Month end: from agreements to invoices in one pass

What you will have

• Know what a real Approval Queue looks like at the moment nothing is waiting, and read the stat cards around it correctly.
• Read a client's Ticket Charges tab and tell time that will invoice from time that will not, and why.
• Mark a stray time entry billable and see exactly how far that gets it toward an invoice.
• Recognize an already-approved plan invoice and an already-converted quote invoice for what each one is.
• Read a client's own Invoices list the way you would right before sending a reminder.
• See a client's Billing tab exactly as the admin view shows it, with no impersonation needed.

Why it works this way

Steps

1. 1

   Start at Billing > Approval Queue and read what is waiting.

   Pending Approval reads 0 and Items in Queue reads 0. The queue is clear because this client's Core plan already billed for September, not because there was nothing to check this month. Total MRR $150.00, Total ARR $1,800.00 and Outstanding AR $13.3K sit alongside it as the always-on read of where the book stands.

   

2. 2

   Open the client's Billing > Ticket Charges tab and read what will not invoice.

   Bluebird Dental's Materials, Time and Combined pending charges all read $0.00, and a Time that won't invoice banner names one ticket underneath: #16 Front desk PC will not wake from sleep, 49 minutes. The banner names the reason directly: Billing status 'Out of Scope' has no mapped product. That ticket's own Billing field reads the same Out of Scope ($150.00/hr), so the real reason is what agreement-to-invoice already covers: a billing status with a price still needs a QuickBooks product linked to it before it can post, and this instance has no QuickBooks connected.

   

3. 3

   Fix one item: mark a stray minute of logged time billable.

   Ticket #17, a second front desk PC call still In Progress, had one minute logged Mon, Sep 14 sitting under Non-billable. Opening that entry and clicking its $ icon moved it: Time Entries now reads 0:01 hrs billable instead of 0:00. Nothing about the ticket's status, its billing rate, or its client changed - only that one minute's billable flag.

   

4. 4

   Check the Approval Queue again: Items in Queue still reads 0.

   Marking a minute billable does not queue it by itself. Ticket charge invoices are only built once a month, on the 1st, and only for time on a ticket that has actually closed. Ticket #17 is still In Progress, so its newly-billable minute is waiting on both of those, not lost.

   

5. 5

   Open the invoice that already ran this period: Invoice 4.

   Bluebird Dental's Core plan billed itself on schedule: Invoice 4, Outstanding, period 2026-09, source Core, one line - Managed Desktop Support (1 @ $150.00) (Sep 2026) - for a $150.00 subtotal and total. Approved By reads Northwind Demo and Approved On Sep 15, 12:38 AM: a person approved this one, the same door agreement-to-invoice walks in full.

   

6. 6

   Open a quote that converted into its own invoice this month: Invoice 7.

   Invoice 7 is Outstanding, source Quote, one line - AV Cabling and Mounts, "On-site cabling and wall mounts for the conference room AV refresh" - at $3,200.00, matching its subtotal and total. Approved By reads SYSTEM rather than a person: converting an accepted quote lands it Outstanding immediately, skipping the Approval Queue the way quote-to-invoice describes.

   

7. 7

   Open the client's Invoices list and read what is Outstanding.

   Bluebird Dental carries five invoices, all Outstanding: three Quote invoices (5, 6, 7) at $3,200.00 each, the Core invoice (4) at $150.00, and a Manual invoice (DEMO-INV-2001) at $1,250.00. The Source column is the fast way to tell them apart without opening each one: Core for a plan, Quote for a converted quote, Manual for one typed by hand. Every row here is a candidate to send or follow up on before the month closes.

   

8. 8

   Open the client's Billing tab the way an admin reads it, no impersonation needed.

   The same Outstanding $11,000.00, Paid $0.00 and Quotes 4 that a client would see from their own portal are also right here on the admin side, on the client's own Billing overview. There is no need to view as the client just to see what they owe.

   

The pages behind each click

• Set up an agreement and bill a period →
• Quote a job, get it accepted, and convert it to an invoice →
• Track time as you work →

Other ways to do this

If it did not work

• If Items in Queue does not move after marking time billable, check whether the ticket itself has closed - ticket charge invoices are only built once a month, on the 1st, and only for time on a closed ticket.
• If a Ticket Charges banner names a status with no mapped product, that status still needs a QuickBooks product linked to it before its time can post - check Settings > Integrations for whether QuickBooks is connected at all.
• If a plan's period does not show up in the Approval Queue, check whether it already billed this month first, the same way Bluebird Dental's September Core period already had before this walk started.

Questions this page answers