Rebillable expenses are the line most often forgotten at billing time. The train ticket is paid, the employee is reimbursed, but the line never makes it onto the client invoice: it lived in a spreadsheet nobody reopened. Each miss is small, and that is exactly why it goes unnoticed, engagement after engagement.
We have already explained why poorly framed rebilling eats into your margins, and which accounting and tax rules govern it (disbursements, VAT, internal policy). This article does the opposite: it shows, step by step, how AlibeeZ gets a rebillable expense onto the invoice without anyone having to think about it.
The panel above gives an example on a client contract. €448.50 of rebillable expenses have been approved; the contract provides for rebilling with an 8% margin. €42.00 of internal expenses are not rebilled. The result: a “Rebilled engagement expenses” line of €484.38 has been added to invoice FA-0410, on its own.
It is all decided at entry
Rebilling starts well before the invoice. In AlibeeZ, each expense is entered with its project, category, currency and receipt, and it is flagged as rebillable or internal at entry. The expense does not wait to be remembered: its fate is known from the moment it exists.
You stay in control of what can be entered: expense entry can be allowed or blocked project by project, and what is rebillable is defined upfront. An expense cannot end up on an engagement that does not provide for it. That step is covered in detail in our article on expense entry in AlibeeZ.
The rule lives on the contract, not in the billing clerk’s head
Add a margin? Rebill at cost? Apply a flat rate? In AlibeeZ, that question is not settled while editing the invoice: the rule is held on the client contract, and the billing engine applies it. Three modes are available:
| Mode | What reaches the invoice |
|---|---|
| With margin | Approved expenses, marked up by the rate set in the contract |
| At cost | Approved expenses, to the cent, with no mark-up |
| Flat rate | An agreed amount, with actual expenses still tracked against it |
On the panel, the contract is set to “with margin” at 8%: €448.50 of approved expenses become €484.38 on the invoice (€448.50 + €35.88). Nobody reached for a calculator.
Because the rule sits on the contract rather than the client, two projects for the same client can treat it differently: a time-and-materials engagement with expenses rebilled at cost, and a fixed-price lot with expenses on a flat rate, for example. It is the same logic as for billing models, which are also set contract by contract.
From approved claim to invoice line
Only approved expenses flow through. An expense that is pending, refused or being corrected does not go to the client. The approval chain (thresholds, second approver, traceability) does the sorting, and we describe it in expense approval in AlibeeZ.
At billing time, the project invoice is generated in one click from approved timesheets, reached milestones and rebillable expenses. The expense detail comes straight from the Expenses module: rebilling requires no re-keying. You review a draft instead of rebuilding a list of expenses.
To picture the result, take the illustrative example from our platform page: an invoice made of 17 approved days at €650, €680 of rebilled expenses and a €750 milestone fee, issued on the 2nd of the month for a total of €12,480.00. Expenses are one line among the others, fed by the module that recorded them.
When the client has a question
An expense line on an invoice is often the first to be queried. Because it rests on approved expenses, each with its receipt and approval history, anything disputed can be traced back to the entry that produced it. You answer with the document, not with a rebuilt spreadsheet.
Expenses in the margin, from approval onwards
Rebilling is only half the story. The other half is cost. In AlibeeZ, committed expenses enter the project margin the moment they are approved, alongside consumed time, whether or not they are rebilled. The panel’s €42.00 of internal expenses do not go on the invoice, but they do weigh on the engagement’s profitability. The margin shown is the real one.
Finance sees all spend live, by person and by project, and reporting by project, activity and person gives complete cost visibility. On a contract where expenses are covered by a flat rate, that real-time tracking is what tells you whether the package is holding or has been exceeded, before the engagement is over.
What it changes
- No more forgotten rebilling: the rebillable expense is flagged at entry and reaches the project invoice on its own.
- No more manual calculation: margin, at cost or flat rate is applied according to the contract.
- Invoices that are easier to get accepted: every expense line points back to approved, documented spend.
- A complete project margin: expenses, rebilled or not, enter it as soon as they are approved.
To go further, our article on fast billing shows how time, contracts and expenses come together on an invoice issued without friction, and the one on margin by business unit explains how that margin reads across your teams.
Frequently asked questions
Can an expense be rebilled with a margin in AlibeeZ?
Yes, with or without margin depending on the client contract. The rule sits on the contract, so two projects for the same client can treat it differently.
Do expenses have to be re-keyed at billing time?
No. The detail of approved rebillable expenses comes straight from the Expenses module and flows onto the project invoice, with no re-keying.
Can an unapproved expense end up on the invoice?
No. Only expenses flagged as rebillable and approved reach the invoice. The approval chain does the sorting before billing.
Do internal expenses count in the project margin?
Yes. All committed expenses enter the project margin the moment they are approved, alongside consumed time, whether or not they are rebilled to the client.