card is proportional to the split.
Transfer to Role Change Task Type Change DTM Task Change Rate Type	Allowed.	Allowed.	If this change causes RDC to change. For example, changing to an Overtime rate type, you'll be warned. See the revalue RDC section of this page. Remember that the time card task maps to the RDC card description. When you change the task, the description on the original RDC card stays the same. So the two will be out of sync.
Set to Submitted Set to Draft Reject	Blocked.	Blocked.	You will need to remove RDC cards from a subcontractor invoice before you can unapprove a linked time card.

Manage Subcontractor Invoices

To create, modify, or delete SI requires the cost center permission Maintain Subcontractor Invoices.

Find

The expense document flex search has the ability to search by Expense Document Type.

Create

Go to https://app.projectorpsa.com/expensedocsearch and click + Subcontractor Invoice.... Or go to Financials | Expense Documents.

Modify

Find a subcontractor. Then click on the document number.

Delete

Find a subcontractor invoice. Tick the checkbox for it. Click Delete.

Subcontractor Invoice Editor

Once you start modifying a subcontractor invoice, you can perform the following actions.

Add RDC Cards

Click the plus icon.

Use the flex search to find time cards that need RDC cards created from them.
Select the cards you want to add
Select the expense type they will be associated with
Click Add

Your newly created subcontractor invoice will appear in a system run search with your new expense document(s) in the results grid.

Remove RDC Cards

Check off the cost cards you want to remove. Then click the delete/x icon.

When an RDC card is removed, it is also deleted. The time card that originated the RDC card will still exist. If the intent is to not pay for this time, you should not remove the RDC card, but write its value down to zero.

Adjust RDC Amounts

Although your subcontractors may have fixed hourly reimbursement rates, you may need to adjust their RDC cards in some situations. Some common examples are:

Write card down to zero if you aren't going to pay for some time
Write card up if you are going to compensate them for some overtime work
Write cards to a set amount. For example, if resource is compensated monthly you would write all November cards to equal a fixed amount.

There are two means of adjusting RDC cards. If the card is in Draft or Submitted status, you can simply edit the RDC cards. Click the down arrow to "drill in" to the details of the cost card.

After you make edits to the cost card, click Save in the top right corner of the page.

If the card is approved, then you can use the adjustment Adjust Disbursed Amounts.

Tick the checkbox for the approved cards you want to adjust
Choose Adjustments -> Adjust Disbursed Amounts

You are presented with the following adjustment screen. From here you can adjust individual incurred amounts, vat amounts, and disbursed amounts. You may also use the Set features to apply a uniform amount of VAT or disbursed monies across all the cards.

Edit Subcontractor Invoice Details

Click the icon in the details section.

In Practice

Getting subcontractor invoicing configured is a bit of a bear. Once it is configured, things should run smoothly. This section is going to focus on getting all the pieces in place so that you can start using the feature.

Enable Vendors

You'll need a vendor to assign the subcontractor invoice to. Each resource in Projector has a default vendor associated with their profile. Use this default vendor if you reimburse subcontractors on an individual basis. If you have a group of subcontractors that work for a particular vendor, then set up that vendor in Projector by ticking the Subcontractor invoices checkbox. In the screenshot below I've turned on subcontractor invoicing for Globo-Mega Corp. In the Resources section below we'll get to how you assign resources to this vendor.

Setup Expense Types

You'll likely need to add a new expense type to handle subcontracting. This expense type can only be used for subcontractor invoices. Not for vendor invoices, soft costs, etc. So ensure you untick those options as shown in the screenshot.

If you have an accounting integration, you'll need to go to the accounting tab and map the RDC Expense line item to your accounting system.

Setup User Types or Individual Users

You'll likely want to edit an existing user type and add the cost center permission Maintain Subcontractor Invoices. This permission lets the user type create, view, and modify subcontractor invoices.

If you don't want to do this at the user type level, then go ahead and edit individual users and grant them this permission.

Setup Resource Types

If you have an existing resource type which is set to Pay Category Hourly, then you can edit it and tick the Pay via subcontractor invoice checkbox. If you don't have one ready to go, make a new one as shown in the screenshot. This setting only inherits to new resources or if you change an existing resource to this type. We'll get to that in the next section.

While you are on this screen, you'll likely want to ensure the Override standard RDC rate checkbox is ticked. This will prompt you to put in the resource's hourly rate when you create their profile.

Configure Resources

If you are creating new resources:

Change their resource type to the "Subcontractor" type you created earlier in this tutorial
Tick the Pay via subcontractor invoice payable to vendor checkbox
Select the appropriate vendor from the dropdown list
You'll likely want to enter an RDC hourly rate too

If you have existing resources, add a new history row or edit their resource history:

Change their resource type to the "Subcontractor" type you created earlier in this tutorial
Tick the Pay via subcontractor invoice payable to vendor checkbox
From the dropdown list next to the checkbox, select the vendor you setup earlier
You'll likely want to enter an RDC hourly rate too

Approve Subcontractor Time Cards

Now that all the pieces are in place, let's get some subcontractor time cards into the system so that you can create an expense document based on them.

Log into Enter Time and enter some time cards for one of your subcontractors.

Approve the time.

Create a Subcontractor Invoice

Now that we have time cards in the system, we can create a subcontractor invoice from them. In Manage Expense Documents click + Subcontractor Invoice.

Clicking Add new Subcontractor invoice will open a dialogue on your screen with the ability to filter on time cards on the left.

Enter your search criteria.
Tick the checkbox next to each vendor you want to create documents for
From the dropdown list, choose which expense type makes sense
Click Create

Review and Approve to Pay Subcontractor Invoice

Open up your newly created subcontractor invoice. See that Projector created one cost card for each time card. If you are happy with the way everything looks, you can submit all the cards and they will go through the normal approval process. Or if you are an administrator, you may approve it for workflow and AP right now. If you are not happy with the card amounts, edit the individual cost cards by clicking on the icon and make your adjustments now.

Invoice Subcontractor Time

Okay, this section is a little bit of a red herring. RDC cards never get invoiced, the time cards they are associated with do. As far as a client sees, your subcontractors are just like your normal full time workers. So to "invoice" rdc cards, all you do is make a new invoice like you usually do, and add the original time cards. There is some locking that goes on here. For example, you can't adjust time cards until their associated RDC card has been approved. Reason being, adjusted time cards can affect RDC card values.