What is Rules Based Invoicing? How does it work?

Cheqdin has a feature called Rules-based invoicing which simplifies invoicing for childcare providers. It allows you to generate multiple invoices with varying amounts in a single click. Although it may sound like bulk invoicing, it is a smarter and more efficient version specifically designed for the childcare industry.

Now, why do you want it?

Unlike in most other sectors, the seemingly simple bulk-invoicing/batch-invoicing feature isn’t quite so straightforward for the early years and after-school care sector.

You could be using a cracking invoicing software and still find yourself doing a lot of work instructing the system to retrieve all the information for each invoice.

This is because most of the invoicing systems that are currently available in the market follow a one-shoe-fit-all batch-invoicing pattern that does not quite give you the option to factor in variable booking patterns, session timings and fee structures. Even if they do, you will find the entire workflow so complicated and time-consuming that it ends up nearly as difficult as doing it all manually.

Cheqdin’s Rules-based invoicing solves this issue for you.

Our rules-based invoicing allows you to simplify the entire batch-invoicing process by setting your own rules and creating invoices in batches based on the requirements you define in your system.

You can create weekly, monthly, termly or ad-hoc invoices and add in discounts, additional/extra fees or taxes – without doing individual calculations for each invoice.

For instance, suppose you are looking at creating invoices for ‘all children who took ad-hoc sessions in a month’. In that case, all you need to do is create a rule for ‘monthly invoices with ad-hoc sessions’ in your Cheqdin invoicing dashboard and the system will automatically generate the invoices for that group.

Ok, now how does it all work?

Step 1: Create Invoice Rule

Go to ‘Billing’> Rules-Based Invoicing > ‘Invoice Rules’> ‘Add Invoice Rule’

Start by giving the rule that you are defining an easily identifiable name, for example, ‘Monthly invoice with Ad-hoc Sessions’.  Make sure to update all fields. Click on ‘Add Rule’ and select a rule from the list.

Important: 

Please update booking schedules before creating an invoicing rule for contract and ad hoc sessions. Rules are fetched from schedules/rota for contract sessions and online bookings for ad hoc sessions. Hence, if these aren't updated,  your rules will not work.  

Step 2: Select Students

You can now select all the students that you’d like to apply the rule to. Search for the students individually by name or filter out students based on rooms. Click on 'Load More' to show the names of all students in your setting. Go for the ‘Select All’ option if you want to apply the rule to all students. You can also deselect students by unchecking the box next to their name. After you're done selecting the students, click on -> Next step. 

Step 3: Check the Rule Summary preview and confirm the Invoice Rule

You can now preview the rule that you have defined and recheck all the details entered.  Click on ‘Generate invoices to draft’ and head straight to your ‘Drafts’ folder to find the entire set of invoices waiting for you. Select the tick box - 'Save this rule as a template’ if you want to save the rule as a template and re-run it again when you need it the next time.

Step 4: Go to Billing > Drafts and approve invoices 

All the drafts you generated earlier can be found in the drafts folder under billing. Please review the draft invoices and amend if required before approving the invoices.  

There are two ways you can approve invoices from drafts:
 

Option A) Batch Approve Invoices using the 'Batch Action': 

Select the invoices you want to batch approve and click on the 'Batch Action' button > 'Batch Approve'. Click on 'Confirm' to approve the invoices. 

After the invoice is approved, click on the ellipsis (three dots) '...' and click on 'Send.' to send the invoice to the bill payer. All sent invoices can be viewed from the 'Billing' > 'Sent Invoices' section. 

 

Option B) Approve invoices individually and send them: 

If you wish to approve invoices individually, select an invoice, click on the ellipsis (three dots) '...' and click on 'Mark as Approved'. 

After the invoice is approved, click on the ellipsis (three dots) '...' and click on 'Send.' All sent invoices can be viewed from the 'Billing' > 'Sent Invoices' section.