Milestones and the payment schedule

A job keeps two lists apart. Milestones are the stages of the work — demolition, rough-in, inspection, finish. The payment schedule is the money — what your client pays, and when. A paid deposit is not work done, and a finished stage is not a bill sent; the only tie between the two is a payment that falls due when a stage is done.

Add milestones to a job

Milestones live on the job’s page. Add one with:

• Title — the stage, up to 200 characters.
• Description — what it covers, if the title is not enough.
• Due date — when you expect it done.
• Owned by — who is responsible for it.

A milestone carries no amount. New milestones go on the end of the list, and you drag them into the order the work actually happens; the new order is one change in the job’s history. Clear a description by emptying it. Anybody who can change the job’s schedule can add one; the money is not theirs to see unless their role sees prices and costs.

Track where the work is

Each milestone is Not Started, In Progress or Completed, changed from the milestone’s card. The card offers only the moves the product allows: a stage not started can go straight to completed, and a completed one can be reopened. When you mark one completed, the day it was completed is recorded for you.

A milestone with a checklist of its own waits for it. Marking it completed while steps are left asks Mark it done with its checklist unfinished?, names the steps, and marks it done only once you say why, up to 500 characters. On a job with a plan, a stage that holds tasks or visits finishes itself, so its card offers no moves; see Let a stage finish itself.

The Milestones panel’s header carries the job’s progress — 3 of 5 done · 60% — which is the one line that answers “how is that job going” without anybody opening anything. The figure is done milestones over milestones — or, on a job with a plan whose tasks carry hours, the share of those hours done, and the panel says which — the same on the job’s page whether or not Margin Intelligence is on, and in the job’s summary. Payments never count toward it. To type a figure instead, untick Work it out from the milestones at the top of the panel, set it and Save; tick it again to give it back. A job with no milestones offers Type its progress on its one line. The people on the job see its stages from their day, without amounts.

Say what your client pays and when

The Payment schedule is the first thing on the job’s Financials tab, with the rest of its money. Each payment has a name (up to 100 characters), an amount, and when it falls due:

• At signing — a deposit.
• On a date.
• When a milestone is done — chosen from the job’s milestones.
• At completion — when the job is finished.

Add a payment puts one on. On a job with an agreed price, the first payment brings the Balance with it, and the balance is always whatever the other payments leave, so the schedule adds up to the agreed price whatever you change. A payment that would push the balance below zero is refused, with the most that fits. A change order your client accepts adds to the balance — unless you give it a payment of its own, chosen under For when you add one.

Each payment says where it has got to: Not due, Due once its moment has come, then Invoiced and Paid, read from its invoice. A payment on an invoice cannot be changed or removed — it says so, and which invoice, before you try; void or change the invoice to free it. The balance goes only when the others have.

A job with an agreed price and no payments says Paid at completion: the whole price, billed when it is finished. A job billed as it goes says No payment schedule, and its payments, if you add any, stand alone.

Every change to the schedule is a change of money, so it needs a role that sees prices and costs. A dispatcher reads each payment’s name, when it falls due and where it stands, with no amounts, and changes nothing.

When a proposal is accepted, how your client agreed to pay comes across as the job’s payment schedule, in dollars — a deposit and the balance, a payment for each phase you named, or one On completion payment for the whole price. Each phase you named also becomes a milestone, and its payment falls due when that stage is done — or at signing, for a first phase you marked due when they sign. The last payment is the balance. See Proposals.

Bill by stage rather than at the end

When a stage is marked done, the payment due on it shows in For you for whoever bills — Payment due: Rough-in — with Bill it, which opens a new invoice for the job with the payment ready to pick under Payment schedule. Nothing is sent for you: the invoice is still yours to send.

Bill the rest, in the Invoices panel on the job’s Financials tab, puts every payment not yet invoiced — the balance last, at whatever is left of the agreement — on the job’s final invoice in one step. See Invoices.

Payments coming in, under Reports, is every job’s payments not yet paid, by week: overdue first, then each week with what falls due in it, then later, then those nothing dates yet. A payment due when a milestone is done is expected the day that stage is planned to finish — its last visit, or the date set on it — and one at completion the day the job is planned to finish. An expected payment whose day has passed sits in this week, not overdue: the work ran late, the payment did not. It says when cash is expected, and is no accounting.

Void a milestone you no longer need

Milestones are voided rather than deleted — with Void Milestone in its form, never as a status — and a milestone you void can be restored: tick Show voided at the top of the panel, and Restore it from the voided ones listed under the rest. If a stage drops out of the work — the client canceled the tiling, the inspection turned out not to be required — voiding keeps the history of what was originally planned, which is usually the thing in dispute later. A payment due on it is changed on the payment schedule. A deposit or a balance that was once a milestone row is a payment now, and is not listed among the voided stages.