Question 1

What do I need to set up before I can invoice?

Accepted Answer

You need an organisation with a default currency and tax settings, at least one client, and a job with recorded time or costs. If you are posting to Xero or QuickBooks, the client must also be mapped to a contact there.

Question 2

What does an industry template change?

Accepted Answer

It pre-loads task categories, cost categories and terminology so screens use the words your industry uses. It does not touch existing data — you can apply it and still rename anything afterwards.

Question 3

Why can’t I record time against this task?

Accepted Answer

Most often the task has sub-tasks, which makes it a container. Record the time on the sub-task instead — the parent’s hours are derived from its children so the totals do not double-count. The other common cause is a completed job outside its time-entry grace period, which defaults to 21 days and is configurable per organisation.

Question 4

Where do I put internal work that has no client?

Accepted Answer

Record it against a non-billable internal job. Every staff member also has a personal "My Time" job for admin and ad-hoc work, so internal effort shows up in utilisation instead of disappearing.

Question 5

What is the difference between margin and markup?

Accepted Answer

Margin is measured against revenue; markup is measured against cost. A $100 cost sold at $150 is a 50% markup but a 33.3% margin. Quoting on markup and reporting on margin is the usual cause of a job looking less profitable than expected.

Question 6

Why is my WIP figure so high?

Accepted Answer

WIP is recorded work that has not been invoiced yet. A high figure usually means a billing run is overdue, a job is waiting on a milestone, or time is being recorded against a job nobody has raised an invoice for. Review WIP by job before each billing run; the longer it ages, the harder it is to recover.

Question 7

Why didn’t my draft invoice appear in Xero?

Accepted Answer

Drafts stay in AtomicSam by design. Nothing posts to Xero or QuickBooks — and no invoice number is consumed — until you approve or post the invoice.

Question 8

Should I void an invoice or raise a credit note?

Accepted Answer

Void it if it has not been sent or paid and no longer represents anything real. Raise a credit note if the client has already received it, so the correction is visible in both systems and in your accounting history.

Question 9

Why can’t I save a $0 invoice?

Accepted Answer

Zero-value invoices are blocked because they are nearly always the result of every line being excluded — usually non-billable tasks. Check which lines were excluded, or bill the job as non-billable work instead.

Question 10

What does "client not mapped" mean?

Accepted Answer

AtomicSam does not yet know which Xero contact or QuickBooks customer this client corresponds to, so it will not post an invoice and risk creating a duplicate contact. Open the mapping prompt, search for the existing contact and link it. Only create a new contact when one genuinely does not exist.

Question 11

My accounting app says disconnected — did I lose data?

Accepted Answer

No. Everything stays in AtomicSam; only the ability to post is paused. Reconnect from Settings and any queued syncs are retried automatically with backoff.

Question 12

Can I edit an invoice after it has posted?

Accepted Answer

A draft in the accounting app can still be updated in place. Once it is approved there, edit it through a credit note rather than changing it directly in Xero or QuickBooks — direct edits are the main source of reconciliation differences.

Question 13

Who can see rates, costs and margins?

Accepted Answer

Only people with the "see rates and margins" permission. Everyone else sees hours and progress without the financial columns, so you can give delivery staff full access to the plan without exposing salary-derived costs.

Question 14

What happens when my trial ends?

Accepted Answer

The 14-day trial keeps your data. When it expires you are prompted to choose a plan; nothing is deleted while you decide.

Frequently asked questions

Getting started

Jobs & time

Invoicing

Xero & QuickBooks

Access & billing