Creating Invoices Automatically

Purpose
Benefits
How to enable automatic invoice generation
How invoices are automatically created

Purpose

To enable invoices to be generated automatically at a defined time. CartonCloud will automatically generate an invoice for the Customer's relevant Sale Orders, Purchase Orders, Consignments and Storage Periods for the specified invoice time period.

Benefits

You do not need to create invoices manually on a day-to-day basis.
Saves time.
Reduces the number of admin tasks you have to complete.
Reduces the risk of missing charges/items from the invoice.

How to enable automatic invoice generation

To enable this function, you will need to configure settings at both the Organisation and Customer Settings levels.

Organisation Settings will apply to all invoices for all Customers; however, Customer Settings will only be applied to invoices for that particular customer.

Configuring Organisation Settings

Navigate to the Organisation Settings, More>Organisation Settings.
Select the Invoice tab.
Scroll down to the Configure Invoice Reply Email Content and Invoice Defaults sections.
Use the below table to fill in the applicable fields.
Select Save.

Setting	Description
Configure Invoice Reply Email Content
Invoice Reply Email Content	Email content that will be sent to the Customer once the Invoice is generated. Place holders are provided under the Available Fields heading. These placeholders are replaced with the actual data value of the placeholder before the email is sent to the customer. Available field placeholders - the surrounding curly brace holders tell CartonCloud to see them as a placeholder instead of normal text. {customer_name} - The Customer's name {start_date} - The start date of the period covered by this invoice. {end_date} - The end date of the period covered by this invoice. {invoice_link} - A link to the invoice in the CartonCloud Web App, allowing the customer to view the invoice details. {your_email} - Your contact email address, used for customers enquiries about invoices. {your_company_name} - Your company name.
Invoice Defaults
Default Next Invoice Date	Default date to generate the next Invoice.
Repeat Every	Interval in which Invoices are generated. (x Days/Weeks/Months).
Default First Day of Week	Define which day of the week is considered the first day of the week. This helps the system to determine the starting of repeating interval to generate Invoices.
Due Days	Once the invoice is pushed to the accounting application from CartonCloud, these are the number of days in which the Customer will have to pay the Invoice before over-due charges are applied.
When uploading, default Email Invoice to Customer Checkbox to Checked	As explained by the setting name.
Send Consignments information as part of summary when uploading Invoice to Accounting Connector	As explained by the setting name.
Include Zero Charge Consignments when uploading invoice to Accounting Connector.	As explained by the setting name.

Configuring Customer Settings

Navigate to the Customers page, Contacts>Customers.
Select the relevant Customer.
Select Edit from the bottom left corner.
Select the Invoice tab.
Navigate to the Automatic Invoice Generation section.
Use the below table to fill in the settings and then select Save.

Setting	Description
Next Invoice Date	Date to generate the next invoice.
Repeat Every	Interval in which Invoices are generated. (x Days/Weeks/Months).
Automatically Generate Invoice	No: never generate invoice automatically. Yes - Only at the end of Invoicing Period: Generates the Invoice at the end of the Invoice period, determined by the Next Invoice Date and Repeat Interval. Yes - Continuously build during the Invoice period (Leeching Invoice): Generate Invoice by adding consignments to Invoice from the start of Invoice period until its end. The advantage of this option is that if a customer has a lot of consignments that need to be Invoiced, and those consignments potentially have Charge Errors, the customer can fix those errors during the Invoicing period rather than having to fix them all at the end of the Invoicing period. See Leeching Invoices (Continually Building Invoices) for more information.

How Invoices are Automatically Created

Certain entities will automatically be added to an invoice (at the end of each day if using leeching invoiced), however, it depends on their status and the type of entity. The below table explains what entities are automatically added to invoices and what triggers the order to be added to the invoice:

All entities must be assigned to a customer and a warehouse before they can be added to an invoice

Entity	Automatically or manually added to the invoice	Requirements before it is added to the invoice
Consignments	Automatically	Has not been invoiced. Has been approved. Dependent upon the settings for 'Consignment Invoice Level' configured at the Transport Charges Rate Card settings.
Manifests	Automatically	Has not been invoiced.
Sale Orders	Automatically	Has not been invoiced. Has no adjustment. Sale Order status is at least Packed. Sale Order status is not Rejected.
Purchase Orders	Automatically	Has not been invoiced. Has no adjustment. Purchase Order status is at least Received. Purchase Order status is not Rejected.
Run Sheets	Manually	Must be assigned to a charging customer before you can manually add the Run Sheet to an invoice.
Storage Periods	Automatically	The end date is less than the current date in the warehouse timezone.