The problem this solves
Ask a freelancer running four projects whether project A is fully paid, and the answer usually lives in three places: the quotation in email, the invoice in a folder, the transfer slip in a chat thread. When you can't answer instantly, you don't chase. When you don't chase, the money sits there for another month.
The Reports tab inside a MANA project puts that answer on one screen — calculated from the documents themselves, not from numbers you typed into a tracker.
Step 1: Attach documents to the project from day one
The report is only as accurate as the links between documents and projects. The hardest-to-forget approach is creating the document from inside the project.
- Open the project
- Create a quotation (QO) from it, with the client and line items
- When the client agrees, convert the quotation into an invoice (INV) instead of retyping — client, lines and totals carry over
- When the money lands, issue a receipt (RC) from that same invoice
That gives you the QO → INV → RC chain, which is exactly the order the pipeline panel on the Reports tab displays.
Step 2: Read the four numbers correctly
Four figures sit at the top of the tab, each with a precise definition.
- Collected — money actually in, counted from invoices marked paid plus receipts that aren't drafts
- Invoiced — the total value of invoices you've issued (drafts excluded)
- Quoted — the total value of quotations sent, useful for comparing deal size against what you actually billed
- Outstanding — invoices issued but not yet paid. This is the number to look at first
Under them is a collection progress bar showing what percentage of the expected total you've collected. If that bar has been stuck at 60% for three weeks, that's a signal to send a follow-up, not to wait another week.
Where people misread it
Drafts don't count anywhere. That's deliberate — it stops the numbers inflating with work you haven't actually sent. So if Invoiced looks lower than you expected, check for an invoice still sitting in draft.
Second: pick one way to record payment and use it everywhere. If receipts are your proof of payment, issue receipts. If marking the invoice paid is your convention, do that consistently. Consistency is what makes the numbers comparable across projects.
Step 3: Use the document pipeline to find where work stalled
The pipeline panel lays out the project's documents by stage. The useful thing to look at isn't the documents that exist — it's the gaps.
- An accepted quotation with no invoice → you forgot to bill
- An overdue invoice with no receipt → time to chase
- A receipt with no matching invoice → usually a cash job; go back and complete the chain for your tax records
Due dates carry their own state — approaching, due today, or overdue — so you don't need a second calendar open beside it.
Step 4: Check the project's cash flow projection
Further down the tab is a monthly cash flow projection for that project. Its real job is answering one question: if this client pays on schedule, how much lands next month? That's the number you need before deciding whether to take on another job or turn it down.
Step 5: Tie the money to the work
The other half of the tab covers delivery: a completion percentage, how many tasks are in progress, and how many are overdue.
Reading both halves together catches problems neither number shows alone. Ninety percent delivered but thirty percent collected means you are financing your client. Fully paid with half the work remaining means you owe time you haven't reserved — don't fill the calendar with new work yet.
Step 6: Turn it into a ten-minute weekly habit
Put a recurring block on Friday morning and do three things.
- Open the Reports tab on every active project and look only at Outstanding
- For anything more than seven days overdue, send a short follow-up with the public document link and the PromptPay QR so the client can pay on the spot
- For quotations that have gone quiet for two weeks, decide: chase or close. Don't leave them rotting in the pipeline
A note on withholding tax
When your client is a company, the deposit will always be 3% short of the invoice total. Record the withholding on the document when you issue the invoice, and your report figures will reconcile against your bank account without a year-end hunt for the difference. And ask for the withholding certificate (50 ทวิ) every time you're paid — that 3% is tax you've already prepaid, and you claim it back on your return.
The point
The goal isn't a pretty report. It's making “is this project fully paid?” a ten-second question. Once it is, chasing money stops requiring courage and becomes routine admin — which is most of the difference between a freelancer with cash flow and one who is only profitable on paper.