PROC-S15-BILL · Bill and collect · level 2 · gate · scope: engagement
Billing is an evidence exercise. The bill has to be defensible against the engagement letter and the recorded time, and the most common cause of a written-off bill is narrative that cannot be reconciled to either.
**This stage carries the model's deliberate chain gap.** It requires `rates-approved`, and no upstream stage produces it. That is correct and is the point: departures from the rate card are approved somewhere in this firm, and the stage that does it has never been modelled. The continuity check reports it, which is the only automated route to finding a stage nobody thought of. **Do not 'fix' this by deleting the token.** The fix is to model the missing stage.
Open, 3 item(s)
State
What
Position or reason
Owner
assumed
RUL-52 Bill narrative is reconcilable to the engagement letter
Assumed review step. The most common cause of a written-off bill.
Engagement Lead
contested
Data: Time entry
Two time systems running in parallel during the migration. Both are written to, and reconciling them is manual.
Finance Director
contested
Data: Rate card
Finance and practice both hold rates and they drift. Related to the chain gap at PROC-S15-BILL: nobody owns approving a departure from the card.
Finance Director
Boundary
Trigger (in)
Captured time and assured deliverables, at a billing point.
Output (out)
A bill issued to the client, with supporting narrative.
Requires
time-capturedquality-assuredrates-approved
Produces
bill-issued
Floor: can this run itself
Position
branch
Manual because
control
Basis
Drafting is unattended, review is four-eyes, issue is automatic. Three positions in one stage, so it is a branch.
Confirmed by
nobody named
Steps
#
Step
Position
Manual because
Basis
1
Draft the bill
unattended
Assembly from recorded time, expense and rates. Arithmetic and narrative assembly, no judgement.
2
Review the bill
review
control
Four eyes on an assertion to a client. The firm signs the bill, so a person reads it.
3
Issue the bill
unattended
Delivery and ledger posting following approval. Mechanical.
Behaviour: what runs it
Systems
Billing and receivables, Time capture, Expenses
Platform open
Financial reporting (ITE Advisory Track)
Data
Dataset
Authoritative source
Also in
State
Owner
Bill
Billing and receivables
S, Y, S, -, P, S, A, -, E, N, G
settled
Finance Director
Time entry
none
Time capture, Legacy timesheets
contested
Finance Director
Expense
Expenses
S, Y, S, -, P, S, A, -, T, I, M, E
settled
Finance Director
Rate card
none
Billing and receivables, Engagement register
contested
Finance Director
Rules: what is decided here
ID
Rule
State
Enforced by
Basis
Owner
RUL-51
A bill reconciles to recorded time and expense
defined
Billing and receivables
Assembled from the records rather than entered.
Finance Director
RUL-52
Bill narrative is reconcilable to the engagement letter
assumed
Engagement Lead role
Assumed review step. The most common cause of a written-off bill.
Engagement Lead
RUL-53
A drafted bill is reviewed by a person before issue
defined
Finance Director role
A bill is an assertion to a client and the firm signs it.
Finance Director
RUL-54
Write-offs above a threshold require Finance Director approval