Automatic Invoicing on Dispatch

Automatic Invoicing on Dispatch


Introduction

Automatic invoicing can be configured to happen on order acceptance or on dispatch. In this article the functionality for automatic invoice creation on dispatch is described.
Invoices can be created at draft or approved invoice statuses. If they are approved automatically, the next steps can also be controlled by the auto-invoice settings. These include:
  1. Sending an email
  2. Exporting the invoice to accounting software
  3. Or both of the above

Settings

Settings to control the auto-invoice behavior can be set at a global level (Admin -> Customise -> Settings -> Invoicing), at a site level, or at the customer level.

These settings are 'Auto-Invoice - Automatically Create Invoice' and 'Auto-Invoice - Behaviour For Invoice Creation'.

Auto-Invoice - Automatically Create Invoice
  1. Off
  2. Create draft invoice for order, on acceptance
  3. Create approved invoice for order, on acceptance
  4. Create draft invoice for order items, once dispatched
  5. Create approved invoice for order items, once dispatched
  6. Create draft invoice for order, once fully dispatched
  7. Create approved invoice for order, once fully dispatched
Setting options with the wording; ‘for order items’ means that jobs and sales orders will be automatically invoiced by themselves once dispatched.
Options that state, ‘for order’ means that automatic invoice creation will not occur until all jobs and sales orders on an order have been dispatched. Then an invoice will be generated for the order as a whole.

When forcing automatic invoice creation, another setting controls what happens when the automation occurs.
This setting is called Auto-Invoice - Behaviour For Invoice Creation.

Options for this setting are:
  1. Create
  2. Create & Email
  3. Create & Export
  4. Create, Email & Export
Invoice statuses will change depending on this setting. If emailed the status will be "Sent". If Exported the status will be "Exported". If emailed and exported the status will be "Exported".

Auto-Invoice - Cancel Auto-Invoice if misc charge exists
Stop any automatic invoice creation if a misc charge exists on the item.
Options for this setting are YES or NO. If set to YES, this behaviour is active for this customer or site, if NO then it is inactive.

Auto-Invoice - Include Misc Charges in Automatic Invoice Creation
When forcing automatic invoice creation, if True, the invoice will include un-invoiced misc charges on the job or order.
Options for this setting are also YES or NO. If set to YES, this behaviour is active for the customer or site, if NO then it is inactive.

Workflows

Scenario 1

When the system or customer settings are configured to:
  1. Auto-Invoice - Automatically Create Invoice - Create draft invoice for order items, once dispatched
  2. Auto-Invoice - Behaviour For Invoice Creation – Create
several actions happen on dispatch of a job or sales order.
For example, this quote has multiple products and multiple deliveries:


On acceptance 6 production jobs are created. When one is dispatched and the Dispatch Status updates to ‘Dispatched’ this will trigger the invoice automation for all items on that delivery:


The invoice button will update to show that there is one invoice linked to the job. When the user goes to the invoice details screen they can see that a Draft invoice has been generated for the items just dispatched:


Scenario 2

With settings configured to:
  1. Auto-Invoice - Automatically Create Invoice - Create approved invoice for order items, once dispatched
  2. Auto-Invoice - Behaviour For Invoice Creation – Create
a different workflow comes into play.

A similar quote is accepted, and the first job is dispatched along with other items on the delivery. This time the job status updates to invoiced as the invoice has been approved. 
On the invoice details screen, the invoice status displays as ‘Approved’ and the invoice history screen will show that the invoice was automatically approved after dispatch:


Scenario 3

If the settings are configured differently:
  1. Auto-Invoice - Automatically Create Invoice - Create approved invoice for order items, once dispatched
  2. Auto-Invoice - Behaviour For Invoice Creation – Create & Email
a slightly different workflow comes into play.

A similar quote is accepted, and the first job is dispatched along with other items on the delivery. The job status updates to invoiced as the invoice has been approved and sent out by email.
On the invoice details screen, the invoice displays as ‘Sent’, and the invoice history screen will show that the email was automatically sent:


Scenario 4


If the settings are configured to:
  1. Auto-Invoice - Automatically Create Invoice - Create approved invoice for order, once fully dispatched
  2. Auto-Invoice - Behaviour For Invoice Creation – Create, Email & Export
the invoice will not be automatically generated until all deliveries on the order have been fully dispatched.
You can see this from the Orders Board:


2 deliveries have been dispatched but none of this order has been invoiced yet. It displays as partially dispatched and partially complete but not invoiced.
When the remaining jobs are completed & the order is fully dispatched, then the invoice automation is triggered:


The invoice status will update to exported and the invoiced value will update on the orders board:


WarningIf the setting for ‘Auto-Invoice - Behaviour For Invoice Creation’ is set to do something that can only be done on an approved invoice (e.g email or export), and the ‘Auto-Invoice - Automatically Create Invoice’ setting is set to create a Draft, the behaviour setting will override and automatically approve the invoice.

Scenario 5

Settings are configured to:
  1. Auto-Invoice - Automatically Create Invoice - Create approved invoice for order, once fully dispatched
  2. Auto-Invoice - Behaviour For Invoice Creation – Create, Email & Export
  3. Auto-Invoice - Cancel Auto-Invoice if misc charge exists - YES
No invoice automation will come into effect if there is a miscellaneous charge on the order.

A quote is accepted similar to the one used earlier in this article, and 6 production jobs are created. A miscellaneous charge is added to the first job as file check and amendments are required:


When all deliveries on the order are dispatched, no invoice automation occurs due to the setting ‘Auto-Invoice - Cancel Auto-Invoice if misc charge exists’ being active.
This allows management or finance teams to check misc charges prior to the system automatically adding them to an invoice.

Scenario 6

Settings are configured to:
  1. Auto-Invoice - Automatically Create Invoice - Create approved invoice for order, once fully dispatched
  2. Auto-Invoice - Behaviour For Invoice Creation – Create & Email
  3. Auto-Invoice - Include Misc Charges in Automatic Invoice Creation - YES
Invoice automation will happen on dispatch of all deliveries on the order and the invoice will include miscellaneous charges that have not already been invoiced:






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