Most of the time, Invoicing is straightforward: you create an Order, deliver the load, and send the Invoice out to the Customer. But sometimes the situation is different: maybe you’re moving a lot of small, quick loads for a single Customer, and it doesn’t make sense to send them an individual invoice for every single Order; or maybe you have a regular Customer who prefers to get one Invoice at the end of every month, regardless of how much freight you moved.
To support these sorts of situations, Tailwind includes the ability to group individual Orders/Invoices into one single Batch Invoice. Batching an invoice involves the following steps:
First, create a unique batch invoice code on the customer record.
Next, apply the batch invoice code to the invoices to be batched together.
Finally, post all batched invoices simultaneously, grouping them into one batch.
Adding a Batch Invoice Code to the Customer Record
To create your Batch Invoice Code, start by opening the Customer Record for the customer in question via the Customer List.
Once you have opened the record, navigate to the ‘Invoice Codes’ tab. This is where you can create a set of unique invoice codes for batching purposes.
To create an invoice code, click the ‘Create Code’ button. This will open up the ‘Invoice Code Create.’ Enter a Name for the new Invoice Code, and set the Currency used for the batch Invoice. The currency will default to the Customer’s preferred currency. Individual invoices that are batched together must share the same Currency.
Once the fields have been filled in, click ‘Save’ to create the new invoice code on the customer record. Once created, it can then be applied to individual Invoices.
Creating Batch Invoice Codes – Using Multiple Codes for One Customer
A single code can be used multiple times for multiple batches, so in most cases, only a single code per Customer is likely to be necessary. However, you can also set up multiple codes to handle different sets of Invoices for the same Customer.
For example, work with an auto-retailer who wishes to pay for the movement of Fords separately from the movement of Chevrolets but wants to pay them in batches. You could have one invoice code called “FORD” and another called “CHEVROLET.” This will allow you to group all Ford movements and all the invoices associated with the Chevrolet movements. You can then use these invoice codes continually to create new batches of the “FORD” and “CHEVROLET” batch invoices whenever you are processing a new set of invoices.
Applying a Batch Invoice Code to an Invoice
Once a Customer has a Batch Code, that code can be applied to any invoice to that Customer. To make an invoice part of a batch, start by opening the Order/Invoice record, then click the ‘Edit’ button to edit the Invoice.
Once you are in Edit Mode, you can select the Batch Code you want to apply from the ‘Batch Code’ drop-down menu. After selecting the code, click the ‘Save’ button.
(The menu will only include Batch Codes for the Customer in question. If there are no options in this drop-down menu, then an invoice code must be created on the customer record before invoices can be batched for this customer.)
Posting and Printing a Batch Invoice
The final step is to Post the Invoices you want to batch together. When you select and Post invoices from the Invoicing list, any Invoices that share the same Batch Code will automatically be batched together.
To begin this process, navigate to the ‘Invoicing’ list, and mark all the Invoices you wish to process and batch as ‘Approved.’ Once you have done so, you can then ‘Transmit Only’ (which will print the Batch Invoice document), ‘Post Only’ (which will post all of the invoices with the same posted date and batch instance), or “Transmit And Post” (which will do both).
The Batch Invoice document contains the details of each invoice which makes up the batch and presents the total of the invoices as one batch invoice for your customer to pay. The invoice number combines the Batch Code and the Batch Instance. So, for example, if this is the second time you have used the “FORD” batch code, then the invoice number would be “FORD-2”. This is the unique invoice number your customer can provide to you so that you know which batch they are referencing.
Receiving Payment on Batch Invoices
As only one Invoice document is being provided to your customer, the Customer is likely only to send one payment for all invoices in the batch. This payment can be applied easily using the 'Incoming Payment Wizard.' First, fill in the details for the wizard as normal, with the check number and total amount applied. Then, when you click 'Show Invoices', an option will appear to filter based on a batch invoice number. Select the batch instance from the drop-down to filter the list of Invoices to only those that make up that batch. You can then apply for payment from the customer to the individual Invoices.
Additional Information and Troubleshooting
Once Invoices that are part of a batch have been posted together as one batch instance, you can reprint the batch invoice document at any time from any of the individual invoices that make up the batch instance. For example, if batch instance “FORD-2” was made up of Invoices 123, 124, and 125, you could print the Batch Invoice document for this entire batch instance by opening any of these Invoices and selecting Print and choosing to print the Batch Invoice. This will then pull the details of all Invoices that are part of this batch instance and re-print the document. Of course, you can also print the individual Invoices if you wish.
If a posted invoice needs to be added to an existing batch instance, this can be done by editing the invoice and applying the batch code and instance number to the record. For example, if the customer requests that the posted individual invoice 122 also be included in batch “FORD-2”, then invoice 122 could be edited so that the Batch Code is “FORD,” and the Batch Number is “2”. The document can then be reprinted by selecting to print the batch invoice on invoice #122. Please note that an invoice can only be included in a historical batch instance if it has already been posted.
If an Invoice has been included in a batch in error, it can be removed from the batch by editing the record and either changing the batch code or batch number or removing the batch code and batch number. Any of these actions will remove the individual invoice from that batch instance. The batch invoice can then be reprinted from any invoices that make up that batch instance.
Related Articles
Other than the differences described above, all the regular rules concerning Posting Invoices apply to batched Invoices.
Once you receive a payment on your Batch Invoice, you will want to use the Incoming Payment Wizard to process that payment.