Billing is the documentary aspect of the work done, through which payments can be made to the person involved in the contract and responsible to complete the work. Imperfect Billing can cause considerable losses to the contractor or the client. Hence, bills should be perfect and self-explanatory at any stage of the work. Bills from the work sites are to be prepared in a standard printed format. All information in this format should be correctly incorporated to avoid confusion while checking.

Every organization should maintain certain procedural systems, methods and norms for preparing bills and forwarding them through the right channels for payments to the client and contractor.

Bills are generally prepared by the client, contractor, sub-contractor and different vendors for their payment and for the proper execution of the works at the sites.

Types of Bills
Generally, the following types of bills are prepared at various stages of work during building construction

• Advance bills
• R.A bills
• Cash bills
• Final bills

Advance Bills
Advance bills can be prepared for the following :

• For a material contract, the advance bill can be prepared against the material dumped on-site by the contractor.
• The advance bill for the items of work that are expected to be completed within a scheduled period can be forwarded to avoid delays in payments.
• If bills submitted from the site ) are not clear or Billing Engineer wants to cross-check the measurements, quantities and stages of work, then to avoid delay, advance payment against the bill can be prepared.

Documents and Information required to check advance bill :
If the contract is with material and labour

• Name of Contractor, name of the site, date, advance note number, previous advance details etc.
• Agreement of Contract.
• The basic rate for material supply.
• Conditions in the contract for a percentage of advance against supply of material.
• Quality report of material from the site with quantity, approved brand name, challan number and specimen samples of the received material.

If the contract is for only labour work

• Name of the contractor, name of the site, date, advance note number, previous advance details etc.
• Documents required from the site to project the work details, approximate costing of the work to be done, labour strength available at the site, the overall speed of the work etc.
• The advance bill should be prepared on the payment challan by the site engineer.
• The bills should be forwarded to the accounts department for arithmetical checking after checking by the Billing Engineer.
• The cheque, if ready, is forwarded to the engineering department for issuing it to the contractor with proper entries.

R.A BILLS: RUNNING ACCOUNT BILLS
R.A bills are prepared at the site for the work done. They are also called interim bills. These bills should be prepared every fortnight. Normally, payments to contractors are done on a weekly/fortnight basis. Hence, the bills should be updated. If there is no work progress of a particular contractor, the following remark should be made on the R.A. bill – “ Work status same as previous R.A Bill No.”

Documents Required for R.A BILL

• Agreement of Contracts: Item rate/built-up area basis.
• Quality report of material, from the site, if a contract is with the material.
• Copy of material testing certificate
• Name of site, name of the contractor, R.A bill No. And date.
• Payment challans, abstract and measurement sheets.
• Samples and brand name of the material used
• Contractor’s sign and Project Engineer’s sign on the bills
• Contractor’s sign for hidden measurements, such as the quantity of excavation in foundations etc.

CASH BILLS
Cash bills are required to be prepared for the payments for the following items.

• Weekly payments for the department labourers.
• Petty contractors for small work/job work.
• For urgent work done, on a lump-sum basis.
• Any other bills which need to be paid in cash depending on the individual’s requirements.

Documents and information required for cash bill

• Agreement with contractor
• Approval rates for various departmental labourers.
• Clarifications report for approval of new rates if any.
• Drawings for the details of work done.
• Signature of the contractor on payment challan.
• Payment challan, measurement sheet, abstract sheet.
• The Chief Engineer signed for advanced approval for the weekly cash bill.
• Cash bills are to be submitted every week to the billing division.
• The bills should be forwarded to the accounts department at least two days in advance, after checking by the Billing Divison, for making the necessary arrangements for payments.
• Payments can be made to the site in charge, one day prior to the weekly payment day, after the checking by the Account Department, so that he can make the payments at the site on time.

FINAL BILLS

• The final bills should be cleared after 100% completion of the work by the contractor.
• Joint measurements should be taken by the Engineer, along with the Contractor or his representative.
• The following points should be considered while preparing the final bill.
  • Take reference to measurements from earlier R.A. bills.
  • 100% measurements and quality details are required in final bills.
  • Repetition of the item should be checked by the Engineer.
  • Consider the work done by the other agencies.
  • Bill/measurements should be self-explanatory.
  • Start collecting the details for the final bills, well in advance.

There is a huge opportunity for the civil engineers who are beginners and working professionals to get jobs in construction companies as Billing Engineer by doing the professional training in the Billing Engineering Course. Billing Engineer Maintain and balanced the cash flow generations and workflow of any projects at the sites by monitoring the works from the office itself. SEEVILL Quantity Surveyors and Training Institute is the leading best training institute for Billing Engineering in India. Every Billing Engineer must have knowledge of estimation and cost, BBS ( Bar Bending Schedule ), Rate analysis as per DAR and market rate, and Labour and machinery analysis, which enables them to the billing works at different stages of construction with efficiency and accuracy. Almost every construction company around the globe always demands and releases a large number of vacancies for the Billing Engineer post.

Billing Engineering Courses can also be done by the students pursuing their Diploma in Civil Engineering or B Tech in civil engineering from different engineering colleges in India, fresher or beginners and by the working professionals ( site engineer, construction supervisor) etc.

SEEVILL Quantity Surveyors and Training Pvt. Ltd trained more than 2000 students in the billing engineering course. Billing engineers are required and necessary in every construction project like building projects in India, road projects in India, bridges projects in India and tunnel projects in India.

Billing Engineer of the various construction companies play a vital role at the time of tendering

( pre- tendering and post-tendering). Most of the estimation and costing books which are available and published in India don’t rectify and do not emphasizes the practical knowledge of billing engineering in the construction works in India. SEEVILL Quantity surveyors and training Pvt. Ltd. Provides professional training in the billing Engineering sector as we trained as per the CPWD, ( Government of India ) Norms and Nomenclatures.