Invoicing clients weekly for temp hours
How an agency invoices each client weekly for temp hours, words the lines so the client's finance team can check them, and keeps statements easy to read.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Recruitment businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
The weekly temp invoice is the least glamorous document an agency produces and the one that decides whether it gets paid. A client's accounts clerk receives it, checks it against the hours their own supervisors approved, and either passes it for payment or puts it aside with a question. An invoice that is easy to check gets paid in the next payment run. One that is not gets queried, and the query can take longer to resolve than the original payment terms.
This article covers how to structure weekly temp invoices so they are quick to approve, how to handle a client who pays several weeks at once, and how to keep the statement of account readable when a busy client receives dozens of invoices a quarter.
One invoice per client per week
The simplest rule for temp billing is one invoice per client per week, covering every temp who worked for that client that week.
Splitting further, one invoice per temp, multiplies the paperwork for both sides and makes the statement unreadable. Combining several weeks on one invoice delays your cash and makes each week harder to check. Weekly per client is the balance most finance teams prefer.
There are good reasons to depart from it, and they come from the client:
- Separate sites or cost centres. If the client approves hours per site, issue one invoice per site per week, and say so in the invoice reference.
- Purchase orders. If the client issues a purchase order per assignment, one invoice per order per week, quoting the order number.
- Separate legal entities. A group with several companies needs each company invoiced in its own name, even when the same manager signs the timesheets.
Ask about all three when you take on a new temp client, before the first invoice goes out.
In Achekam, a customer invoice starts as a draft that can be changed or deleted. Issuing it gives it the next number in your sequence and posts it to the ledger as debtors, sales and output VAT. Default terms are 30 days; the number format is set in Settings. Build the week's drafts as timesheets come in, and issue them together once the hours are signed off.
Line wording: worker, dates, hours and rate
Each line should let the client's clerk tick it against their own records without phoning you. A useful pattern:
[Worker's full name], general worker, Site B. Week ending the date shown. Normal hours at the normal rate; overtime hours at the overtime rate.
What each part does:
| Part of the line | Why the client needs it |
|---|---|
| Worker's name | Matches the client's own sign-in sheet |
| Role and site | Tells them which manager approved the hours |
| Week ending date | Ties the line to one timesheet |
| Hours, split by rate | Lets them check normal and overtime separately |
| Rate | Matches the agreed rate card for that role |
Keep the wording identical from week to week. Clerks learn your format; changing it creates queries.
Once issued, download the invoice as a PDF on your letterhead and e-mail it from the invoice, with or without a pay link. If the send fails, the screen says it was not sent, so a quick look after each batch catches bounced e-mails before the client claims they never received anything. Attach or send the signed timesheets in the same e-mail if the client asks for them.
One client payment spread over several weekly invoices
Clients on monthly payment runs usually pay several weekly invoices with one transfer. Achekam records a customer payment against one invoice or spread across a customer's invoices. A part payment leaves an invoice part-paid, and any extra is held on the customer's account. A receipt can be re-allocated later if it was put against the wrong invoices.
Ask the client to send a remittance advice listing the invoice numbers they paid. Then allocate the receipt exactly as the remittance says. Where the amount is short, the shortfall stays visible on the invoice the client did not pay in full, which is the one to query. Do not let a short payment be spread evenly across all the invoices; that hides which week is in dispute.
The statement of account the client's finance team checks
Achekam's server produces a customer statement of account as a PDF that can be e-mailed, and the screen tells you whether it was sent.
For a temp client, the statement is the document their finance team reconciles against at month end. Weekly invoices make it long, so make it easy to read:
- Use consistent invoice references that include the week ending date or site, so each line on the statement is recognisable.
- Allocate every receipt as soon as it arrives, following the remittance, so paid weeks drop out of the open items.
- Send the statement monthly, and again before any collection call.
ACCA's article on accounts receivable management covers how a business monitors what it is owed with an aged analysis and the ways to speed up collection, which is the discipline behind a clean temp statement.
Ageing by week
The receivables screen ages what each client owes into 0-30, 31-60, 61-90, 91-120 and over 120 days, with overdue totals. With weekly invoicing, each week sits in its own place in the ageing.
That is useful. A client who pays monthly will normally show the current month's weeks in the first bucket. A single older week sitting alone in the second bucket, while later weeks are paid, usually points to a query: a disputed timesheet, a missing order number, a rate the client does not recognise. Find out which and fix it, rather than waiting for the next payment run.
When a client pays for several weeks at once, matching that single bank deposit to the right invoices is its own task; see matching a bank payment rather than recording a receipt. The cash pressure that slow-paying temp clients create is covered in funding weekly temp wages while clients pay later, and permanent placements that fail early bring their own credit notes, described in rebates when a placed candidate leaves early.
Pick your largest temp client and read last month's statement as their clerk would. If any line needs a phone call to understand, change your wording before the next weekly batch.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
