Finance on the Hub: your week, step by step

In one minute

• What it is. The Hub now carries the weekly money cycle from start to finish: hours come in, Mae and Dean sign them off, Billing works out each client's invoice, Payroll works out what each sidekick is paid, and Reports shows the profit and loss.
• Where it stands. Built and live. It was checked by six independent audits. The last one, on Sunday evening, found only small things and matched every money screen to the cent.
• What is new for you. This is the first real week. The week of 21 Sep was the practice week.

The week at a glance

Times are US Central, with Manila beside them (Manila is 13 hours ahead until 1 Nov).

The screens

All under Finance in the Hub menu. The links open the Hub.

Step 1 · Hours Mae and Dean

1. Open Week review. Before the report lands it says Waiting for the time tracker's report and when the next read is. You do not need to do anything; the Hub keeps reading.
2. When the week appears, check the hours and the flags.
3. Press Sign off as Mae (Dean presses his). The page shows who is still waited on.
4. Once both of you have signed, the week is final and cannot be undone. Billing then builds its draft.

Step 2 · Billing Rizza

1. Open Billing after the sign-offs. While it waits it says Waiting on the week's sign-off.
2. Read Check before pushing at the top first. It lists anything to fix before invoices go out, such as a client's repeating invoice that still carries a line dated before this week (Xero bills an old line again at every repeat until it is taken off in Xero).
3. Work through rows marked Needs you. You can edit a line or Hold it. A held line keeps the amount Xero already has.
4. Check the table at the bottom (Part, Placements, $). It shows how the matched placements become the lines on the page: less anything held, less rows already billed on their own invoice, plus your edits. If the parts did not add up, a red line would say so.
5. Press Approve and push when you are happy. This week it runs as a preview and writes nothing to Xero.

Row statuses you will see: Proposed, Edited, Held, Approved, Queued for Xero, In Xero ✓, Failed.

Step 3 · Payroll Rizza, with Chantelle for Wise

Prepare

The week's people, hours and pay from your sheet. People with a flag open to show why. Mark a flagged person OK, or Hold them with a note saying why.

Approve and pay

1. There are two lanes. Wise is approved by Chantelle. Remitly · PayPal · Manual is approved by Rizza.
2. Answer the pay checks on your lane. A pay check appears when a person's pay differs from hours times rate by a dollar or more and nothing explains it. If your sheet's rate, or its rate plus its adjustment, explains the pay, the Hub says so and does not ask.
3. Approve the lane, pay the people the way you do today, then record the send.
4. Anyone with no usable Wise email or PayPal address is held out of the approval and listed. Fix the address on their sidekick record, or use the one-tap buttons where offered: Use … from the ATS or Pay by PayPal (…).
5. If you pay someone outside the Hub, press Paid by hand beside their name, type how and when (for example: PayPal, 6 Oct) and press Save. They come off Still owed this week.
6. Pressed it by mistake? Find the person under Left out and press Undo.
7. When every lane with people is sent and nobody is still owed, Finish this week appears. Press it to close the week.

Next week the screen names anyone you held and did not pay: Held last week and not paid, with the amount and your note.

Totals

The week adds up shows every part of the week's total: each lane, people held for an address, people paid by hand, people held by a person. The parts always add to the week total.

Step 4 · Reports Rizza

• The P&L is one table. Lines the Hub knows are filled in. Lines only you know say Not entered with an Enter button.
• Waiting on Revenue means Billing's week is not built yet. Waiting on Contractors means the payout made that week is not on record or entered yet. While either waits, the profit lines show no number.
• Anything labeled Engine estimate from tracked hours is a rough estimate, not the P&L.
• Your Thursday P&L remains the book. The Hub's table is there to be checked against it.

The reconcile line on This week

One sentence that checks Billing, Payroll and Reports against each other. Open it to see every item.

Waiting messages

Your to-do list this week

Rizza

The names and amounts are on your Hub task, Finance: Monday checks before Tuesday's invoices. In order:

1. Before Tuesday's invoices: in Xero, take the old dated line off the client's repeating invoice named first on your task. Billing warns about it until it is gone.
2. In Xero, correct the invoice line text named on your task.
3. In Billing, confirm the client and sidekick matches listed on the task.
4. Answer the reconcile questions and the three pay questions for the week of 21 Sep.
5. Add a PayPal address for the two people held for one, and Wise emails for the people held on the Wise lane.
6. In Reports, enter the 2 Oct payout.
7. Then run the week of 28 Sep through Billing and Payroll as above.

Mae

1. On Monday, open Week review for the week of 28 Sep once the report has landed.
2. Check the hours and press Sign off as Mae. Dean signs too.
3. Leave the week of 21 Sep alone.

Small things you may notice

The money is right in each of these. They are on the list to tidy.

• Twelve people read pay not checked until the payroll feed carries the rate from your sheet.
• On Payroll Totals, the People column counts the held people twice. The dollars are correct.
• Monday's new P&L week shows only as one row on This week until Reports has that week.
• The line can read "Finance reconciles" while Xero's invoices are still listed as not checked yet under Explained.
• Finish this week, Paid by hand and Undo are new. They are tested, and this week is their first real use.

If something looks wrong

• Stop before pressing anything again, and take a screenshot.
• Post it in the accounting channel in Slack with the screen name and what you expected. Tag Chantelle or Nick.
• You cannot break Xero from Billing this week, and the Hub cannot send a payment.