Billing transactions in the “Billing & Financial” section of the contract are used to register costs and revenues related to a contract. You can add as many transactions as necessary and combine different billing cycles, cost and revenue transactions as well as different currencies.
Billing Cycle: The billing cycle defines the recurrence of the billing transaction. “One-time” is used for single transactions on a specific date. “Monthly”, “Quarterly” and “Yearly” are recurring transactions and are considered in the reporting accordingly.
Billing Amount: The cost or revenue amount for the transaction. The amount should be entered as an absolute value. The distinction into cost and revenue is done separately.
You can also select a foreign currency for your transaction. The entered amount is converted into the Company Currency using the specified exchange rate. This article provides more background information about currencies.
First Billing Date: The date for the first billing transaction. “One-time” transactions will be on this date, recurring transactions will start on this date and then be repeated according to the specified billing cycle.
Last Billing Date: For recurring billing cycles you can optionally set an end date. If configured, the billing transaction will end at this date. If not configured, the billing transaction will be considered indefinitely in the reporting.
Description: Can be used to describe and specify the billing transaction.
Costs / Revenues: Determines if the transaction is a cost or revenue transaction.
The last billing date determines the end of the billing in the reporting
The value in the “Last Billing Date” field determines how long the billing transaction will be considered in the reporting, not the “Contract End Date”. Hence, there is no direct relation between the contract lifecycle and the billing cycle. This is due to the fact that billing transactions might occur after the contract has ended.
The “Last Billing Date” should be set in alignment with the “Contract End Date” if the contract end date should be considered in the financial reporting.
Billing transactions for actual invoices
It is possible to track actuals and invoices as billing transactions. Simply register a “One-time” transaction for each invoice. The “Fist Billing Date” should be the invoice date and you can use the “Description” to specify the transaction. Of course you can also combine actual transactions with planning transactions
