A planning fee paid on the practice card
The planning application is ready, and the client asks the practice to pay the application fee through the Planning Portal and add it to the next invoice. The architect pays it on the practice card. The receipt goes into an email folder. A month later, the stage invoice is raised, and nobody remembers the planning fee. Nor the drawing printing for the client meeting, the train fare to the site visit, or the measured survey the practice commissioned on the client's behalf.
At year end, the bookkeeper asks what some of the card payments were. Some are identified. Some are written off as practice costs.
Why disbursements slip through
The person who pays is not the person who invoices, and there is no link between the two. Receipts are captured as expenses for the practice's accounts, not as costs for a project. The appointment says which costs are rechargeable, but nobody checks each cost against it. And stage invoices are raised from the fee schedule, not from a list of costs.
- Card payments and expense claims are not tagged to projects.
- Rechargeable costs are not marked when they are paid.
- Fee invoices are raised without checking for disbursements.
- Receipts are lost or unclear.
- Appointments differ on what can be recharged.
What unrecharged costs cost
Money the practice is entitled to, under its own appointments, never comes back. It is also a nuisance at year end when card payments cannot be explained. And clients who are recharged late, in a lump, are more likely to query the costs than those who see them on each invoice.
Tagging costs when they are paid
- Staff photograph or forward each receipt to a capture address or app, and it is read automatically for supplier, date and amount.
- The person paying picks the project from their current projects and the cost type, such as planning fee, printing, travel or survey.
- Whether the cost is rechargeable is suggested from the project's appointment terms, which are set up once per project, and the person confirms.
- Card and bank transactions are matched to receipts from your bank feed in Xero, QuickBooks or your accounts system, and any unmatched transactions are listed for someone to explain.
- When the next invoice for the project is drafted, the rechargeable costs since the last invoice are added as lines, with receipts attached, for the director to approve.
- A project cost report shows all costs by project, recharged or not.
What can be recharged is set by each appointment. The system applies the terms you record and the director approves every invoice.
A cost, from payment to invoice
| Step | Today | With tagged capture |
|---|---|---|
| Payment | Card, receipt in email | Card, receipt photographed |
| Tagging | None, or at year end | Project and type at the time |
| Rechargeable? | Not considered | Suggested from the appointment |
| Invoice | Forgotten | Added to next draft for approval |
Costs that come back
Rechargeable costs appear on the client's next invoice with the receipt attached, while the client still remembers the planning submission or the site visit. Year end has fewer unexplained card payments. Directors can see the true cost of each project, including disbursements, which also helps with future fee proposals.
Does this happen in your practice?
- Planning fees and printing paid for clients are not always recharged.
- Receipts live in email folders and wallets.
- Fee invoices are raised without checking for disbursements.
- Your bookkeeper asks what card payments were for.