Custom Billing Portal with WorkflowMax
and XERO Data Integration
Executive
Summary
A construction project management consultancy involved in significant government infrastructure programmes needed an efficient method of generating compliant, timesheet-based invoices. WorkflowMax, the organisation’s job management platform, recorded consultant time and tasks, but it could not create detailed invoices, support complex billing processes, or manage structured workflows.
To overcome these limitations, the Designpluz team developed a secure and scalable cloud-based billing platform using Microsoft Azure and MACH architecture principles.
Delivered using Agile methodology and Azure DevOps, our solution improved month-end billing efficiency, reduced administrative burden, strengthened financial governance, and improved visibility into infrastructure projects.
The Challenge
The consultancy delivers project management services in large infrastructure projects across various sectors, including transport, aviation, and construction. Consultants log time, tasks, and descriptions in WorkflowMax as part of their daily project reporting activities.
Although WorkflowMax was able to collect operational information well, it was not able to meet the consultancy’s billing and reporting needs. WorkflowMax could not produce detailed PDF invoices with consultant timesheet breakdowns required by government clients.
Invoice preparation required manual adjustments to billable and non-billable hours, as well as consolidating timesheet information from spreadsheets.
Key operational limitations included:
- Complex consultant and project rate structures are not supported by the platform
- No structured approval workflow for Project Managers, Directors, and Admin teams
- No secure or centralised document storage for invoices
- Limited visibility on project profitability and consultant utilisation
- No automated integration with XERO for financial reconciliation
This resulted in inconsistent invoices, audit risks, and delays during month-end billing cycles.
The Solution
Designpluz developers built a custom billing portal that centralised and automated the consultancy’s invoicing workflow, and improved automation, governance, billing accuracy, and financial visibility.
With direct integration with WorkflowMax, the portal can extract operational data, including timesheets and consultant, project, and client information. This data is fed into the billing engine to automatically generate draft invoices using the latest project information.
The system eliminates the need for spreadsheet consolidation and data transfers, thus reducing administrative burden. It also ensures that invoices are created based on consistent and accurate operational data.
Invoice workflow stages
- Draft: Automatically generated using imported timesheet data
- Submitted for Approval: Reviewed by the Project Manager
- Approved: Authorised by a Director or senior manager
- Sent: Dispatched to the client by the administrative team
We ensured that each workflow action is recorded, so a complete audit trail is created to ensure compliance with government-funded infrastructure projects.
Using a flexible configuration engine capable of accommodating different business models, the portal improved billing accuracy as administrators can set billing rates for consultants, project contract rates, and category billing rates.
Our strategy improved financial visibility as well through the use of integrated Power BI dashboards that offer project performance insights to leadership teams. These dashboards display financial metrics such as project profitability, consultant utilisation rates, cost versus billable revenues, and cash flow forecasts.
Tech Stack Used
Technical Architecture
We used the MACH architecture framework that utilises an API-first integration, Microservices, Cloud-Native, Headless system design, providing scalability and room for integrations such as WorkflowMax and XERO.
Our web developers built an Angular Single Page App for the front end of the app, hosted in Azure App Services. The backend services of the app were built using C# and .NET Microservices for billing logic, workflow processing, and integration.
For storing all configuration data, invoice records, and workflow audit history, we used Azure SQL Database, and invoice PDFs generated by the application are securely stored in Azure Blob Storage, providing access to long-term storage and retrieval.
The team integrated the portal with the WorkflowMax API to pull down timesheets, employee details, project details, and customer records. Invoices are automatically published to XERO for financial reconciliation once they have been approved.
Azure DevOps was used to manage both development and delivery across the project via an Agile framework with structured development cycles lasting two weeks.
Business Outcomes
Our comprehensive billing portal development strategy helped the consultancy to benefit from significant operational upgrades. Elimination of manual spreadsheet workflows not only reduced administrative workload but also improved the efficiency of billing.
Invoicing cycles for month-end billing that previously took days to complete can now be completed in hours. Invoice accuracy was enhanced since billing data is sourced from WorkflowMax and processed through a single, consistent billing engine.
Key outcomes included
The billing portal now serves as a core operational platform for the consultancy’s billing processes and supports future project growth.
It is rare to find a business that is so attentive these days and delivers such good results! The team are amazing!
From the initial meeting through to delivery of the final project, Priya, Rocco and their team are very attentive, responsive and easy to communicate with and will deliver excellent results.
