Overview
This document is intended to provide a detailed overview on how invoices work within gaiia. It assumes a basic understanding of the billing feature with gaiia and will not dive into additional features (such as taxes or payments) outside of briefly touching upon them to help provided needed context for invoices.
When/How are Invoices Sent to Accounts?
Communication Methods
Invoices are sent to customers through an Email/SMS communication using a template configured within gaiia. At any time an account can use the customer portal to review and download any previously generated invoices or they can be re-sent as well (refer to the section below).
When Invoices are Generated
An invoice can be generated for an account when the following activities or actions are taken within gaiia:
- Automatically for the new recurring billing cycle of an account.
- Manually by a user when:
- One-time debits are added to an account.
- Additional prorated debits are added to an account when activating new services.
An Important Note of What Date Invoices are For
Regardless of the method used to send the invoice or when it is sent (based on the configurations discussed below), they are always for the next billing cycle in the case of the automated invoices generated by gaiia. For example, if an account had a billing date of the 1st and invoice date of the 25th, it will mean invoices for this account will generate on the 25th for the next month's billing cycle. In other words (for example), April 25th the invoice is generated for the next billing period of May 1st to May 31st.
For manual invoices, they are generated for the day the user generated it on and include any uninvoiced that were created in between the regular billing cycle.
What Determines the Automated Invoice Day?
The date an automatic invoice is generated by a client is determined by the "Invoice day" on the account. This can be determined by the date within the "Recurring charge" section shown in the billing tab of the account.
The invoice date is determined by the the "Invoice day" billing setting that defines the default for all accounts. It can be Dynamic or a fixed date.
A dynamic date means that the invoice date for each account is based on when there services are activated. For example, an account that activates on the 15th of the month would have an invoice date of the 15th as well.
Opposite to this, is the fixed date where for all accounts the invoice dates falls on the exact same date regardless of when they activated. In this scenario, if the setting was set as the 1st, the account who activated on the 15th of the month, would still have an invoice day of the 1st of the month.
Dynamic Invoice Day
Fixed Invoice Day
Regardless of how the default invoice date that has been set, this can be overridden per account to accommodate the various scenarios that may arise. Under the billing settings of each account, the invoice day can be manually overridden to follow a different date.
Please Note: As you are adjusting these dates, you many be also be increasing or decreasing the length of the current billing cycle. Please pay close attention to this and use the proration functionality, when necessary.
Re-Sending an Invoice
In the event an invoice is not received by or needs to be sent again to an account, it can be resent directly through thee "Communications" tab of an account. Using the "Sent on" column find a date matching the invoice date and the communication labeled "Statement".
From the actions menu, select the "Resend" option to send out the same communication that the account would have originally received when the invoice was originally generated. This means both the email and attached PDF will be received by the account.
Please Note: This method will only send out the communication for one message type at a time. Therefore, if the account wants both Email/SMS communication, the action will need to be repeated twice.
Invoice Layout
This section will breakdown the various parts of the invoice for easy reference.
Invoice Header
A - Your company logo
B - Your company address
C - The name and mailing address (physical address) of the account
D - High-level invoice details (the total amount due may also reflect any previous balances being carried forward as well.
Invoice Summary
The main section the summarizes the charges and on the invoice. Depending on account activity a few different options may appear in this section:
- Ongoing Charges (always appears) -> The recurring charges for the account each billing cycle.
- Prior balance (conditional) -> Should an account have any outstanding balances this row will appear.
- Pending payments (conditional) -> Should a user have a pending pending on their account that will apply to this invoice this row will appear.
- Applied payment (conditional) -> If payments had already been applied to this invoice, a row will appear noting the total and reduce the overall total due.
- Credits (conditional -> When discounts have been applied to this invoice, a row will appear noting the total and reduce the overall total due.
- Taxes/Fees (always appears) -> The total taxes and fees charged to the customer.
Invoice Detail
The invoice details, as the name suggests, provides a detailed breakdown of each item that makes up the various sections within the "Invoice Summary". Like the invoice summary, each section is conditional depending on whether the invoice contains those items.
Customizing Your Invoice
Before you go-live, gaiia fully customizes your invoice with your logo and ensures it contains the information that you need. However, you may wish to make changes to it. At any time, you can modify it using template editor within gaiia.
First, navigate to the following: Admin > Documents > System Templates > Statement Document and click on it to open the invoice. If you support multiple languages, there may be multiple invoices in the list but simply click on the one that needs to be edited.
When clicked on, this will open the editor to allow the invoice to be modified. The "Preview" tab will show the results of any changes that were made. Called out in the image below are the various merge tags that can be added to the invoice as well that pre-populate information such as invoice amounts or account details.
Please Note: This document isn't intended to go into how to customize an invoice. For help on how to do this, please reach out to support.
Invoice Statuses
Invoices can be in a few different statuses within gaiia. This section will outline each of these status along with when they typical enter this status.
Unpaid
When the invoice hasn't been fully paid yet. Partial payments that don't cover the full invoice will still mean the invoice remains in this status. An invoice in this status is a result of two different factors:
- No or partial payments that don't fully cover the amount due.
- An outstanding amount on the invoice but it is not considered overdue yet (discussed further below).
Overdue
An unpaid invoice that has met the criteria to be considered overdue. This occurs when:
- No or partial payments are made that fully cover the amount due of the invoice.
- The defined elapsed period of time has passed before the invoice is considered overdue.
For the second item, a billing setting, "Days to become overdue after invoice day" defines this elapsed period of time. For example, if a customer received the invoice on the 1st, and the setting was configured as 13, the invoice would be considered overdue of the 14th (assuming there was still an amount due).
Please Note #1: If you use dynamic billing and invoice dates, each accounts' overdue date can be different.
Please Note #2: Overdue invoices are one of the checks that contribute to whether eventually the account may become delinquent.
Paid
The amount due on the invoice is $0.00 and there is nothing left to pay on it. As soon as no amount due remains on an invoice, gaiia will automatically change an invoice to this status.
Uncollectible
An invoice is placed in this status when the "Write off" invoice action is used. Put simply, an invoice in this status means you will not be receiving payment from the account (for any number of reasons). Should this action be used, a "write off" discount is created for the amount due on that invoice to help balance and track the uncollectible revenue. After creating the discount, the invoice is marked as Uncollectible and its amount due is shown as $0.00.
The "Discounts applied" report can provide reconciliation and auditing of all revenue that was uncollectible due to the invoice being written off.
Please Note: Be extremely careful using the "Write off" action as it cannot be reversed.
Action used to mark an invoice as uncollectible.
Voided
Mistakes happen and there can be sometimes where an invoice was erroneously generated. An invoice can be placed in the Voided status when the "Void" invoice action has been used. It will change the amount due to $0.00 and any debits part of the invoice will also be voided as well. Effectively, the invoice will no longer count towards the overall balance due of the account.
Please Note: Be extremely careful using the "Write off" action as it cannot be reversed.
Action used to void an invoice.
Invoice Actions
A few different invoice actions are available to users. They have been listed below:
- Download (all invoice statuses) -> This will display the invoice in a PDF for easy review, printing, emailing, etc. Depending on your browser, this action may open a new window or as a new tab.
- Void (Paid, Overdue & Unpaid statuses ONLY)) -> Will void the invoice. Refer to the status section above.
- Write off (Unpaid & Overdue statues ONLY) -> Will mark the invoice as Uncollectible. Refer to the status section above.
Mailing Invoices to Accounts
While most of your accounts will receive their invoice through email/SMS or viewing it through the customer portal, they can still be some who prefer/need a printed invoice through mail. To help with this gaiia offers two different options that can be used together or just one exclusively.
Option #1: Manual Print and Mail the Invoices
gaiia offers a convenient "Download" option for each invoice that can be used to download the invoice and then mail it.
Option #2: Use gaiia Invoice Generation Automation
If you need to print and mail invoices for a number of each accounts, gaiia can help automate this process for you.
To start, enable the "Receives printed invoice" billing setting on the appropriate accounts. This will tell the gaiia automation that invoices from this account need to be part of it.
[Optional] If you charge a fee for mailing invoices, gaiia can automatically add this charge for you as well. To setup this, first create a new "fee" product type within the product catalogue at the appropriate amount you charge. Within the billing settings, find and configure the "Apply a fee when an account receives a printed invoice". Once configured, this fee will be applied to the recurring invoice for any applicable accounts with the "Receives printed invoice" setting enabled.
After configuring the appropriate settings, gaiia will run a process daily to find all of the invoices for accounts whose invoices were generated and they require a printed version of them. These invoices will be consolidated in a single PDF report for each download and printing, preventing the need to find each account manually.
The report is called "Mailed invoices" and will generate daily if there are invoices to be printed.
Pro Tip: We recommend adjust the invoice date of these customers so it generates a few days before the next billing cycle. This will provide time to download and mail the invoice before the due date period starts. Within each account the invoice date can be overridden to allow for this.
Keep in mind, the invoices are always generated for future billing periods. For example, in the example image below, a billing date of the 1st and invoice date of the 25th, will mean invoices for this account will generate on the 25th for the next month's billing cycle. In other words (for example), April 25th the invoice is generated for the next billing period of May 1st to May 31st.
A Few Things to Note About Invoices (Common Questions)
Question #1: An Account has Multiple Invoices that are Currently Open. What Order will gaiia Apply New Credits (discounts/payments)?
Any new credits added to an account will always be applied to the oldest invoice first. If there is remaining credits it will continue to be applied to open invoices, applying to the next oldest invoice until it is fully used. If all invoices are completely covered by the credit, any remaining funds will be added to the "Available Funds" of an account.
Question #2: When are Available Funds Applied to an Invoice?
An important rule to keep in mind is that if a client has available funds in their account, they will be applied first before any other credits (discounts/payments). This understanding will help with reviewing the scenarios outlined below. In all instances, assume as an invoice is opened, the available funds are the first thing that are applied, even if auto payment is enabled on the account.
Available funds can be applied to an invoice in a few different scenarios:
- Automatically when a manual invoice is generated. Any available funds are applied first and may result in the invoice being marked as "Paid" without any additional credits required.
- Automatically to any recurring invoice that is generated as part of the regular billing cycle of an account. Any available funds are applied first before recurring discounts and payments are applied.
- Manually by a user from the "Options" menu of an invoice. This can occur when available funds become available after an invoice was opened.
Applying Available Funds Manually
Question #3: Why Didn't Autopay Cover the Current Invoice?
There are a couple of reasons this may have occurred (outside of payment failures).
The first reason is that it simply was not required. As mentioned in a previous FAQ, any available balances and recurring discounts are applied to an invoice first before taking payment. If the invoice can be fully covered by these credits, gaiia simply won't take the payment as it will be unnecessary.
Another reason could be a combination of more than one outstanding invoice and configuration of certain billing settings. If the "Set auto-pay to charge entire balance due" billing setting is disabled, auto payment is only taken for the exact amount of the current invoice. If there is more than one invoice open, that payment will apply to the oldest one first. If the amount cannot cover both, the current invoice may not be covered at all.
Pro Tip: We recognize you may have certain business practices preventing you from doing so, but if you are able, we strongly recommend you enable the aforementioned setting. This will ensure auto payment covers any outstanding balances on accounts, helping reduce the number of overdue invoices or accounts entering delinquency.
Question #4: If I Add New Debits to an Account Do I Always Need to Manually Create an Invoice?
No, it is at your discretion. If the customer wishes to receive an invoice (or you need to provide one) for these debits, you can manually generate the invoice just for the uninvoiced debits without affect the recurring invoice cycle. If you choose not to generate one, the uninvoiced debits will automatically be adding to the recurring invoice next billing cycle.
Uninvoiced Debits on an Account
Generating an Invoice Outside of the Regular Billing Cycle