This option is used to ensure all contracts on the system are posted up-to-date in conjunction with the relevant lease type and/or cost centre. This also mirrors the key processes within the Daily invoicing routine to validate, batch and print transactions within the pending invoice file. It allows invoices to be printed where relevant and validates other budgetary postings as required to ensure the transactions are moved to a status that allows posting to accounts when complete.
Tip: Typically this option is built into the Timed Operations schedule for processing automatically overnight on each system due to the large number of transactions this routine can create in the pending invoice file.
The Daily Invoicing form performs the following actions:
Vehicle Purchase Invoices: The system performs checks to establish if any vehicle purchase invoices have been fully processed. For complete invoices each item held on the vehicle specification is checked for a variance value between the quoted price and the actual invoice price. The system creates a profile for the profit and loss on the purchase of the vehicle and a depreciation adjustment if necessary.
If an item that shows a variance is a cash item then the system works in one of the following two ways:
If the total cost has been recharge and this value is the same or greater than the quoted value then the system makes no change to the profiles.
If the cost recharged to the customer is less than the original quoted cost of the item then the system adds the difference in cost to the capital value. The system creates an extra depreciation file in addition to creating a profit or loss on the purchase of the vehicle.
Renewal Invoices: Due renewal invoices are posted to a renewal file.
Links new current agreements to existing vehicle records
Validates posting records held within the pending file.
Verifies Nominal codes to establish if they exist within the Nominal Ledger as valid accounts.
Validates Sales and/or Purchase Ledger account code.
Checks validity of VAT codes.
Identification of Lease Types due to have invoices raised:
Checks theNext Invoice Date on the Lease Type.
Takes the system date and adds the number of days that the Invoice Advance control allows (held within the General Tab within System Maintenance / System Controls) for invoices to be raised in advance, and calculates the "now date".
If the calculated "now date" is less than or equal to the one shown on the Lease Type record then the system raises invoices on any contracts linked to that Lease Type.
If the Lease Type is due to be invoiced then the system selects every agreement that is linked and establishes if it is due to have contract rentals raised. This is done in the following way:
Verifies that the contract has been started.
Calculates the period the contract is currently in as at the date of the invoice.
Verifies that a rental invoice is due in the current period, including any "catch-ups" for invoices not raised in previous periods.
The value to be invoiced is calculated as the total value due at the date of invoice, less the invoiced-to-date value held on the profile record.
The system also calculates the budget postings, for the selected contracts, for processing through to the Nominal Ledger. This value is calculated in the same way as the invoices, using the anniversary date of the contract, the period type and taking into account the method of calculating the posting (e.g. Rule of 78, Reverse Rule of 78, Straight Line, Complement , etc) to arrive at the required posting value.
Note: The above selection procedure is overridden by the Customer Cost Centre if this is set to post using an alternative format. This allows the invoicing of a customer every seven days if required. All or some of the Budgets may either follow this customer profile or may go through to the Accounts in the normal way.
What do you want to do?
To access the Periodic Invoicing option:
From the Master Menu, select the Contract Administration option and Company required.
The Contract Administration menu is displayed.
Select the Invoicing Procedures option.
The Invoicing Procedures Menu is displayed.
Tip: If printing of invoices is to take place then please ensure the correct invoice printer is selected prior to selecting the Periodic Invoicing option.
Select the Periodic Invoicing option.
The Invoicing Procedure form is displayed.
Select the OK command button to commence the validation process.
All contract budgetary records are measured against the relevant lease type and/or cost centre and raise postings in the pending invoice file to ensure each contract is up-to-date. Once created the items in the pending invoice file at a blank status are validated (checked to ensure the account code and nominal codes allocated are valid etc). If correctly validated then the status code for the pending invoice item moves to a Validated status. If validation fails then the pending invoice item is set to an Error status preventing further processing until resolved.
Once validation is complete the system displays the Release Batches form.
Note: The groups of invoices are divided according to the Invoice type batching controls.
To release a batch ready for printing click in the Invoice date column
adjacent to the required batch and enter the invoice date required either directly or by using
the ![[...]](Ellipsis.gif){kind=small}
button to search for the
date using the Kestrel calendar search routine.
Note: The Release column for the chosen batch will automatically be ticked once the date is entered.
To batch all pending invoice transactions for the released batches select the Proceed button.
The Printing pending invoices form is displayed allowing all transactions or a selection of transactions by Customer or Registration to be selected. The inclusion or exclusion of credit notes is governed by an additional checkbox labelled Credits. Use of these filters restricts the transactions printed in the next stage else selecting Batch all ensures all released batches are printed. Once the required filters have been applied select the OK command button to begin the printing process.
Note: The transactions are batched according to the Sales batches configuration. Items in the pending invoice file at a Validated status are set to Batched on completion of this batching stage.
The Print invoices form is displayed. Depending on the transactions at a Batched status the option to Toggle selections and highlight the different types of batches (ie. Sales invoices) may be offered. The actual options to Print or Print all starts the process to print each invoice format in turn.
For each different invoice format the option to Align sales invoice format or Continue when ready is offered.
Note: The transaction status in the pending invoice file moves to a Printed status on completion of this stage.
Once all invoices have been printed the Print invoice form is displayed againd, this time with the option Nothing to print available for selection to return to the Invoicing procedures menu.
The form is split into three areas. These are the Titlebar, the Daily Invoicing Dialogue Box and a series of Command Buttons at the bottom of the form.
In addition to displaying the form name the Title Bar provides a number of useful buttons.
This area of the form simply contains a description of what is achieved by initiating the Periodic Invoicing routine. The description is as follows:
The items in the pending invoice file are being validated and any pre-posting checks or updates are being performed.
A number of command buttons are available:
Confirms and proceeds with the Periodic Invoice function detailed above and sets appropriate status flags detailed below:
- If the item is verified and available for posting then the Pre-Posting Checked flag is set to Y.
- If the system is unable to validate the item, the post flag is set to H for "Held". This item then requires amendment prior to allowing posting through to the Accounting system. (For details on how to correct "Held" items see the option Edit Held).
Cancels the Periodic Invoice function and returns to the Invoicing Procedures Menu.
Provides online access to a context sensitive Help form.