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Problem

Fixed-price tasks in Xero Projects currently bill the entire fixed amount at once. Logging time or transferring the task to an invoice forces Xero to invoice the full value immediately.

Many businesses complete fixed-price work through multiple time entries or stages over long periods. We need to bill the fixed price progressively while still tracking actual time for internal cost and efficiency.

Impact

Today, users must manually split one real task into many smaller tasks (“Stage 1”, “Stage 2”, “Stage 3”), or manually edit every invoice to avoid overbilling.

This leads to inflated task lists, inconsistent reporting, and unnecessary admin — particularly on large projects with dozens or hundreds of tasks.

We also need employees to continue logging time after the fixed-price limit is reached. That extra time should not bill the client or increase revenue/profit. It should show the real internal labour cost (similar to the current red over-budget bar).

Outcome needed

Fixed-price tasks should behave like a capped amount that can be billed progressively, with time entries drawing down on the fixed price until it is fully billed — while still recording actual hours for internal analysis.

To achieve this, Xero could support either (or both) of these approaches:

Option A — Fixed-price balance (partial drawdown)

Each time entry contributes to billing up to the fixed-price limit.

Additional time can still be logged but does not bill the client or inflate revenue.

Internal labour cost is still visible.

Option B — Fixed price with defined billable stages / time-entry groups

Users can define the number of billable time-entry groups inside a fixed-price task.

Example:

Fixed price = $2,000

Billable groups = 4

Each group represents $500 of billable value.

Important billing behaviour:

If the time logged for that group is less than the allowed amount (e.g., 1 hour logged vs 2 hours allocated), the client is still billed the full group amount ($500).

If more time is logged than allowed (e.g., 3 hours logged vs 2 hours allocated), the client is still only billed $500 — the extra time counts as internal labour cost.

Actual hours logged must be retained for utilisation and efficiency tracking.

This creates accurate billing while still giving visibility into actual effort.

Efficiency Tracking (critical for large projects)

Inside a fixed-price task with multiple billable groups/time-entry groups, Xero should allow comparison of:

Actual time spent per group

Planned/allocated time per group

Variance

Efficiency per employee or per visit/time period

This avoids turning one real task into 8–12 artificial tasks just to analyse performance.

It keeps project task lists manageable while providing meaningful insights.

Why it matters

This workflow applies broadly across many industries — consulting, tech, engineering, construction, surveying, accounting, creative services, maintenance, and more.

It allows users to deliver fixed-price work in realistic stages while protecting billing accuracy and retaining detailed internal labour data.

Progressive fixed-price billing with proper time tracking and efficiency analysis would make Xero Projects far more usable for long-duration or multi-stage fixed-price work.