SAL and work in economia: from job sheets to the bill

#Economia or SAL

Work in economia (time and materials) is billed by hours and materials: each technician's hours at their rate, plus materials at the price list. A measured contract (a misura, or a corpo) is billed with a SAL (stato avanzamento lavori, the progress statement): the executed quantity of each item of the computo, at the contract price.

If the offer says economia, you prepare an invoice; if there is a computo or earlier SALs, you prepare a SAL.

#Work in economia: the steps

1. Hours from the times. For each technician: end − start − break, also with a second window or a shift past midnight. If the hours written on the sheet disagree with the times, the times win.
2. The rate by category. The category written beside the name («specializzato», «qualificato», «apprendista») maps to the contract's rate for it.
3. Overtime and Saturdays, only if the contract has them. Weekday hours over 8 a day per technician take the overtime surcharge, and Saturday its surcharge, only when the contract prints them.
4. Materials at the price list. Each article is looked up by code; the price is the list price less the contract's discount, chained too («20+5»), or plus a markup. An article not in the list is never priced by eye: it stays «to price», outside the total.
5. Call-out and travel as the contract sets them: per working day (days count, not sheets), per visit, per km or once.
6. VAT as the contract states it, reverse charge included. In the recorded example it is the 10 % written in the offer for extraordinary maintenance of a home: the rate is set by the contract, not chosen by whoever prepares the bill.

#The SAL on a measured contract

The SAL is progressive: start from the works executed to date and deduct the retention, the advance recovery and the SALs already invoiced.

• Item by item: quantity at the previous SAL, this period's quantity (the sum of the job sheets), quantity to date, percentage and amount. Amount = quantity × unit price.
• Ribasso (discount): when the contract has one, it applies to every item except the safety costs.
• Retention: the contract's percentage, on the progressive net amount. On public works with no percentage printed, 0.50 % (art. 11 c. 6 D.Lgs. 36/2023).
• Advance: recovered on every SAL at its own percentage, up to the amount advanced.
• Previous SALs: their certified net amounts are deducted — worth re-checking against quantities and prices.
• Construction subcontracting or building installations: reverse charge, art. 17 c. 6 lett. a) or a-ter DPR 633/1972; VAT is zero and the total is the taxable amount.

In the recorded example (an electrical subcontract, SAL no. 3) works to date are €70,438.40, the 5 % retention €3,521.92, the 10 % advance €7,043.84, SALs 1 and 2 €32,774.47: €27,098.17 is left to invoice.

#Job sheets not to bill yet

Before invoicing, set aside — each with its amount — the sheets:

• without the client's signature (on a site, the main contractor's site manager's «Visto» counts);
• on a Sunday or a public holiday, to confirm: was holiday work requested?;
• from another site (a different job reference or address): they belong on that job's invoice;
• already in the previous SAL, undated, or with unreadable hours: hours are never invented.

Articles not in the price list, or in a different unit, are priced or converted by hand. An item beyond the computo quantity needs a variant or the client's order; an item the computo does not have is extra work to order or an error to fix.

#After the bill

The SAL is signed by the parties; the Italian e-invoice is issued from your invoicing software and goes through the SdI.

#How the agent does it

The Job sheets → progress bill / invoice agent reads the job sheets as they are — scanner PDFs, photos, handwritten copies — with the offer or contract, the computo and the price list in Excel or CSV. The model only reads the printed facts; hours, prices, quantities, retentions and VAT are computed by code. You get the verdict on top, the SAL item by item or the invoice draft line by line, and the held sheets with reason and amount, in Word, PDF and CSV. Nothing is issued or sent.