Creating Billing Documents from Contracts

You can create billing documents from active contracts that contain one or more contract line items. Billing documents are created based on billing schedules.

Billing document line items are created for contract line items with charges that apply within the dates of the billing schedules being billed.

Note:

When you bill a contract by clicking Create Billing Documents, you must enter a date range (or a specific date) for use by the billing process. These dates do not relate to billing periods; they relate to billing dates. Only billing schedules with a billing date that falls within this date range (or on the specific date) are billed. A billing date can fall before, during, or after the period it is billing. For more information, see Calculating Billing Periods and Billing Dates.

Creating Billing Documents from Several Contracts

To create billing documents from more than one contract:

  1. Select the checkboxes of the contracts for which you want to create billing documents in the list view of the Billing Contracts tab.
  2. Click Create Billing Documents. If you click Create Billing Documents without selecting any contracts, billing documents are created for all active contracts that are due to be billed.
  3. Do one of the following to specify the date or date range to use for billing:
    • Select Equals and choose a date. Only billing schedules whose billing date falls on this date will be billed.
    • Select In range and choose a date range. Only billing schedules whose billing date falls within this date range will be billed.
    • Select On or before and choose a date. Only billing schedules whose billing date falls on or before this date will be billed.
  4. In the Document Date field enter the date on which the billing documents are being created.
  5. [Optional] In the Document Due Date field enter the date on which payment is due. If left blank, when the billing documents are created, each document's due date is calculated automatically using credit terms. Credit terms held on account take precedence over credit terms held on company. If none exist on either account or company the due date is set to the document date.
  6. Select the billing document option you want:
    • Single document – A single billing document is created for each contract.
    • Separate document for each billing type – A separate billing document is created for each billing type in each contract. For example, two separate billing documents are created if a contract contains two lines, one with a billing type "One-off", and another with a billing type "Recurring Fixed".
  7. Click Create Billing Documents.
Note:

Depending on the configuration options your administrator has chosen, you might receive a notification or an email when the contracts are processed. Only contracts that are due to be billed are processed. If the relevant automation options are configured in your org, tax will be calculated on the billing documents and they will be automatically completed. For more information, see Setting up the Automation of Billing Central Processes.

When ready to do so, you can mark billing documents as complete. See Completing Billing Documents.

Creating a Billing Document from a Single Contract

To create a billing document from a single contract:

  1. Click Create Billing Document on the Detail page of the contract that you want to create a billing document for.
  2. Do one of the following to specify the date or date range to use for billing:
    • Select Equals and choose a date. Only billing schedules whose billing date falls on this date will be billed.
    • Select In range and choose a date range. Only billing schedules whose billing date falls within this date range will be billed.
    • Select On or before and choose a date. Only billing schedules whose billing date falls on or before this date will be billed.
  3. In the Document Date field enter the date on which the billing document is being created. On leaving this field, the Document Due Date is calculated automatically using credit terms. Credit terms held on account take precedence over credit terms held on company. If none exist on either account or company the due date is set to the document date.
  4. [Optional] If you do not want to accept the calculated due date, override it by manually entering the date on which payment is due. If you clear the Document Due Date field, it is calculated afresh.
  5. Select the billing document option you want:
    • Single document – A single billing document is created for the contract.
    • Separate document for each billing type – A separate billing document is created for each billing type in the contract. For example, two separate billing documents are created if a contract contains two lines, one with a billing type "One-off", and another with a billing type "Recurring Fixed".
  6. Click Create.

When ready to do so, you can mark billing documents as complete. See Completing Billing Documents.

Automatically Creating Due Billing Documents from a Contract

If you have the appropriate option enabled in the Billing Central Automation feature, billing documents due for billingClosed Billing documents that have the Billing Date field set to today's date or before today's date. are automatically created when you activate a contract. For more information on the Billing Central Automation feature, see Setting up the Automation of Billing Central Processes. If the Billing Central Automation feature is also configured to calculate tax automatically using the default tax engine, an error is displayed if Billing Central cannot create a billing document because there is no default tax engine set on the billing document's company. To set a default tax engine on a company, you must create a Company Tax Information record and assign it to the company.

When a contract reaches the "Active" status, billing schedules are automatically generated for a predetermined number of months. This number is set in the Billing Schedule Number of Months field of the Billing Central Settings custom setting. For more information, see Billing Central Settings.

While the billing schedule generation process is running, billing documents are automatically created for billing schedules that have the Billing Date set to today's date or before today's date. If you want subsequent billing documents to be automatically created when they become due, you can create a billing job. For more information, see Creating Billing Jobs.

Depending on the value set in the Billing Document Output field of the Billing Central Settings custom setting, a single billing document is created for the contract. Alternatively, a separate billing document is created for each billing type in the contract. For more information, see Billing Central Settings.

The billing document's Document Date is set to today's date and the Document Due Date is calculated based on credit terms. For more information, see Using Billing Documents with Foundations Credit Terms.