Introduction

The StaffSuite billing process performs three major steps in order to produce an invoice:

• Transactions are selected for processing

• Transactions are sorted and allocated to an invoice number

• Transactions are formatted and presented on the invoice in a certain manner

Transaction Selection

Transactions are selected based on the criteria provided by you. Criteria includes factors such as Corporation, Batch Branch, Batch ID, Bill Group, Company ID, Company Invoice Handling Flag, Posting Week Ending Date, and Service Line. The system searches through the posted transactions and looks for ones that match the criteria specified by the user.

For example, let's use a deck of cards to represent posted transactions. If the user decides, on the Billing Process window, that he/she wants to process Diamonds, Hearts, and Clubs, the system examines each card to see if it is one of the specified suits. In other words, if the card is a Heart, Diamond, or Club, it is selected for further processing. If the card is a Spade, it is disregarded.

Sorting and Allocating Transactions to an Invoice Number

Next, the system must organize the selected transactions in such a way that they can be assigned to an invoice number. StaffSuite uses its own internal business logic to do this and takes advantage of how companies and orders are configured for billing. This is how the logic works:

If the A/R Company indicated on the Order has a Billing Method set to Combined Billing, then the transactions are assigned to a new invoice number by default whenever:

• the Assignment Company Using changes

• the Order A/R Company changes

• the Order Company Using changes

• The Order Attention To Company changes

• The Order Attention To Rep changes

If the A/R Company indicated on the Order has a Billing Method set to Not Combined Billing, then the transactions are assigned to a new invoice number by default whenever:

• a different employee social security number is encountered within Order Attention to Rep

• a different employee social security number is encountered within Order Attention to Company

• a different employee social security number is encountered within Order Company Using

• a different employee social security number is encountered within Order A/R Company

A new invoice is also created whenever a transaction has been flagged to appear on a separate invoice regardless of how the Billing Method has been set. In these instances, all the transactions for the timesheet or position billing appear on the same invoice.

Since your (or your customer's) billing requirements may not match the system defined logic, StaffSuite 3.0 added the Report Management enhancement, which was actually a collection of various features. This enhancement allows you to create a billing profile that:

• is unique to a single customer or applies to a group of customers

• indicates what standard and/or customized reports should be generated by the billing process

• indicates where the standard and/or customized reports are stored

• indicates how the custom reports should be named

• tracks the next invoice number applicable to this report management group

• provides a common invoice message to all invoices processed

• provides a way to control how and when to assign a new invoice number for an A/R company based on 20+ factors

So...let's return to our "deck of cards" example. Originally, we selected Diamonds, Hearts and Clubs and excluded Spades. Let's assume that all red cards (transactions) will be billed to and paid for by one company and the black cards will be billed to and paid by another company. What are the billing requirements for those companies? Do they want the invoice to contain all the cards or transactions or do they want them separated into multiple invoices? If they want them separated, what is the criteria used to make the allocation? Are transactions allocated to an invoice number based on shift, PO number, reference number, or work period ending date? Whatever the answer, you can use the Invoice Forms Control within Report Group Management to establish the business logic to accomplish what you need.

In our example, let's assume the red customer wants a new invoice for each PO and that a PO is represented by the face value of a card. So...the system takes the two red cards that have a face value of two and gives them the first invoice number. Then, it takes the two red cards with a face value of three and gives them the second invoice number and so on. The other customer wants separate invoices for the number cards and picture cards. This means that cards 2 thru 9 appear on one invoice and the King, Queen, Jack, and Ace appear on another invoice.

Formatting and Presenting the Transactions on the Invoice

Once the system has finished allocating the transactions to an invoice, it determines what Report process in needed to produce the invoice forms and schedules that report. At this point, the transactions simply belong to an invoice. How they are presented on the invoice is entirely dependent on the Report used as the invoice. StaffSuite does not make the determination. Thus, you can customize the report for your business needs by changing the business logic used to allocate transactions to an invoice number.

Changes in Version 4.0

As of Version 4.0, you can now specify special billing requirements for each customer using the Details button on the company's billing information screen. The details window allows you to point to the set-up requirements you have added in the Report Group Management section of System Administration. You can have multiple companies who have similar requirements point to the same Report Group or you can have a company point to its unique set of requirements.

During the billing process, once the transactions have been selected and grouped by A/R company, the system finds the billing rules for each A/R company and allocates the transactions to invoice numbers following those rules and then schedules the associated Report for the invoice forms. In a sense, each company is processed separately, but all during one process run.

In addition, once the system has created the invoices internally, you can have the invoice forms themselves automatically printed in one of three sequences (by invoice number, by branch name then company name, by branch number then company name). When this feature is used, the system first groups the transactions to allocate them to the right invoice number and then sequences the resulting invoices in the desired order for printing.

Remember the deck of cards? We selected all Diamonds, Hearts and Clubs for processing. Then, for the red cards, we allocated the cards to invoice numbers based on the face value of the card. We allocated the black cards to invoice numbers based on whether the card had a number value or picture value. The results were:

Finally, let's say that the company represented by the red cards is serviced by a branch named Roswell and the company represented by the black cards is serviced by a branch named Alpharetta. If you requested that the invoices print out in Branch Name order, the following will result: