Use this when you want costs or reimbursements (disbursements) as their own line on a progress claim, instead of sitting inside a fee deliverable. Claim lines only come from project deliverables or tasks. Billable costs allocate into that claimable’s claim line through inclusions. There is no freeform claim line for costs alone.
This works on jobs that are already underway. Open that project’s live budget and add a Disbursements or Reimbursements deliverable there. You do not start a new job, and adding that deliverable does not require a contract variation by itself.
Before you start
The project uses progress claims (including jobs that already have time, costs, or earlier claims).
You can edit the project budget (add a deliverable and set its billing method).
You know which billable costs should be charged back separately from fee work.
Steps
Open the existing project’s budget (the live budget on that job) and add a deliverable named something clear, for example Disbursements or Reimbursements. Leave your fee deliverables as they are.
Set that new deliverable’s billing method to Time And Materials (often as a recovery line with no fixed fee budget).
Add or use a task under that deliverable for the costs you will on-charge.
File new billable costs against that task. Retarget existing unbilled costs from fee deliverable tasks onto this task so they stop scooping into the fee claim line.
On the next progress claim (refresh the draft if it was already open), include the Disbursements/Reimbursements claim item. Allocate those costs onto it with the usual claim inclusions (Claim all billables, or pick costs per claim item). Claim that line separately from your fee items.
Approve the claim when the amounts look right.
Convert to an invoice (Create Invoice from Claim, or your account’s approve-and-convert / integrate flow). Set Invoice Structure to Create one line item per claim item so the reimbursements claim item stays on its own invoice line.
Optionally tick Extract T&M expenses as their own line items if you want each allocated cost broken out under that T&M claim item. Review the invoice preview, then create the draft.
On the draft invoice, restructure line descriptions, accounts or tax if needed before you push to your finance system.
What you should see
The progress claim shows Disbursements/Reimbursements as its own claim item, separate from fee deliverables. Costs filed under that deliverable no longer scoop into an unrelated fee line. The invoice keeps one line per claim item; with extract on, T&M cost shares can appear as indented lines under the reimbursements item.
Troubleshooting
Job is already running — do I edit the original budget? — Yes. Edit that project’s current budget on the job and add the Disbursements/Reimbursements T&M deliverable there. Existing fee deliverables stay put. No contract variation is required just to add that deliverable. The new claim item appears on claims after the budget change (refresh a draft claim if it was already open).
Can I change an existing fee deliverable to Time And Materials instead? — That is a different change (billing method / budget type on an active deliverable) and can need a contract variation. For reimbursements as a separate line, add a new Disbursements/Reimbursements T&M deliverable rather than converting a fee line.
Costs still sit inside a fee line on the claim — Those costs are allocated to tasks under that fee deliverable. Retarget unbilled costs to a task under your Disbursements/Reimbursements T&M deliverable, then reclaim.
Cannot add a cost-only row on the claim — Expected. Claim items only come from deliverables or tasks. Use the budget pattern above.
Extract checkbox missing — Extract only appears for T&M claim items with a positive claimed amount, allocated costs, and a positive time-plus-costs total. Fixed-fee claim items stay as a single invoice line.
Need a different invoice layout after convert — Adjust the draft invoice before push. Prefer one line per claim item when you want reimbursements visible as their own line.