Billing Cycles

SMART enables you to define Billing Cycles of various durations and starting dates. (You may turn off Billing Cycles altogether if you wish - see below.)

The most common example is a monthly Billing Cycle which ends on the last day of the month. This means that when the month ends (i.e. on or after the 1st of the following month) all outstanding charges and services are invoiced. Charges for the new month will not be invoiced until the end of the new month.

The default Billing Cycle is set in the General Configuration window. The cycle can then be over-ridden for an individual Customer .

Forcing immediate invoicing

Items may be invoiced before the end of the billing cycle by selecting Invoice Now in the Prepare Items for Invoicing window.

Individual customers can be configured so that Response jobs are billed immediately. When a response job for one of these customers is approved for invoicing it is automatically marked Invoice Now.

Periodic Charges (or Services) and Billing Cycles

The date when a Periodic Charge or Service will be invoiced has no direct connection to the date when the Periodic was generated, i.e. the Next date. Before the Periodic can be billed it must be approved and the current billing cycle must end (or the charge or service marked Invoice Now ).

If a Periodic Charge or Service has the same frequency as the Billing Cycle you would usually set the Periodic to generate on or before the last day of the cycle so that there is time to approve it before running invoices.

Turning off Billing Cycles

Billing Cycles can be turned off by checking No Billing Cycle in the General Configuration window. Checking Ignore Billing Cycle in the Print Invoice window has the same effect for the current invoice run. In this case all approved items will be invoiced each time invoices are generated.

Rolling billing dates forward

When you have finished printing a new invoice run and Billing Cycles are in use, you will be asked whether you want to roll customer billing dates forward. If you choose to do so, Billing Cycles which end on or before the Include Items To date selected when printing invoices will be considered to have ended and the period end date (shown in the Customer Details window) will be rolled forward.

The effect of rolling dates forward is that customer invoices will only be generated at the end of the period. For example, if you print last month's invoices and roll dates forward, then approve an item entered last month for invoicing, this item will not appear on an invoice (unless forced) until the new month has ended.

In summary

You should use billing cycles if

You want to issue the minimum number of invoices.
You approve items for invoicing every day but want to control when invoices are generated.

You need not use billing cycles if

You want to get invoices out as quickly as possible, or
You're happy for all approved items to be invoiced each time you do an invoice print run.