What is the difference between commercial work value, exceptional items waiting to be billed, accrued income and trade receivables?
These concepts belong to different stages and use different valuation rules. Reconciling them explains the billing cycle; treating them as synonyms creates double counting and misleading variances.
The Tempolia management sequence
The general sequence is: budget → actual time and expenses → commercial work value → billable items → draft invoice → issued invoice → not-yet-due or overdue receivable → payment recorded and matched.
- Actual time and expenses: data recorded against the customer, engagement and period. An actual entry is not automatically billable.
- Commercial work value: the management value obtained by applying selling rates or agreed rules to actual time and expenses. It is not automatically recognised revenue.
- Exceptional items waiting to be billed: the operational subset of time and expenses marked Exceptional that has not yet been included in an issued invoice. This precise scope feeds pre-invoice ageing in the dashboard.
- Draft invoice: an invoice prepared but not yet issued. Tempolia separates it from exceptional items waiting to be billed to avoid counting the same items twice.
- Trade receivable: the amount owed after an invoice has been issued or recognised, shown including tax in customer balances and aged receivables.
Boni-mali explains a billing variance
In Tempolia, boni-mali reconciles net fees invoiced with the commercial value of actual time and expenses. It explains the difference between theoretical value and the invoiced amount. It measures neither economic margin, which uses cost, nor collection, which depends on payments.
The formula is boni-mali = invoicing issued excluding tax − commercial value of work. Therefore, if the exceptional-items balance is invoiced at its displayed value: current boni-mali + exceptional-items balance = boni-mali after adjustment. The dashboard can also express the current position as days of the annual invoicing budget and days of actual invoicing over the last 12 months.
The FAQ about boni-mali, accrued income and deferred income explains the checks by customer and engagement.
Accrued income and accounting work in progress follow other rules
- Accrued income / French account 4181: income attributed to the period although the invoice has not yet been issued. Not every open time entry or unfinished engagement automatically qualifies as accrued income.
- Service work in progress / French accounts 34 and 345: an accounting concept generally valued at production cost. It must not be assumed equal to Tempolia work valued at selling rates without a reconciliation.
- Deferred income or customer advance: a resource received or invoiced before the period to which the service relates. It may reduce the funding requirement but is not part of exceptional items waiting to be billed.
When an exceptional item enters a draft invoice, it leaves the separately presented stock of exceptional items. On issue, the value leaves the pre-invoice stage and enters receivables. On payment and matching, it leaves the customer balance.
Build a controllable reconciliation
For each metric, document the date, customer and company scope, net or gross basis, cost or selling-value basis, and whether accrued income, advances, credit notes and write-offs are included. Do not force commercial work value, exceptional items waiting to be billed and French accounts 345 or 4181 to match automatically.
To check operational data, use the reports for exceptional time waiting to be billed, exceptional expenses waiting to be billed, actuals by engagement and aged receivables. The FAQ about reports and editions explains how to select and save a report.