Lanco

Invoicing

Create professional invoices from your tracked time and get paid for your work. Lanco's invoicing system transforms your tracked time logs into professional invoices. The system automatically calculates amounts based on your day rates, tracks payment status, and preserves historical rates for accurate record-keeping.

Creating Invoices

To create a new invoice:

  1. Click Invoices in the sidebar
  2. Click New Invoice
  3. Select the client you're billing
  4. Review the available unbilled time logs
  5. Select which entries to include:
    • Individual time logs
    • All time for a specific project
    • All unbilled time for the client
  6. Review the automatically calculated total

Invoice Calculations

Lanco calculates each time log's billable amount using the formula:

Hours × (Day Rate ÷ Hours Per Day)

For example, if you logged 4 hours on a project with a £600 day rate and 8 hours per day, the amount is 4 × £75 = £300.

The invoice total is the sum of all included time log amounts. When an invoice includes time from multiple projects with different rates, the system displays a "Mixed Rates" indicator and breaks down the amounts by project for transparency.

Invoice Status and Management

Invoice status workflow:

  1. Draft: New invoices start here, allowing you to review and make changes before sending
  2. Unpaid: Mark as unpaid when you send it to track outstanding payments
  3. Paid: Mark as paid when payment is received to complete the transaction

Editing permissions:

  • Draft invoices can be fully edited or deleted
  • Once marked as Unpaid or Paid, editing is restricted to preserve data integrity and ensure accurate financial records

Rate Preservation

When you create an invoice, the following are permanently stored with each time log entry:

  • Current day rate
  • Hours per day
  • Currency

This ensures that historical invoices remain accurate even if you later change your rates. If client rates change after an invoice is created, the invoice shows a "Rates Changed" indicator for clarity, but the original invoice values are preserved.

Viewing and Filtering Invoices

The Invoices page displays all your invoices with:

  • Invoice number
  • Client name
  • Created date
  • Total amount with currency
  • Status

Filter options:

  • By status (Unpaid & Draft, Paid, or All)
  • By client using the sidebar dropdown
  • By date range

The invoice detail view shows:

  • All included time logs
  • Total breakdown
  • Payment status

Time logs can be viewed:

  • As a detailed list showing each entry individually
  • Grouped by project showing totals and day/half-day breakdowns

AI-Generated Summaries

If you're part of the beta test group with AI features enabled, you can generate professional summaries of the work included in an invoice. The AI analyzes:

  • All time log descriptions
  • Project names
  • Work patterns

This creates a professional summary suitable for client communications. To request access to AI features, contact andrew@flett.cc.

Multi-Currency Support

Invoice currency rules:

  • Uses the currency set at the client level
  • Falls back to your organization's default currency if the client doesn't have a specific currency configured
  • All amounts on an invoice use the same currency for consistency.

Invoice Export

To generate a PDF invoice:

  1. Open the invoice detail page
  2. Click Download PDF
  3. The professional PDF includes all invoice details and is ready to send to your client

Best practices for invoicing:

  • Include payment instructions
  • Set clear due dates
  • Reference the invoice number in your communications