Invoices to issue — Bulk Invoices

Invoices to issue is the monthly invoice run. For one month it lists one invoice per client, built from that client's projects, and creates the ones you select. You check what each invoice would contain, and nothing is created before you click Create invoices. Every invoice that cannot be issued says why. Creating the invoices emails nothing and sends nothing for e-invoicing.

This run is separate from Bulk lease invoicing, which bills the leases of one park. It suits an organisation that bills from bookings and prices on its projects, including meter consumption: an invoice with no booking behind it in that month is refused, as set out under When an invoice is refused.

When the run is available

The run is set per organisation and is off by default, so an organisation does not have it until it is turned on. There is no switch for it on a settings page: ask Flowtly support to change it. It is in one of three states:

Off. The invoices list offers no entry for the run. Opening its address shows "The monthly invoice run is not turned on for this organisation."
Preview only. The list of invoices is shown, but Create invoices is unavailable and a note under it says so. Use this state to compare the run with invoices you have already issued, before anything can be created from it.
On. The list is shown and Create invoices works.

The run also needs the invoicing module, and it is open to administrators and to users who manage invoices. For them, while the run is not off, the entry Invoices to issue appears in the menu beside Create an invoice on the invoices list, under Add bulk invoices. The run is a second entry, not a replacement: Add bulk invoices opens the bulk flow, which is how a month's invoices go out while the run is in preview.

Which projects a run covers

Which projects a run covers depends on what your account can see:

You see every project. This applies to administrators and to users who manage projects, working hours or conditions, and to account managers. The run covers every project that was active at some point of the month, including one that ended during it. A project's phases are billed with it, on its client's invoice. One run takes up to 500 projects. With more, no invoice is listed at all, and a message says so, so that no client is left out unseen.
You see only the projects you are a member of. A user who manages invoices without any of those roles still runs the whole organisation: a note above the list says the run covers all projects of the organisation, not only the ones you are a member of. Finished projects are among them, and the limit of 500 does not apply.

A project with no client is listed too, under No client, and is refused until it has one.

The list

Month offers the three previous months, the current month and the next one, and opens on the current month. Show narrows the list to All, Ready to issue or Problems. Choosing another month clears your selection and any results on screen.

Each row is one client's invoice for the month. It names the client and the projects behind the invoice, and lists each line with its quantity, unit and net amount, with the net total beside them. A row then reads one of three ways:

Ready to issue: the invoice can be created.
Already issued with the invoice number: the client has an invoice for that month. The row cannot be selected and is never created twice. An invoice counts when its sale date is in the month or one of its rows bills a period overlapping the month, and at least one of its rows belongs to one of the run's projects.
A refusal in plain words, saying what to fix.

A row can also carry information that does not stop the invoice, so read it before you create:

Meter warnings, for example a property billed to several projects or days billed to nobody. The invoice can still be issued, so a warning on a ready row is the only sign of it. See Billing meter consumption.
Quantity warnings on the invoice's lines.
The lease comparison, for a client with leases: "Lease lines found", "draft total" and "gap" compare what the client's leases would bill with this invoice. "Lease lines could not be compared with this draft" means there is no figure to compare, not a figure of zero.

Selecting and creating

Every invoice that is ready to issue is selected to start with, and you can untick any of them. Show is a view, not a selection: invoices you selected stay selected while the filter hides them, and the line under the list says how many that is. That line also gives the number selected and their net total per currency.

Create invoices sends the run once, however many times the button is clicked. Each created invoice is an ordinary invoice, numbered and validated like one you create by hand:

It is in your organisation's currency.
Its issue date is today, and its sale date is the first day of the month you chose.
Its due date follows the client's payment term.
It carries your organisation's default bank account in that currency, or another visible account in that currency when there is no default.

The invoices wait on the invoice list. Sending one to the client or for e-invoicing is a separate step.

If Flowtly cannot confirm the outcome, a message says so and the list is refreshed. Check it before trying again: it shows which invoices were created.

Results of the run

Results of the run accounts for every row of the list you created from, in five counts:

Created: the invoice was issued.
Failed to create: it was sent but not created, either because creating it was refused or because no answer came back. An invoice with no answer says so, and the list above shows whether it was created after all.
Refused, need fixing: the list had already refused it, so it was not sent.
Already issued: it had an invoice for the month already.
Left unselected: it was ready but not selected.

The results stay as they were when the run finished, and they do not change when the list above them does. Below them:

Retry failed appears when an invoice failed to create. It sends only the failed invoices that are selected and that the refreshed list shows as ready, and its label says how many that is. Until there is at least one, the button is unavailable and says why.
Open invoices appears when the run created invoices, and opens the invoice list filtered to them.

When an invoice is refused

There is no override: a refused invoice cannot be selected until the cause is fixed. The run itself never sets a price, places an asset or creates a tag. The refusals you can meet:

Some items have no price. A meter or a pricing rule could not be priced, so the invoice would come out short. Each item is named under Items with no price, with the reason.
Some logged hours have no rate, or match more than one rate. The person, project and date of each entry are listed.
Nothing to bill this month. The client's projects hold nothing for that month.
A booked asset is in no park. Each asset is named under Assets in no park. An asset belongs to a park when it has a parent asset or units under it. The same refusal appears, with no asset named, when no booking stands behind the invoice in that month.
A row has no charge tag. Each row is named under Rows with no charge tag. A row's name has to be recognised as rent, service-charge advance or utilities, and that charge needs a tag on the Lease invoicing tags card in Invoicing settings.
A project with no client. Set one on the project.
We cannot tell whether this was already invoiced. An invoice of this month has rows with no project, which is the case for imported invoices, or is a credit note. The invoices concerned are named under Invoices we cannot read. Setting the project on the invoice's rows settles it.
The organisation has a pilot recipient set. This run does not issue pilot invoices, so every invoice is refused while one is set.
The client or project currency is not the organisation's. This run has no conversion rate, so such an invoice is not issued from it.

Some refusals appear only when the invoices are created, under Failed to create, because the list does not check them:

No bank account in the invoice's currency, or no bank account at all. Add one under Banks, then use Retry failed.
The invoice currency is not set up.
The invoice failed validation.

Example use cases

Keeping the run in preview for a month and comparing each client's invoice, line by line, with the invoice you issued the usual way.
Filtering the list to Problems to price the missing items and tag the missing charges, without losing the selection of the invoices that are ready.
Checking the gap between lease lines and the draft total for a client billed for bookings as well as a lease.
Adding a bank account after invoices failed to create, then using Retry failed to issue only those invoices.
Running the month as an invoices manager who is a member of no project, with the whole organisation in the list.