Billing Process Checklist

Confirm billing address, AP contact email, payment terms, and tax exemption status on the customer profile in QuickBooks Online (or Xero/Intacct). Stale AP contacts and outdated remit-to addresses are the most common cause of "we never got the invoice" delays.

Pull the current engagement letter from the client folder. Confirm fee structure (fixed-fee, hourly, milestone), Net terms, late-fee language, and any out-of-scope billing triggers. Flag any expired engagement letters before invoicing — billing without a current EL is a scope-creep magnet.

Run the WIP report from Karbon, TaxDome, or your time tracker. Cross-check unbilled time against the engagement budget and write off anything outside scope before it hits the invoice. Reimbursable expenses get pulled from the receipt-capture tool (Dext, Hubdoc).

Use the client's saved invoice template — service items mapped to the correct income accounts, class/location tagged for departmental reporting. Default Net terms from the customer record; do not type them in manually.

Total invoiced amount must reconcile to WIP released for the period. Document any write-downs and write-offs on the WIP workpaper with a memo — partners review these monthly for realization-rate trends.

Send the invoice PDF and supporting WIP detail to the engagement partner. Partner reviews fee against value delivered, write-offs, and any out-of-scope items before release. Do not skip approval on invoices over the firm threshold (commonly $5K) or any invoice with write-downs.

Deliver via the client portal (TaxDome, Liscio, Karbon Client Tasks) so the audit trail captures send date and view receipt. Include the QBO Payments link so the client can pay ACH or card without re-keying.

CC the engagement partner and the client's primary contact. Use the firm's standard invoice-delivery email template — it includes the remit-to instructions, the Net terms reminder, and the late-fee language pulled from the engagement letter.

Match Receive Payments to specific open invoices in QBO — never post to undeposited funds without an invoice link, and never auto-apply across customers. Lockbox and merchant-services deposits get applied from the daily settlement file.

Tie each Receive Payment in QBO to the corresponding bank-feed deposit. Stripe and QBO Payments net out merchant fees — book the gross to the invoice and the fee to the merchant-fee expense account, not the customer's A/R.

Common discrepancies: short-pay (client deducted a disputed line), overpayment (apply as credit memo, do not post to other income), wrong-invoice application, NSF return. Note the type and dollar amount on the A/R workpaper.

Soft reminder via the client portal — references the invoice number, balance, and original due date. Most past-due invoices clear with one polite reminder; skip the firm-letterhead language at this stage.

Phone calls collect; emails accumulate. Confirm receipt of the invoice, ask whether there is a dispute, and get a specific committed pay date. Document the call (date, contact, commitment) in the customer notes.

For invoices 60+ days past due with no committed pay date, the partner decides whether to continue internal collections, place a service hold, or refer to outside collections. Service holds for tax-season clients require partner sign-off — pulling work mid-return creates Circular 230 and malpractice exposure.

Pull A/R aging by customer with the standard 0–30 / 31–60 / 61–90 / 90+ buckets. Anything 90+ becomes a partner conversation at the close meeting; 60+ flags onto the next collections call list.

Aging total must equal the A/R control account on the trial balance. Variances usually trace to journal entries posted directly to A/R without an invoice, or to mis-coded credit memos. Attach the tie-out workpaper for partner review.

DSO = (A/R balance / period revenue) × period days. Track month-over-month and against the firm benchmark (typically 30–45 days for fixed-fee practices). Sustained DSO creep is the leading indicator of cash-flow trouble.