Invoices

Before you start#

An invoice can only be created when all of the following exist:

• An active lease on the room. The invoice is always raised against a lease, never against a room alone.
• At least one service on that lease, otherwise there is nothing to charge.
• A meter reading for the current cycle, if any service on the lease is metered.
• An invoice template, if you intend to print or send the document. See Documents.

1. Create an invoice for one room#

1. Open the new invoice form

   Go to Finance → Invoices and press (+) to add an invoice.

2. Fill in the general information

   Field	Required	Description
   Building	Yes	Pick from the list. Determines which rooms are offered next.
   Room	Yes	Pick from the list of rooms in that building.
   Bed	No	Required when the room has active beds. The form will not save without it on a bed-rented room.
   Lease	Yes	The active lease on that room. The representative tenant is filled in automatically.
   Billing period	Yes	The month the invoice covers.
   Issue date	Yes	Defaults to today.
   Due date	Yes	Calculated from the rule in General settings: a fixed day, the lease payment day, or N days after issue.
   Invoice template	No	Needed to print or send the document.

3. Check the service lines

   The services on the lease are filled in automatically. Press (+) to add a line that is not on the lease, such as a one-off charge.

   Column	What it means
   Service	The charge name, from Services
   Unit price	Inherited from the lease; editable on this invoice only
   Reading	Metered services only. Pick the reading for this cycle — the invoice cannot be saved without it
   Quantity	Per room or per occupant, depending on the service
   Coefficient	Defaults to 1. Only shown when coefficients are enabled in General settings
   From / To	The period the line covers, used to allocate revenue to the right month

   At least one service line is required. An invoice with no lines cannot be saved.

4. Check the totals

   Field	Required	Description
   Subtotal	No	Calculated from the lines above.
   Discount	No	Amount deducted before tax.
   Tax (%)	No	Enter the percentage, e.g. 10 for 10%.
   Total	No	Subtotal − discount + tax.
   Paid in advance	No	Credit balance applied to this invoice. Cannot exceed the available balance or the invoice total. See Credit balances.
   Remaining	No	What the tenant still has to pay.

5. Save

   Press Save. The invoice is created as a draft and appears in the list.

2. Generate a whole cycle#

For more than a handful of rooms, generate the batch instead of creating invoices one by one.

1. Open the generate dialog

   Go to Finance → Invoices and choose the bulk generate action.

2. Select the scope

   Pick the building and the billing period. Only active leases whose billing day falls in that period are included.

3. Review the batch before it goes out

   This is the last inexpensive moment to catch a wrong reading, a service somebody forgot to end, or a lease that should have been terminated.

Leases with a missing meter reading are skipped or flagged rather than billed with a zero. Fix the reading and generate again for those rooms.

3. Approve#

An invoice is a draft until it is approved. The difference is not cosmetic:

Approval can be automatic, and can be restricted to specific invoice types, in General settings — so routine monthly bills go out without a bottleneck while termination invoices still get a second pair of eyes.

4. Send to the tenant#

Approved invoices can be sent through the channels configured in General settings, and appear automatically in the tenant mobile app.

• In-app — tenants using the mobile app see it without anything being sent.
• Email — uses the sending address configured for the account.
• Electronic invoice — where required, the issued document is stored against the invoice.

5. Record payment#

Payment is recorded against the invoice, not as a loose receipt. Two ways in:

• New money — records income through a payment account. See Income and expenses.
• Credit balance — settles the invoice from surplus already held on the lease, creating no new receipt. See Credit balances.

6. Correct a wrong invoice#

Never change the tenant or the lease on an issued invoice. The payments and the accounting history already attached to it would then point at the wrong party.

An overpayment needs no correction. Anything above the invoice total becomes a credit balance on the lease.