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.