User Personas: Admin | Project Manager
Progress Billing is built on a strictly sequential timeline: each billing period starts exactly where the last one ended, and finalized numbers stay put. To protect the math behind your billings and Pay Applications, eSUB enforces a set of rules, and shows a warning dialog when an action would break one. This article explains each rule, the message you'll see, and what to do instead.
If you're new to the module, start with SOV & Progress Billing and Pay Applications.
Use the links below to jump to a topic:
- One draft Progress Billing at a time
- Billing period rules
- One draft Pay Application at a time
- Deleting Progress Billings
- The previous Progress Billing is locked
- Work Completed to Date can't decrease
- Deleting billed SOV line items
- Creating a Pay Application manually
One draft Progress Billing at a time
Why can't I create a new Progress Billing?
Only one Progress Billing can be in Draft at a time. If a draft already exists, the option to create another is disabled, and attempting it opens a warning telling you to bill the current draft first.
What to do: either finalize (bill) the existing draft or delete it, then create the next Progress Billing.
| Why so strict? The starting balances of each new billing period must exactly match the finalized ending balances of the previous one. Two open drafts would let one edit silently break the other's math. |
Billing period rules
Why is the From date locked when I create a Progress Billing?
Billing periods must be continuous and cannot overlap or move backward in time. By default, the new period picks up where the previous one ended. Choosing a Custom period unlocks the From date, but the date picker (and manual entry validation) will not accept a date on or before the previous Progress Billing's end date.
Can I skip a month between billings?
Yes. Gaps are allowed in Custom mode. It's not uncommon for a project to take a break. What you cannot do is backdate a period into (or before) an already-billed range, or overlap two periods. For example, after billing 1/1–1/31, a 4/1–4/15 period is fine; a 1/15–2/15 period is not.
Can I change the dates after the Progress Billing is created?
The billing period dates stay editable only while the Progress Billing is in Draft. Once it's billed, the period is read-only.
One draft Pay Application at a time
Why can't I generate another draft Pay Application?
Only one Draft Pay Application linked to a Progress Billing can exist at a time. If one is already open, you'll see a warning instead of a new draft.
What to do: finish the open draft Pay Application (or delete it) before generating the next one. Manual Pay Applications created before you started using Progress Billing don't count toward this rule.
Deleting Progress Billings
Why can't I delete this Progress Billing?
Only Progress Billings in Draft status can be deleted. Once a Progress Billing has been billed, it's part of the project's billing history and the delete action is blocked, both on screen and on the server.
The previous Progress Billing is locked
Why is my earlier Progress Billing suddenly read-only?
Creating a new Progress Billing locks the previous one. The dialog that opens when you create the new billing warns you this will happen. Locking guarantees the new period's starting balances stay mathematically consistent with the previous period's ending balances.
How do I correct a past billing period?
You have two options:
- Delete the newer Progress Billing (if it is still a draft) to unlock the previous one, make your correction, then re-create the next period.
- Incorporate the adjustment into the current period by carrying the correction forward in the active draft instead of rewriting history.
Why can't I delete a Pay Application?
A Pay Application linked to a locked Progress Billing cannot be deleted. If a later Progress Billing exists, the earlier period's Pay Application is part of the sequential record and must stay.
Work Completed to Date can't decrease
Why won't my Work Completed entry save?
On any line item, Work Completed to Date cannot be less than the work already completed in previous billings. You can bill zero for a line this period, but you can't roll completed work backward. If you overbilled a line in a previous period, handle it as a correction in the current period (see the locked-billing section above).
Deleting billed SOV line items
Why can't I delete a line item on my Schedule of Values?
When a Progress Billing that includes an SOV line item moves from Draft to Billed, that line item is locked against deletion. Money has been billed against it, so removing it would corrupt the billing history.
If the Progress Billing returns to Draft (e.g., its linked Pay Application is deleted), the line items unlock again.
Creating a Pay Application manually
Why did eSUB redirect me when I tried to add a Pay Application?
Once a project uses the Schedule of Values and Progress Billing, manually filled-in Pay Applications are limited, and the Add Pay Application action guides you to the right path:
-
A draft Progress Billing exists: you're taken to that draft and its Generate Pay Application Draft dialog opens, so the Pay Application is generated from the billing.
A draft Progres Billing exists to proceed to Pay Application. -
No draft, but past Progress Billings exist: a dialog explains that you should create the next-period Progress Billing and enter the work completed first.
No draft progress billing exists, but there are past existing progress billings. -
No Progress Billings at all: a dialog recommends entering scheduled values on the SOV instead, and notes that dollar values from manually created Pay Applications cannot be distributed back into the SOV or Progress Billings.
No progress billing exist at all, dialog recommend creating an SOV.
Manual Pay Applications are still allowed for backward compatibility, and they're marked as manual in the Pay Application log so they're easy to tell apart from billing-generated ones.
| If your project bills from an SOV, always generate Pay Applications from the Progress Billing. Manual Pay Applications don't feed the SOV's billed-to-date totals, so mixing the two makes reconciliation harder. |
See also: SOV & Progress Billing · Pay Applications