Hi everyone, I’m looking for guidance on the best way to handle T&M billing for subcontractor work in Aspire.
Our workflow is a bit different from standard in-house labor. We utilize subcontractors for certain scopes of work and track their costs using Purchase Receipts. Subcontractors do not log hours in Aspire. Instead, they provide us with total hours worked and material costs, and we bill the customer based on those T&M amounts.
When I attempt to use T&M Override billing, I receive the following error: “Material ‘Subcontractor v11’ not approved.” It seems like Aspire is expecting approved time and material entries tied to the work ticket and possibly logged labor hours in the system. In our case, there will never be time entries since the work is performed by subcontractors.
Currently, we are using Fixed Price billing, waiting for the subcontractor invoice, and then manually adjusting pricing. This works, but it adds extra steps, slows down billing, and creates inefficiencies for true T&M jobs.
Ideally, I’d like to use T&M billing for subcontractor-driven work without requiring internal time entry and be able to bill directly off subcontractor costs, including labor and materials.
Is there a recommended workflow in Aspire for handling T&M billing using subcontractors only? Can subcontractor costs entered via Purchase Receipts be used directly in T&M billing? Is this error strictly tied to unapproved material entries, or is it also due to missing time entries? Has anyone successfully implemented a T&M process without internal labor tracking?
For context, the subcontractor item is set up in our catalog, costs are entered via Purchase Receipts, work tickets are in the correct status, and the issue still persists when attempting T&M Override.
Any insight or best practices would be greatly appreciated, especially from teams that rely heavily on subcontractors. Thanks in advance.