ServiceCore calculates proration automatically for both rental rates and non-rental services. Whatever billing cycle you use, daily, weekly, monthly, or something in between, ServiceCore adjusts what a customer owes to match the exact time a unit or service was in use.

For example, if you charge $200 a month for an inventory item and a customer only keeps it for a month and a half, ServiceCore bills $300, the exact amount for the extra time. You don't have to calculate partial periods by hand.

If you want more control over how rental proration behaves, including automatic mid-cycle billing and early pick-up handling, check out Rental Proration Settings Overview.

Before You Start

Here are some things to know before you continue:

• To see if you have access to this feature in ServiceCore, please check out this article on user permission levels. 
• Proration does not apply to Flat Rate services. 
• A customer and a job site must already exist in your ServiceCore account before you can set up a prorated rental. 
• Inventory (non-itemized or itemized) must be added to the rental, and itemized inventory needs barcodes or QR codes associated with it. 
• Assign services to your inventory products so they can appear as rental rate options. 
• For non-rental proration, add your services in settings before creating a recurring invoice.

Prorate Rental Rates

As units are delivered or picked up mid-cycle, ServiceCore automatically adjusts the quantity billed on your recurring invoices.

To set up a rental with proration, follow the steps below in order:

1. Create a Rental.
2. Add Rental Rates to the rental.
3. If you want recurring billing, create a recurring invoice.

Once you complete these steps in order, ServiceCore prorates the rental automatically.Okay, let's proceed with the next section. I implemented your changes. 

Add or Remove Units Mid-Rental

If you need to deliver additional units, add more service jobs, or pick up units before the rental ends, add jobs to a rental. The recurring invoice prorates the rental rate quantity to reflect the change automatically.

Please Note: For how ServiceCore prorates rental rates during batch billing, and how early pick-ups are handled, check out Rental Proration Settings Overview.

What Proration Looks Like on Invoices

As you create the recurring invoice from this rental, you will see the recurring interval in your invoice line item descriptions.

You will also see proration appear as non-whole numbers in the Qty of your invoice line items.

In addition, if you use recurring invoices for your rentals, as you add or remove units from the jobsite, the proration will happen automatically, no calculator required!

How to Create a Recurring Invoice with Proration for Non-Rental Jobs

The section below describes the steps you should take to setup your non-rental job with proration. It's important that you follow these steps in the order below to make sure proration is calculated correctly.

1. Add Services via your settings
2. Create a recurring invoice that includes the prorated services you added in the previous step

If you need to add or remove prorated services for your recurring invoice at a later time:

1. Go to Accounting
2. Click on the Recurring tab
3. Click on Filter by
4. Click on the Scheduling Type dropdown
5. From the list, choose Non-Rental
   
    
6. Click Close
7. Type the Customer name into the Search box to narrow your results
8. Locate the recurring invoice template you want to edit
9. Click the down arrow next to Create Invoice
10. From the list of options that appear, click Edit Recurring Template
11. Add or remove prorated services for your non-rental job to this invoice
12. Once you're finished, click View Invoice

If you follow these steps above in this order, the proration will be calculated automatically.

Additional Resources

For additional information and further reading about the topics above, please check out these help articles:

1. About Proration
2. Create a Rental Invoice with Recurring Billing
3. Use Batch Billing for Recurring Invoices
4. Add Rental Rates
5. Assign a Service to an Inventory Product to Show as a Rental Rate Option

Proration FAQs

How does proration work during batch billing?

When you use batch billing to create invoices, or when you create the next invoice from a recurring invoice manually, all jobs that were scheduled, completed or cancelled during the previous billing cycle, and the next upcoming billing cycle, will be automatically added to the invoice.

In the example below you can see the delivery job and it's one-time delivery fee associated with that job have been added to the invoice:

Delivery jobs

Rental rates for the inventory associated to the rental will be prorated for the additional time the additional units were on the job site. Plus, any additional service line items added to mid-billing cycle delivery jobs will be added as a one-time service line items to the invoice.

For example:

• If you already created an invoice on Jan 1 for the billing period Jan 1-28 from a recurring invoice billing in Advance every 28 days
• If there is an extra delivery job on Jan 15 to delivery additional units to the job site
• When you create the Feb 1 invoice...
  • The rental rates will be prorated automatically to include the 14 days those additional units were on site (so you don't have to remember to add these extra two weeks of rental rates yourself)
  • The Jan 15 delivery job and the one-time delivery fee associated to the mid-cycle delivery job will be added one-time to the Feb 1 invoice (and it will drop off the Mar 1, Apr 1, and future invoices)

In the screenshot below you can see how the line items will appear (invoice date is March 10, billing 28 days in Advance)

1. This line shows the prorated amount from the 3/1 delivery through the invoice date (Quantity is 1 additional unit for 9 days out of a 28 day billing period, or 1 x 9/28 = 0.321)
2. This line shows the advanced billing amount for all units on site from 3/10 to 4/6 (28 days)
3. This line shows the one-time delivery charge associated with the 3/1 delivery job

Pick-Up Jobs

Rental rates for inventory removed from a rental will not be prorated for early pick-up jobs. If you prorate for early pick-ups, you will need to manually create these invoices from the recurring invoice. We are currently in the research and planning phases of a feature to automatically prorate for early pickups. Any additional service line items added to mid-billing cycle pick-up jobs will be added as a one-time service line items to the invoice.

For example:

• If you already created an invoice on Jan 1 for the billing period Jan 1-28 from a recurring invoice billing in Advance every 28 days
• If there is an early pick-up of units on Jan 15 to remove units from the job site
• When you create the Feb 1 invoice...
  • The rental rates will not be adjusted or pro-rated to provide a credit back on the Feb 1 invoice (the invoice bills for the items on-site as of the invoice date)
  • The early Jan 15 pick-up job and the one-time fee associated to the mid-cycle pick-up job will be added one-time to the Feb 1 invoice (and it will drop off the Mar 1, Apr 1, and future invoices)

In the example below, the line items on the invoice details page show...

1. There were 8 units on-site at the time of the invoice (billing period is 3/10-4/6)
2. There was an early pickup job on 3/15 (and the rental rates did not get pro-rated or reduced due to this early remove of items from the site)

Service Jobs

If there are extra service jobs performed for a rental during an already-billed cycle, these jobs will be automatically added to the next invoice (including any lines items associated to these mid-cycle service jobs).

For example:

• If you already created an invoice on Jan 1 for the billing period Jan 1-28 from a recurring invoice billing in Advance every 28 days
• If there is an extra service job on Jan 15 to clean the units on-site
• When you create the Feb 1 invoice...
  • The Jan 15 service job and the extra cleaning fee associated to the mid-cycle service job will be added one-time to the Feb 1 invoice (and it will drop off the Mar 1, Apr 1, and future invoices)

In the example below, you can see the extra cleaning was automatically pulled in during batch billing, even when the cleaning happened in the previous billing cycle (and when it hadn't been invoiced yet):

Does proration work if I need to add or remove units from a jobsite?

Yes. If you add or remove units by scheduling a delivery or a pickup job, then the recurring invoice will prorate the quantity of the rental rate to reflect the changes. Here's how to add jobs to a rental.

If the delivery, service or pick-up jobs are not marked as done, will my invoices still prorate?

Yes. Job completion status has no effect on proration.