Create a recurring bill

Managers Partners  Billers

Recurring Bills can be used when bills need to be sent out at a regular interval and have the same narrative each time. Recurring bills can either be for fixed amounts or variable.

Recurring bills essentially revolve around three core processes:

  • Setting up the Job Details and Recurring Bill template for the client
  • Generating the Recurring bills
  • Editing/Deleting/Posting the Recurring bills

The Recurring Bill

Recurring bills are created against each client requiring such a bill. Any client can have as many recurring bills as required, each bill occurring at differing frequencies and dates.

Recurring bills can be edited or deleted from the client Recurring Bills page using the Actions menu.

Create a recurring bill

  1. Navigate to Client > Task Pad > Recurring Bills .Choose the client you wish to add the recurring bill for and select. Add. This will display the recurring bill details page.

  2. The first tab shown is the Details tab. These are the master details relating to the bill ‘header’ record and they are not updated when a bill note is generated. Details of each bill are held in a history file that can be accessed to find out if the bill was posted, deleted or whether it is possibly still in draft.

    The details on the header can be changed at any time, however a change made to a header whilst the bill has a draft will not flow through to the draft. The draft will have to be changed separately if this is required.

    Complete each field as required:

    FIELD DESCRIPTION
    Type This is the bill type, which will default to the choice on the transaction setting. If RFP’s are used these will be offered, and if not, they will not be displayed.
    DD/SO This indicates to the system whether this bill will be collected by Direct Debit or Standing Order.
    Frequency This is the frequency at which the bill is produced, and can be monthly, quarterly, half yearly or yearly.
    Occurs The occurrence of the recurring bill is determined through this combo box, and in turn this is governed by the frequency. Monthly bills obviously occur each month. The other frequencies are set up to predetermined ranges, an example being that quarterly bills will run in March, June, September and December, or an annual bill is run in April.
    Start Date This is the date on which the recurring bill is valid from when generating the recurring bills.
    End Date The date to which the recurring bill will run. This can be left blank if there is no specific end.
    Name The person to whom the recurring bill will be addressed if the client defaults are not being used.
    Address The address to be used if the client defaults are not being used. If the address locking feature within the Client Extended Details page is checked then it will not be possible to change the address.
    Select Allows you to determine the address that the recurring bill will use. It can either use the customer address at the time of generation (the default), or it can use the name and address as entered on the recurring bill.
    Posting Day The day within the month that the bill is normally posted. This is used when generating the recurring bill to batch the bills together.
    Reference A manual reference number can be inserted into this field. If this is not filled in the system will insert an automatic bill number when the bill is confirmed.
    WIP Bill Bills can be indicated as including entries into the WIP Ledger (the default) or not as the case may be. Certain bills may not need to update the WIP.
    Style This indicates the style of bill to be produced; and works in the same way as a standard bill.
    Partner/ Manager The staff members that will be looking after the bill. They default from the Engagement record.
    Organization The Organization that the bill is to be recorded against.
    Attention The person at the customer for whose attention the bill is (optional).
    Memo Memo entry to appear on the bill (optional).

  3. The Line items tab is where the entries for the bill are created. Click Add A Line to create as many line entries as needed for the bill. Fill in information for the following columns:

    FIELD DESCRIPTION
    Type Either a Time or a Disbursement entry, as with the standard bills system.
    Service A list of the available services. Only services with jobs that have a billing type of either Manual or Recurring Bill will be displayed.
    Job A list of the available Jobs for the service that has been selected. Only jobs that have a billing type of Manual or Recurring Bill will be shown when setting up the recurring bill template. The Billing type is set within the Job Details. Please refer to theJob Billing details section for further information.
    Amount The amount to be billed. This can be adjusted on the draft bill. This should be left blank if a variable amount is being used.
    tax The tax rate to be used. No tax amount is entered as it is calculated when the draft bill is created. The tax table holds tax rates according to dates.
    Fixed Indicates whether the line is for a fixed or variable amount. Options are Yes or No.
    Min Becomes available if a variable amount has been selected. This is the minimum amount for the bill. If there is insufficient WIP to meet the minimum value, then a balancing entry will be created. You can choose whether the balance will be carried forward or written off.
    Max Becomes available if a variable amount has been selected. This is the maximum amount of WIP that that is to be used on this line from the WIP that is available for the client. Any remaining WIP will either be carried forward or written off depending on the choice made in the CF/WO field.
    Round Determines whether the WIP amount should be rounded and if so whether it should be rounded up or down.
    To If the Round option has been selected you can determine how the system will round the amount. The options that are available are: 0, 10,50 or 100.
    CF/WO Determines what is to be done with the remaining WIP amount.

  4. Enter a narrative in the description box. Each line on the bill can have a different narrative. The narrative can either use a standard bill paragraph or you can enter the narrative that you require.

  5. The recurring bill system allows you to enter combinations of date variables that are updated when the drafts are generated.

    There are 12 date variables that are available as follows:

    FIELD DESCRIPTION
    [PreYear] Year Start of the year prior to the selected period. It is calculated by adding a month to the selected period and then taking away a year.
    [PreHalf] Half Year Start of the year prior to the selected period.
    [PreQtr] Quarter Start of the quarter prior to the selected period.
    [PreMth] Month Start of the selected period.
    [PreEnd] Month End of the selected period.
    [CalStart] Calendar Year start for the selected period.
    [PostStart] Start of the next month of the selected period.
    [PostMonth] End of the next month from the selected period.
    [PostQtr] End of the next quarter from the selected period.
    [PostHalf] End of the next half year end from the selected period.
    [PostYear] End of the next year from the selected period.
    [CalEnd] Calendar Year End for the selected period.

  6. The History tab records the history of all recurring bills that have been generated for the client.

  7. Once all the details have been entered onto the recurring bill click Apply to save the recurring bill.