In this article

Invoice Creator Batch Processing

Modules > Advanced recurring contract billing > Periodic tasks > Invoice creator batch processing

Use this page to set up the recurring invoice creator batch job process. When setting up the batch job process, you only need to modify the settings when first creating the batch job process.

To create invoices for a specified date range and to learn more about the options, review the description for the Invoice Creator page.

Lines with a Daily frequency

Billing schedule lines that have a Daily billing frequency are included in the batch job for invoice creation regardless of the setting of the Filter by option because the billing start and end dates are the same. For example, a batch job is set up as follows: 

  • Filter by is Start date
  • Add number of days or months is Yes
  • Select by days or months is Days
  • Number of days or months is 5
  • System date is June 01, 2021

All billing schedule lines that have a Daily billing frequency and a billing start or end date between June 01 and June 06, 2021, are included in the batch. The scenario is the same when Filter by is End date because the billing start and end dates for these billing schedule lines are the same.

Set Up a Recurring Batch Job

To set up a recurring batch job, follow these steps: 

  1. In Date Range:
    1. In Filter by, select to filter the records by billing start or end date.
    2. To set a range of days or months to determine which records to include in a batch job run, set Add number of days or months to Yes.
    3. Select whether to use days or months, and specify the Number of days or months.
  2. In Consolidation, select whether to consolidate the invoice by all periods, customer, item, or any combination of the options.
  3. If you want to use the top billing feature, set Split by item group to Yes.
    Note icon. Note: The top billing feature is not available for items that use revenue splitting in Multiple Element Revenue Allocation.
  4. In Invoice Processing, specify the following: 
    1. Invoice transaction type
    2. Posting option
      To save time and post the invoice immediately, select Show posting invoice form or create invoice proposal or Post invoice automatically.
    3. Invoice date
  5. If you use revenue splitting, select whether to suppress the child items.
  6. In Records to include, select additional filters to determine the records to include in the batch.
  7. In Run in the background, do the following:
    1. Set any of the options to have the batch job run as a background process.
    2. Select Recurrence to have the batch job run as a recurring process. For more information, see Define Recurrence..
  8. Select OK.

Fields

This page contains the following fields: 

Field Description
Date Range
Filter by

Select how records are included in the batch: 

  • Start date:  Creates invoices for billing schedule lines that have a billing start date up to and including the date on which the batch job is run.
  • End date: Creates invoices for billing schedule lines that have a billing end date up to and including the date on which the batch job is run.

The date the batch job is run is typically the system date.

Add number of days or months

Determines whether invoices for billing schedule lines are created based on the billing date in relation to the date on which the batch job is run: 

  • Yes: Creates invoices for all billing schedule lines that have a billing start or end date within the specified number of days or months on which the batch job is run (system date). When this option is used, the Select by days or months and Number of days or months are required.
  • No: Creates invoices for all billing schedule lines that have a billing start or end date up to the date on which the batch job is run (system date).
Select by days or months Select to use Days or Months to determine which billing schedule lines are to be included in the batch job.
Day or period value

Specify the day or month range for which to include billing schedule lines in the batch job. Records that have a start date or end date within the specified date range will be processed. This value can be positive or negative.

The following settings are used: 

  • Add number of days or months is set to Yes
  • Select by days or months is set to Days
  • This batch job is run on June 01

If the Number of days or months is 15, all billing schedule lines that have a billing start or end date between June 01 and June 16 are processed in the batch job.

If the Number of days or months is -15, all billing schedule lines that have a billing start or end date between May 17 and June 01 are processed in the batch job.

The following settings are used: 

  • Add number of days or months is set to Yes
  • Select by days or months is set to Months
  • This batch job is run on June 01

If the Number of days or months is 2, all billing schedule lines that have a billing start or end date in the months of June and July (between June 01 and July 31) are processed in the batch job.

If the Number of days or months is -2, all billing schedule lines that have a billing start or end date in the months of May and June (between May 01 and June 30) are processed in the batch job.

Quantity Range
Exclude zero consumption

Select whether to include the billing schedule lines that are usage items with a zero (0) consumption amount and use the free quantity feature.

  • Yes: Billing schedule lines that have a zero consumption and use the free quantity feature are not included in the batch. No invoices can be created for these lines.
  • No: Billing schedule lines that have a zero consumption amount are included in the batch.
Consolidation
Consolidate all periods

Select whether the billing periods for which invoices are to be created are consolidated into a single sales document: 

  • Yes: Invoices for multiple billing periods are consolidated into a single sales document. These lines must be the same for the item of the same billing schedule.
    Note icon. Note: Consolidating all periods and consolidating by items cannot work together. When this option is set to Yes, lines cannot be consolidated by items.
    Also, this feature is not available for deferrable items.
  • No: Invoices for multiple billing periods are not consolidated.
Consolidate by customer

Select whether sales documents are consolidated by customer:

Consolidate by item

Select whether sales documents are consolidated by item:

  • Yes: Consolidates the invoice lines for matching items and project IDs when an invoice is created. This feature is not available for deferrable items.
  • No: Does not consolidate invoices by item.
Split by item group

Indicates whether renewal items are also put into item groups for invoice purposes: 

  • Yes: Item groups are used for renewal items.
  • No: Item groups are not used.
Invoice Processing
Invoice transaction type

Select the invoice transaction type you want to process.

Posting option

Select the action for posting the invoice after the sales order is created: 

  • Create sales order: Creates the sales order only. At a later time, you can manually create and post the sales order invoice.
    When a project ID exists for any of the lines, the project ID is attached to the sales order.
  • Create free text invoice: Creates a free text invoice. Available when Invoice transaction type is Free text invoice.
  • Post invoice automatically: Creates the sales order, and automatically posts the sales order invoice.
    When a project ID exists for any of the lines, a project invoice proposal is created and then posted.
Suppress child items on print

Indicates whether child items of a revenue split appear on a sales invoice: 

  • Yes: All child items are hidden from the sales invoice. Only the parent item appears on the invoice.

    • If the net amount of the (hidden) child items has a non-zero sum, the net amount of the parent line shows a summary of the child lines. For more information, see Revenue Split - Suppress Child Items.

  • No: All child items appear below the parent item on a sales invoice. The net amount for each child item appears on the invoice.

This option can be used only when all (parent and child) items in a revenue split are included on the invoice.

Batch Process Records Table
Records to include
Set values for the filters that are available. Some values cannot be changed since they are used when the batch is run.
Run in the background
Specify the parameters for when the report runs as a background process.
Batch processing

Select whether to run the report as part of a batch job:

  • Yes: Runs the report in the background as part of a batch process.
  • No: Runs the report in the background on its own.
Task description Specify a description for the task.
Batch group Select the batch in which the report is to run.
Private

Select whether the report is a private report:

  • Yes: The report is a private report.
  • No: The report is not private.
Critical job

Select whether the report run is critical: 

  • Yes: The report run is critical.
  • No: The report run is non-critical.
Monitoring category Select the monitoring category for running the report.

Buttons

This page contains the following buttons: 

Batch Process Buttons Table
Button Description
OK Runs the batch job based on the specified criteria.
Cancel Closes the window.
Run in the background
Recurrence

Specify the parameters for running the report on a recurring basis. For more information, see Define Recurrence.

Alerts

Specify the parameters for sending alerts about a report run. For more information, see Batch Job Alerts.