Time Tracking and Billing

Roles involved: CA Staff logs their own time. CA Manager reviews WIP (unbilled time) and submits invoices. CA Partner reviews and approves draft invoices before they are posted to the ledger.

Upstream dependencies: A CA Engagement must exist for the client, with billing terms (retainer amount, billing frequency, hourly rate) set before billing runs can generate invoices. A CA Compliance Task must exist before time can be logged against it. Downstream: Approved Sales Invoices post to the BAS ledger and appear in the client’s billing portal. Billed time logs are marked as billed and excluded from future WIP reviews.

Overview

Time tracking and billing work together in two stages. First, your team logs the hours they spend on each compliance task as they work through it. Second, the billing engine reads those time logs, combines them with the client’s retainer fee, and generates a GST-compliant Sales Invoice. This gives you a complete picture: you know where every hour goes, you can bill accurately, and the Revenue vs Effort Analysis report tells you which clients are most profitable.

CA Practice Management billing section showing the WIP list with unbilled hours per client and a draft invoice ready for review

Who Uses This Feature

Role	What they do
CA Staff	Logs time daily against the compliance tasks they work on
CA Manager	Reviews the WIP list, triggers billing runs, submits draft invoices for partner approval
CA Partner	Reviews draft invoices and submits them to post to the ledger; reviews the Revenue vs Effort report quarterly
CA Client	Views and pays invoices in the client billing portal

Before You Start

Ensure the client’s CA Engagement has the following fields filled: Retainer Fee, Billing Frequency (Monthly or Quarterly), and Hourly Rate. The billing engine uses all three.
Ensure the client’s GSTIN and billing address are on the engagement record. These fields populate the Sales Invoice automatically and must be correct for GST compliance.
Staff should log time the same day they work, or at the latest by end of the working week. Retroactive time logs that span a billing period create reconciliation problems.

Part 1: CA Time Log

What it is

A CA Time Log records the time a single staff member spent on a specific compliance task on a specific day. One task can have many time logs: different staff members logging against the same task, or the same staff member logging across multiple days. Path: CA Practice Management workspace shortcut: Time Logs, or within the compliance task record using the Log Time button.

CA Time Log form showing the compliance task link, employee, date, hours, activity type, and billable checkbox

Logging time: step by step

Step 1: Open the compliance task you worked on and click Log Time, or create a new time log record directly from the Time Logs list. Step 2: Fill in the fields:

Field	Description/Purpose
Compliance Task	The task this time was spent on. Mandatory. Drives the client, engagement, and billing rate.
Employee	Who did the work. Auto-filled to the logged-in user. CA Managers can enter another staff member’s name.
Date	The date the work was done. Must be within the current billing period to appear in the current billing run.
Hours	Time spent, in decimal hours (e.g., 1.5 for one hour and thirty minutes).
Activity Type	What kind of work this was: Data Entry, Review, Filing, Client Communication, Research, Documentation, or Advisory.
Billable	Whether this time should be billed to the client. Checked by default. Uncheck only for internal administrative work that the engagement does not cover.
Billed	Read-only. The system checks this when the time log is included in a generated invoice. Do not edit.
Notes	A brief description of the work done. Useful during WIP review and for client-facing invoice line items.

Step 3: Save. The time log is now part of the WIP (Work in Progress) pool for this client.

Access rules

CA Staff see only their own time logs.
CA Managers and CA Partners see all time logs across all staff and all clients.

Activity types explained

Activity Type	When to use it
Data Entry	Entering transaction data, keying figures from client documents
Review	Reviewing a draft filing or computation prepared by someone else
Filing	The act of submitting a return to the portal
Client Communication	Emails, calls, meetings with the client
Research	Looking up tax positions, reading circulars, checking notifications
Documentation	Preparing working papers, reconciliation sheets, internal notes
Advisory	Providing advice beyond the scope of routine compliance

Part 2: WIP and Billing

What is WIP?

WIP (Work in Progress) is the pool of billable time logs that have not yet been included in an invoice. Before each billing run, the CA Manager reviews the WIP list to ensure all hours are correctly captured and categorised. Path: CA Practice Management workspace, WIP shortcut or the Time and Billing group in the navigation cards. The WIP view shows:

Every unbilled, billable time log.
Grouped by client engagement so you can see the total pending hours per client at a glance.
The estimated bill value for each client based on hours multiplied by the hourly rate.

WIP list showing unbilled time logs grouped by client, with total hours and estimated value per client

Billing run: step by step

Who: CA Manager (triggers the run), CA Partner (approves the draft invoice) Step 1: Review the WIP list Before running billing, open the WIP list and check:

Are there any time logs with Billable = No that should actually be billable? Correct them now.
Are there any time logs from a previous period that were missed? Add them before running.
Are all time log notes clear enough to appear as invoice line items?

Step 2: Trigger the billing run From the CA Engagement record or the Billing dashboard, click Run Billing. The billing engine:

Reads the engagement’s Retainer Fee and Billing Frequency.
Reads all unbilled, billable time logs for the period.
Calculates GST: CGST + SGST for clients whose GSTIN state code matches the firm’s state; IGST for clients whose GSTIN state code differs from the firm’s state.
Applies SAC code 998222 (Accounting, Auditing, and Bookkeeping Services) to the invoice.
Creates a draft Sales Invoice in BAS. The invoice is not posted to the ledger yet.

The billing engine is idempotent. Running billing twice in the same period will not create a duplicate invoice. If a draft invoice already exists for the period, the engine updates it rather than creating a second one.

Draft Sales Invoice created by the billing run showing retainer fee line, time-and-materials line, GST breakdown, and total amount

Step 3: Review the draft invoice Who: CA Partner Open the draft Sales Invoice in BAS. Check:

The retainer fee line matches the engagement terms.
The time-and-materials line total matches the WIP hours you reviewed.
The GST calculation (CGST/SGST or IGST) is correct for this client.
The client name, GSTIN, and billing address are accurate.

If anything is wrong, return to the time logs or engagement record to correct the source data, then re-run billing to regenerate the draft. Step 4: Submit the invoice Click Submit to post the invoice to the BAS ledger. Once submitted:

All time logs included in the invoice are marked Billed = Yes and removed from WIP.
The invoice appears in the client’s billing portal.
If Razorpay is configured, the client can pay online directly from the portal.

Invoice structure

Each invoice has two components:

Component	What it covers
Retainer Fee	The fixed monthly or quarterly fee agreed in the engagement. Billed regardless of hours.
Time and Materials	Billable hours for the period multiplied by the hourly rate from the engagement.

Both lines appear separately on the invoice so the client can see exactly what they are paying for.

GST treatment

Client type	GST applied
Client GSTIN state = firm state (intra-state)	CGST 9% + SGST 9% (total 18%)
Client GSTIN state differs from firm state (inter-state)	IGST 18%
Client has no GSTIN (unregistered)	GST applied based on client’s billing address state

SAC code 998222 is applied to all professional fee lines on the invoice.

Utilisation Report

The Utilisation report shows how efficiently each staff member’s time is being used. Path: CA Practice Management workspace, Reports section, or directly at /portal/utilization. Columns: Employee, Total Hours (all time logs), Billable Hours, Non-Billable Hours, Utilisation % (billable / total). How to use it: A low utilisation percentage for a staff member may mean they are spending too much time on administrative tasks, or it may mean their time logs are not being marked as billable correctly. Review their activity types and billable flags before drawing conclusions.

Revenue vs Effort Analysis Report

This report answers the question: which clients generate the best return on your team’s time? Path: CA Practice Management workspace, Reports section. Columns: Client, Retainer Fee, Total Invoiced, Total Hours, Billable Hours, Revenue per Hour. Chart: Bar chart of top 10 clients by Revenue per Hour. How to use it:

Clients below your target revenue-per-hour threshold may need a fee increase at the next engagement renewal.
Clients with unusually high revenue per hour may represent an opportunity: they are clearly satisfied and may welcome additional advisory services.
Run this report quarterly before engagement renewal discussions so the partner has the data ready.

Revenue vs Effort Analysis showing clients ranked by revenue per hour, with a bar chart of the top 10 clients

Client Billing Portal

Clients access their invoices directly through the client portal:

Path (client): Portal home, then Billing.
Clients can view all submitted invoices linked to their engagement.
Each invoice shows the line items, GST breakdown, and total due.
If Razorpay is configured for the firm, a Pay Now button is available on each unpaid invoice.
Clients cannot edit invoices or dispute them through the portal. Payment queries should be handled through the firm’s normal communication channel.

Notifications

Trigger	Who is notified	Channel
WIP hours exceed 20 for a client in a period	CA Manager	In-app notification (advisory alert)
Draft invoice created	CA Partner	In-app notification
Invoice submitted and posted	CA Client	Portal notification and email
Invoice overdue by 30 days	CA Manager	In-app notification

Workspace Access

Desk workspace: Use the Time and Billing group in the CA Practice Management workspace navigation cards. Shortcuts include: Time Logs, WIP, Billing Dashboard, and Reports. Portal: Staff access the Log Time function from within their assigned compliance tasks. Managers access the WIP list, billing run, and reports from the Billing section of the portal.

Best Practices

Log time the same day it is spent. End-of-week or end-of-month reconstruction is inaccurate and often undercounts hours, directly reducing the firm’s revenue.
Mark Billable = No only for genuine internal administrative work. Team meetings, training, and internal admin belong here. Client-related research, even if brief, is billable.
Review the WIP list weekly before billing runs. Catching missing or incorrectly categorised time logs before billing is much easier than issuing corrected invoices after.
Always preview the draft invoice before submitting. Once an invoice is submitted to the ledger, corrections require a credit note. Catching errors at the draft stage takes thirty seconds; correcting a posted invoice takes much longer.
Use the Notes field on each time log for brief work descriptions. These notes become the narrative on the time-and-materials invoice line, which clients read. Clear descriptions reduce client queries about invoice line items.
Run the Revenue vs Effort Analysis report quarterly. Use it as the basis for fee review conversations. Clients whose revenue per hour has dropped below your threshold are candidates for a fee increase at renewal; bring the data to the renewal meeting.

Compliance Tasks for the tasks that time is logged against.
Client Engagements for billing terms (retainer fee, frequency, hourly rate) that drive invoice generation.
Reports and Analytics for the full Revenue vs Effort Analysis and Utilisation reports covered in the reporting reference.

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CA Practice Management

Overview

Who Uses This Feature

Before You Start