Overview

When invoicing continuations up to a given ‘invoice to’ date, the system will, by default, invoice all contracts up to the given date.  This handles the common requirement of invoicing continuations for all account customers up to the end of each month.  If more flexibility is required, Syrinx has a ‘Fixed Period Invoicing’ feature, which can be used to invoice hire contracts up to a variable ‘invoice to’ date that is based on the date the contract originally went on hire, plus the invoice frequency.  

This feature is automatically turned off by default for account customers.  The feature is automatically turned on by default for cash customers, and it therefore influences the behaviour of the ‘Continuation Invoicing for Cash Customers’ feature.

Configuration

The ‘Accounts/Invoicing’ tab of the Syrinx Configuration program has a ‘Fixed Period Invoicing’ option that may be used to configure the feature.

This screen is used to modify the built-in definitions that govern the default behaviour for all account/cash customers (i.e. the 4 entries shown above).  You can also add new definitions that can then be assigned to specific customers to override the invoicing behaviour for one or more customers.  

Please note that the ‘Default’ account rules are normally hidden and you must press ctrl + f5 on your keyboard in order to expose them so that they can be edited.

Each definition contains the following information:

Applies to Hire Period(s) – indicates which hire periods does the definition apply to.  Each definition applies to either all weekly/daily hire periods (DAY, 5WEEK, 6WEEK, 7WEEK) or to the monthly hire period (MONTH).  Put simply, for any particular customer, there is one rule that governs the invoicing of contracts on daily/weekly charging, and another rule that governs those on a ‘per month’ charge.

Invoice Continuations Only in Whole Units Of – this defines the units of time period that is to be charged on each continuation invoice.  For example, if set to “2 Weeks” then each continuation invoice is to be charged for a 2-week period; if less than 2 weeks has passed since the last invoice, then the item is not invoiced in that run.  Note that if more than 1 unit has elapsed since the last invoice, then a multiple of the units will be invoiced; for example if 5 weeks have elapsed since the last invoice, then 4 weeks (i.e. 2 units) will be invoiced.

For the First Invoice – this governs the behaviour for the first invoice created for the contract.  

• The first option indicates that the rules for the first invoice are the same as that for subsequent invoices –i.e. every invoice generated is for the same time period (or multiple) and the different invoices in any given invoice batch will all be charged up to different days, according to when the contract went on hire.
• The second option indicates that the first invoice is to be invoiced up to the ‘invoice to’ date entered on the invoice batch, as long at least 1 whole unit has elapsed.  This means that the first invoice may invoice for more than the specified time period unit, but that all invoices in the batch will be invoiced up to the same date.
• The third option is a variation of the second, in that the first invoice is invoiced up to the batch’s ‘invoice to’ date, except that the first invoice can charge for less than the time period units, subject to a given minimum number of days to charge. **The ‘but only if there are at least n days to charge’ component of this setting is not applicable to cash invoicing and all cash hires will need to be onhire for at least 1 week before they will be picked up in a batch.

…and Fix ‘Invoice To’ date…? – for the first invoice, if you are not invoicing for an exact number of units – i.e. the date you are invoicing up to is to be the same for all contracts in the batch – then you can enter a base ‘invoice to’ date so that the ‘invoice to’ date will be adjusted if required to ensure that it falls an exact number of units from the given base date.  This may be set to explicitly turn off the ‘rolling invoicing’ that will occur if a number of continuation batches are created within one period unit.

Example 1 – Whole Weeks Only.

Previously, Syrinx supported 1 particular form of fixed period invoicing – namely ‘whole weeks only’ invoicing – by means of a specific tick-box option on the system options screen.  With this option turned on, all continuation invoices charged for a whole number of weeks, such that the date being invoiced to was on or before the batch’s ‘invoice to’ date.  In 3.17 this system option has been removed, and if it was previously set, then the ‘Default - Account Weekly/Daily’ definition is automatically activated and configured as follows:

This indicates that all continuation invoices will be charged for one whole week, or a multiple of whole weeks, and that the initial invoice also follows the same rule.  So, if we have a contract with 2 items with different start dates, then the invoice batches will behave as follows:

Whilst the behaviour of this feature mimics the system option being replaced, it is more flexible, in that certain customers can be invoiced subject to have different rules, as described in the next section.

Overriding Fixed Period Invoicing by Customer.

Amending the 4 default fixed period definitions changes the behaviour of continuation invoicing for all account or cash customers.  If, however, there is a requirement for a certain type of fixed period invoicing that is to be applied for just certain customers, then this may be achieved by adding a new fixed period invoicing definition, and then associating it with the relevant customer(s).

To create a new definition, go to the ‘Fixed Period Invoicing’ screen, and press the ‘Add New’ button, and enter a name for the definition.  You can then amend this new definition as required.

To associate a definition with a particular customer, go to the ‘Amend Customers’ screen, find the customer, and then go to the Options tab, and select it from the drop-down list:

Example 2 – ‘4 weekly’ invoicing for certain customers.

This example illustrates how to invoice certain customers every 4 weeks, whilst the rest of the account customers are to be invoiced every month end.  In this example, we assume that all of the 4-weekly customers are invoiced up to the same date each month (eg every 4^th Sunday).  Hence each month we typically create one batch for the 4 weekly customers, and another for the month end customers (although you could elect to do the two batches as a single batch if the 4^th Sunday falls close to the month end). On occasional months, the four weekly customers will require 2 batches.

Firstly, you need to create a new a new definition for the 4-weekly customers:

This indicates that after the first invoice, each continuation invoice is to be invoiced for exactly 4 weeks.  Also, the first invoice raised is to be invoiced up to a date that is on or before the batch’s ‘invoice to’ date and is an exact 4-weekly step from the given base date (Sunday 2^nd Oct), so long as there are at least 5 days to be charged.  

Secondly, you must activate the default account customer week/daily definition, so as to ensure the other customers are only invoiced up to each month-end (regardless of the batch’s ‘invoice to’ date):

Finally, you must associate the 4-weekly invoicing definition with the required customers:

So, if we have a normal customer and a 4-weekly customer each with a contract with 2 items with different start dates, then the invoice batches will behave as follows:

Normal Customer (month-end invoicing)

4-Weekly Customer

Notes

1. For the normal customer, the batches are as expected – they are picked up by each batch that is invoicing up to the month end, and after the 1^st batch, each invoice is for a full month.
2. The normal customer is ignored in the batch created up to the 02/Oct, because the default definition for account customer states that the invoice to date should be fixed to a multiple of units (whole months) from the base date of 30/Sep.
3. The 4-weekly customer is ignored in the initial batch as definition states he should be invoiced 4-weekly from the 2/Oct.
4. A batch was created on the 2/Oct specifically to pick up the 4-weekly customers.  Both items have been invoiced to 2/Oct even though the period charged is in one case less than and in the other, greater than, the 4-week unit.
5. After the first invoice, each subsequent batch invoices for exactly for 4 weeks, as long as the next 4-week period lies on or before the batch’s ‘invoice to’ date.  In practice, for this scenario we would recommend that they do 2 batches per month, 1 at the month end for the normal customers, and another for the 4-weekly customers on the day they are due in that month.  

Example 3 – ‘4 monthly’ invoicing for all customers.

One company that hires musical instruments on a ‘per month’ rate, typically on a long term basis, has requested that their customers are invoiced in advance on a 4-monthly rolling basis.  To achieve this, the default definition for monthly charging for account customers should be amended as follows:

So, if we have a contract with 3 items with different start dates, then the invoice batches will behave as follows:

Notes

1. The first invoice batch does not include the 2^nd/3^rd items, as they have not been on hire for at least 4 months
2. The 2^nd invoice batch excludes the 1^st item, as it has not been on hire for a further 4 months since the last invoice
3. The 3^rd and 4^th batches do not pick up any items, for the same reason
4. For the April/May batches, the cycle starts again, but now items are all invoiced for exactly 4 months.

Example 4 - Invoice Batches for Cash Customers.

Cash customers by definition have no credit facilities, and it is therefore likely that the frequency and rules used for generating cash customer invoice batches needs to be different than those used for account customers.  

The default definition for cash customers is as follows:

This set-up means that:

1. Cash customers are to be issued an interim invoice once 3 weeks have elapsed
2. The first invoice raised will invoice up to the batch’s ‘invoice to’ date, and may therefore invoice for more than 3 weeks if more than 3 weeks have elapsed since the start of hire and the batch’s ‘invoice to’ date.
3. After the first invoice, each subsequent invoice will charge for an exact further 3 weeks
4. The hire company can create a new batch of cash invoices once or twice a week (on any particular day), and the system will automatically create invoices for new contracts that have gone on or over the 3 week limit, plus older contracts that are due another 3-week’s worth of invoicing.

Example 5 – Rolling Continuation Invoices for Account Customers.

Hire Companies will typically invoice all account customers at the end of each month by creating one large batch of invoices.  An enhancement has been requested that will allows an invoice batch to be created each day, with contracts still being invoiced a month at a time, but the invoice from/to dates being based on day that was invoiced up to on the first invoice. To achieve this, the default definition for monthly charging for account customers should be amended as follows:

With this in place, if we have 3 contracts that started on the 9^th, 10^th and 11^th of January on 5WEEK charges, then the following invoices will be generated: