Article Contents
- Introduction
- Work Schedules vs Enquiries & Tenders
- Recording Enquiries & Tenders Time
- How Enquiries & Tenders Appears on Invoices
Introduction
Enquiries & Tenders time is designed to capture the internal effort your team spends before scope is formally agreed. This covers:
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Preparing fee proposals or tenders for new projects
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Developing proposals for additional scopes on an existing job
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Responding to client requests for changes to works already underway
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Other pre-contract activities that happen outside the agreed Work Schedule
Recording this time is important even when you cannot bill it directly to a client because it helps you:
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See the true cost of winning work, not just delivering it
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Build a complete picture of job profitability
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Benchmark and compare the effort across different types of tenders, proposals and clients
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Make informed decisions about which types of opportunities are worth pursuing in the future
Without recording E&T, the resources invested in securing and expanding work remain invisible in your reporting.
Work Schedules vs Enquiries & Tenders
When staff complete project timesheets, they must choose where their time belongs.
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Work Schedule phases, tasks and subtasks
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These represent the unique client deliverables for a project.
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They must be set up for each project individually, since every project has its own agreed scope.
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Timesheets recorded against subtasks within a work schedule flow directly into invoicing as part of the structured fee arrangement.
- Learn more about Work Schedules here.
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Enquiries & Tenders (E&T)
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This is automatically available on all enquiries and all jobs.
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No setup is required — it always appears as the last option in the work type dropdown before disbursements.
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It provides a consistent place to record pre-contract and proposal time across every project.
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Once you understand the difference, you can start recording E&T time in practice.
Recording Enquiries & Tenders Time
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On an enquiry, no department selection is needed when recording E&T time.
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On a job, if your firm has multiple departments you must select the relevant department. If only one department exists the dropdown will not appear.
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If an enquiry is converted into a job, all timesheets including E&T are carried across. The first department added to the job will be assigned to those timesheets.
How Enquiries & Tenders Appears on Invoices
When you raise a new invoice, Hiro automatically creates a line for any unbilled E&T time, like below:
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If your organisation is setup with more than one department or branch, a separate E&T line will appear for each combination of department and branch, otherwise you'll just see one.
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If you switch the line off using the toggle on the left, the line does not appear on the PDF invoice. However, the WIP is not cleared. The line will reappear on the next invoice and will continue to contribute to the project’s WIP balance.
If you want to bill E&T directly
If your client agreement allows, you can invoice E&T directly:
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At cost by leaving the amount blank
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With a percentage markup applied
⚠️ By default, the words "Enquiries & Tenders" will appear on your invoice PDF, but you can modify this text by clicking the "Edit text" link on the left-side of the invoice line item.
If you do not want to bill E&T
Resolve the WIP through invoicing so the costs no longer sit in the unbilled total. Use one of the invoice line options:
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Reallocate to move the costs onto another invoice line that better reflects the project scope, or
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Write Off to remove the costs from billing while retaining them internally as a non-recoverable expense.
See the step-by-step guide here: Reallocate or Write Off WIP Costs from Invoice Lines.