Creating project billings is a straightforward task but deciding on using advanced billing or AIA is based on the contract and retainage being present.
Non-retainage Contracts
Usually milestone progress billings (not related to actual items shipped).
Agreed upon draw schedule prior to starting.
Posts to a contract deposit liability account.
Retainage Billings
The AIA Billing screen is used to generate any invoice with retainage.
Print either AIA format invoices or regular invoices showing retention.
Posts to a contract deposit liability account.
Items can be partial or completely billed.
Advanced bills, not to be confused with AIA billing, allow you to book money against a project before anything has been shipped or billed. Creating an advance bill will generate an invoice through AR which can be paid by a cash receipt but will not show up on the AR aging because advance bills are booked to a project deposits account. Like an AIA billing they are not considered revenue. When a regular invoice is created advance billings are treated as a credit toward that invoice.