Turn the time your team already records into accurate invoices, without re-keying a single entry. WIP billing brings time from Karbon, Financial Cents, Practice CS or QuickBooks Time into Ignition, so you can review the work, decide what to bill and invoice through your usual Ignition billing and payment flow.
How it works
Connect your time source (Karbon, Financial Cents, Practice CS or QuickBooks Time)
Ignition imports eligible time and matches each entry to the client and the agreed service it belongs to.
You review the work and decide what to bill now, carry forward or adjust.
You create the invoice, and Ignition handles billing, payment and collections as usual.
The agreed service decides how each entry is treated: hourly work that's ready to bill, work covered by a fixed fee, or non-billable and internal time.
Feature Overview
Before you begin
Connect Karbon, Financial Cents, Practice CS or QuickBooks Time to Ignition.
Make sure each client in your time source is linked to the matching Ignition client.
Check that your team's time is marked billable or non-billable correctly in your source system.
Set staff billable rates in Ignition: For XPM, enter the billable rates for your staff in Ignition. The integration doesn’t import billable rates from XPM, so they won’t be populated automatically. You can compare the rates you enter with the agreed rate from the client’s Ignition proposal, which is also shown.
Matching time to agreed services
Ignition matches each imported entry to the services the client agreed to for the work date. When an entry can't be matched, it shows as Unmapped service in Exceptions.
To map it, choose one of the client's agreed services, or search the Service Library if none fits. Mapping an entry for WIP review doesn't change the client's agreement.
Ignition remembers your choice, so the same work stays mapped the next time your time syncs.
Note: If more than one agreement could cover the same work, Ignition doesn't choose for you. The entry waits in Needs decision until you pick the right service.
Reviewing your WIP
Billing review sorts your work so you can focus on what needs attention:
Ready to invoice: hourly work that's mapped, valued and not on hold.
Fixed fee: work covered by a fixed-fee agreement.
Needs decision: work that needs a call first, such as possible out-of-scope work or an unclear mapping.
Non billable: time that won't be invoiced, including internal time.
Exceptions: source issues to resolve first, such as Unmapped service or Stale from source.
Held: work you've set aside for later.
Keep your WIP current
If your source hasn't refreshed recently, Ignition shows a stale-source warning. Select Pull in latest before making billing decisions. The warning doesn't mean the data is wrong, only that newer entries may not have come through yet.
Hourly and fixed-fee work
Hourly work is reviewed as work to invoice.
Fixed-fee work is reviewed against the agreed fee. Imported time shows you the effort behind the fee, but it doesn't create a second invoice for a service you already bill through the agreement.
Creating the invoice
In Ready to invoice, select the entries to bill.
Choose whether to price the work using the Current WIP value from your source or the Agreement rate.
Adjust individual entries if needed: write up, write down, write off, or carry forward to a later invoice.
Check entry descriptions. Notes written for your internal workflow may need a client-friendly rewrite.
Issue the invoice, or select Save & request review if a partner or manager needs to approve it first.
Requesting an invoice review
You can prepare the invoice, including its descriptions, and request a review from a team member before it’s sent. The reviewer can leave notes. Once the invoice is approved, it can be sent to the client.
Include time entry details on the invoice
Turn on the option to include time entry descriptions to show those details in the service description on the invoice. Ignition includes the agreed service description—or the default service description if there isn’t an agreed one—then adds the time entry details. You can edit the description before issuing the invoice.
Apply the invoice to a scheduled billing item
If the agreed service already has a scheduled billing item, apply the invoice to it. Ignition marks the item as billed when the invoice is issued, so the same work isn't billed twice, and shows whether the invoice is above or below the scheduled amount.
Written-off time isn't deleted. It stays visible as written off, so your records stay complete.
Your experience in Ignition after billing
The Billed view keeps the full trail for each invoice: original WIP, expected bill, billed amount, linked time and any adjustments. Expand an invoice line to see the entries behind it.
The Overview shows your open WIP, what's ready to invoice, what needs a decision and how old your billable WIP is, so older work doesn't slip through the cracks.
FAQs
Can I keep using my current time tracking system?
Yes. Your team keeps recording time where they do today, and Ignition takes care of the billing decision, invoice, payment and collections.
Does billing in Ignition mark the time as billed in Karbon or Financial Cents?
No. The invoice is created in Ignition, and the original time entries aren't marked as billed in Karbon or Financial Cents. Agree on a reconciliation process with your team so both systems stay aligned.
Why isn't any WIP showing?
Check that your source is connected, the client is linked, the job or project is active, the time is marked billable and the date range covers the work.
Why is fixed-fee work showing in Ready to invoice?
The work may be mapped to the wrong service, the Ignition service may be set up as hourly, or the client may not have an agreement for that service.
Why is my invoice different from the imported WIP?
Common reasons include a different pricing basis, write-ups or write-downs, excluded non-billable time, new entries added after the import, or fixed-fee treatment.