Thank you so much!  
I think the transactions you described below would definitely work if we received a payment prior to sending out an invoice.  The issue here is that there is neither a payment, nor an invoice, simply work being done where income for that work (even though it has not been invoiced yet or paid) needs to be attributed to the month where the work was done.  I am guessing we are going to have to create some new accounts whereby the invoice itself does not affect the income, but not sure if that is possible. Thanks for the insight!