Contract invoicing

 

Contract invoicing is a chargeable additional service that enables invoicing customers at regular intervals based on a customer-specific contract.

Contract invoicing can be ordered by contacting the customer service via the contact form. More information about the pricing of contract invoicing and how to order it is available here.

After contract invoicing has been enabled in the environment, it is found in Registers > Contract invoicing.

Contract invoicing is a useful tool when the sums and numbers of invoicing is constantly altering due to different kinds of situations. A few examples of contract invoicing use cases below:

• Charging of a project based on the real-time advancement
• Regular consulting or training that has variable hours
• Different kinds of license fees

If the sums and numbers of regular invoicing are predictable and stable (as with rentals, for example), using group invoicing is a more suitable option.

This article is about creating invoices with the contract invoicing function. In order to be able to create invoices with contract invoicing, contracts must be created for customers first. More information about contracts is available here.

 

Contract invoicing view

Contract invoicing view is used to search and look at the contracts of customers. The view is also used to initiate contract invoicing.

 

 

Buttons and functions of the upper section of the view

Search contracts button searches for contracts in accordance with given search criteria.

In printable form button is used to open a report (in HTML or Excel format) about the contracts selected in the search results.

Contract invoicing report button opens a separate window that is used to create a report about contract invoicing:

 

 

• Start month and End month fields determine the time period of the report.
• Invoiced drop-down menu determines if only invoiced contracts, non-invoiced contracts or all contracts are included in the report.
• Selected drop-down menu determines if the report includes only the selected contracts (the ones with a marking in the selection box on the left) or all contracts.
• Main group drop-down menu can be used to limit the report to include only contracts of customers that belong to a specific main group.
• Business partner group drop-down menu can be used to limit the report to include only contracts of customers that belong to a specific business partner group. If a main group has been selected in Main group menu, Business partner group menu will then include only the business partner groups that belong to the chosen main group.
• Report format drop-down menu determines in which format the report is created.
• The report is created with Continue button.

 

Search criteria

• Search date for uninvoiced contracts field determines which month’s situation is used as the basis of the searched contracts. If Search contracts with an exact date (instead of using a month only)? selection is activated, the search is specified to the level of a single date. The search for contracts follows these conditions:
  • Contract’s start date (or month) is the same as the given date (or month), before the given date (or month) or the contract’s start date (or month) has not been defined.
  • Contract’s end date (or month) is the same as the given date (or month), after the given date (or month) or the contract’s end date (or month) has not been defined.
  • Contract’s status is active, but an invoice for the period of given date (or month) has not yet been made, even though the invoice should have been made according to the invoice period.
• Invoice period drop-down menu limits the search results to include only contracts that have the chosen invoice period.
• Contract number field can be used to limit the search by a specific contract number.
• Contract contents field can be used to limit the search by the information set in the Contract contents field of the contract.
• Own contact person field can be used to limit the search by the information set in the Own contact person field of the contract.
• Name field can be used to limit the search by a customer’s name.
• ID field can be used to limit the search by a customer’s ID (such as Business ID).
• Customer No. field can be used to limit the search by a customer number.
• Main group drop-down menu is used to limit the search results by choosing a main group.
• Business partner group drop-down menu is used to limit the search results by choosing a business partner group.
• Product group drop-down menu is used to limit the search results by choosing a product group.
• Show inactive contracts selection includes also inactive contracts to the search results.

 

Search results

Show contract button opens the Contract view of the active row. The contract can be opened also by clicking the customer’s name in the Name column of the search results.

Begin invoicing button is used to begin the invoicing of active row or rows. A more detailed look into this function is found under the next heading.

The column information can be edited by clicking the gearwheel icon in the right side of the view. Column settings are set back to default by clicking the round arrow icon.

 

Begin invoicing function

Invoicing is created by clicking the Begin invoicing button. Invoicing can be made for one or more customers at once. Contracts are selected with the selection box in the left side of the search results. The contracts can be selected one by one or they can all be selected by selecting the topmost box in the header row of the search results.

When the right contracts have been chosen and Begin invoicing button is clicked, the following verification window opens:

 

 

Continue button leads to Insert invoice group name view:

 

 

• Invoice group name field is used to give a name for the invoice group. The suggested default name is formed by the invoice creation time.
• Date determining the contract period field is used to set a date that determines the contract period of the created contracts. The suggested default date comes from the Search date for uninvoiced contracts field of Contract invoicing view.
• Invoice date field is used to give a date that applies to all invoices in the invoice group. The field is empty by default, and the invoice date for each invoice is determined by the value in Invoice date in invoicing month field in the customer-specific Contract view. Invoice date will be also the receipt date on the accounting page by default. The receipt date determines, among other things, the period of value added tax.
  • If the Invoice date in invoicing month field has a value of 0 on the contract, and no date is entered to the Invoice date field when creating the invoicing, the invoice date of these kind of contract invoices will be the same date as the date in the Date determining the contract period field.
  • If any date is set to the Invoice date field, the set date will be the invoice date of all created invoices regardless of the customer-specific value in Invoice date in invoicing month field.
• Include potential collection costs selection includes possible collection and penal expenses to the invoicing if the automatic handling of collection and penal costs is in use.
• Add the contract information to a PDF attachment that will be sent with the invoice selection is used to add contract information details to the invoices as PDF attachments.

When necessary information is given, it is time to click the Continue button in the upper section of the view. This action creates the invoices. The following window opens:

 

 

Yes button leads to Receipt search that shows the newly created invoices in Unfinished status. No button takes the user back to Contract invoicing view.

The invoices can be edited and sent from the Receipt search view. The following is a list of a few remarks about invoices created with the contract invoicing function:

• By default, invoice date on the invoice page and receipt date on the accounting page are formed of the information set to Invoice date in invoicing month field of the customer-specific contract. If the value of this field is 0, the invoice date will then be formed by the Date determining the contract period field, or the Invoice date field if a value has been set to this field (the given date will be the date of all invoices created at the same time). The entry period of accounting is the month of the given date.
• Contract number and additional information of an invoicing contract will be visible in the Additional information field in the Invoice view. Possible default additional information is not shown in this field with invoices that are created with contract invoicing.
• Period start date and Period end date fields on the accounting page show the contract invoicing period. The period itself does not have an effect on accounting, but an invoice can be found by its period when using the Accrual tool. Invoicing period is determined by the Date determining the contract period field. This information should not be changed on the invoice page or accounting page. The invoicing period is shown also as the Date of delivery on the invoice.
• The following customer-specific determinations apply also to invoices created with contract invoicing:
  • Default reference: used as the default reference number on invoices
  • Bank account: shown as the recipient’s account on the invoice
  • Default invoice template: used as the template for invoices
  • Direct payment as payment method: the invoice is processed according to the direct payment processing
• When contract invoicing is used with a customer that has an active financing agreement in the customer register, the contract number, account number and financing statement of the invoice are retrieved from the financing agreement information.
• Possible default products defined for the customer are not included on invoices made with contract invoicing.
• Accounting of the invoices is done by rows if Post invoices by row by default? selection is activated in Usage settings.

 

Examples of contract invoicing

Because there are several different invoicing periods to choose from with contract invoicing, it is worthwhile to take a deeper look into the behaviour of different invoicing periods with the search function, for example. Let’s suppose that the following contracts exist:

• Customer A: Contract A1; contract start date February 1st, 2020; invoicing period 1 month, 1/2/3/4/5/…; no invoices have been created
• Customer A: Contract A2; contract start date February 1st, 2020; invoicing period 1 month, 1/2/3/4/5/…; invoice for February has been created
• Customer B: Contract B1; contract start date February 1st, 2020; invoicing period 2 months, 1/3/5/7/9/11; no invoices have been created
• Customer B: Contract B2; contract start date February 1st, 2020; invoicing period 2 months, 2/4/6/8/10/12; invoice for February has been created

 

Searching

• If the value entered in the Search date for uninvoiced contracts field on the Contract invoicing page is a date in January 2020, the list of contracts to be invoiced will be empty, since the start date of all contracts is after January.
• If the value entered in the Search date for uninvoiced contracts field on the Contract invoicing page is a date in February 2020, the list of contracts to be invoiced will only include Contract A1. Contracts A2 and B2 will not be included on the list since their February invoices have already been created. Contract B1 will not be included since February is not an invoicing month in the selected invoicing period.
• If the value entered in the Search date for uninvoiced contracts field on the Contract invoicing page is a date in March 2020, the list of contracts to be invoiced will include Contracts A1, A2 and B1. Contract B2 will not be included since March is not an invoicing month in the selected invoicing period.

 

Creating invoices

Let’s suppose that invoices are created on February 15th, 2020. The same date (i.e. present day) is also set as the default date in the Search date for uninvoiced contracts field. This date is then used to search the contracts to be invoiced, and the search results will include Contract A1. When the invoices are created, the same date (February 15th, 2020) is set to the Invoice date field.

• This action creates one invoice that has February 15th, 2020 as invoice and receipt date and 2020-02 as entry period.
• Period start date is February 1st, 2020 and Period end date is February 28th, 2020 on the accounting page. These dates will be also shown as the delivery dates on the invoice.

Let’s suppose again that invoices are created on February 15th, 2020. The same date (i.e. present day) is also set as the default date in the Search date for uninvoiced contracts field. However, a difference compared to the example above is that the default date is changed manually to a date of March 1st, 2020. This results in Contracts A1, A2 and B1 appearing in the search results. March 15th, 2020 is set in the Invoice date field.

• This action creates three invoices that have March 15th, 2020 as invoice and receipt date and 2020-03 as entry period.
• Period start date is March 1st, 2020 and Period end date is March 31st, 2020 on the accounting page of invoices formed from Contracts A1 and A2. These dates will be also shown as the delivery dates on the invoices.
• Period start date is March 1st, 2020 and Period end date is April 30th, 2020 on the accounting page of the invoice formed from Contract B1. These dates will be also shown as the delivery dates on the invoice.