Invoices And Statements

Ranger enables the printing and sending of both (job-specific) Invoices and (account-level) Statements

Invoices in Ranger can be somewhat “dynamic” until the “Finalize pricing” action in the “Invoice Review” process. As noted previously, there is considerable flexibility to adjust the pricing of a job, e.g.,

• Adjustments can be made to reflect special circumstances, such as increases/decreases for additional requirements or service shortfalls
• Depending on process choices and user permissions, pricing changes can occur both during a job and after it has been completed

The user of Ranger needs to strike the appropriate balance between providing an invoice to a customer on a timely basis vs. waiting for the “Finalize pricing” decision.

• There are multiple examples of when it makes sense to print or email an invoice to a customer before the formal “Finalize pricing” decision. However, providing an invoice may “freeze” pricing - at least from the customer perspective. For example
  • Driver accepts payment and writes a ticket or prints an invoice for a customer signature on-site
  • Manager of the impound lot releases a vehicle to a customer - accepting payment and providing a receipt/invoice
  • An insurance company requests to see an invoice quickly to accelerate getting a payment to a customer to cover costs for an incident
• At the same time there are legitimate needs to make modifications to pricing
  • There are errors in the original ticket/invoice - by the driver or dispatcher
  • Some costs that were initially estimated turn out to be significantly different
  • Unintended service shortfalls and/or mistakes require the pricing to be adjusted

While current invoices can be printed from Ranger at the discretion of the user, Ranger also provides mechanisms to assist business owners in what is inevitably an internal organizational challenge in managing price changes while providing timely invoices to customers

• Different pricing modes - e.g., “Confirm by Dispatcher” - adds a quality assurance step
• User permissions enable pricing changes by only designated responsible parties in the company
• The Invoice review provides information on each invoice as part of the “Finalize pricing” step
• The expanded information for each invoice (the “+” symbol on each row), informs managers whether an invoice has been emailed to a customer or printed in the truck
• The date on an invoice reflects the last time pricing was changed on the invoice, so prior versions can be identified

Statements can be generated in Ranger for “Charge” accounts. To appear on a Statement, an Invoice must meet two criteria:

• The “Finalize Pricing” step has been completed
• There is Balance Due on the Invoice. The balance due is determined based on “Applied” payments, even if technically they are not yet “Finished” (still pending for final approval)

There is the flexibility to “Preview” (check box) a Statement before generating the report. If a Statement date is selected, and the Statement is generated, the assumption is that this Statement will be sent to the customer. Terms for any Invoices which appear for the first time on the Statement will now be calculated from this Statement date.

Best practice in generating statements would include completing the process for all payments received before the Statement is generated:

• Making sure all payments received have been applied
• The Balance Due is calculated based on “Applied” payments.
• The amount on any “Unapplied” payments will show on the invoice so that the customer can reconcile the statement with their records of payments sent
• Making sure all “Applied” payments are “Finished” - once a Statement has been generated, and presumably sent to a customer, it becomes impractical to change the payment application whether or not final approval has been given or not

To Continue

Overview http://www1.rangersst.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=support:11_accounting:01_overview

Cash Account Process http://www1.rangersst.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=support:11_accounting:02_cash_account_process

Charge Account Process http://www1.rangersst.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=support:11_accounting:03_charge_account_process

Invoices - Statements http://www1.rangersst.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=support:11_accounting:04_invoices-statements

Implementation http://www1.rangersst.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=support:11_accounting:05_implementation