DATOPIAN
How to submit invoices
Last updated: 12th May 2021
What’s changed in this update (April/May 2021)
This is a step by step guide that shows you how to submit your invoices correctly so that you can be paid on time.
Getting paid
We want to promote a culture of:
Why we do this the way we do...
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New payment timeline starting from the 1st of July 2020
You should submit your invoice by 12 CET/CEST on the last day of the month, and we will transfer the money by the 5th. If the 5th falls on a weekend, we will transfer the money on the following Monday.
The latest you can submit your invoice is the 3rd, and then you will be paid by the 10th. Any invoices that are not submitted by the 3rd will be paid the following month.
Many Datopians are paid a set monthly fee and we only want approximate (to the nearest ~0.05 FTE, with no project having less than $100) so many of you can invoice a few days before the end of the month.
Timeline
Create New Bill
Enter details
Fill in the boxes:
From: Your name
Date: Last date of the CURRENT month if you’re invoicing for this month or PREVIOUS month if invoicing for the previous one
Due date: 30th of the month (Our word is to pay you by the 10th, but contractually payment is due 30 days after invoicing)
Reference: Reference should be {First Initial}{Last Initial}{optional hexadecimal disambiguate}-YYYY-mm
Currency: Enter your correct currency
Amounts are: “Tax Exclusive” See red box
Item - Not required.
�Description - Brief description of the services provided.
FTE - If you worked full-time this should be 1 FTE (and pro-rata’d if you worked more or less). Note that all overtime needs to be agreed by Project Lead in advance. If you need rounding then the FTE unit should not be greeted than 0.01.
Qty / Unit Price Please refer to the two next slides which explain how to calculate the unit price and quantity, and how to split between projects.
Account:
“5111 COS Contractors” - If you are working on a client project.
“6331 Contractor” - For internal project (Ops, Finance, Onboarding, Datopian core) or product work (eg CKANv3)
"1111 - Datopian Contractors" if you are unsure which one to choose.
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Project - Search for the project code that matches the project you have been working on. Please always remember to add project and be careful to select the most recent project. NB Do not create a new project if there is not one listed in the dropdown box, write to office@ to request that a new project is added if you think one is missing. If you have worked for more than 1 project, create different lines with the correct account and the clear description in the description box (see slide 11 for an example).
Splitting projects to an accuracy of ~0.05 FTE is good enough, please don’t bill any projects if it’s less than $100.
PDF invoice - Please also remember to include your PDF invoice and check that the total amount invoiced (bottom right) matches to your attached invoice. You can use your own but if you do not have one there is a Datopian invoice template that you can use - Invoice template for Viderum Inc & Invoice template for Viderum OU (please DO NOT directly edit this template but copy to your personal drive and then edit it).
Amount USD - This will be calculated for you. Please don’t include any projects for under $100. We aim for data which is roughly accurate. Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS)
Total - You need to enter this yourself. Xero will not let you submit if it’s not an exact match. However, if you have a few cents difference Xero will calculate the rounding for you
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Monthly fee: If you receive a set monthly fee per month then your unit price will equal your monthly fee.
Hourly fee: You calculate your unit price by multiplying your hourly rate * 174. Why 174? Because that is the average number of working hours in a month. Eg if your hourly fee is $10 then your unit price would be $1,740
Daily fee: You calculate your unit price by multiplying your daily rate * 21.75.
Quantity: �The quantity is the amount of hours that you worked relative to the total hours in the month. If you receive a monthly fee and you work full-time then your FTE will be 1.0. But if you receive a per hour or per diem rate then you FTE will depend the number of working days in that month. For example, in March 2021 there were 23 working days so the total hours available are 184 (23*8). If you worked full-time then your FTE will be 1.057 (184 / 174).
If you worked less than full-time then you do the same calculation. Let’s say in March 2021 you had a 5 day holiday. Then your hours worked will be 144 (18*8). So your FTE will be 0.828.
Qty / Unit Price: What should my unit price & quantity be?
Rounding
The total invoiced amount should equal the exact amount so you will sometimes need to use rounding. If you are close enough, Xero will do the rounding for you.
This is actually the best way to do it. If you need to do the rounding yourself, please make sure that the quantity is around 0.01 so that it does not affect total FTE calculations that we make when reporting.
Qty / Unit Price: How to split between projects
Bill is on 1 FTE contract of $3k per month. He has spent 50% of his month on Project A and 50% on Finance / Ops work.
Accounts should be:
This is what he enters in Xero:
🔥🔥🔥 NOTA BENE 🔥🔥🔥
We want this to be approximately accurate so doing it to an accuracy of ~0.05 FTE is good enough. If you have spent less than $100 worth of time on a project, it’s not worth splitting it out in your invoice. The time spent on such a small project allocation can be rolled up into a similar project you have already billed for or the project you spent the most time on.
(X hours)
Add your PDF invoice
Step 1: Click of the attachment icon to add your PDF invoice
Step 2: Then add via the “Upload files” button
(You can use your own invoice template or if you don’t have one there is a template for you to copy & use)
An example of an invoice that’s well done 💪
In this example, Mickey Mouse is on an hourly rate of $12. So his unit price is $12 * 174 = $2,088.
In April 2021, there are 22 working (ie non-weekend) days so 176 hours (22*8). He worked full-time.
So the total that Mickey Mouse will be paid is $12 * 176 $2,112, and the FTE is 176/174 = 1.0115 (to 4 dp)
Sums to 1.0115 ☑
Even though the project is unbillable, it is still a client project and should be 5111
Pls ignore typo! 🤦
Bonus: It’s super helpful to include the number of hours worked 😸
Thank you!! 🤗
“Rest Periods” initiative
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How to add “Rest Periods” to monthly invoice
If Developer X takes 4 days of rest during the month, and works on both NHS at 0.6FTE and Vital Strategies at 0.4FTE then the �4 days * 8hrs = 32h
Divided by total number of hours in a month (174h). 32/174 = 0.184
Actual FTE the person worked is 1 - 0.184 = 0.816 FTE
Rest FTE prorated across the 2 projects:
0.184 *0.6 = 0.110 FTE assigned to NHS
0.184 * 0.40 = 0.074 FTE assigned to Vital Strategies
Check the Rest Periods are added correctly
Check-list ☑
These are some of the things that people often miss:
FAQs
FAQs