--- title: "Progress billing overview and setup" slug: "progress-billing-overview-and-setup" updated: 2026-05-22T22:01:16Z published: 2026-05-22T22:01:16Z --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.servicetitan.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Progress billing overview and setup ## Overview Progress billing lets you bill customers as you reach specific milestones in a project. This helps you plan when you're going to collect payment from customers. --- ### #### Who uses this feature - Administrators, office employees, managers, accountants, and bookkeepers #### Feature configuration - Account configuration is required to use this feature. Please contact [Technical Support](http://go.servicetitan.com/ask) for details. > [!TIP] > **Tip:** Progress billing is optional and should be used only when billing your customers throughout the project based on milestone completion. Before generating progress billing for a project, confirm that the contract allows for progress payments. ## Things to know - To properly use progress billing, you must convert a job into a project to generate invoices. - You can create a non-job invoice and progress bill without the AIA Billing style. To apply this feature the account configuration is required. For more, contact [Technical Support](http://go.servicetitan.com/ask). - You can't see *$0 Project Invoices* on the *Accounting* screen. Companies using *Progress Billing* can generate numerous $0 invoices without limitations. Showing these invoices on the *Accounting* screen can impact reporting accuracy and may cause confusion during export. - Retainage calculation can be project-wide or item-level. When using Applications for Payment, retainage may be calculated using a single project-wide retainage rate or variable retainage rates by line item, depending on your Application for Payment settings. ## Configure Application for Payment settings There are two ways to configure Application for Payment (AFP) settings. You can configure them using the: - Application for Payment global settings screen - Application for Payment settings tab in the Continuation Sheet ## Application for Payment global settings screen This screen includes the following settings: - **Retainage Project Label and Budget Code:** Assign a project label and budget code for retainage items to categorize them accurately. - **Retainage Items:** Lets you assign the following for retainage. - **Service:** Assign a service task and the associated GL account. - **Material:** Assign a material code and the associated GL account. - **Payment Terms:** Select the default payment term when creating a new Application for Payment. - **Invoice Settings:** Select if you want to include the cost of line items or the line item quantities on invoices created through the Application for Payment by default. > [!WARNING] > **Caution:** Enabling this may result in the cost of invoice line items being added to the invoice twice. - **Avalara Sales Tax:** Select if you want to use Avalara for calculating sales tax. When enabled, Application for Payment preview won't be available but sales tax will appear when you print the document. > [!NOTE] > **Note:** This option is only available if you are integrated with Avalara. For more, see [Avalara integration guide](/v1/docs/avalara-integration-guide). - **Sales Tax Display:** Select if you want to display sales taxes as a separate row on the Continuation Sheet. - **Rounding Items:** Displays the pricebook items used to apply rounding adjustments when AFP line item amounts are not evenly divisible by unit price. These items are created automatically for your account when Progress Billing is enabled. No setup is required. - **Service:** The service item used for rounding adjustments on service line items. - **Material:** The material item used for rounding adjustments on material line items. - **Equipment:** The equipment item used for rounding adjustments on equipment line items. > [!NOTE] > **Note:**If rounding items are missing, a settings error appears on this screen. Contact [Technical Support](http://go.servicetitan.com/ask) for help. **Access Application for Payment global settings screen** To access the *Application for Payment* global settings screen, on the top toolbar, click **Settings > Accounting > Application for Payment**. ## Application for Payment settings tab In the **Settings** tab, you can enable the following options: - **Enable Edit Using Price:** Lets you edit billing amounts based on the unit price rather than percentages or quantities completed. - **Allow retainage to be collected without 100% work complete:** Use this option to collect a portion of the retainage prior to the Description of Work being 100% completed. - **Include the cost of line items in invoices generated through the Application for Payment:** Lets you include or exclude Application for Invoice line items costs on invoices. This prevents double costing on chargeable materials or equipment when using the Application for Payment feature. - **Include quantities for line items generated from the Application for Payment:** When enabled, line items created from an Application for Payment will include quantities. Material quantities will be consumed from inventory, and equipment quantities will be installed as equipment. This may create duplicate line items if the same items already exist on the job. - **Use Avalara to calculate sales tax:** When enabled, uses Avalara to calculate sales tax. The Application for Payment preview won't be available but sales tax will appear when you print the document. > [!NOTE] > **Note:** This option is only available if you are integrated with Avalara. For more, see [Avalara integration guide](/v1/docs/avalara-integration-guide). - **Display sales tax as a separate row on the continuation sheet:** Lets you display sales taxes as a separate row in the Continuation Sheet. **Access Application for Payment settings tab** Use the **Settings** tab in the *Application for Payment* screen to configure your Application for Payment settings. These settings need to be configured for each project. To access this tab: 1. Search for and go to the project. 2. In the project dashboard, click **Actions>Add Application for Payment**. 3. At the pop up, select an option on how you want the description of work to display. 4. Click **Continue**. In the *Application for Payment* screen, click **Settings**. ## Application for Payment and Continuation Sheet Application for Payment (AFP) helps you manage progress billing by invoicing for portions of a job as work is completed. These invoices track the total contract amount, work completed to date, retainage, and the remaining balance. AFP includes both the standard invoice and the Continuation Sheet, which breaks down billed amounts by line item. For more, see [Complete Application for Payment and Continuation Sheet](/v1/docs/complete-application-for-payment-and-continuation-sheet). ## Progress invoice using Application for Payment When using Application for Payment, you generate a progress invoice that bills against the total contract value based on the percentage of work completed. Before creating the invoice, make sure your estimate is finalized and billing items are set up to support scheduled values and retention. For more, see [Create a progress invoice based on Application for Payment](/v1/docs/create-a-progress-invoice-based-on-application-for-payment). ## Manually create a project invoice for a project 1. Search for and go to the project you want to create an invoice for. 2. From the **What do you want to search for?** dropdown, select *Project*, and click the **Search** icon. 3. Select the project you want to create an invoice for. 4. On the *Project* screen that opens, do one of the following options. 1. From the **Actions** dropdown, select *Add Invoice*.![Dropdown menu showing options including 'Add Invoice' highlighted for selection.](https://cdn.document360.io/961862ab-d0f2-4d91-bb62-a62ee8184eff/Images/Documentation/progress-billing-overview-and-setup-image-osl8slqv.png) 2. From the side menu, click **Financials**, go to the **Invoice** section, then click **Add Invoice**.![Invoice table displaying details like number, date, status, total, payments, and balance.](https://cdn.document360.io/961862ab-d0f2-4d91-bb62-a62ee8184eff/Images/Documentation/progress-billing-overview-and-setup-image-dn03ltcs.png)The *Add Invoice* pop-up window opens. 5. From the **Business Unit** dropdown, select a business unit. 6. Click **Add Invoice**. A blank invoice opens and is not tied to any job, only to the project.![Invoice summary showing payment details, status, and options for updates and adjustments.](https://cdn.document360.io/961862ab-d0f2-4d91-bb62-a62ee8184eff/Images/Documentation/progress-billing-overview-and-setup-image-hkft8al2.png) > [!NOTE] > **Note:** The invoice date defaults to the date you created the invoice. If you want to update the invoice date, click **Update invoice details** and enter the date in the **Invoice Date** field. 7. Apply payment terms to the invoice as needed: 1. Click **Update payments terms & due dates**. 2. Select a payment term. 3. Click **Save**. For more on payment terms, see [Using payment terms](/v1/docs/use-view-edit-and-deactivate-payment-terms). > [!NOTE] > **Note:** If you want the Budget vs. Actual for Revenue broken out by billing milestones, then the revenue services on the estimate need to be broken down by billing milestones or phases by applying labels with categories that correspond to the milestones or phases. The estimate also needs a label applied corresponding to its phase. 8. Collect payments and apply them to the appropriate invoice. Payments do not require labels because they're only displayed in the Project Summary. For more on collecting payments, see [Collect a payment](/v1/docs/collect-a-payment). > [!NOTE] > **Note:** If you want to create an itemized invoice, you can only create it yourself by adding each item individually. You can't aggregate items on existing invoices, estimates, purchase orders (POs), or jobs into the progress billing invoice. ## FAQ --- ### #### How do I invoice from a sold estimate using progress billing? Progress billing can only occur in active projects. If you want to generate an invoice from a sold estimate using progress billing, **do not** initiate booking through the estimate screen. Instead, create an invoice from the project level to properly bill your customers throughout the project milestones. - For more on progress billing options, see the *Choose progress billing options in projects* section of the [Introduction to project management](/v1/docs/introduction-to-project-management) article. - For more on progress billing without the AIA Billing style, see [Progress billing](/v1/docs/progress-billing-overview-and-setup). - For more on using Application for Payment (AFP) for progress billing, see the *Use progress billing for project revenue* section of the [End-to-end guide to project management](/v1/docs/end-to-end-project-management) article. ## Want to learn more? - See [Construction](/v1/docs/construction) - See [Project management](/v1/docs/project-management) - See [Bill for retainage based on Application for Payment](/v1/docs/bill-for-retainage-based-on-application-for-payment) - See [Project Job Costing report template](/v1/docs/project-job-costing-report-template)