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Manage your Client's Billing
Manage your Client's Billing
Samantha Postlethwaite avatar
Written by Samantha Postlethwaite
Updated over a week ago

To avoid some common errors in your clients' billing, you need to understand some core concepts; Income, Cashflow, Credits and Refunds. 


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Income: This column in the client's billing tab is related to sales and purchases. There's no actual money moving around in this column, only registrations and credits. Here, you'll find 2 things. The items we add to the account which cause the client to owe money (ex 1: invoices for online purchases or additional fees).
Contrary to this, we also find items that will 'credit' the account such as credit memos of canceled purchases and rebates that are displayed, as in ex 2.

Cashflow: This column is related to money that is circulating to and from the account such as Payments and Refunds. In this column, you will find Payments (as shown in ex 1) and Refunds (as shown in ex 2).

Actions you can Perform in a Client's Billing Account

You may notice some transactions are in different languages. The description of a transaction is saved at its creation based on the language the user prefers in SmartRec. A confirmation of each action can be sent to your client.

Your organization's main admin can be sent a confirmation email when:

  • A client makes a purchase;

  • An admin creates a new invoice in the Client billing subtab;

  • An admin cancels a purchase;

  • An admin purchases through a replacement.


Create a Credit

A credit is used to reduce the current balance on a client's SmartRec account. A credit is not a transaction that affects real money. It can stay on the account for future use with your organization. For example, a client registers to an activity and pays.

However, before it starts, they cancel their registration. Your organization does not offer refunds so the money they paid stays in their account as a credit, to be used at a later date when the client registers to another activity.

Here's how you do it:

  • From a client's account, make sure you are in the Billing section.

  • Click on the Operations menu.

  • Select Create credit and fill out the credit form.

  • Select the appropriate tax option. If you want the total amount credited to match the value you write, make sure taxes are included.

  • Save your changes.

Record a Refund

A reimbursement is taking a credit and giving it back to a client. Unlike a credit, a reimbursement is a real money transaction. In this case, a client registers to an activity and pays. However, the client cancels the registration. You refund the money they paid.

There are three ways of refunding a client:

  1. Refunding while cancelling a purchase. While cancelling a purchase, you will have the option to credit the client's account and reimburse them in the same way they paid. This means that if they paid using credit card, you will be able to reimburse the credit card; but you can never reimburse a customer more than the amount they paid. Please keep in mind that credit card reimbursements can take 5-6 business days to appear on the card statement.

  2. Refunding directly from a payment receipt. If you need to reimburse a payment without cancelling a registration, you can do so by expanding the payment receipt you would like to reimburse and by selecting the 'Refund' option. If the payment was made via credit card, you will be able to refund the card directly. 

  3. Reimbursing someone using available credit on the account. If there is a negative balance a customer's account, you can open the operations menu and choose Add a refund. This operation cannot be used to refund someone via credit card as it is not associated to a credit card transaction.

If the client's account is at $0 :

Credit: If the client's account is $0, using the Add credit operation will reduce the account balance. This credit can be used towards future purchases, but is not automatically credited. Please note that credits cannot be cancelled. 

Refunding: A refund is impossible when a client's balance is $0 because it indicates to the system that you do not owe the client any money. If you wish to reimburse a client, you will need to add a credit using the above operation first to inform the system that you owe the client money. Once you add the credit, you can then use the operation Add Refund to reimburse the newly added credit. Please note that this operation cannot be used to reimburse credit cards online.

Reversing a credit  

As credits cannot be cancelled outright, you will need to use an invoice to reverse the credit. Simply use the Add invoice operation to add an invoice for the same amount as the credit. You can leave a note on the account explaining that the invoice is the result of a credit which needs to be reversed.

Cancel a refund

You can cancel a credit card reimbursement so long as you do so on the same day. As long as the reimbursement has not been received by the payment processor, you will be able to cancel it. Simply find the refund and expand it using the '+' sign on your client's billing page. You can then select Cancel Refund to cancel the refund. If you need to reverse a refund which has already been processed by your payment processor, you will need to add an invoice to the account.

Cancel a purchase

A credit and a refund can also be offered when cancelling a purchase. Simply follow these steps:

  • In a client's account, expand the invoice you would like to cancel.

  • Click on Cancel/Refund Items. 

  • Select the item(s) you would like to cancel.

  • Enter a credit to be applied to the account. You can choose Full amount if you want to credit the client for the full amount of the invoice items you are cancelling.

  • You can also enter a refund. This part of the process lets you take the credit and refund it to the client. If they paid via credit card, you can refund them directly on their card. When choosing your refund, please note that you can pick Suggested refund to refund the exact amount you are crediting.

If you are cancelling an activity in order to register the same person to a different activity, please note that you should enter a credit but not a refund. During registration, the credit on the account can be used as a method of payment. The credit cannot be used if the client is looking to pay via the installments module, however. 

Make a payment

You can manually enter a payment for a client directly in their account:

  • From the billing section in the client's account, expand the invoice you would like to pay.

  • On the right, you will see the option to 'Make a Payment.' Clicking on this link will let you pay the client's invoice and the payment will automatically be reconciled with the invoice.

We understand the importance of properly billing your clients. If you have any questions, please contact support@amilia.com

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