Recurring Invoices: Self-Billing

How do you create self-billing invoices?

Recurring invoices are generally used for two different purposes:

• Self-billing or contract related invoices (e.g. rents, subscriptions without an physical document)
  • For further information regarding the Contracts feature in the Recurring invoice section, refer to this article: Contracts.
• Recurring invoice matching (this feature is not yet released)
  • e.g. insurance or electricity.

To activate the recurring invoice function and to get more details, please contact Dooap support via email support@dooap.com.

Self-billing

The self-billing templates allow users to automatically generate invoices according to a pre-set schedule. Recurring invoices are NPO invoices, meaning purchase orders are not needed.

This feature is particularly useful when you don't receive a physical invoice each month but are making payments based on a longer-term agreement, such as a yearly contract.

Getting Started

Once Dooap Support has activated Recurring invoices feature, two new permissions will be displayed in Admin > User roles view.

• RecurringInvoicesModuleEdit gives the permission to edit and create recurring invoices.

• RecurringInvoicesModuleAll gives the permission to view all recurring invoices.

To enable the Recurring Invoices feature, add the required permissions to the user roles of your choice.

Creating a Recurring Invoice

First, navigate to the Recurring Invoices section in the upper pane.

Start creating a template, by clicking Create new template.

Open the empty new self-billing template by clicking the plus (+) icon.

Template Configuration

• • Users can pre-fill default values in the invoice template, including header information, coding, invoice image, and scheduling details.
    • These defaults will be applied to every invoice generated from the template.
  • The invoice date and posting date will automatically be set to the date the invoice is created.
  • The invoice number is generated based on a predefined base value and a sequence number.
    • For example, if the base number is "Rent Unit 1, 2023" and the next sequence number is set to "2", the subsequent invoice will be numbered "Rent Unit 1, 2023-2."

   

• Template Status:

  • Shows which invoices are currently automatically created.

  • Draft: Used when creating the recurring invoice template. No invoices will be generated while in this status.
  • Active: Recurring invoices will be generated automatically according to the specified schedule.
  • Inactive: Indicates that the recurring invoice's end date has passed, and no further invoices will be created. This status can also be manually adjusted.
  
  

  Coding Lines:

  • Users can select ledger or project coding.
  • Dimension values are entered as a string, with each dimension separated by a semicolon (e.g., "dimension1;dimension2").
  • In a future release, it will be possible to split multiple lines by a percentage of the total amount.
  
  

  Scheduling:

  • Each recurring invoice has its own schedule. The contract number is automatically populated in the contract field for each created invoice.
  • Once a schedule is applied, users can view the currently selected schedule.
  • Note that scheduling operates in the UTC time zone.
  
  

  Invoice Image and Attachments:

  • Invoice image used for each created invoice is added to the template as an attachment.
  • At least one PDF should be attached to serve as the invoice image.
  • Users can also add additional attachments and select which image will be used for the invoice.
  
  

  Activation and Invoice Generation:

  • When the status of a recurring invoice template is changed to Active, new invoices will be generated from the template according to the specified schedule.

Recurring Invoice Matching

This is an upcoming feature which enables the automation and approval of repeating items such as monthly administrative costs or recurring services.