Your invoice to the ISP or prime, code by code. Codes and quantities come from the marks your crew made on the map, priced from your price book. Billing for the contractor who builds the network, not software that bills subscribers.
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For contractors doing aerial, underground, and drop bury work for ISPs and primes. It does not bill an ISP's subscribers.
Fiber work is billed in units your contract lists: feet of cable and conduit, and each for drops, splices, and locates.
Quantities come from the marks the crew made on the map and submitted once from the field. Tally = marks. Nobody retypes a sheet on Friday. The crew marks the map in TCS Map Annotator. For the field side, see map to invoice.
Each invoice line is the code, times the quantity, at the contract rate for that code.
Download the marked-up map as a PDF to send with the invoice. For the rest of what the ISP asks for, see the package checklist.
Five steps, from the marked map to the invoice.
The crew places each code and quantity where the work was done.
Once, from the field. The tally is re-counted from the marks, so tally = marks.
The office checks the submitted map and its tally.
Each line of the tally is priced from your price book.
The tally is counted from the crew's marks and priced from your price book, ready for the invoice.
The tally comes from the marks, so it ties to the marked map by design.
Every mark has to carry a code from your price book. A mark without one can't be submitted.
Crews can only tap codes from your price book, and every code is checked again at Submit.
The tally is re-counted from the marks on the server. The count on the iPad is a preview.
If the crew resubmits the map, the new submission replaces the old tally. Only the latest one counts toward the tally.
We load your price book during onboarding. Every line is a code from your price book, times the quantity, at the rate for that code.
Each job carries the PO number it bills against.
If you work as a sub, the same marks become the tally, priced from your price book, ready for your invoice to the prime. If you run subs, see sub invoicing.
The work is done. The invoice waits while the office rebuilds the job from texts, photos, and paper on Friday.
More on why telecom contractors bill late, and the cash flow and factoring calculator for what the wait costs.
The tally is counted from the crew's marks and priced from your price book, ready for the invoice. There's no second count to reconcile.
The Operations Audit traces one billing cycle on one ISP contract, from the marked map to the invoice. We pilot there, then repeat.
No. ISP billing software bills an internet provider's subscribers every month. This page is about the other side of the work: the contractor who builds the network and invoices the ISP or prime for it, by rate code and quantity. TCS is built for that contractor. It does not bill subscribers, run autopay, or manage subscriber accounts.
Your ISP or prime may want proof of what was built before it pays, so the invoice has to line up with the as-built or the package it requires. When the invoice quantities come from the same marked map the crew submitted, the proof and the invoice say the same thing. Your contract sets exactly what has to be approved first.
By unit. The contract or price book lists a code for each kind of work, such as feet of cable or conduit, or each drop, splice, or locate, with a rate for each code. Each invoice line is the quantity of a code times its contract rate, usually tied to a PO or work order. The quantity is where invoices go wrong, so capture it where the work happens.
Under unit-price billing, you and the owner agree on a rate for each unit of work, and you bill for the units actually completed. After the work is done, you count or measure what was built, multiply each quantity by its agreed rate, and submit the invoice with whatever proof the contract requires. If the final quantity differs from the estimate, the contract says how that difference is handled.
A unit price contract sets a fixed rate for each unit of work, such as a foot of cable or a splice, instead of one price for the whole job. The total isn't known up front. It depends on the quantities actually completed and accepted. It suits work where the exact scope is hard to pin down before the crew starts. The terms of your own contract control.
A price variance means the rate on an invoice line doesn't match the agreed rate for that item. A quantity variance means the billed quantity doesn't match what was authorized, ordered, or accepted. A price variance is usually settled by correcting the rate or pointing to the contract or change order that set it. A quantity variance is usually settled with proof of what was built or an approved change. Your contract sets the process.
It depends on the ISP or prime and the contract. Common items are the marked-up map or as-built and quantities by code. Check your contract for the exact list, and use the package checklist. With TCS, you can download the marked-up map the crew submitted as a PDF to send with the invoice.
The same way a prime invoices the ISP: by code and quantity, at the rate in the sub's agreement with the prime, with the proof the prime asks for. The prime's terms set how often and where the sub submits. With TCS, a sub's crew marks the map and submits once, and those marks become the tally, priced from the price book, ready for the sub's invoice to the prime.
The field side is map to invoice and Map Annotator software for telecom as-builts. For what the ISP asks for, see the package checklist. Also see one record per job, dig documentation and damage defense, sub invoicing, RFP tracking, and drop bury work.
How many finished jobs are waiting on an invoice right now? Would it be a bad idea to trace one from the marked map to the invoice? Free 30-minute Fit Call. We will tell you whether an Operations Audit is a fit.
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