End-to-End Progress Billing Suite
Connect progress billing to project and cost accounting in one flow.
What problem does it solve?
Progress billing often runs in spreadsheets, disconnected from project cost, commitments and accounting postings, leaving reconciliation manual and error-prone at period end.
How does the solution work?
Conforcus's suite integrates progress-billing lines end-to-end with the PS project structure and CO cost objects, managing contract, progress, deduction and invoice steps inside SAP in a single flow.
What changes in practice?
The suite works by linking the progress-billing lines in the contract to the project's WBS elements and network activities, so every line carries its cost object from the outset. During the period, progress is entered against those same lines, and deductions and retention are managed on the same progress bill. Once a progress bill is completed, the invoice and accounting postings are generated in FI automatically, with no separate posting list to prepare. Because billing lines map to the commitments and actual costs on the same project structure, the billed amount and the cost posted to the project are compared on the same data.
Day to day, the project and contract team follows contract, progress, deduction and retention lines on one screen, while cost accounting sees which progress bill matches which commitment and actual cost without waiting for period end. Billing spreadsheets, and the manual comparison of those files against project cost, drop out of the routine. Because every step from contract to invoice runs inside SAP, any amount can be traced back to its line, its progress entry and its posting. At period close the team concentrates on the lines that need explaining instead of searching for billing-related differences.
Benefits
- Instant, automatic reconciliation between billing and project cost
- Manual spreadsheet billing replaced by a traceable SAP process
- Deductions, retentions and progress lines controlled on one screen
Where it sits in SAP
Integrated with PS (WBS/network) and CO cost objects; billing lines map to commitments and actuals, auto-generating FI invoice/accounting postings. Production-proven across commitment-heavy projects in multiple sectors.
Who it is for: Project & Contract Director, Cost Accounting Manager, CFO
Frequently asked questions
Do projects need to be defined in PS with a WBS structure before we can use the suite?
Yes. The suite links progress-billing lines to the WBS elements and network activities of the PS project structure, so projects must be defined in PS. Commitments and actual costs also need to be posted to that same structure, as that is the precondition for matching them with progress billing. Organizations that currently track projects outside PS need to set up the project structure first.
How is progress billing reconciled with project cost, and do we have to wait for period end?
No, there is no need to wait for period end. Each billing line is matched with the commitments and actual costs on the WBS element or network activity it is linked to, so the comparison can be made as soon as the progress bill is entered. Differences show up at line level when they arise, not in a bulk reconciliation exercise at period end. Cost accounting looks at the same data without matching anything in a separate file.
How do deductions and retention reach the books, and can they be tracked per project?
Deduction and retention lines are kept separate from progress lines on the progress bill and are checked on the same screen. In the FI posting generated automatically from the progress bill, they are posted to the accounts set through account determination during setup. Because the progress bill is linked to the project structure, deduction and retention amounts can be tracked per project, and the document trail shows which progress bill each amount came from.