For many MSPs, billing in Autotask starts off reasonably well but gradually deteriorates. Work gets billed manually. Contracts don’t reflect reality. Licence counts drift out of sync. Time isn’t recorded properly. Profitability becomes impossible to trust.
In other cases, Autotask was never implemented properly in the first place – used only as a glorified ticketing system, with billing handled manually or via recurring invoices in QuickBooks or Xero.
The result is predictable: lost revenue, under-billing, disputes, and no clear understanding of which clients are actually profitable.
This roadmap outlines a structured 12-month programme to fix billing properly. The order can be adjusted depending on your priorities, but the objective is always the same: make Autotask the single source of truth for revenue, costs, and profitability.
Contents
Review how billing currently works across:
Identify:
Agree clear rules for:
This prevents reintroducing problems later.
Your accounting Chart of Accounts must reflect how your MSP actually makes money.
Typical income categories:
Typical cost categories:
This enables accurate margin reporting.
Billing codes determine how revenue flows into accounting.
Ensure each billing code maps cleanly to:
This ensures invoices post correctly and reporting becomes reliable.
In Autotask, Contracts are billing containers, not signed agreements.
To avoid confusion, it’s helpful to distinguish between:
Typically includes:
Each contract should represent a clear revenue stream.
Ensure each contract captures:
This enables profitability reporting at:
Manual licence billing is one of the biggest failure points.
Automate billing quantities from authoritative sources:
This ensures billing always reflects reality.
Implement validation processes to detect:
Automation should reduce work, not create silent errors.
Labour cost is the largest cost component in most MSPs.
Define clear rules for:
Ensure technicians understand billing impact when entering time.
Configure Autotask so technicians:
This reduces billing leakage and improves reporting accuracy.
Revenue is only half the equation. Profitability requires accurate costs.
Use purchase orders to track:
Ensure supplier invoices reconcile against expected costs.
Ensure costs flow into:
This enables accurate margin calculation.
Billing starts with the quote.
Ensure closed deals automatically create:
Avoid manual re-entry.
Whether using:
Ensure quotes create billing structures correctly.
Invoices should reduce queries, not create them.
Ensure invoices are:
Avoid overly granular invoices that trigger disputes.
Configure Autotask to:
Manual invoice assembly should be eliminated.
These are often overlooked but essential.
Implement structured approval processes for:
Prevents errors entering the system.
Ensure licence additions, removals, and changes update billing correctly.
Implement reporting for:
This is the ultimate outcome of the overhaul.
Automate identification of:
By the end of this programme, Autotask becomes:
Instead of fighting your billing system, it becomes a reliable foundation for scaling your MSP.
Billing is the most sensitive and complex part of Autotask. Fixing it properly requires careful planning and structured implementation.
If your MSP is struggling with:
I provide structured mentoring and tactical support to help MSPs implement reliable, scalable billing in Autotask.
Ready to get started? Let’s have a conversation about how we can apply this roadmap to your business.
Explore my Autotask Consulting Services to learn more about how we can work together to achieve your goals.