Billing Operations

Billing Operations provide automation tools for billing managers and account receivables professionals. You can access Billing Operations as an administrator two different ways:

Transactions > Billing > Process Billing Operations
Transactions > Billing > Schedule Billing Operations

To access Billing Operations using the A/R clerk role, go to Billing > Billing Operations.

You must enable Billing Operations to use these features.

To enable billing operations:

Go to Setup > Company > Enable Features.
Select the Transactions subtab.
Under Billing, check the Billing Operations box.
Click Save.

If you are an administrator, the menu options for Process Billing Operations and Schedule Billing Operation are available from the Transactions tab. If you are using the A/R clerk role, the options are available from the Billing menu.

When billing operations run, rating runs and credit memo runs occur before invoicing billable customers.

To process Billing Operations for an Intercompany A/R account, make sure an Intercompany A/R account is selected on the Billing Operations page. An A/R account is designated as an Intercompany A/R account if the Eliminate Intercompany Transactions box is checked for that account. To set the Eliminate Intercompany Transactions box, go to Setup > Accounting > Chart of Accounts > New. For more information about Intercompany A/R accounts, see Creating Intercompany Accounts.

Viewing and Creating Bill Runs and Credit Memo Runs

You can view and create bill runs by going to Billing > Billing Operations > Process Billing Operations. After bill run schedules are created, you can review them. In addition, you can view all bills being created during the times you scheduled.

Note:

You cannot schedule a billing operation to run after the 28th of the month.

When viewing a list of bill runs, you can view a list of all invoices and cash sales by clicking the Submission ID column.

You can also create a Credit Memo run from the Billing Operations page. By default, both the Credit Memo Run and Bill Run boxes are checked.

When processing scheduled billing operations, NetSuite uses the database maintenance time zone. In the image below, a user is located on the east coast of the United States (U.S.). The company is located on the U.S. west coast. On the Billing Operations Schedule page, after a Next Time is entered, an in-line message appears indicating when the billing operation will run in the database maintenance time zone. Use the Next Bill Run As Of Date to set the date for which you want charges billed. In the image below, the billing operation is scheduled for January 26 and the Next Bill Run As Of Date is January 31. When the January 26 billing operation runs, it will include future charges up to January 31. You can also enter a date that occurs before the scheduled billing operation. If you are unsure of your company time zone, you can find this information by going to Setup > Company Information > Time Zone.

Screenshot of Billing Operation Schedule page with Time Zone fields filled

When entering an immediate bill run (Process Billing Operations), the billing operation occurs in the user’s time zone.

To create a new bill run or credit memo run:

Go to Billing > Billing Operations > Process Billing Operations.
Under Primary Information, enter an optional description for the bill run schedule.
Under Billing Operation Options, indicate whether you want to create a credit memo run, a bill run, or both.
If you are creating an off-cycle bill run, check the Bill Run (Off-Cycle Only) box.

Check this box to generate invoices from off-cycle requests before the next bill cycle date occurs. To verify whether an off-cycle request exists, go to the billing account record. On the Related Records subtab, view the list on the Off-Cycle Request subtab.

Note:
If you are creating an off-cycle bill run, several fields are grayed-out and not editable.
If you are in a One World account, choose an option from the Subsidiary list.
Under Customer, select a Customer or Group from the list or check the All Customers box.
Under Billables, select the types of transactions for which you want to create bills.
Under Accounting, indicate if a credit card is approved.

Note:
Check this box if a credit card outside of NetSuite paid for the transaction, and you want to record the transaction in NetSuite.
Under Communication, indicate whether bills should be printed, emailed, or faxed.
Click Run.

The Next Bill Run As Of Date field indicates the date until which charges are included in the bill run. For example, you are scheduling a bill run to occur on January 15, but you want to bill charges through the end of the month. The date in the Next Bill Run As Of Date field would be 1/31/YYYY.

Important:

If a billing operation does not process all invoices, you have two options:

Run billing operations a second time
Schedule a billing operation for a convenient time for your business

Reasons why not all invoices are processed during a billing operation include:

A charge is created after billing operations begins processing charges
A single billing operation can process up to 100,000 processing lines

When using billing operations to process billing accounts, you might reach up to 100,000 processing lines. For more information about billing accounts, see Creating Billing Accounts.

Creating Billing Groups

A billing group is a group of customers for which you want to create bills. Billing groups can be dynamic or static. For more information about groups, read Working with Groups. You can change any group into a billing group by checking the Billing Group box on the group.

Dynamic group membership changes to include anyone that meets the criteria defined in a saved search. You can create a dynamic group from an existing saved search or you can create a new saved search when you create the group.

The membership of a static group remains constant. You can create static groups by selecting members from lists and with a search. You can add or remove members from a static group at any time (see Adding and Removing Members of Groups).

Note:

You cannot create a static group with more than 10,000 members. For groups larger than 10,000, you must create a dynamic group.

To create a dynamic billing group:

Go to Lists > Relationships > Billing Groups.
On the Create Group page, choose Dynamic.
Choose the kind of members you would like this group to contain.
Click Continue.
Enter a name for this group.
From the Saved Search field, select an existing saved search. For more information about saved searches, see Saved Searches.
NetSuite pre-fills the Owner field with your name. If the owner of this group is someone else, select that person from the list.

Only the owner can add and remove members or delete this group.
(Optional) If this group shares an email alias, enter the email address in the Email field.
(Optional) In the Comments field, enter other information about this group.
If you want to restrict viewing (and also editing) of this group to its members, check the Private box.
If you want to restrict access to this group to members of another group, select the group from the Restrict To list.

Note:
You cannot mark restricted groups as private.
To permit only the owner of the group to modify the group, check the Restrict Group Editing to Owner box. Otherwise, anyone with access to the group can modify it.

Note:
The Billing Group box is checked by default and is read-only.
Click Save.

Now, every time a record of this type is created, it is added to this group if it matches the criteria in the saved search.

To create a static billing group

Go to Lists > Relationships > Billing Groups.
On the Create Group page, choose Static.
Choose the kind of members you would like this group to contain.
Click Continue.
Enter a name for this group.
NetSuite pre-fills the Owner field with your name. If the owner of this group is someone else, select that person from the list.

Only the owner can add and remove members or delete this group.
(Optional) If this group shares an email alias, enter the email address in the Email field.
(Optional) In the Comments field, enter other information about this group.
If you want to restrict viewing (and also editing) of this group to its members, check the Private box.
If you want to restrict access to this group to members of another group, select the group from the Restrict To list.

Note:
You cannot mark restricted groups as private.
To permit only the owner of the group to modify it, check the Restrict Group Editing to Owner box. Otherwise, anyone with access to the group can modify it.

Note:
The Billing Group box is checked by default and is read only.
On the Members subtab, do one of the following:
- To add individual members, in the Name column, select a member from the list, and click Add. Repeat these steps for each member.
- To add multiple members, click Add Multiple, then click on each member to add them, or use the Search field. When you are finished, click Done.
- Click Add With Search to enter search criteria for the members you want to add.
  
  You can use more than one of these methods to add members to the same group. For example, you can select a few members individually and then add all the members that meet search criteria.
  
  Note:
  If you select the same member using multiple methods, this adds the member multiple times.
Click the Files subtab if you would like to attach a file to the group.
Click the Notes subtab to add any notes about this group.
Click Save.

To add or remove members from a static group, see Adding and Removing Members of Groups.

To deactivate a billing group, open the billing group record, check the Inactive box, and then save the record.

Creating and Managing Billing Operation Schedules

After creating Billing Groups, you can create bill run schedules to run billing operations at a specific time. Creating a bill run schedule lets you set parameters, such as what invoices to create, which customers to bill, and when to start the billing operations.

To create a billing operation schedule:

Go to Transactions > Billing > Schedule Billing Operations.
Under Primary Information, enter a name and description for the bill run schedule.

If you do not want to make the bill run schedule active right away, check the Inactive box.
Under Schedule, set up the frequency for this bill run schedule.
Under Billing Operation Options, check the Bill Run box.
Under Billables, select the types of transactions for which you want to create bills.
Under Accounting, indicate whether the credit card is approved. Check this box if a credit card outside of NetSuite paid for the transaction, and you want to record the transaction in NetSuite.
Under Communication, indicate whether bills should be printed, emailed, or faxed.

When you set the To Be Emailed field to either Yes or Respect Customer Preference, the Include Invoices for Grouping field is enabled. Check this box if you want to send to customers all invoices generated from the bill run that were also marked for grouping.
Click Save.

To view the status of the bills being created from the bill run schedule, go to Transactions > Billing > Process Billing Operations > Status.

To enable billing operations:

Viewing and Creating Bill Runs and Credit Memo Runs

To create a new bill run or credit memo run:

Creating Billing Groups

To create a dynamic billing group:

To create a static billing group

Creating and Managing Billing Operation Schedules

To create a billing operation schedule:

Related Topics