Invoice a milestone and release retention

On a job with billing milestones, each completed milestone becomes a progress invoice. If the job holds retention, Spine keeps that percentage back on every progress invoice. When the job is done, you release the retention as one final invoice, so you actually collect it.

Who can do this

Owners, and Staff whose Team has Raise invoice from milestone (for progress invoices) or Release retention. Issuing the invoice needs Issue an invoice. Jobs need the Jobs & field module switched on in Settings › Modules.

Raise a progress invoice

1. Open the job — Go to Jobs, open the job and find the milestone. It must be marked complete.

2. Press Raise invoice — Spine creates a draft progress invoice for the milestone’s amount, linked to the job and milestone. The milestone then shows Invoiced with View invoice.

3. Check and issue it — The draft opens. Check it, then press Issue invoice and confirm. See Issue an invoice.

A milestone can be invoiced only once, and a milestone that isn’t complete has no Raise invoice. If it fails, you’ll see “Could not raise an invoice for this milestone.” Setting up milestones and retention is covered in Jobs.

What a progress invoice shows

• In the list, “Progress claim 3 · JOB-002” under its number. The claim number is given when the invoice is issued.
• The job and milestone in its header, as links.
• Under the totals, Retention held (5%) as a negative amount, then the amount due. With 0% retention there’s no retention row.
• A note: “Retention is held in Retention Receivable until you release it from the job. Held on this job so far: …”

The PDF and email show the same retention rows. For example, a 10,000.00 claim with 5% retention has a balance due of 9,500.00. The 500.00 held back sits in Retention Receivable in your books, and isn’t counted in what customers owe on the aging report.

Release retention

1. Open the job — When the defect period is over, open the job.

2. Press Release retention — Release retention? says it creates a retention-release invoice for the amount still held on the job’s issued progress invoices.

3. Confirm — Press Release retention, or Cancel to leave it held.

A toast says Retention released: “A retention-release invoice has been created for this job.” The invoice is issued straight away, with the next number and a due date from your payment terms. The held amount moves from Retention Receivable to what the customer owes. In the list it shows “Retention release” under its number; email it to the customer when you’re ready.

Caution

If nothing is held on the job, nothing is created and you’ll see “Could not release retention for this job.”