Understanding Invoice/Master Bill Statuses

Understanding invoice/master bill statuses

D. Understanding invoice/master bill statuses

The status on an invoice controls the release of the official billing document to the customer and the transfer of the billing data to your accounts receivable application.

The official billing document can be:

· Invoice

· Master bill

· Both an invoice and a master bill

· No output

Note: This option means that no billing documents will be printed, no EDI 210’s are sent, no invoice image is created. Do not select this option if one or both of the following is true:

· You are using invoice imaging; you must print an invoice or master bill to create an invoicing image.

· You are using EDI 210’s; you must print an invoice or master bill to create a 210.

The official billing document is defined in the Bill To company’s profile, by the option selected in the Invoice field, located in the Billing section of the Company File Maintenance window.

To provide these options, the control of processing is handled by having two status fields for each invoice. The database has separate status fields for the invoice and the master bill. When an invoice is displayed in the Edit Invoice Folder, a single status appropriate to the billing option set in the Bill To’s company profile is shown.

When an invoice is created, the status shown in the Edit Invoice Folder is On Hold. The invoice may be audited and/or rated before it is ready to be sent to the customer for payment.

When the invoice is ready for billing, you will change its status in the Edit Invoice Folder to Ready To Print. You can do this by manually changing the Status field value or by releasing the invoice in Invoices on Hold queue. It is at this time that the application checks the billing preferences set up for the Bill To company and reflects them on the invoice itself.

· If the Bill To company is to receive only an invoice, a value of RTP (Ready To Print) is placed in the database’s invoice status field while the master bill status field is set to NTP (Not To be Printed).

· If the Bill To company is to receive only a master bill, a value of NTP is placed in the database’s invoice status field and a value of RTP is placed in the master bill status field.

· If the Bill To company is to receive both bills, both the invoice and the master bill status fields in the database are set to RTP (Ready To Print).

· If the Bill To company is to receive no billing output, the invoice status field in the database is still set to RTP at this time.

When the documents are printed and you answer Yes to updating the status from Ready To Print to Printed, the application software needs to do the following:

· Record which document(s) were printed.

· Make sure the invoice is not released for transfer to your accounts receivable package until all documents indicated in the Bill To’s company profile are printed.

The invoice status was chosen by the application designers to be the single indicator that the invoice may be transferred to accounts receivable. When the invoice status field in the database is set to PRN (Printed), the invoice may be transferred.

However, if a master bill was also to be printed, how could the system prevent the invoice data from transferring ahead of printing the master bill?

Manipulating the two status fields solved the problem.

1. If only a Freight Bill was designated as the billing document for the Bill To customer, the invoice status is set to Printed (PRN) once the ready to print invoice is printed and a Yes response was received to update the status.

2. If only a Master Bill was designated as the billing document, both the master bill status and the invoice status fields are set to Printed (PRN) when the master bill is printed and a Yes response was received to update the status.

3. If Both Bills was selected in the Bill To company’s profile, the status (either invoice status or master bill status) is changed to PRO (Inv or MB Printed) when the first document is printed. When the second document is printed, the invoice status is set to PRN (Printed).

4. If No Output was selected in the Bill To company’s profile, the invoice status is set to PRN (Printed) once the invoice is processed through the print queue and a Yes response was received to update the status. No output – printed or EDI – is produced.

An invoice may be printed at any time. A master bill may be printed only when the component invoice statuses have been set to Ready To Print.

If you want to run reports on invoice/master bill statuses, you must know how the statuses are recorded, and whether they are recorded in the ivh_invoicestatus column or the ivh_mbstatus column. To help with SQL queries, the following tables show the contents of the two status fields, ivh_invoicestatus and ivh_mbstatus, in the invoiceheader table during the life of the invoice.

Invoice statuses for Bill To’s set asFreightBillOnlyorNoOutput

This table shows the invoice statuses of the billing documents for a Bill To company whose profile specifies either Freight Bill or No Output.

Freight Bill and No Output /
Event / Ivh_invoicestatus / ivh_mbstatus / Edit Invoice Folder /
Invoice created / HLD / null
(special database value) / On Hold
Set to Ready To Print / RTP / NTP / Ready To Print
Invoice printed with status update / PRN / NTP / Printed
Invoice transferred / XFR / NTP / Transferred

Invoice statuses for Bill To’s set as Master Bill only

This table shows the invoice and master bill statuses of the billing documents for a Bill To company whose profile specifies Master Bill only.

Invoice statuses for Bill To’s set as Both Bills

This table shows the invoice and master bill statuses of the billing documents for a Bill To company whose profile specifies Both Bills. Note that there is some variation if the document to be passed to A/R is the master bill, but that is rare.

Master Bill only /
Event / Ivh_invoicestatus / ivh_mbstatus / Edit Invoice Folder /
Invoice created / HLD / null
(special database value) / On Hold
Set to Ready To Print / RTP / RTP / Ready To Print
Invoice printed with status update, before the master bill is printed, / PRO / RTP / Inv or MB Printed
Master bill printed with status update before the invoices are printed / RTP / PRO / Inv or MB Printed
Invoice printed with status update after the master bill is printed / PRN / PRO / Printed
Master bill printed with status update after the invoices are printed / PRN / PRN / Printed
Invoice transferred / XFR / PRN / Transferred

Sample SQL statements

To list all invoices which have been printed as an invoice document, you would use this WHERE clause:

Where ivh_invoicestatus in ('PRN','PRO')

To list all invoices where the master bill has been printed, you would use this WHERE clause:

Where ivh_mbstatus in ('PRN','PRO')

To list all invoices where all documents have been printed and are ready to transfer to A/R, you would use this WHERE clause:

Where ivh_invoicestatus='PRN'

Invoicing D.2 Save Date: 11/2010

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