Glossary
Write-Off (Billing)
Also known as: Write-down, billing adjustment
A write-off is recorded work removed or reduced before invoicing — hours the team spent that the client is never asked to pay for. Write-offs happen at billing review, when a partner or account lead trims entries that overran the estimate, look indefensible, or would trigger an awkward conversation. The difference between hours worked and hours billed is the firm's realisation gap.
Write-offs feel like client management and compound like a tax. A firm writing off 15% of worked time at ₹1,500 an hour loses ₹2.25 lakh per thousand hours — silently, month after month, with each individual trim looking reasonable in isolation.
Most write-offs are caused upstream of the invoice. Estimates without a change-order mechanism guarantee overruns will be eaten; vague time entries ('development — 8h') invite trimming because they cannot be defended; late-recorded time is challenged because nobody trusts a week reconstructed from memory.
The distinction from a discount matters: a discount is a priced decision made with the client, visible on the invoice. A write-off is an internal loss decided under deadline pressure and visible nowhere. Firms that convert silent write-offs into explicit change orders or negotiated discounts recover margin without working a single extra hour.
How Workclave handles this
Sessions in Workclave carry a project, a timestamp and a manager's approval from the week the work happened — the specificity that survives billing review. Overruns surface mid-project through budget-versus-actual visibility, while a change order is still possible. realisation rate calculator.
Related terms
Realisation rate is the percentage of hours worked on client engagements that is actually invoiced to the client. It is calculated as hours billed divided by hours worked. A firm that works 120 hours for a client but invoices 102 has an 85% realisation rate — the other 18 hours were written off before the invoice went out.
Read definition →Revenue leakage is value the firm earned but never invoiced: hours worked and not recorded, recorded and written off, covered by scope the contract never priced, or billed at rates that were never escalated. Unlike a lost deal, leakage is invisible — the work happened, the cost was paid in salaries, and the revenue simply failed to appear.
Read definition →Scope creep is the gradual expansion of what a project delivers without a matching change in its price or timeline. Each addition is small — one more revision, a extra report, a 'quick' integration — and none triggers a renegotiation. The scope grows; the fee does not; the margin absorbs the difference.
Read definition →A manager approval workflow is the defined path by which attendance, leave, or time entries are reviewed and approved by the right manager before they become official. It turns self-reported data into an authoritative record. Approvals create accountability and an audit trail for payroll and billing.
Read definition →