Several tools are available in Cockpit to help with the management of contest and project costs. One of the tools is the "Invoice History" Report.

This report will align with the costs a user incurs. When running the report, you can filter on the date range you are looking for, projects, billing accounts, cost types, etc. The results are organized into line items where each line represents a type of cost for each contest that is returned.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  The report will only show costs after the associated competition is complete.  The costs directly associated with member payments have a payment date that aligns with when the payment is generated for the member.  This date may be difference (likely earlier) than the competition completion date.

Here is an explanation of the elements of the report:

 

Filters:

  • Date Range Filter - This constrains the report on the "Payment Date" column. The "Payment Date" is the date that the cost is recorded. Prize money, reviewer payments, etc. will be shown when the payment becomes owed to the community member.
  • Project - You can select all projects, or one at a time.
  • Status - Select one of more contest statuses. This represents the status that contests are in, and NOT the payment status. In most instances, you won't use this filter.
  • Payment Type - Select one or more payment types. This filters on the type of payment that is reported.
  • Customer - If you are managing projects for more than 1 customer, you will see more than one name here. Select the customer account you want to filter on.
  • Billing Account - Select all accounts, or one at a time.
  • Invoice # - The invoice # that the line item was billed on.  You can find Invoice #'s on the invoices you receive from the TopCoder Billing Department.

Result Column Definition:

After the report is run, you will see the results with the following columns:

 

Column Description
Payment Date: The date the cost is recorded. This date is driven based on the payment type. Prizes, DR, Copilot Payments, etc. are recorded when the contest completes. It is normal to see payments record several days before or after the contest is marked complete depending on billing cycles.
Customer: The name of the customer that the projects belong to.
Billing: The billing account that was used to launch the contest. This is tied to a PO and contract that is in place between TopCoder and the customer.
Contest: The name of the contest.
Contest ID: The unique ID of the contest.
Category: The type of contest (i.e. Wireframe, Architecture, Assembly, ...)
Status: The status of the contest (i.e. Scheduled, Active, Finished).
Launch Date: The date the contest launched. This is the date that the contest is open for registration.
Completion Date: The date the contest completes. For Studio contests, this is the date that the contest submission phase completes. For software contests, this is the date of the end of the last Final Fix phase.
Payment Type: Every contest has various types of costs that are associated to it. You can see these costs when looking at an individual contest. The Billing Report displays the costs broken out into each type so it can be tracked separately and in real time when the costs are recorded. Here are the types:

  • Contest Fee - The fee charged to run the contest (non-member costs). Paid upon contest launch.
  • Prizes - The prize paid to members for winning the contest or winning a milestone prize. Paid upon contest completion.
  • Specification Review - The fee paid to the review board member for reviewing the contest prior to it launching. Paid upon contest completion.
  • Review - The payments paid to the review board for reviewing the submissions of a contest. Paid upon contest completion.
  • Reliability - The bonus paid to submitters of a contest for maintaining a high reliability. Paid upon contest completion.
  • Digital Run - The bonus paid into the Digital Run pool for the contest. Digital Run is awarded to individual members at the end of each month based on the total points distribution. Paid upon contest completion.
  • Copilot - The fee paid to the copilot for managing the contest. Paid upon contest completion.
  • Build - For component Development contests, an fee is paid to the community for packaging and validating the final build of a component. Paid upon contest completion.
  • Bugs - Any Jira ticket that is marked as a bug/improvement/enhancement. These are paid when the ticket is resolved. Paid upon contest completion.
  • Misc - Any cost item that does not fit into the categories above. Paid upon contest completion.
Amount: The amount of the line item. This is not the total contest cost. This amount represents the cost of the specific payment type for the contest.

Need a Billing Account?

Need a Billing Account to be invoiced against? Email support@topcoder.com.