Does your talent invoice for varying types of work and/or expenses? Are those expenses to be treated as reimbursements and not income?
Worksuite has the capability to incorporate line items into your invoices, making it easier to review and track work types and expenses. This feature gives you a reliable and straightforward way of categorizing your invoice details. And if the expenses are to be treated as reimbursements, then we can help you remove the expense amounts from the income you report to vendors on their Form 1099-NEC.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Introduction to Line Items
- How to Treat Contractor Expenses as Reimbursements
- How to Add a Line Item to an Invoice
- Support / Resources
Introduction to Line Items
The term “line item” refers to the itemization of services, products, or expenses included on a vendor’s invoice. Each line item is further described by including quantities, rates, and prices that pertain to each.
Invoice Line Items are not enabled by default. Reach out to your account manager or support@worksuite.com to enable it.
How to Treat Contractor Expenses as Reimbursements
Payments made to contractors for reimbursable expenses they incur (e.g. travel, meals, hotel, etc.) can either be treated as income paid to the contractor or as Expense Reimbursements that your company incurs directly as such. Note that the IRS has rules on which expenses qualify as Reimbursed Expenses (generally travel related, fully documented) and which expenses do not (most other expenses or ones not properly documented). Your finance and accounting team can tell you whether your company has an expense management policy specifically for independent contractors, which contractor expense accounting treatment is preferred at your company, and what expense documentation is required from contractors to support the IRS rules for Expense Reimbursement recognition.
Worksuite can help make proper expense accounting easier for your team and your vendors with line item categories on vendor invoices, flagging certain expense categories for special Expense Reimbursement treatment, and reporting by line item categories.
Include all expenses as income paid to contractor: If expense payments to contractors are not treated by your company as Reimbursed Expenses, then the expense amounts paid will be included in the total amount you report to the IRS on Form 1099-NEC. (Did you know Worksuite offers 1099 Reporting as a service to our customers using Worksuite Pay? Learn more here.) Treating expense payments as contractor income is the default setting in Worksuite, so no action is required if this is the way you want to go.
Best Practice Tip: Even if expenses are to be treated as income paid to contractors, line items can still be used to categorize the amounts paid to contractors. In other words, spend transparency can only enhance your spend management practices. See "How to Add a Line Item to an Expense" below for more information.
Reimbursed Expenses: If payments to contractors are to be treated as expenses paid as Reimbursed Expenses in accordance with your company’s expense management plan, then these amounts should NOT be included in the income amount you report to the IRS on form 1099-NEC (Box 1- Nonemployee Compensation). Worksuite can configure the expense line items used on your vendor invoices as Reimbursed Expenses and enable the attachment of supporting expense documentation. Enabling Reimbursed Expenses means the amounts of these specially configured line items will NOT be included in 1099-NEC reporting to the IRS, whether Worksuite issues your 1099-NEC forms or not.
Reimbursed Expenses is not enabled by default. Reach out to your account manager or support@worksuite.com to enable it.
How to Add a Line Item to an Invoice
Step 1:
After accessing your dashboard, navigate to the Payments page
Step 2:
Click on the "Add New Expense" button at the top right corner
Step 3:
Add your Invoice details, including relevant line items
Step 3a: Adding Line Item Expenses
- Under the Item, section start typing your line item
- The fields for adding a line item is as follows:
- Line Item Name
- Category -> Work or Expenses (Food, Travel, etc.)
- Quantity
- Price
- Amount
As you start to add your line items, our platform will calculate the total for you.Step 4
Click the Send Invoice button to submit your invoice for approval and payment
Step 5:
Pat yourself on the back - you created your first invoice with line items!
Click here to see how it is done in action!
Support / Resources
Have questions on line items?
Click the Help button in the bottom right to chat with our amazing Support team. We also have a full knowledge base with How-To guides and best practices for the Worksuite Platform — that's where you're at now!
For more info on the Worksuite platform, resources, and support, please contact your account manager or reach out to support@worksuite.com
Take it one step further and integrate with your finance platform today! Self-Service Integrations Overview
Learn more:
Submitting an Invoice for Payment