This article outlines the available options for closing invoices which are available in the Bill Group Configuration.
Note: during a bill run invoices are only rendered if you have 'Run Render Invoice' checked. Otherwise the invoices are left non rendered. What this means is that the next time you go to load the invoice (if you have not run the 'run render invoice' option) it will take a short while to render the first time. This ensures that the invoice has the most up to date data in the rendered form
Click the Setup tab.
Click Bill Groups under the Accounting section
Click the name of the bill group you wish to edit from the list
Click the icon to the right of the Invoice Close Type field
Select an option from the list presented:
After Each Bill Run - each time billing runs for this bill group, ALL open invoices are closed first (not just invoices for accounts which are getting billed). This option would be useful when you add a transaction/credit to a customer whose package is multi-month, 3, 6, 12, etc. and you don't want to wait till the next time their package is billed to send out invoices. ** Payments processed during the bill run will show on the invoice here as it will be closed before delivery**
Post User Billing - the system will only close invoices after an account is billed. Billed does not necessarily mean a transaction is added during a bill run, it simply means an account passes through the billing logic as one that may need to be billed (for usage or package charges) and if so, an existing open invoice would get closed even if the only account that prompted billing to look at the invoicer was a cancelled account. Past packages will roll up onto the one invoice so that only one invoice is delivered per the current bill cycle. A scenario in which you may use this option would be for catching UDR exceptions from previous months. This option will help prevent the system from creating a separate invoice for calls with no cost from the previous bill cycle. ** Payments will not show on the current periods invoice since this option closes invoices as soon as the system is done applying debits. Payments will be shown on the next invoice.** Post User Billing is usually the default since most companies want only one invoice per month sent to the customer
User Bill Cycle - each time an account hits their bill cycle the invoice is closed before billing occurs. ** Payments will be shown on the current invoice as billing will close the invoice just before delivery. Any new transactions will cause a new invoice to be opened. This new invoice will stay open until the package on the customers bill is next on the bill day, set on their account. For example, if the customers bill day is 1, and a new transaction is added on the 5th to force a new invoice to be opened, it will not close until the monthly package bills again on the next 1st of the month. In the case of the quarterly or yearly service, the invoice will stay open until the package bills, i.e. any invoice created by a new transaction after billing has occurred will be open potentially for 3 months, or yearly depending on the recurrence of the package
For information on modifying other settings on the bill group edit page, see the Bill Group Configuration article
Click Save to save the bill group, or Save/New to save it and create another bill group