Getting started with Billing
What to set up, and in what order, before you create the first invoice with Billing.
Required permission: billing.configure
Before you begin
- Billing sits on top of Sales and Purchase. Customers, products, tax codes and payment terms must already exist.
- Setup needs billing.configure for policies, and company administrator rights for Administration > Applications > Billing.
- Policies are drafted by one person and activated by another. Plan for at least two people with billing.configure.
Steps
- Check the people. Give roles as follows.
| Task | Permission |
|---|---|
| See everything in Billing | billing.view |
| Create invoices from orders, edit the billing record, run recurring invoices | billing.manage |
| Post an invoice | document.invoice |
| Approve or refuse an invoice | billing.approve |
| Approve or refuse a refund | billing.refund.approve (together with billing.manage) |
| Set up policies | billing.configure |
Keep approval apart from preparation: the person who prepares an invoice should not be the person who approves it.
- Decide which features you use. Open Administration > Applications > Billing > Features. The switches are Approval policies, Refunds, Recurring invoices, Instalment schedules and Revenue recognition. A change needs two administrators: one proposes, another approves. See Billing features and field modes.
- Set the date-of-supply mode. In Administration > Applications > Billing > Fields, choose Hidden, Optional or Required for Date of supply.
- Create correction reasons. Under Billing > Configuration > Correction reasons, add reasons such as "Goods returned" and "Price correction". Once any reason is active, a credit or debit note cannot be posted without one.
- Create an issue profile. Under Billing > Configuration > Issue profiles, add a profile for the UAE (country
AE) that lists what must be present before an invoice is issued: for example the customer's tax registration number, your own tax registration number, a date of supply and a tax code on every line. - Create a grouping policy. Under Billing > Configuration > Grouping policies, set what orders must share to go on one invoice (customer PO, bill-to, payment terms and so on) and the maximum number of orders per invoice. Mark one as the Company default.
- Create an approval policy. Under Billing > Configuration > Approval policies, set which documents need approval and from what total, for example invoices of AED 10,000.00 or more.
- Create a revenue recognition policy if you defer revenue. Under Billing > Configuration > Revenue recognition, name the products, the number of months, and the deferred revenue and revenue accounts.
- Activate each policy. The person who created a policy cannot activate it. A second person opens it and presses Activate. See Billing policies.
- Check the customers. Each business customer needs payment terms and a TRN (UAE TRN has 15 digits) if the issue profile asks for it.
- Create the first invoice. See Create and post a customer invoice.
What happens next
Only active policies apply, and only inside their valid dates. A policy still in draft or archived does nothing. From now on invoices posted in the company are checked against the issue profile, held for approval where the policy asks, and given instalments from the payment terms.
Good to know
- Billing works without any policy: invoices can be created and posted, and there is simply no approval or issue check.
- Documents posted before Billing was used have no legal snapshot and no instalments.
- Open Billing > Overview to see the daily position: sales orders to invoice, drafts, documents waiting for approval, overdue receivables and refunds pending.