When you use ServiceCore's batch billing functionality to automatically generate and send out recurring invoices, you can instantly save yourself hours of time and effort each month while doing the billing for your business.
If you have proration enabled in your account, batch billing will handle any services (line items) that need to be prorated based on mid-billing cycle rental activities so you don't lose out on any rental revenue. Batch billing also processes invoices setup on Autopay so you get paid immediately.
Please Note: Batch billing ONLY works with recurring invoices.
Before You Start
Here are some things you should know before you continue:
- To see if you have access to this feature in ServiceCore, please check out this article on user permission levels.
- You must manually trigger batch billing in order for it to process recurring invoices successfully.
- In order for ServiceCore to automatically create a multi-site invoice with a customer's recurring invoices during the batch billing process, a billing group must first be created.
- Make sure you have access to the inbox associated with the email address in your ServiceCore profile because that's where confirmation emails will be sent after batch billing is run.
- We strongly recommend that you only process batches of 100 invoices at a time. Batches of invoices larger than this can overwhelm the system and cause major data integrity issues.
- Batches of up to 200 invoices is possible, but not recommended. If you try to process more than 200 invoices at a time, it will fail.
- Please wait until you receive the confirmation email(s) from the first batch of billing you process before trying to process another batch. If you don't wait, it may cause data integrity issues and cause duplicate invoices to be created.
- For any customers who need to be mailed their invoice, the batch billing process will create a PDF version of the invoice and send it to the email address in your ServiceCore profile. Make sure you have access to that inbox so you can download, print, and send the invoices out successfully!
- You must be signed up for ServiceCore Pay in order for the batch billing process to charge a customer's payment method.
- To learn more about ServiceCore Pay, click here or contact our Payments team at ServiceCorePay@servicecore.com.
- In order for the batch billing process to charge a customer for their open invoice balance, they must first have a payment method (credit/debit card or ACH account) saved in their profile. Click here to learn how to save a payment method for your customer.
About Batch Billing
"Batch billing" is a function built into ServiceCore that's designed to streamline the invoicing process for recurring rentals. It allows you to generate multiple invoices at once rather than having to create individual invoices one at a time for every customer.
It does this by looking at all the recurring invoice "templates" you've previously created, identifying which ones are up next to be billed, and then generating the needed one time invoice copies from those templates. Those one time invoices can then be sent to the associated customers and have payments applied.
During the "copying" process where batch billing generates the next invoice for a rental, ServiceCore will check if any services (line items) on any of the invoices need to be prorated based on mid-billing cycle changes and will adjust them.
After you review the batch of invoices ServiceCore has generated, you'll then confirm that the invoices can be set to customers for payment. If any of the invoices are set up on Autopay, ServiceCore will auto-charge the customer's saved payment method and send them a receipt.
You'll also receive email notifications with all the invoices that were successfully paid through Autopay, all the customers who were emailed their invoice(s), and all the PDF invoices to print and mail to your customers.
Use Billing Groups to Create Multi-Site Invoices During Batch Billing
If you've set up a billing group in a customer's profile and added that billing group to a few of the customer's recurring invoice "templates", ServiceCore can automatically create a multi-site invoice for that customer.
As ServiceCore generates one time invoices as part of the batch billing process explained above, it will also identify any recurring invoice "templates" that have billing groups associated with them.
If ServiceCore generates a one time invoice from a template that has a billing group, it will then look for similar one time invoices to combine together into a single multi-site invoice.
In order for one time invoices to be combined together to make a single multi-site invoice, the below criteria must be met:
- All invoices must have the same Customer associated with them.
- All invoices must have the same Billing Group associated with them.
- All invoices must have the same Due Date set on them.
- All invoices must not already exist on another multi-site invoice.
Please Note: Once a one time invoice is added to a multi-site invoice it cannot be edited. You'll have to remove it from the multi-site invoice in order to edit it. You can then re-add it to the multi-site invoice before sending it to a customer for payment.
Run Batch Billing
To run batch billing, watch the video above or follow the below instructions:
- Click into the main Accounting section at the top of your ServiceCore account.
- Click into "Invoices".
- Click into "Recurring".
- Use the checkbox at the top of the list to select all the invoices that appear on the page OR use the checkbox next to each invoice to include only specific invoices.
TIP: You can use the View filter at the bottom of the list to change how many invoices appear on the page for you to select. Remember that we don't suggest running batch billing on more than 100 invoices at once. - Click "Create Invoices" to generate the next invoice from the rental's recurring invoice template.
- You can wait for ServiceCore to generate your invoice preview or you can leave the Accounting page, if needed.
- Click "View Preview" once it's ready.
- You can now review all the generated one time invoices by clicking the + button to see the included services (line items).
TIP: ServiceCore will flag any invoices that have a different total for this current billing period compared to the previous invoice generated for the rental's last billing period. You'll also see a Fee icon for any inactivity or weight overage fees that you may have automated in your account settings. - Click the trash icon to remove any invoices that were generated with a negative amount owed; these invoices cannot be created.
- There are four options at the bottom of the list for your next step.
Remove Flagged Invoices: This will remove all invoices with a Previous Total flag so you can review the differences in services provided during this billing cycle. We suggest writing down the rental number before using this option so you know which rentals had flagged invoices to review. Removing flagged invoices means that the invoices won't actually be created from the recurring invoice template.
Remove All Invoices: This will remove all the invoices listed on this preview page and delete this batch so you can start over fresh from the beginning with new invoices. Removing invoices means that none of them will actually be created from the recurring invoice template.
Create & Send Invoices: This will actually create all of the invoices on the page, send them via email to customers for payment, send them via email to you in PDF format to print and mail if needed, and/or trigger charges to customers' saved payment methods if Autopay is enabled.
Cancel: This will take you back to the main Accounting page, but it WON'T remove the invoice preview or delete the generated invoices. It's liking hitting pause on the batch billing workflow that you can come back to and continue in the future. - After you click "Create & Send Invoices", you can click away from the page or wait until it finishes and sends you back to the Accounting section.
Batch Billing Emails
After the invoices have been created via batch billing, you'll receive at least one email (if not more) from no-reply@servicecore.com confirming what's happened with the invoices created during batch billing.
Please Note: Depending on your customers' communication preferences and whether Autopay is enabled, you may not receive all of the emails outlined below.
There are three things that could happen to invoices during batch billing:
- The one time invoices are turned into PDFs for you to download, print, and physically mail to your customers for payment.
- The one time invoices are turned into a PDF that's emailed directly to the associated customer.
- The associated customer's payment method is charged immediately after the one time invoice is created and a receipt is emailed to them along with the PDF version of their now-paid invoice.
What happens to a particular invoice that is generated during batch billing depends on the customer's preferred communication method (set up in the recurring invoice template) and whether Autopay is enabled on the recurring invoice template.
Notification of Invoice PDFs for Physical Mailing
You'll receive an email with all the invoices generated from recurring invoice templates where 'Print' is the preferred communication method.
The email will contain a single attachment that has all the invoices combined together into one multi-invoice, multi-page PDF.
Please Note: Each PDF attachment only contains 100 invoices, so if your batch billing included more than 100 invoices you'll receive more than one email.
Your next step will be to download, print, and send these PDFs to your customers by postal mail.
Notification of Invoice PDFs Emailed to Customers
You'll receive an email with a list of all the customers who were sent their invoices for all the recurring invoice templates where 'Email' is the preferred communication method.
The email will contain every email address that received an invoice along with the invoice ID for reference.
You don't need to do anything else other than keep this email for your billing records.
Notification of Invoices on Autopay
You'll receive an email with all the invoices generated from recurring invoice templates that had Autopay enabled.
The email will contain every Autopay invoice along with payment confirmation/ID and a reason explaining why payment wasn't applied for any customers whose payment method failed.
You don't need to do anything else other than keep this email for your billing records.
Email Preview
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
These FAQs address common questions and quick clarifications to help you use this feature with confidence.
Can I Select More Than 100 Recurring Invoices to Run Batch Billing On?
Yes, but we don't recommend including more than 200 recurring invoices in each batch you run, otherwise you'll run into major data integrity issues that may cause duplicate invoices and unnecessary confusion for you, your team, and your customers.
To select more than 100 recurring invoices, just follow the below instructions:
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and change the View filter to 100.
- Scroll up to the top and check the Select All checkbox to select all 100 invoices on the page.
- Scroll back down to the bottom of the page and click the right arrow to view the next page of 100 invoices.
- Check the Select All checkbox to select all 100 invoices on the page.
You can now click "Create Invoices" and follow the main workflow outlined above.
Where Do the Previous Date and the Next Date Come From?
The Previous Date shows you the last time an invoice was created from the rental's recurring invoice template.
The Next Date shows you when the next billing cycle ends for the rental. This is when the next invoice should be created from the recurring invoice template.
How Do I Edit the One Time Invoices Generated in the Preview?
In short, you can't. The generated invoice preview only allows you to remove invoices from batch billing, not edit them.
If you need to adjust an invoice that was generated for the preview step, you'll need to remove it from batch billing, generate it manually from the recurring invoice template directly, edit it, and send it or apply payment to it manually.
Invoices generated via batch billing cannot be manually edited prior to being sent to the customer.
If you have any questions, please reach out to our Support team through the chat widget on the bottom of this page or by sending an email to support@servicecore.com!