Imagine a contract is raised for seven days, starting on a Wednesday. Whether it’s payable in advance or in arrears, the calculation follows the same rules; the only difference is when the invoice is issued.
If you bill per week but invoice per month, the system needs to know whether weekends count. You can choose between:
A five-day week, counting only Monday to Friday.
A seven-day week that includes weekends.
Here’s an example. Let’s say the contract runs in arrears and there are twelve billable days left in the month.
On a five-day week, the system will calculate that as two-point-four weeks.
On a seven-day week, if there are fourteen days left, it will calculate exactly two weeks.
Now, let’s look at the timing. If you bill in advance on the thirty-first of January, the invoice covers the month of February. If you bill in arrears on the same date, the invoice covers January instead.
There’s also the option to set a date due back field on the equipment. If you’re billing in advance, the system will only charge up to that due-back date.
For example, if the equipment is due back on the fourteenth of February, then the invoice raised at the end of January will bill only up to that point.
Any additional charges applied to the equipment or the contract will be added automatically.
You can also manipulate invoice start dates when adding equipment to a contract.
This is done using the date to add to contract field in the equipment setup screen.
It works in the same way as the due-back date, except it defines the starting point of invoicing rather than the end.