Invoice day for six client sites
It is the third working day of the month. Your finance person has six client invoices to raise. Site A is cost-plus: food cost, labour and overheads, plus a management fee. Site B has a fixed subsidy with a cap. Site C is a nil-subsidy contract, but hospitality is recharged to the client's departments. Site D has a guaranteed minimum income arrangement, which means the client tops up any shortfall against an agreed level.
Each needs figures from the tills, payroll, supplier invoices and the site manager's hospitality log. Each client wants a backing schedule in their own format, and one wants cost codes against every hospitality line. It takes most of a week, and every month the formulas are checked again because last month someone found an error.
Every contract is its own formula
Contract catering terms are negotiated per client, so no two invoices are built the same way. That is fine for the contract. It is hard for a finance team using spreadsheets.
- Contract terms live in a PDF, and the spreadsheet formulas are someone's interpretation of them.
- Labour costs come from payroll in a different shape to what the contract expects.
- Hospitality recharges are logged at site, often on paper, and cost codes are missing.
- Allowable costs, exclusions and caps differ between contracts.
- When a contract is renewed with changed terms, the spreadsheet is edited and the old logic may linger.
The person who built the spreadsheets understands them. The risk is everyone else, and the month that person is off.
Timing adds pressure. Payroll for the month may not be final until after the invoice is due, supplier invoices for the last week trickle in late, and the client wants the invoice on a fixed day. So estimates go in, and next month's invoice carries adjustments that make the schedule harder to follow.
Why getting it right matters
Errors run both ways. Under-invoicing leaves money you are owed unclaimed, often without anyone noticing. Over-invoicing, or a schedule that does not add up, triggers a query from the client's finance team and delays payment on the whole invoice while it is resolved.
Clients in cost-plus and subsidy contracts are entitled to check the figures, and a clear, consistent schedule builds trust at renewal time. A different layout every month, or a correction note, does the opposite.
Contract terms as rules, invoices from data
- Each contract's commercial terms are set up as rules: fee basis, subsidy method, caps, allowable costs, recharge categories and invoice timing. Your finance lead or adviser confirms each one.
- Site data flows in from the sources you already use: till sales, payroll costs by site, supplier invoices tagged to site, and the hospitality order log.
- At month end, the system calculates each client's invoice lines and builds the backing schedule in that client's agreed format.
- Anything unusual is flagged for review: a missing cost code, a hospitality order with no approver, a cost category that jumped.
- Your finance team reviews, adjusts if needed with a note, and approves. The invoice is raised in Xero or QuickBooks through the API with the schedule attached.
- Every invoice keeps its calculation and the data version behind it, so a client query months later can be answered from the record.
| Contract type | What the rules calculate | What finance checks |
|---|---|---|
| Cost plus | Allowable costs plus fee | Exclusions and unusual costs |
| Fixed subsidy | Subsidy up to the cap | Whether the cap was reached |
| Nil subsidy with recharges | Hospitality by cost code | Missing codes and approvals |
| Guaranteed income | Shortfall against agreed level | Sales figures for the period |
We do not interpret your contracts for you. The rules are set up with your finance lead, and any ambiguity in a contract is raised with you, not decided by us.
Invoice week, shortened
On the first working day, draft invoices and schedules are ready for review. Finance spends its time on the flagged items rather than rebuilding every calculation. Clients receive the same format every month, and queries are answered by opening the record.
When a contract is renewed with new terms, the rules are updated with an effective date, so old and new months are both calculated correctly.
Signs you need this
- Each client invoice is built in its own spreadsheet.
- Only one person fully understands how the invoices are calculated.
- Clients query the backing schedules more than you would like.
- Hospitality recharges arrive with missing cost codes.