Skip to main content
Save 30% on your first year

Client rebilling with the supplier receipt attached

Client rebilling that keeps the supplier's itemized original with every cost, so each invoice line reaches your client with its proof.

Two contractors in hard hats read plans on a building site

Smartbills tags each cost to a client, prices it by your agreed rule and puts it on the invoice with the supplier's receipt.

Rebilling starts with every cost tagged to a client

Costs are tagged as they arrive instead of being pieced back together at month end. Standing rules handle the ones that are always the same. Routine spend doesn't need anyone to decide.

  • Tagged to a client, project, matter or entity on arrival
  • From a card, a supplier invoice, a claim or a receipt
  • Standing rules by supplier, category or project

The supplier's document goes with the line

The supplier's own document is attached to the invoice line itself rather than filed somewhere nearby. And since the underlying record is itemized, a single supplier invoice covering three clients splits correctly between them.

  • The supplier's original document attached to the line itself
  • Line-level detail kept for splitting a mixed invoice
  • The client sees what you agreed they would see

Priced by the rule you agreed

Some clients are billed at cost, some carry a handling percentage, and one has a cap you negotiated two years ago. Each of those becomes a rule, and anything still recoverable stays visible in the register, ageing, until someone bills it.

How rebilling works

  1. The cost comes in

    From a card, a supplier invoice, an expense claim or a receipt, itemized with the original attached.

  2. Assign it

    Rules assign the client, project, matter or entity where they apply. Anything else you assign by hand.

  3. Price it

    At cost, marked up or capped, following that client's agreement.

  4. Bill it with proof

    It goes on the next invoice with the supplier's document on the line and its tax treatment carried through.

Keep exploring

See all products

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What people ask us before they sign up.

Rebilling is passing a cost you paid on a client's behalf back to them on an invoice. French practice calls it refacturation, much of Europe says recharging, and most accounting software calls it billable expenses. Whatever the name, a cost comes in, it belongs to a client rather than to you, and it has to reach an invoice with evidence attached.

A disbursement is a cost you paid in your client's name and pass on at exactly what it cost, such as a court filing fee. Because the supply was never made to you, it sits outside the scope of VAT. A recharge is a cost you incurred yourself and pass on as part of your own supply. It carries your VAT rate. Smartbills keeps that flag on the line and preserves the original tax components.

No. It records the treatment you or your accountant chose, applies it consistently to everything that matches the rule, and keeps the original document so you can defend the position. Picking that position is a professional judgement call, and it stays with you.

Yes, and that's the usual setup. Rules are set per client and can vary by cost category, for example travel at cost, subcontractors with a handling percentage and materials capped at an agreed ceiling. If a client has no rule, the cost is flagged for someone to decide instead of quietly getting a default price.

They work the same way, pointed at an entity instead of a customer. Shared costs are tagged to the entity that should carry them, and the recharge goes out with the original document attached, which is what a transfer-pricing file needs. The policy is yours to set; Smartbills keeps the evidence that you followed it.

That's up to you. A true pass-through usually should show it, since the whole point is that you added nothing, while a marked-up line usually shouldn't. The setting is per client. The answer doesn't change depending on who put the invoice together that month.

It stays in the register and goes on the next invoice, marked as belonging to the earlier period instead of being folded into the current one. Late costs are normal in project work, but a late cost shouldn't quietly change what a finished month looks like it cost.

Yes, with QuickBooks, Xero, Sage and NetSuite. The rebilled line carries its client, project and tax treatment across. Your accountant gets something they can report on instead of one lump of undifferentiated income.

Get started

Stop absorbing other people's costs.

Bring last month's invoices and we can usually show you the gap within ten minutes.

Book a demo