Group invoice

Group invoice enables creating multiple invoices at once for one or more business partners.

Please note that group invoices cannot be sent if the environment is in trial use. To send them, the environment must be in production.

Group invoicing is automatically included in all Procountor Financials packages except Financials First and Light. Group invoicing does not have a monthly fee in those packages that include Group invoicing as standard.

If it is needed to activate Group invoicing to the Financials Light package, a set-up fee of 110€ is charged. Also, the Group invoicing function has a monthly fee of 32€ per month with the Financials Light package. It is not possible to add Group invoicing to the Financials First package.

However, in all packages each invoice created by Group invoicing is included in the monthly vouchers/additional vouchers and will be charged in Accountor Finago Oy's invoice according to the month in which the invoices were created. Group invoicing sending fees are charged in the month they are sent. More detailed information about the pricing is available here.

Group invoices are created in New > Sales invoice by clicking the Group invoice button:

Group invoice can be used to create the following kinds of invoices:

• A yearly payment with a fixed sum to multiple customers
• An invoice sent to one or several customers that has a fixed due date (for example a monthly payment) that can be invoiced in one of the two ways:
  • Separate invoice for each month
  • A consolidated invoice containing all the due dates e.g. for the entire year

Group invoice is a useful tool for invoicing customers who are charged certain products with fixed prices (for example rent). If, however, the sums and amounts of these regular charges vary, Contract invoicing is a more suitable option.

 

Creating a group invoice

Manual for the function can be found by clicking Procountor's Info -button.

Group invoices can be created for all business partner types. On the left-hand side, select the business partner type (by default, the type is Customers), possible main group and business partner group and choose individual business partners belonging to a certain group in the Business partners field. If there are a lot of customers to be selected, a separate window can be opened from the magnifying glass icon to make this easier.

Select all groups button at the top of the page selects all the business partner groups. The button activates after clicking a group name in the Business partner groups window. Select all partners selects all the partners visible in the Business partners field.

On the right-hand side of the view, the invoice group name for the invoices created through Group invoice function is defined in the Invoice group name field. Invoice group name can be used as a search criterion in Receipt search. By default, invoice group name is generated based on the group invoice creation date.

The default date for the first invoice is the current date. The default invoice due date is the current date + 10 days. If a default term of payment has been set for sales invoices in Usage settings, the default due date will be the current date + the default terms of payment for sales invoices. The date and due date of the invoice can be changed, and the invoice date will not affect the due date and vice versa. Customer-specific terms of payment cannot be used in group invoices.

Next, select the number of invoices (e.g. 2 pcs) and the interval (e.g. 6 months). These selections create two group invoices that are dated six months apart.

Group invoice type drop-down menu has two options:

• Multiple invoices: the number of invoices specified in the Invoice count field are sent out according to the Invoice interval.
• Consolidated invoice: only one invoice containing all the due dates specified in the Invoice count an Invoice interval fields is sent.
  • Even though the recipient only receives one invoice, a separate invoice will be created in Procountor for each due date. Each of these invoices will have their own invoice numbers but will have the same reference number. If the customer has their own default reference defined, this reference will be used on the invoices.
• Notice that every receipt that has been created by using Group invoice is a separate invoice. This means that they will be invoiced based on the creation month in Procountor's invoicing. 

Add default products? option adds the business-partner specific default products. Bank reference code drop-down menu gives the option to choose if the reference defaults (whether the reference is in the domestic or the international RF format) set the Business partner’s basic info are taken into account. Alternatively, it is possible to choose that either the domestic or the international RF reference is used despite of what is defined in the business partner register.

If the environment has several different bank accounts, the correct one can be selected in the Bank account field. Below that are settings for currency and rate.

If the option Default is selected in Payment method and accounting, Invoice channel, and Delivery method, this information is retrieved from the defaults saved in the business partner register for each invoice’s recipient. The language of the group invoice is set according to the language selection in the business parent register. This menu can also be used to select the options shared by all the invoices. However, if the invoice channel is set as email, every recipient must have their emails saved in the register.

Accounting by row? option forms the accounting of the group invoices by row even if the Usage settings do not generally define sales invoices accounting to be formed by row. If the Usage settings define sales invoice accounting is to be formed by row (Sales invoice posting box is ticked) this selection does not need to be separately done on the group invoice. The accounting will be done by row as a default.

Discount % and VAT fields are for selecting the discount percentage and cash discounts for all the group invoices.

Incl. VAT option includes VAT in all prices even if the VAT defaults define all prices exclude VAT. If the VAT defaults determine sales invoice prices include VAT (the option Incl. VAT is selected in the Sales invoice products drop-down menu) this selection does not need to be ticked separately in group invoices. All product prices will include VAT by default.

Additional information and Seller’s notes fields have a pencil icon next to the fields, and clicking it opens a new window for editing the information. This also allows row changes. A row change can be done with the \ symbol.

Cash discount 

• There are Days and % - fields for three options of cash discount to Group invoice –view. 
• In the Day –field enter the number of days.
• In the % -field enter the cash discount %.
• Days fields should be filled in ascending order e.g. 5,6,7. Percentage fields should be filled in descending order e.g. 7,6,5. If the order is wrong the field turns red and you get an error message. 

Rows are added on group invoices at the bottom of the page like on a regular invoice. If the option Add default products? has been selected and no other rows are added on the invoice, and error will appear for the business partners who have no default products set in the register.

The Save button at the bottom of the page saves the information and the rows on the invoice. Please note, that saving should not be done too early, because this locks some of the fields (recipients, invoice group name, given dates, invoice count and interval, default products selection and bank reference).

Approve button verifies all the information on the invoice and opens the next view.

 

Editing and sending a group invoice

Clicking the Approve button opens a view for editing, deleting, and sending the invoices.

• Edit button opens the selected invoice for editing. This button is only visible if Multiple invoices was selected in the Group invoice type drop-down menu in the previous view. If Consolidated invoice was selected instead, the invoices can no longer be edited.
• Delete removes the selected invoice, and the invoice will not be created.
• Send all button (or by selecting Send? next to each invoice) marks the invoice(s) to be sent.
• Group invoice ready button marks the invoices ready to be sent. This moves the invoices to the Invoices to be sent list, from where they will be automatically sent three days before the invoice date via the chosen invoice channel. For example, if the invoice date is May 27, the invoices will be sent on May 24. Invoices dated to the current date, less than three days away, or in the past, are sent immediately. The delay between clicking the Group invoice ready button and the invoices being sent is approximately 5 to 15 minutes. This means the invoices may temporarily be visible on the invoices to be sent list (as Unfinished).
  • If the option Multiple invoices was selected from the Group invoice type drop-down menu while creating the invoice, the invoices to be sent will be shown as Unfinished in Procountor after clicking the Group invoice ready Despite of this, they will be automatically sent forward. This means they can still be edited up until they are automatically sent from the Invoices to be sent list and their status changes to Sent.
    • It should be noted here that if the invoices are marked to be sent when creating the group invoice and the group invoice is marked as ready, these invoices should not be sent individually or using the Approval / sending of multiple sales invoices function. Despite of being in the Unfinished state they have already been marked to be sent according to the invoice date.
  • If the option Consolidated invoice was selected from the Group invoice type menu, the invoices will be marked Sent. Even if the number of invoices was set as more than one while creating the invoice, each recipient will receive one invoice (the first one according to the date) but the remaining invoices will also be marked as Sent. If the date on the invoice to be sent is edited, the sending date will also change.

If the invoices are not selected by ticking the Send? option or by clicking the Send all button, the invoices will not be transferred to the sending list to be automatically sent. In this case, the invoices need to be individually approved and sent. The invoices can be searched using the Receipt search using, for example, the name given to the invoice group.

Attachments cannot be added to invoices created with the Group invoice function at the creation stage. If any attachments need to be added, the invoices must be individually edited before sending.