Projects
Non-fee-earning stages
Track stages that need completing but should not require a stage-fee invoice.
Last checked 10 November 2026
Select Non-fee earning for project work that you want to track without requiring an invoice for the stage itself. The setting is explicit: entering a zero price on an ordinary stage does not make it non-fee earning.
Set up a stage
- Open an active project and choose Stages.
- Add a stage, or open an existing stage using its stage number. You need permission to update projects.
- Select Non-fee earning. The stage price becomes zero.
- Enter the title, description, quoted hours, owner and status as needed, then save.
You cannot mark an already invoiced stage as non-fee earning. A non-fee-earning stage must have a zero price. To turn a stage back into ordinary fee-earning work, clear the setting and check its price before saving. A crossed-out pound icon identifies these stages in relevant lists. Hover over it to see Non-fee earning.
Continue tracking the work
Non-fee-earning stages still use normal stage statuses, dates, owners and time recordings. They can appear in Project Stage Forecast and your workflow while otherwise eligible. Mark the stage Completed when the work is done; completing it fills a missing start date with today. Setting it to Not started clears both start and completion dates.
These stages are excluded from the stage-fee invoice selector and Projects Due For Invoicing. Separately recorded expenses can still be billed once the parent stage is completed, including on an expense-only invoice.
Every stage must still be completed before its project can be archived. A zero-priced stage does not need an invoice to pass the archive check.
Check stages created from templates or quotes
Project templates can store this setting. Creating a project directly from a template copies it to the project stages. Creating a quote from a template does not preserve it: quote stages have no non-fee-earning setting, and conversion from the quote creates ordinary project stages. Review the converted project and explicitly apply Non-fee earning where needed before invoicing.
See Project Templates and Invoices.