14.14. From Time Entry to Invoice to Accounting Export: The Full MSP Billing Path

Billable technician time does not become revenue until it moves through approval, invoicing, finalization, and accounting export. This page is the short orientation map for that journey. Each stage links out to the canonical reference doc where the screens, fields, and edge cases live.

The full billing path

Stage	Primary owner	What Alga PSA tracks	Reference
Time entry	Technician	Work performed, client or work item, service, billable duration, and the likely contract line.	14.14. Time Entry to Accounting Flow (this page)
Time approval	Service manager or approver	Whether the submitted time is approved, rejected, or sent back for changes.	Time Management docs
Draft invoice	Billing admin	Approved unbilled time, contract rules, quantities, rates, taxes, and invoice preview.	14.12. Generating Invoices
Finalized invoice	Billing admin or accounting	Client-ready invoice number, final invoice total, PDF/email readiness, and export eligibility.	14.13. Managing Draft and Finalized Invoices
Accounting export	Accounting admin	Finalized invoice lines transformed for QuickBooks, Xero, or CSV import.	14.17. Accounting Exports

Use this flow for hourly support agreements, block-of-hours retainers, project overage, and any contract where approved labor should appear on a client invoice.

Stage-by-stage overview

Time entry. Technicians work in Time Management > Time Entry, recording the client/work item, service, billable duration, and (where matched) the contract line. When Alga PSA can match the client + service + date to an active contract line, the billing context is available before invoicing — which is what lets managers and billing staff catch issues early instead of at month-end.

Figure 1: A technician records billable work in a time sheet period before submitting it for approval.

Time approval. Submitted time appears in Time Management > Time Sheet Approvals for the assigned manager. Approval is the normal gate for invoicing — only approved billable time should reach client billing.

Figure 2: Approval confirms that the billable labor is ready for downstream invoicing.

Draft invoice. Billing staff run Billing > Invoicing > Generate. For contract-driven billing, Alga PSA gathers eligible approved/unbilled charges, applies contract rules (hourly rate, bucket consumption, overage, tiered usage), and presents draft invoices for review. See 14.12. Generating Invoices for the full Generate workflow, 14.7. Contract Lines, Presets, and Examples for how lines drive rate selection, 14.11. Understanding Service Periods for the schedule model behind invoice windows, and 14.4. Tax Rate Configuration for how tax is applied at draft creation.

Figure 3: The draft invoice gives billing staff a final review point before finalization.

Finalize the invoice. Finalization turns a draft into the client-ready invoice and locks the time, usage, and service-period records to that invoice so they cannot be billed again. The full drafts/finalized lifecycle — including unfinalize, reverse-draft, bulk actions, email delivery, and the credit-application-on-finalize rule — is in 14.13. Managing Draft and Finalized Invoices.

Export to accounting. Finalized invoices feed export batches in Billing > Accounting Exports. Adapter choice, batch lifecycle, error handling, and the excludeSyncedInvoices default all live in 14.17. Accounting Exports — refer there rather than re-running the export setup here.

Figure 4: Accounting exports package finalized invoice data for QuickBooks, Xero, or CSV-based accounting workflows.

What each team should watch

Team	Watch for	Why it matters
Technicians	Correct client, work item, service, billable flag, and time duration.	Mistakes here flow into approval and can delay invoicing.
Service managers	Submitted time that should be approved, rejected, or corrected.	Only approved billable time should reach client billing.
Billing admins	Contract line match, rates, buckets, taxes, and invoice preview.	Draft review prevents client-facing billing errors.
Accounting admins	Finalized status, export filters, and accounting mappings.	Exports depend on finalized invoices and valid accounting destinations.

Troubleshooting common handoff issues

Symptom	What to check
Time is missing from invoicing	Confirm the time sheet was submitted and approved, the entry is billable, and the work date falls inside the invoice period.
Time appears under the wrong service	Review the service selected on the time entry and the client's active contract lines for that date.
Time should consume a support bucket but invoices as hourly	Check the contract line's bucket or included-hours setup and the service assigned to the time entry.
Invoice cannot be finalized	Review tax setup, invoice totals, purchase order requirements, and any approval blockers shown in the invoice workflow.
Invoice does not appear in accounting export	Confirm the invoice is finalized and matches the export batch filters.
Export validation fails	Review accounting mappings for services, products, accounts, taxes, and customers before executing the batch.

Month-end operating checklist

Ask technicians to finish time entry before the cutoff.
Have managers approve or request changes for all submitted time sheets.
Run billing from Billing > Invoicing and review draft invoices.
Confirm contract rates, bucket usage, taxes, and PO requirements.
Finalize approved drafts.
Send or download invoices as needed.
Create an accounting export batch for finalized invoices.
Validate mappings and execute the export.
Confirm the invoices landed correctly in the accounting system.

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