Invoices in the System

Invoices can be generated in the system from billing items that are pending invoicing. Invoices are used to bill clients and to create invoice documents for work performed on engagements, which can be sent to suppliers, clients, or other contract owners for payment. Documents can be generated and stored in the VMS, or sent to a back end system. Taxes may be added to the bills on invoices after the invoices are finalized.

Invoice details are created from submitted and approved billing items when a processing script runs in the system. Processed billing items are assigned a status and are available for compilation into an invoice depending on a business or workflow requirement. Configuration of the process in the system is done using invoice options. See Invoice Options for Locations.

After billing items are processed, they are assigned an invoicing status (see Invoicing Status), and moved from the Billing tab to the Invoicing tab where they can be found under their invoice. (Billing > Invoicing). In this state, they can be added to an invoice number. Invoice numbers are created using three methods:

Standard Invoice - Individual bills from an invoice option can be manually selected. All selected bills go into one invoice. Manually triggered process. See Create a Standard Invoice.
Batch Invoice - Uses invoice grouping rules to select bills and places them into individual or group invoices based on selection criteria. Bills are not manually selected for the invoice. Manually triggered process. See Run Invoice Batch Process.
Schedule Invoice - Same as the batch invoice process, but triggered through an automated process.

It is important to note that invoice details exist in the system, but are not necessarily added to a physical invoice unless an invoice document template is added or an invoice report is created. Invoice documents (.pdf format) can be generated if an invoice document template is configured. The PDF generation task is completed by defining a template, defining invoice grouping rules, and either associating them at the invoice option level, or leaving them as default and active at the client country level. You can also use a report to extract field values and amounts to manually insert into an invoice created outside of the system.

Note: An MSP user must have the 'Billing' permission is required to work with invoice data in the system.

If you enable a default template at the country or invoice option level, then the invoice process gathers data and inserts the values in the template in predetermined order using variables. This document can then be used for invoicing. For more information about default templates, see Create an Invoice Template.