How to calculate and set up funding discounts and create batch invoices using rules based invoicing?

Important: Prerequisites before creating a funding rule: 

• Make sure students schedules are updated. See How
• Make sure funding schemes are defined and assigned to students. See How.

Creating and defining an invoicing rule under rules-based invoicing is quite simple. Here's how:

Step 1: Create Invoice Rule

A. Go to 'Billing' > Rules-Based Invoicing > Create Rule 

Update the fields as applicable. Start by giving the rule that you are defining an easily identifiable name, followed by entering the due after time frame for the billing start/end period. 

B. Click on 'Add Rule' and select from 'Contracted bookings' , 'Adhoc bookings' or 'Custom Fees'. Most popular being contracted booking.

•   Contracted bookings capture offline (contracted) bookings from the student's schedule,      except ad-hoc bookings for the selected time period.
•   Ad-hoc bookings capture all ad-hoc bookings for the selected time period.
•   Custom fees include custom user-defined values like picnic fees, lunch fees, etc.

Please make sure children schedules are updated before this step.

C. Selecting Funding Schemes

Click on 'Add Rule' again and select  'Advanced Funding Rules' to define funding rules. 

D. Enter the date range and click on calculate 'Calculate Discounts for 0 Schemes'

The system will automatically fetch the respective schemes defined within selected date range.See sample calculation shown below for reference.

System will automatically split the date range as per weeks and show you the count of number of days in the weeks that will be used for calculating discounts.

Closure days and partial week as per the date ranges selected. You can update the days and comments if you wish to do so.  This information will be visible only to the centre (not to the parents) under the Rule logs section.

Click on 'Calculate Discounts for 1 Schemes' to continue.

Update the description if required, additionally you can add more rules like tax, discounts etc.

Custom fees include custom values like picnic fees, lunch fees, etc.

Discounts include any discount values like sibling discounts, one of the discounts, etc.

Tax calculates local taxes/VAT, if any.

Once all rules are updated, click on the '--->' button to go to the next step 'Assign Children'.

Step 2: Select Children

Select the children that you wish to apply the rule to. Use the 'Select All' option to quickly select and apply the rule to all children records shown on the screen.

You can also deselect children by unchecking the box next to their profile.  

Step 3: Confirm the Invoice Rule

Here you can preview the rules you defined. Make sure you do a quick cross-check of all the details you entered.

When you click on 'Generate Invoices to draft', all invoices will be processed and saved to your 'Drafts' folder. You can review the invoices before sending them to the bill payer(s). 

Check the 'tick box' if you wish to save the rule as a template or use the same rule again in the future. Using a template will save you time when you run it next.  

You will see the following confirmation once the invoices are ready and saved in your 'Drafts'.

Step 4: Viewing and Reviewing Drafts:

To view your invoices in the 'Drafts' folder, head to Billing > Drafts. You can also edit invoices individually by clicking on the 'Action' button. 

Step 5: Sending Invoices to Bill Payers: 

Use the 'Batch Action' button to send all invoices. Please perform this step only once you have reviewed all invoices. 

Important:

All invoices saved in the drafts section require your approval prior to sending the final invoice(s). If you don't need any changes on the draft invoices, use the 'Batch Send' and 'Batch Approve' options in 'Drafts' to send them out to your customers. 

How do I run a saved rule again? 

When it's time for your next billing cycle, simply go back to the rule you created, update the date, range and values for the new billing period, and run the rule again. Go to 'Billing' > 'Rules-based Invoicing' and click on the 'Run Rule' for the saved rule of your choice.

This will allow you to modify parameters such as billing period and value range. Click 'Save & Continue', and then 'Generate Invoices to Drafts'.

How do I view all previously run or processed rules? 

Head to the 'Rule Logs' tab under 'Billing' and view your activity in the 'Bill Runs' section.  

Here you can also 'Add or Remove Children' from previously assigned rules, and quickly view and manage any de-activated rules etc.