Create a Progress Bill in ConnectWise PSA

Progress invoices let you bill a fixed fee project in stages — collecting payment throughout the project instead of only at the end. A final standard invoice closes out the project once work is complete.

Note: Progress billing is only available for fixed fee projects. Partial quantities cannot be billed in ConnectWise PSA.

How progress billing works

A progress invoice notifies the client of work completed and collects funds for the next project stage. The final standard invoice signals project completion and bills the remaining balance.

A project can have multiple progress invoices, but only one standard (final) invoice. Create the standard invoice last — it closes the project.

Example: A 3-month, $50,000 fixed fee project:

• End of month 1 — progress invoice for $20,000
• End of month 2 — progress invoice for $20,000
• End of month 3 — standard invoice for $10,000 (final)

Note: To delete a progress invoice, you must first delete any standard invoices associated with it.

Before you start

To issue progress invoices, the project must be configured correctly:

• Set Billing Method to Fixed Fee in the Billing Information pod on the base project.
• Set Bill Time? to Billable so time is applied to the project.

The fixed fee billing method covers time only. Billable expenses and products are billed in addition to the fixed fee amount.

Create a progress bill

1. Go to Finance > Invoicing > Invoicing tab.
2. Select the company you want to invoice.
3. Select the Time, Expense, or Product tab.
4. Select the checkboxes next to the entries you want to include.
5. Select Actions > Progress Bill. The Create Progress Bill screen opens.
6. Review the Hours Reconciliation and Invoice Reconciliation sections to verify what’s being billed.
7. Check the WIP Available to Bill field — this is the maximum you can bill on this progress invoice.
8. In Invoice Number, enter a number or leave it blank to let the system assign one.
9. In WIP Bill Amount, enter the amount you want to bill on this invoice.
10. If the WIP value of time records differs from the fixed fee amount, select Charge adjustments to the Internal Company instead of employees. This affects how adjustments appear in reporting once time is on the invoice.
11. Select Attach time records to this invoice if you want the time entries linked to the invoice.
12. Select Continue. The invoice is created and opens automatically.

Note: If the WIP Bill Amount exceeds the WIP Available to Bill, ConnectWise blocks the invoice with the error: “Invoice amount cannot exceed WIP available to bill.”

Progress Bill screen — field reference

Hours Reconciliation

Field	Description
Total (Hours)	Sum of all hours entered across time entries.
Selected Billable (Hours)	Sum of billable hours you selected on the Time tab.
Remaining (Hours)	Total hours minus selected billable hours — not billed on this invoice.
Total (Amount)	Rate × Hours for each time entry, summed.
Selected Billable (Amount)	Rate × Hours for each selected billable time entry, summed.
Remaining (Amount)	Total amount minus selected billable amount.

Invoice Reconciliation

Field	Description
Remaining Fixed	The remaining fixed fee amount available to bill.
Expenses	Total selected billable expense amounts.
Products	Total selected billable product amounts.
Agreement Applied	Amount covered by an agreement. Time: applied hours × hourly rate. Expenses/products: total amount covered (records show $0 invoice amount).
Down Payment Applied	Amount applied from a down payment. Unrestricted down payments apply automatically; restricted down payments apply only to the record they’re restricted against.
Net Amount of Invoice	Time + Expenses + Products − Agreement Applied − Down Payment Applied.

Invoice Information

Field	Description
WIP Available to Bill	Remaining fixed fee amount you can bill.
Invoice Number	Enter a number or leave blank for system-assigned.
WIP Bill Amount	The amount to bill on this progress invoice.
Charge adjustments to the Internal Company	Routes time-record adjustments to the company rather than individual employees.
Attach time records to this invoice	Links the selected time entries to the invoice.

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If you want these progress invoices to look as polished as the billing schedule behind them, Better Invoice lets you apply a fully branded template to every ConnectWise invoice — progress bills included.