Agency is asking for Self Billing

[Wanderer]

A good guide to the pros and cons of self billing is here: HM Revenue & Customs: Self-billing and VAT

A gotcha I can think of is that the agency controls when your invoices are raised. If you want to raise an invoice (say) in the last tax year or vat period or delay it a few days so it's in a different one then you can't do that with self billing (probably a minor point if your cashflow is reasonably smooth).

The biggie in my mind is that if your agent promises to pay 30 days after the invoice date then as far as I can see, the invoice date is the date that they choose to raise the self billing invoice.

A workaround to this is to make sure they are contracted to pay you within X days of submission of a timesheet. Though this then conflicts with the agency regs (if you are not opted out) because you are supposed to be able to bill them even if the client hasn't signed your timesheet and I can't see how this would work with self-billing.

A few people said to raise your own invoices. I don't think this is correct though I can't find a reference for this off the top of my head. I think the rule was that if you are on self billing then the customer (eg agency) raise the invoice and you are not permitted to raise one too. That doesn't mean that you can't raise some sort of invoice for your own records, just that it is NOT a VAT invoice and you shouldn't send this to anyone.

The other thing with self billing is that if MyLTD raises an invoice then the agency has to check it against the timesheets to make sure it's for the correct amount. If the agency raises the invoice for you then it's YOUR responsibility to check that they have invoiced for the correct amount. Mistakes do happen and self billing moves the burden of checking from the agency to you. I just keep a spreadsheet with a one liner showing what each of my invoices should be and double check this against the self-bill invoices, issued date and payment date when they arrive. Easier than creating having hundreds of your own invoices to trawl through.

[filthy1980]

been self billing for last 9 months

saves me the hassle and so far no real issues

[Sagara]

Many thanks all.

[Scrag Meister]

Hi All,

I've got an email from my agency asking to change the way I am billing them. Email goes as follow:

"Self-billing is an arrangement where we the customer will prepare an invoice on behalf of their supplier’s (contractors). The benefits of transferring to Self Billing are as follows:
o Contractor does not have to produce an invoice to support timesheets
o It reduces their administration
o It's a more efficient payment process"

Is this a really better way of doing the billing. I am happy so for preparing my own invoice and attaching my timesheets to it. I feel like I have more control over and it is not really an extra work for me as it is just entering the days I work for the month and printing from an excel template.

Also I don't understand why it is a more efficient payment process as I still need to send them my timesheets.

What do you guys think?

Thanks.

It's easy, my first contract self billed for 3 years, just file the invoice they send you in your accounts.

Second I invoiced.

Now back to self billing.

[Old Greg]

Thanks for the replies.

Should I just say no then? I mean would they be able to force me to do this?

Say yes. Invoice them anyway.

[DaveB]

Hi All,

I've got an email from my agency asking to change the way I am billing them. Email goes as follow:

"Self-billing is an arrangement where we the customer will prepare an invoice on behalf of their supplier’s (contractors). The benefits of transferring to Self Billing are as follows:
o Contractor does not have to produce an invoice to support timesheets
o It reduces their administration
o It's a more efficient payment process"

Is this a really better way of doing the billing. I am happy so for preparing my own invoice and attaching my timesheets to it. I feel like I have more control over and it is not really an extra work for me as it is just entering the days I work for the month and printing from an excel template.

Also I don't understand why it is a more efficient payment process as I still need to send them my timesheets.

What do you guys think?

Thanks.

o We dont have to reconcile invoices against time sheets.
o It reduces our administration
o It's saves us money.

[Sagara]

Thanks for the replies.

Should I just say no then? I mean would they be able to force me to do this?

[Old Greg]

I still send out my invoices, it's my company's way of doing business. If the agency then bins them it's no concern of mine.

I treat their invoice as a remittance note to tally against my invoices.

Never trust an agency to get invoicing right.

WCS

[SueEllen]

I was asked to do self-billing by one client but they found it too difficult to deal with so ended up asking me for an invoices.

I would send out invoices and if the agent doesn't want them they can ignore them or bin them.

[Fred Bloggs]

I do my own invoices but I don't send them out. It is good way to check what the agency is paying. Twice in the last 6 weeks they have made an error.

[cojak]

I still send out my invoices, it's my company's way of doing business. If the agency then bins them it's no concern of mine.

I treat their invoice as a remittance note to tally against my invoices.

Never trust an agency to get invoicing right.

[Sagara]

Hi All,

I've got an email from my agency asking to change the way I am billing them. Email goes as follow:

"Self-billing is an arrangement where we the customer will prepare an invoice on behalf of their supplier’s (contractors). The benefits of transferring to Self Billing are as follows:
o Contractor does not have to produce an invoice to support timesheets
o It reduces their administration
o It's a more efficient payment process"

Is this a really better way of doing the billing. I am happy so for preparing my own invoice and attaching my timesheets to it. I feel like I have more control over and it is not really an extra work for me as it is just entering the days I work for the month and printing from an excel template.

Also I don't understand why it is a more efficient payment process as I still need to send them my timesheets.

What do you guys think?

Thanks.