Autotask Billing

Autotask Billing

Overview

Autotask billing tools give MSPs visibility into billable items, approval workflows, and invoices generated from time entries, charges, and contracts. Finance teams use these tools to review, approve, and export billing data.

Anti-triggers

Billing items are derived records. When the question is about what produced one:

• The hours behind it — use autotask-time-entries.
• A charge posted straight onto a ticket — ticket charges are a separate entity with their own approval path; use autotask-ticket-notes-attachments.
• A technician's out-of-pocket cost — use autotask-expenses.
• Why the client is billed a recurring amount at all — the agreement drives it; use autotask-contracts.
• Cost the MSP owes rather than revenue it charges — distributor and CSP invoices run in the opposite direction and never appear in Autotask; use pax8-invoices or sherweb-billing.
• The invoice as the accounting system holds it — Autotask billing items are the source for an invoice, not the posted ledger entry; use qbo-invoices or xero-invoices.

API Patterns

Get a Billing Item

Retrieve a single billing item by ID.

Tool: autotask_get_billing_item

Key fields returned:

• id — Billing item ID
• ticketID / projectID — Source entity
• resourceID — Who performed the work
• billingItemType — Type (time entry, expense, charge, etc.)
• approvalStatus — Current approval state
• amount — Billable amount

Search Billing Items

Tool: autotask_search_billing_items

Key parameters:

• companyId — Filter by client company
• invoiceId — Filter by invoice
• approvalStatus — Filter by approval state
• startDate / endDate — Date range filter
• page / pageSize — Pagination (default 25, max 200)

Search Billing Approval Levels

Tool: autotask_search_billing_item_approval_levels

Returns the configured approval workflow steps for billing items in your Autotask instance. Approval levels are instance-specific.

Search Invoices

Tool: autotask_search_invoices

Key parameters:

• companyId — Filter by client company
• startDate / endDate — Invoice date range
• page / pageSize — Pagination

Common Workflows

Month-End Billing Review

1. Use autotask_search_billing_items filtered by date range and company
2. Review items with pending approval status
3. Check associated tickets/projects for context
4. Export approved items for invoice generation

Invoice Reconciliation

1. Use autotask_search_invoices to find invoices for a client
2. Cross-reference with autotask_search_billing_items filtered by invoice ID
3. Verify all expected charges appear
4. Identify any missing or duplicate items

Approval Workflow Inspection

1. Use autotask_search_billing_item_approval_levels to understand configured steps
2. Use autotask_search_billing_items filtered by approvalStatus to find items pending each step

Notes

• Billing item types are instance-specific picklist values; use autotask_get_field_info with entity BillingItems to retrieve valid values for your instance
• Approval workflows vary per Autotask configuration — consult your instance settings
• Invoices are typically generated from approved billing items; unapproved items will not appear on invoices
• This area is read-only via MCP; creating or posting invoices must be done through the Autotask UI or billing integrations