The rental period for some agreements may last a number of months or even years. In this case it is important to remember to invoice the customer on a regular basis. Long term invoicing enables a reliance upon the system to produce these invoices without having to re-visit each agreement. Each time long term invoicing is run the system examines all long term agreements and produces invoices for the period of time selected. Typically this is either on a weekly or monthly basis.
Tip: This is best illustrated with an example. Within an agreement an appropriate Tariff should be selected for Long Term Invoicing. To be a long term tariff the tariff selected within the agreement must have a Tariff Type code of L (to denote long term) within the Tariff Type table set up in Miscellaneous options. The tariff type table also allows the type of long term tariff to be defined (e.g. Daily, Weekly, Monthly, etc) by the selection of the appropriate Longterm Type code.
Any postings made during the production of long term invoicing are sent into the current accounting period, even though users may be producing invoices that contain rental dates which fall before or after the present accounting period.
When the invoice is produced, the system updates the agreements with the amount invoiced, and the date up to which the agreement has been invoiced. This allows later invoicing runs to continue the invoicing where the last run left off.
What do you want to do?
Overview of the typical long term invoicing procedure
From the Master Menu, select the Vehicle rentals option and Company required.
The VEHICLE RENTALS Menu is displayed.
Select the Long term invoicing option.
The Long Term Invoicing form is displayed.
Select one of the following radio buttons:
Daily:
Weekly: Generates any weekly invoices that are due.
Monthly: Generates any calendar monthly invoices that are due.
Periodic:
Contract Hire:
All:
Select one of the following radio buttons:
Non-summary:
Summary:
Both:
Enter the appropriate cut-off date. Select one of the following options (each option is enabled/disabled dependent upon the Type selection:
Invoice to:
Month:
Year:
Select one of the following radio buttons:
Report only: This option is the default and should always be selected prior to posting invoices in order to validate the agreements to be invoiced.
Post Invoices: Select this option when all agreements are verified for the LTI run.
If applicable select the required Vehicle Rental companies for which invoicing is to be carried out.
Select the OK command button to begin long term invoicing.
View System Parameters that affect Long Term Invoicing
A number of system parameters are of great relevance to the way the Long Term Invoicing process functions. Although all System Parameters are explained within the appropriate help file it is perhaps best if those specific to Long Term Invoicing are explained in more detail here.
Inclusive invoicing: Located within the General 3 Tab of System Parameters. If this checkbox is ticked then the date that is entered into the long-term invoice program is inclusive so the system actually charges to the next day. For example, if the rental agreement runs from 8.00am and the 20th of the month is entered in the Invoice To field of the LTI run the system invoices up to 8.00am on the 21st. If the checkbox is left blank then the system invoices up to 8.00am on the 20th.
Tip: The default value for this field is a tick.
Min. Weekly Invoice Value: Located within the General 4 Tab of System Parameters. If a weekly tariff LTI invoice is calculated at less than the value contained within this field then the system does not invoice. The uninvoiced amount is automatically carried over to the next invoicing run.
Tip: The default value for this field is 0 (zero).
Min. Monthly Invoice Value: Located within the General 4 Tab of System Parameters. If a monthly tariff LTI invoice is calculated at less than the value contained within this field then the system does not invoice. The uninvoiced amount is automatically carried over to the next invoicing run.
Tip: The default value for this field is 0 (zero).
Manual LTI: Located within the General 3 Tab of System Parameters. If this checkbox is ticked then the last invoice on a long term agreement must be manually made by opening up and finishing the rental agreement itself. This is so the final invoice is not invoiced automatically and allows charges for damage, fuel, etc to be added.
Tip: The default value for this field is a tick.
Manual Summary Invoice: Located within the General 3 Tab of System Parameters. If this checkbox is ticked then the last invoice on an agreement for a customer set-up as consolidated long-term invoicing must be manually made by opening up and finishing the rental agreement itself. This is so the final invoice is not invoiced automatically and allows charges for damage, fuel, etc to be added.
Tip: The default value for this field is unticked.
Long Term Invoice format: Located within the General Tab of System Parameters. The three digit format code for the long term invoice.
Consolidated Invoice format: Located within the General Tab of System Parameters. The three digit format code for the consolidated long term invoice.
CC Max Rental Days: Located within the General 3 Tab of System Parameters. The maximum number of days to be taken into account for a rental agreement for credit checking purposes. For example, if a truck is placed on hire for two years and this field is not restricted to a reasonable number of days then the Sales Ledger credit limit may easily be exceeded (particularly if the Sales Ledger customer has a number of trucks on hire.
Tip: The default value for this field is 56.
Show Warnings: Located within the General 3 Tab of System Parameters. A checkbox which, if left blank, denotes that warnings about accounts over credit limits/on stop are not displayed on form. If ticked then the LTI run is held up (the Return Key needing to be pressed to remove the message from the form) each time an agreement within the run encounters a credit limit type problem.
Tip: The default value for this field is unticked.
Understand postings from LTI to the Accounts module.
The system only produces long term invoices for agreements that have a long term code against the Tariff Type that is held against the Hire Group code applicable for the agreement. If a Tariff Type record does not have a long term code then any rentals which use that particular record are not be selected for Long Term Invoicing of any kind.
Note: The Tariff Type codes, which determine if an agreement is to be invoiced or not during the Long-Term Invoicing process, are checked only at the time the agreement is set up. If Long Term details are amended in a Tariff Type code record then only those agreements raised after the amendments are made benefit from the changes. All agreements raised prior to the change continue on the basis on which they were originally set up.
The long term invoicing option invoices customers for hire and regular charges only; charges which are to be billed once only are not included on the rental invoice produced.
During a monthly Long Term Invoice run the system includes any agreements that have outstanding income to be invoiced. For example, if the month input is 8 and the year is 2005 the system invoices up to and including the last day of August. It includes any un-invoiced charges before the month being generated. If a vehicle has three days to be charged in July then these days are included in a run that is set for the end of August.
Tip: Weekly Long Term Invoicing is almost identical to that of Monthly Long Term Invoicing. The date input will be used as a focal point by the system when it searches for agreements to be included in the invoice run. It compares the date with the last Long Term Invoice date held on the agreement record.
The system also checks the minimum number of days to be invoiced for this Tariff Type. The minimum number of days is recorded on the Tariff Type record. Users who want to produce invoices every 28 days should ensure that the minimum invoice period is set to 28. For example, if the date input is 31/08/2005 the system invoices up to and including the last day of August 2005 as long as the number of days is greater or equal to the minimum number of days held on the Tariff Type record. It includes any un-invoiced charges before the date in question. If a vehicle has three days to be charged earlier in August then these days are included in a run that is set for the last week of August.
The invoices are produced on the currently selected printer, although with a run that may include many invoices, it may be advisable to send the invoices to a spooler and physically print them afterwards.
Once the invoice is generated and printed the system updates the agreements with the amount invoiced and the date up to which the agreement has been invoiced. This enables following invoice runs to continue the invoicing from the cut-off date of the last LTI run.
Any postings made during the production of Long Term Invoicing are posted into the current accounting period, even though users may be generating invoices that contain rental dates that fall before or after the current accounting period.
All invoice postings are be written into the Accounts invoice buffer for onward posting into the Sales and Nominal Ledgers following the printing of the daybooks
