UK

United Kingdom · Sales · Entry Level (0-2 years)

Sales Operations Analyst

Here is the whole job, in plain words. What it is, a real day, what you decide, how you're judged, how people get here and where they go next. Then the part no course gives you: twelve AI tutors who learn your work.

  • Experience bandEntry Level (0-2 years)
  • Direct reportsNo direct reports
  • Reports toSales Excellence Analyst
  • UK framework levelUsually someone starting out, or keeping a process running

Also advertised as Junior Sales Data Analyst · CRM Support Analyst · Sales Reporting Specialist

Built on an analysis of 43,079 real UK job descriptions · grounded in qualifications employers recognise

Start with a free Future Fluency check, tuned to Sales Operations Analyst

Ten quick questions, one per Future Fluency, asked against this role rather than a generic one. About five minutes, and no card.

Start the check, free

1What this role really is

This role is all about making sure our sales data is clean, accurate, and actually useful. You'll be the person pulling the reports that help our sales leaders understand what's really happening on the ground. Think of it as being the eyes and ears for the sales team, but through numbers. You're not selling, you're supporting the sellers by giving them the right information at the right time. It's a foundational role, really, where you'll learn the ropes of how a sales organisation truly functions beyond the flashy deals.

2What you'd actually use

The tools this job runs on, and how well you'd need to know each one.

Salesforce Sales CloudIntermediate

Running standard reports, updating records, performing data clean-up, navigating object relationships to find specific information.

Microsoft Excel / Google SheetsAdvanced

Using pivot tables, VLOOKUPs, conditional formatting, and basic formulas to manipulate and analyse sales data exported from other systems.

Tableau / Power BIIntermediate

Connecting to existing data sources, refreshing dashboards, applying filters, and building basic visualisations from pre-defined requirements.

SalesLoft / Outreach (or similar Sales Engagement Platform)Basic

Understanding how reps use the platform, pulling basic reports on sequence performance, and checking activity metrics.

Asana / Monday.com (or similar Project Management Tool)Intermediate

Managing your own tasks, updating progress on team projects, and collaborating on shared initiatives like QBR preparation.

SQL (Basic)Basic

Writing simple SELECT statements to extract data from our Snowflake or BigQuery data warehouse, with guidance from senior analysts.

3What you get to decide, and how that grows

Power in a job isn't your title. It's what you're allowed to decide. Here's how it grows as you move up.

The choiceComing inWhere you are nowThe step above
Report Content & FormatFollow existing templates; any deviation requires manager approval.Can propose minor format adjustments; new reports require manager sign-off.Designs new report formats and content based on business needs, with peer review.
Data Cleansing & CorrectionExecute predefined data clean-up tasks; escalate any ambiguous data points.Identifies data inconsistencies and proposes solutions; executes with manager guidance.Defines data quality rules and implements automated cleansing processes.
Tool/Software UsageUse specified tools as instructed; seek guidance for new features.Independently uses core tools; explores new features and suggests improvements.Evaluates new tools and makes recommendations for adoption within the team.

4How you'll be judged

The scoreboard, honestly: the hard targets, how often each one is actually looked at, and the quiet human signals that never make it onto a dashboard.

Report Delivery SLA Adherence
How consistently you deliver standard reports within the agreed timeframe.
Target · 95% of standard reports delivered within 4 business hours

If you're asked for the weekly pipeline report by Tuesday morning, you'll have it ready. Missing one out of twenty reports means you're hitting the target.

CRM Data Accuracy Contribution
Your contribution to keeping key fields in our CRM (like Account Owner, Deal Stage, Close Date) accurate.
Target · Maintain 98% accuracy on key fields you're responsible for cleaning

You might be tasked with reviewing 100 accounts for correct ownership. If you find and fix 2 errors, you're helping us hit that 98% mark. We'll check your work, naturally.

Ad-hoc Request Turnaround Time
How quickly you can respond to and resolve those 'can you just pull me this?' data requests from the sales floor.
Target · Resolve 90% of tier-1 data requests within 24 hours

A sales manager asks for a list of all opportunities over £50K in London. You get it to them by the next day. Easy, right?

Documentation Completion Rate
How well you complete and update the documentation for tasks you're assigned.
Target · 100% completion of assigned documentation tasks

After learning how to pull a new report, you'll update the step-by-step guide so the next person can follow it. No excuses here.

Learning & Application
How quickly you pick up new tools and processes, and how well you apply what you've learned to your daily tasks.
  • You'll ask thoughtful questions, actively participate in training, and show a clear improvement in your independent work over time. Your manager won't have to explain the same thing three times.
Attention to Detail in Data Handling
Your ability to spot inconsistencies or errors in data before they become bigger problems.
  • You'll proactively flag data anomalies you find, your reports will be free of obvious calculation errors, and you'll double-check your work before submitting it. Basically, you'll catch the typo before it goes to the VP.
Proactive Problem Identification (Basic)
Not just executing tasks, but starting to notice when things don't look quite right in the data or a process.
  • You might say, 'Hey, these numbers for Q3 look a bit off compared to last quarter, should I dig into that?' or 'I noticed this field is often empty, is that normal?' You're not fixing it yet, just spotting it.
Team Collaboration & Support
How well you work with your immediate team, offering help when you can and being receptive to feedback.
  • You'll actively offer to help colleagues if your plate is clear, respond positively to feedback on your work, and generally be a helpful presence in team meetings. No lone wolves here.

5Would you like it

The honest version. What people enjoy, and what grinds them down.

What people enjoy
Building Foundational Skills

You'll enjoy the process of mastering new software, understanding data structures, and learning the ins and outs of sales operations. Each new report you build or data clean-up project you complete will feel like a genuine achievement.

Successfully building your first complex Salesforce report from scratch after weeks of learning, or finally understanding how different data tables link together.

Contributing to Team Success

You'll get satisfaction from knowing your accurate data and timely reports are directly helping your colleagues and the wider sales team make better decisions. You're a key cog, even if you're not the engine.

A sales manager thanking you because the report you pulled helped them understand why a territory was underperforming, leading to a quick fix.

Working in a Structured Environment

You'll appreciate clear guidelines, established processes, and regular check-ins. You like having a roadmap for your work and knowing what's expected of you, rather than constant ambiguity.

Being given a detailed brief for a data clean-up project, with clear steps and expected outcomes, rather than just being told 'fix the data'.

What frustrates people
  • Dealing with messy or incomplete data that makes your job harder.
  • Rerunning reports because someone changed their mind about the parameters.
  • Being asked for 'urgent' data requests that then get ignored once delivered.
  • The feeling that you're just a 'data entry clerk' sometimes, even though you're doing more.
  • Seeing your clean data get messed up again by others who aren't as careful.
What this role does not give you
  • High-level strategic decision-making or setting the direction for the sales team.
  • Frequent client interaction or direct selling opportunities.
  • A completely clean, perfectly structured data environment (let's be real, that doesn't exist).
  • A role where every single task you do feels 'innovative' or 'cutting-edge' – some of it is just solid, necessary grunt work.

6Who you work with

Your work directly underpins the daily operations of the sales team. Accurate data means better forecasting, smarter territory planning, and ultimately, more effective selling. You're helping lay the groundwork for strategic decisions, even if you're not making them yourself yet. Think of it as making sure the engine has clean fuel – without it, the whole car sputters.

Inside the business
  • Sales Excellence Team (your immediate colleagues and manager)
  • Sales Managers (they'll be asking for your reports)
  • Individual Sales Representatives (you might help them with CRM questions)
  • Marketing Operations (occasionally, for lead data alignment)

7What you need before you start

Not a wish list. The things you would be expected to already have.

  • A foundational grasp of data handling principles – you understand why clean data matters.
  • Proficiency in Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets, including pivot tables and basic formulas.
  • An eagerness to learn new software and adapt to evolving processes.
  • Strong organisational skills and a methodical approach to tasks.
  • The ability to communicate clearly, both in writing and verbally, especially when asking for help or clarifying instructions.

8What to practise next

Where the job is going, and what to do about it starting this week.

Advanced Salesforce Reporting & Dashboards

As the CRM becomes even more central, the ability to pull nuanced data and build sophisticated reports directly within Salesforce will be invaluable. You'll need to go beyond standard reports to answer complex business questions.

Custom Report Types · Cross-Object Formulas · Report Scheduling & Automation · Dashboard Filters & Components

  • This week: Explore the 'Reports' and 'Dashboards' tabs in Salesforce. What options do you see?
  • This month: Try to build a custom report type that links two objects you haven't linked before.
  • Month 2: Experiment with building a new dashboard using several different report types.
  • Month 3: Ask your manager for a specific, slightly complex data question and try to answer it using only Salesforce reports.

Quick win: Spend 30 minutes each week just exploring Salesforce's reporting capabilities. Click every button, see what it does.

Intermediate SQL for Data Extraction

While Salesforce is great, the real power often lies in our data warehouse. Being able to write more complex SQL queries will allow you to pull exactly the data you need, combine it from various sources, and prepare it for deeper analysis, rather than relying on others.

JOIN Types (INNER, LEFT, RIGHT) · WHERE & GROUP BY Clauses · Subqueries & CTEs (Common Table Expressions) · Data Type Conversion

  • This week: Complete an online course on SQL basics (e.g., Codecademy, SQLZoo).
  • This month: Practice writing JOIN statements to combine sales data with account data in a sandbox environment.
  • Month 2: Try to write a query that calculates monthly sales totals, grouped by product category.
  • Month 3: Work with a senior analyst to translate one of their existing complex queries into simpler parts you can understand.

Quick win: Set up a free SQL practice environment online and commit to 15 minutes of practice daily. Consistency is key.

9Staying current once you are in

What people here do to keep up
  • Regularly engage with Salesforce Trailhead modules to deepen your CRM knowledge.
  • Participate in online courses or workshops focused on data visualisation best practices (e.g., Tableau Public, DataCamp).
  • Join relevant online communities or forums to stay updated on sales operations trends and best practices.
  • Seek out mentorship opportunities within the Sales Excellence team to learn from more experienced colleagues.

10How the AI economy is changing work like this

Before we ask anything of you, here's what we can already say about AI and work of this kind:

The new skill this role is being asked for: Basic Prompt Engineering for Sales Ops

Generative AI is already here, and it's getting better at understanding natural language. Being able to ask an AI the right questions will save you hours on tasks like drafting report summaries or generating initial FAQs for new processes. Those who figure this out will be far more productive.

We'll only ever tell you what we can actually back up. No hype, no scare tactics.

Your PlanIllustration

Built for Sales Operations Analyst

4 units that map to this job, from the qualifications that cover it.

  1. Obtaining and Analysing Sales Related InformationSFEDI Enterprises Ltd. T/A SFEDI Awards · covers 3 of 8 standardsLevel 2
  2. Obtaining and analysing sales-related informationCity & Guilds Limited · covers 2 of 8 standardsLevel 3
  3. Obtain and analyse sales-related informationCity and Guilds of London Institute · covers 2 of 8 standardsLevel 3
  4. Data AnalysisHighfield Qualifications · covers 2 of 8 standardsLevel 3
These are the real units behind this job, in the order they rank for it. Nothing here is marked done, because this plan has not been started by anyone yet. Yours would fill in as you go.

The rising capability

Zavmo analysis

What's rising in its place

This is where the work is heading, and the higher pay with it. Get fluent here and the shift stops being a threat and starts being your edge.

Basic Prompt Engineering for Sales Ops

Generative AI is already here, and it's getting better at understanding natural language. Being able to ask an AI the right questions will save you hours on tasks like drafting report summaries or generating initial FAQs for new processes. Those who figure this out will be far more productive.

  • Clear & Concise Prompting
  • Context Provision
  • Output Validation
  • Iterative Prompting

Enhanced Data Visualisation Principles

As you move beyond basic reports, you'll need to tell a story with data. Simply showing numbers isn't enough; you need to present them in a way that's clear, impactful, and leads to action. Good visualisation makes complex data accessible to busy sales leaders.

  • Choosing the Right Chart Type
  • Data Storytelling Basics
  • Dashboard Design Best Practices
  • Interactivity in Dashboards

What you’ll use

Skills this role draws on

Technical

  • Sales Methodology Awareness
  • Data Analysis Fundamentals
  • CRM Data Management
  • Report Generation & Customisation

The pathway

How you actually get there, here

How you become one varies far more by country than what one does. This is the UK route. Most people take one of these ways in; the right one depends on where you're starting from.

  1. 1

    Sales Administration Assistant

    1-2 years

    Skills to master

    • CRM data entry and hygiene, basic reporting, understanding sales processes, organisational skills.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Consistently accurate data entry and report generation.
    • Proactive in identifying and fixing minor data issues.
    • Demonstrates a keen interest in understanding the 'why' behind sales data.
  2. 2

    Data Entry Specialist / Junior Data Analyst

    1-2 years

    Skills to master

    • Excel proficiency (advanced), basic SQL, data validation techniques, understanding of data integrity.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Can independently clean and prepare complex datasets.
    • Comfortable writing basic SQL queries to extract information.
    • Shows an analytical mindset when presented with raw data.
  3. 3

    University Graduate / Apprentice

    0-1 year (post-graduation/apprenticeship)

    Skills to master

    • Applying academic knowledge to real-world business problems, rapid learning of company-specific tools and processes, professional communication.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Strong academic performance in quantitative subjects.
    • Successfully completed relevant internships or projects.
    • Demonstrates a proactive and eager attitude to learn and contribute.

11Where this role leads

The long view:Your journey starts here, learning the fundamentals. Where you go next is up to you, but we're committed to giving you the tools, experience, and mentorship to build a truly impactful career in Sales Operations and beyond. It won't always be easy, but it will definitely be rewarding.

Pay & demand

Typical pay £38,572 a year Source: ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, 2025 (provisional), under the Open Government Licence v3.0

The figure is the median for full-time employees in the ONS occupation this job title codes to (Data analysts), from the April 2025 survey — about six months old when published, as ASHE always is. It is that occupation's middle, not this role's. Half earn more.

The ten Future Fluencies

Zavmo analysis

The credential is what you can do today. These are what keep you valuable.

A qualification proves you can do the job as it's defined today. These ten are what decide whether you're still the obvious person for it in five years. They're the capabilities employers are now writing into senior roles faster than people are learning them. Zavmo weaves them through whatever you study, so you come out with both: the credential and the fluency.

The highlighted ones are the Fluencies your role leans on hardest, from how Sales Operations Analyst is actually changing. In about two minutes, the free confidence check asks where you stand on each of the ten. That's the whole check, and it's what makes the plan yours rather than generic.

Where it leads

Roles this leads to

12The team that's yours

No two people are taught the same way. This is one-to-one, not one-to-many.

Zavmo is a hyper-personalised AI learning platform. Twelve virtual tutors, each with a different way of teaching, and one orchestration agent that picks the right one for the moment. So every single lesson is shaped around you, your role, and the way you learn. Not a course everyone sits through. A conversation built for you, and no one else.

…and nine more, matched to you after your first chat. Meet all twelve

Start free and meet yours

13What it feels like

A conversation, not a course

Because your tutor knows your role, your projects and your last session, learning sounds like this. And it's different for every single person:

Obtaining and Analysing Sales Related InformationLevel 2

Applied to your work in Sales Operations Analyst

The objective of this unit is to provide learners with an understanding of how sales-related information is used to inform business decisions and how to analyse it effectively. Learners will be able to obtain relevant sales-related information and use appropriate tools and methods to analyse it, identifying trends and opportunities.

How the thinking builds
  1. Remember
  2. Understand
  3. Apply
  4. Analyse
  5. Evaluate
  6. Create
An illustration of a Zavmo lesson, built from this role’s own route. The unit, its objective and every criterion above are the awarding body’s own words, not an example.

One to one, not one to many

No two people run this the same way

A course is written once and handed to everyone. This is assembled around you, and keeps changing as it learns you. Five things it reads, and what each one changes.

  1. Your actual work Every lesson is taught against a live piece of your own work, not a worked example from a textbook.
  2. What you already know The first conversation finds your starting point, so you skip what you can already do and spend the time on what you cannot.
  3. The conditions you learn under Not a learning-styles quiz. The evidence does not support those. The dimensions the research does back, read once and used to shape the plan.
  4. How far you got last time It picks up mid-thought. The tutor knows what you said, what you struggled with, and what it asked you to try.
  5. Which tutor suits the moment Twelve of them, each for a different kind of thinking. The one who walks you through a first idea is not the one who stress-tests it.

See how you learn, free. Eight questions, no sign-up. A directional taster; the diagnostic inside Zavmo goes deeper and keeps adapting.

DemonstrateIllustration

Evidenced on your work in Sales Operations Analyst

You do not finish by watching something. You finish by showing it on the work you already do, against the measures this job is judged on.

  • Report Delivery SLA AdherenceHow consistently you deliver standard reports within the agreed timeframe.If you're asked for the weekly pipeline report by Tuesday morning, you'll have it ready. Missing one out of twenty reports means you're hitting the target.95% of standard reports delivered within 4 business hours
  • CRM Data Accuracy ContributionYour contribution to keeping key fields in our CRM (like Account Owner, Deal Stage, Close Date) accurate.You might be tasked with reviewing 100 accounts for correct ownership. If you find and fix 2 errors, you're helping us hit that 98% mark. We'll check your work, naturally.Maintain 98% accuracy on key fields you're responsible for cleaning
  • Ad-hoc Request Turnaround TimeHow quickly you can respond to and resolve those 'can you just pull me this?' data requests from the sales floor.A sales manager asks for a list of all opportunities over £50K in London. You get it to them by the next day. Easy, right?Resolve 90% of tier-1 data requests within 24 hours
  • Documentation Completion RateHow well you complete and update the documentation for tasks you're assigned.After learning how to pull a new report, you'll update the step-by-step guide so the next person can follow it. No excuses here.100% completion of assigned documentation tasks
These are this job's own measures, with its own targets. Nothing is marked evidenced, because nobody has started this yet. Yours would fill in from the work you bring.

Your passport

This isn't a certificate you file away. It's a passport to the life you're designing.

Every credit you earn and every fluency you build adds up: evidence where it counts, carried with you. Zavmo keeps the map: where you are, where you're heading, and the next step, at your pace, around your life. From Sales Operations Analyst to Sales Excellence Analyst, and whatever you decide comes after.

Level 2 · in progressAI Fluency→ Sales Excellence Analyst→ your design
Where this takes you

Your journey starts here, learning the fundamentals. Where you go next is up to you, but we're committed to giving you the tools, experience, and mentorship to build a truly impactful career in Sales Operations and beyond. It won't always be easy, but it will definitely be rewarding.

See Your Progress GrowIllustration
Sales Operations Analyst
  • Sales Methodology Awareness
  • Data Analysis Fundamentals
  • CRM Data Management
  • Report Generation & Customisation
This is your Mind Palace on learn.zavmo.ai. Every skill above comes from this role's own record, not an example borrowed from another job. A node lights up when you evidence it, and what you build stays yours between jobs. That is the part a course cannot do.

14The detail, folded away

Everything else the record holds

The career branches in full, how AI is already showing up in the day-to-day, and the questions people ask about this job. Here when you want them, out of the way while you decide.

Where it leads next, rung by rung

Where it leads

The career path, and where it branches

Sales Operations Analyst is a start, not a ceiling. Each step below asks for new skills and hands back more autonomy.

  1. Sales Excellence Analyst

    2-3 years (from current role)

    Level 2 (Mid-Level)

    • Advanced CRM Reporting: Building complex custom reports and dashboards in Salesforce.
    • Intermediate SQL: Writing more complex queries with joins and subqueries.
    • Basic Data Modelling: Understanding how to structure data for analysis.
    • Sales Process Analysis: Identifying bottlenecks or inefficiencies in the sales cycle through data.
Working with AI on the job

Working with AI

Where AI is starting to help

Imagine getting through your routine tasks faster, leaving more time for learning and deeper analysis. That's the reality with AI in Sales Operations. We're not talking about robots taking over, but smart tools that help you get your work done quicker and more accurately.

For a Sales Operations Analyst, AI isn't about building complex models (yet!). It's about using intelligent assistants to handle the grunt work. Think of it as having a super-efficient intern who never sleeps, helping you with the repetitive stuff so you can focus on understanding the 'why' behind the numbers.

Automated Performance Summaries

Use generative AI to draft the first version of your weekly territory performance summaries. Instead of writing from scratch, the AI pulls key metrics from your dashboards and creates a concise narrative, highlighting trends and anomalies. You just review and refine.

Basic Pipeline Health Checks

AI can scan the sales pipeline for simple red flags – deals with no activity in 30 days, or opportunities stuck in a stage for too long. It'll flag these for you, saving you hours of manual scrubbing and helping you identify potential issues to escalate to your manager.

Content Organisation & Tagging

When new sales enablement content comes in, AI can help you quickly categorise and tag it within platforms like Highspot or Seismic. It suggests relevant keywords and audiences, ensuring reps can find what they need faster, and saving you a lot of manual classification time.

First Drafts for Process Docs

Learning a new process and need to document it? Give AI your bullet points and it can generate a clear, structured first draft of the Standard Operating Procedure or FAQ. It's a massive head start, letting you focus on accuracy and clarity rather than staring at a blank page.

Common questions

Common questions

How do you become a Sales Operations Analyst?

Common routes in include Sales Administration Assistant (1-2 years), Data Entry Specialist / Junior Data Analyst (1-2 years) and University Graduate / Apprentice (0-1 year (post-graduation/apprenticeship)). Times vary with prior experience.

Where can a Sales Operations Analyst progress to?

This role can lead on to Sales Excellence Analyst (2-3 years (from current role)), depending on the skills you build.

What level is a Sales Operations Analyst in the UK?

This role aligns to RQF Level 2 on the UK framework, a guide to the depth of qualification it maps to, not a hard entry bar.

What new skills matter most for a Sales Operations Analyst?

Increasingly, Basic Prompt Engineering for Sales Ops and Enhanced Data Visualisation Principles. These are the areas where the higher-paid, future-proof work is heading.

The honest bit

You’ve started things before

Most of them were built for a room full of people who aren’t you. A cohort moves on whether or not your week allowed it, and by the third week the thing you’re behind on becomes the reason you stop opening it.

There’s no cohort here, and no timetable to fall behind. Before anything starts, Zavmo asks when you’re sharpest and how long you can realistically sit down for, then builds the sessions around those answers. A bad fortnight changes your pace. It doesn’t put you behind.

And you only pay once you start learning. Searching and planning are free, and you can cancel any time — so the cost of finding out is an afternoon, not a year.

What it costs

Less than one coaching session. Every month.

A single career-coaching hour costs more than a month of this, and it ends when the hour does. Zavmo doesn't. It's £70 a month, about £2.30 a day, for a companion that knows a Sales Operations Analyst, works on the job you actually do, and keeps going at your pace rather than a timetable's.

  • Searching and planning stay free. You only pay when you start learning.
  • Your credits are yours. Regulated, and they don't vanish when a subscription ends.
  • Cancel any time and billing stops. No notice period, no minimum term.

Your path, personalised

You have the map. Walking it is the part we do together.

This route runs to 8 national skill standards. That is a real journey.

Zavmo shapes a learning experience as unique as you are. It fits how you learn, your pace and the work you already do. Every step stays benchmarked to recognised national standards. That’s the plan for becoming a Sales Operations Analyst: personal to you, and it still counts. The first steps are free.

Independent research finds well-designed intelligent tutoring performs nearly as well as one-to-one human tutoring: VanLehn (2011), Educational Psychologist.

A private tutor in the UK averages £35–40 an hour . Zavmo is £70/month.

A real plan on learn.zavmo.ai: Ofqual-regulated units, credits, and a three-month run at your own pace.
Start free No commitment. See your first steps free.

15Where to go from here

Other roles at Level 2

Same depth of qualification, different job. Useful if the work appeals but this particular role does not.

Other roles in Sales

Stay in the field you know and move sideways rather than up.

If you leave this industry

The skills you'll pick up here – data analysis, CRM administration, process optimisation – are highly transferable. You could move into Marketing Operations, Customer Success Operations, or even broader Business Intelligence roles in almost any industry. Data is data, and good processes are always in demand.

Not sure this is the right direction?

Work out what you actually want from work first, then come back and see which roles fit it. Takes about ten minutes.

This role profile is © 2026Growth Engineering Technologies Ltd. Built from UK occupational standards and regulated qualification data, and written for Zavmo.

You're not behind. You're right on time. The shift is only just beginning. Your role won't look the same in two years. Be the one who leads the change, not the one it happens to. Build my plan, free Here's the first ten minutes: a 2-minute confidence check → your personalised roadmap → meet the tutors matched to you. No card, cancel any time. No card. Build your plan, see your roadmap and meet the twelve tutors matched to you. All free. When you're ready to start learning, it's £70 a month, billed monthly. Cancel any time and billing stops.