About Invoice Batches

An invoice batch is a group of customer invoices, credit memos and debit memos collected together to be processed under one batch ID.

These are the general steps for invoice batching:

  • On the Customers form, you specify an Invoice Batch Cutoff Day for each customer. This determines the day of the month when all of the customer's invoices since the last cutoff day should be generated as a batch.
  • Customer orders are created and shipped, and invoices are generated.
  • To group batches of invoices based on a date, use the Generate Invoice Batch form. Each invoice batch is assigned a unique number.

    Invoice batches are generated based on the Close Date that you specify on the Generate Invoice Batch form. The two-digit day of the close date is used to determine which customers' invoices are included in the invoice batch by matching the day with the Customer Invoice Batch Cutoff Day that was assigned on the Customers form. For example, the cutoff day for customers 1, 3 and 5 is set to the 15th of the month. For customers 4 and 6, the cutoff day is set to the 30th of the month. If you generate a batch with a close date of 11/15/xx, any invoices, credit memos, and debit memos for customers 1, 3, and 5 that have not yet been printed are included in the batch. Invoices for customers 4 and 6 are not included.

    You can override these rules when you generate a batch.

  • Alternatively, you can use the Invoice Batches form to manually add a batch, and then use Invoice Batch Details to specify the customers and invoices to include in the batch.

    You can also delete an unprinted invoice batch on this form.

  • Until the invoice batch is printed, you can use the Invoice Batches form to add or delete batches, and use the Invoice Batch Details form to verify, add, delete, or update customer invoices and A/R posted records within a selected batch.
  • Use the Invoice Batch Report form to print the batch of invoices.

The Invoice Date and the Due/Paid Date fields on the A/R Posted Transaction Detail form are used during the generation and print processing. For example, if the invoice date is set to 10/10/13 and for some reason it is changed to 11/10/13, the invoice does not get picked up in the 10/20/13 generation run unless the Override Invoice Batch Creation Rules field is checked on the Generate Invoice Batch form.

For payments, the Due/Paid Date is used to determine when a payment was made. If this date is changed, it affects the Former Invoice and Payment calculations on the Invoice Batch Detail form and the Invoice Batch Report. If a payment Due/Paid Date is set to 05/12/13 and it is changed to 11/12/13, the payment shows in the November payments and not the May payments. If you do a reprint of May, its values would be different because the payment would not show as being paid in May.

Dummy Invoices

If you have upgraded from a prior version, you must create a dummy invoice batch so that old invoices, credit memos, and debit memos do not show up on the first invoice batch sent out to your customers. A dummy invoice batch should be created for each of the cutoff days that would be run during a normal month. You should use the prior period close date, so that invoices, credit memos, and debit memos for the current period are not included in the generation of the invoice batches. If an existing customer has been in the system but was not part of the invoice batch process and is added to the invoice batch process, you should generate a dummy invoice for that customer. This prevents older invoices, credit memos, and debit memos from showing on the current period invoice batch.