When invoices are created, if the contract states that payment is to be collected, the invoices are placed into batches for the specific collection date (see Collection Date below). Each invoice batch is for a specific payment collection date, and remains in a ready for collection (open) status until it is has been sent for payment. If subscribed to the feature, Billdozer administrators can receive notification messages (see Messaging > Event Notification – Notify of open invoices batches) alerting them of the open invoice batches, so that they can send them for payment.

Payment data for bank account collections must be submitted to banks a number of days in advance of the collection date, depending on the type of payment, such as 2 day, same-day etc. Contact your bank for more details if required.

A collection batch contains bank account or credit card debit instructions that are an aggregation by client of the outstanding amounts of all invoices in the batch.

To display only batches ready for collection for a specific account number, enter the account number in the Filter on account number: field and press Enter.

Click Refresh View to refresh this page and update the list.

This screen displays a list of invoice batches that are ready for collection. Information is provided under the following headings:

• Actions – Click Select and choose an option from the drop-down list, namely: View Invoices in Batch, – opens a detailed view of the selected batch showing a breakdown of each invoice in the batch – see View Batch below for more details; Validate Batch – Validates the invoice batch ready for collection. If the invoice batch fails validation, error messages are displayed indicating the reasons why it failed. Non-permanent collection errors (highlighted in blue) can be corrected, and the batch can be re-submitted for collection; Merge with another batch – Opens a new dialogue from which you can select another batch to merge with this batch; Delete Invoice Batch – To delete the selected invoice batch.
• Batch Date – Displays the specified payment collection date for the invoice batch as selected when creating the invoice batch.
• Id – The invoice batch identification number.
• – Click this icon if you want to add or edit the details in the Info field (see below).
• Info
• #items – The number of invoices included in this batch.
• Invoice Total – The total amount on all invoices in this batch.
• Balance Outstanding – The total amount outstanding on all invoices in this batch.
• Collection Date – Billdozer automatically calculates the scheduled payment collection date for the amounts owed on the invoices included in this batch. Billdozer uses the invoice date, the collection day, as well as the Saturday/Sunday settings, to work out on which date to collect the money (see Collection Date below for more details and typical examples). All invoices that have the same Collection Date are placed in the same batch. Click Select > View Invoices in Batch in the Actions column next to the batch date to open a detailed view of the selected batch. See View Batch below.
• Status – The status of the batch, namely Open.
• Send for Payment – click this button to send this invoice batch to the payment provider for payment.
• Upload Process Log – Once you have clicked Send for Payment you can view progress by clicking the View Log link. This opens the Progress Log dialogue box, where you can monitor the status of each step in the send for payment process. Click Close to close the dialogue box.

View Batch

Click Select > View Invoices in Batch in the Action column next to the batch date to open a detailed view of the selected batch. A breakdown of each invoice in the batch is displayed. This includes details for each invoice, such as:

• Actions – Additional actions available for each invoice, these include: View Invoice – to view the selected invoice; Download pdf – Download a pdf of the selected invoice; Add/Move to Batch – to move this invoice to another batch; Remove from Batch – to remove the invoice from this batch; History Transactions – to view the transactions for the selected client.
• Date issued – the date that the invoice was issued. Click the View Invoice magnifying glass icon next to the date to open a detailed view of the selected invoice.
• Account – the account number of the invoice batch.
• Contract – the contract number of the invoice batch.
• Name – the client name.
• Invoice # – the invoice number for the specific invoice.
• Arrs – a check box to indicate if there is an arrears amount outstanding on the invoice.
• Collect
• Total – the original total amount owed.
• O/s – the amount still outstanding.
• Status – the current status of the invoice. Click Select > Paid or Unpaid to display either only Paid or Unpaid invoices.
• Error Message – if validation failed.

Click Back to return to the previous screen showing invoice batches ready for collection.

Click the Export as (csv) icon if you want to export the batch details to a format that can be viewed and edited in, for example, Microsoft Excel.

Collection Date

The Collection Date is calculated using the following:

• Date issued of the invoice (see Accounting tab > Invoice Management – Date Issued field.
• Collection day specified on the contract, i.e. the Debit Day (see Contract Management – Collect on setting. Options are 1 to 30 or Last day.
• The Saturday and Sunday options on the contract (see Contract Management – Contract Details – Saturday and Sunday settings.
• The public holidays list (automatically configured by Billdozer).

Billdozer calculates/adjusts the following:

1. Planned Collection Date – based on the nearest collection date after the invoice date issued. If the invoice date issued was 25/10/2014, and the Collection Day is ‘1’, then the planned Collection Date will be 01/11/2014.
2. Actual Collection Date – If the Planned Collection Date falls on a weekend then Billdozer adjusts it based on the Saturday/Sunday settings of the contract. In this example the planned collection on 01/11/2014 is a Saturday, so if the Saturday setting is ‘Friday’, then collection will take place 1 day earlier. If the Saturday setting is ‘Monday’, then collection will take place 2 days later. In this example the Saturday setting is ‘Friday’, so the Actual Collection Date will be 30/10/2014.
3. Adjust Actual Collection Date for public holidays – If the Actual Collection Date falls on a public holiday, then Billdozer will adjust the Collection Date to the closest available earlier date.
4. Check Actual Collection Date is within range of Invoice Issued Date – If after the above weekend and public holiday checks the Actual Collection Date is more than 3 days prior to the date issued of the invoice, then Billdozer will make the Planned Collection Date 1 month later, and repeat steps 1 to 3 above. This is to prevent a debit order from being collected too early.

Note: The Collection Date is also used for Invoices and Repeating Invoices as well as Contract Management.