Billing in advance or in arrears, with Bill Now
Bill short hires at once with Bill Now, and long hires on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly or end-of-hire cycle. Bill in advance or in arrears, grouped as you like. Rent stops at the call-off or return, and time billed ahead and not used comes back as a credit.
PLANSEvery plan
The problem it solves
- Monthly hires are invoiced by hand on the first, and a few are always missed.
- A car called off mid-month is still billed to the month end.
- A contractor wants one invoice per project with its PO, and gets one per car.
- Charges from returns sit in a notebook until someone remembers them.
How it works
- For a short hire, press Bill Now on a running or ended order. Everything due up to now is billed: rent, per-day extras and the charges ready to bill.
- For long hires, make a cycle for the customer under Rental > Billing > Bills > Billing Cycles > New, and choose it on the order.
- When its day comes, the cycle bills by itself (checked every hour). In advance bills up to the next billing day; in arrears bills the time used.
- Rent stops at the call-off or the return, whichever is first. A car back early on a cycle billed in advance comes back as a credit line on the next invoice.
- Use Rent Schedule on the order to see every bill ahead. Use Bill Up To to bill a customer up to a day after a missed or corrected run.
Everything it does
The cycle
- Frequency: Weekly, Monthly (to start with), Every n Weeks, Quarterly, Yearly, At the End
- Day of the Month: 1 to start with, 31 for the last day; Day of the Week; Every (weeks): 4; Counting From
- Timing: In Arrears (to start with) or In Advance
- Grouping: One Invoice for Everything, One per Order (to start with), One per Site / PO, One per Item
- Proration: By the Rate Plan (the cheapest mix over the whole rental, to start with). Or By Calendar Month (the month rate for each month, part months by their days)
- Invoicing: Journal, Payment Terms, Charge the Saved Card
- Next Billing and Last Billed; Bill Now on the cycle; filters Due and In Advance
Invoices
- Lines name the car, the period and the days, with the rate a day
- Invoices carry the orders and the Customer PO; each line shows Billed Until
- Made as drafts to check and post. With Charge the Saved Card each invoice is posted and charged to the order's saved card or mandate, or a pay link is made
- Rent increases from the rate plan are applied from their dates
- At the End bills each line once it is back
Charges
- Charges ready to bill go with the next invoice of the order, up to the billing day
- Charges To Confirm wait for a Rent Manager
- A billed charge cannot be dropped: credit it on the invoice
Tools
- Rent Schedule: every bill ahead with its day, period and amount, a year ahead for hires that roll on
- Bill Up To (Rent Manager): a customer, some or all cycles, and a day
- An order closes only once its rent, extras and charges are billed
Who uses it
Accounts or Rent UserBills with Bill Now and checks and posts the invoices.
Rent ManagerSets up cycles, confirms charges and uses Bill Up To.
CustomerSees invoices on the web page and the app and pays them online.
Where you use it
- Web: Bill Now and Rent Schedule on each order; Rental > Billing > Bills > Billing Cycles, Charges and Bill Up To
- Customer pages and the SmartMy Rental app: invoices and what is left to pay (built and in testing, not in the app stores yet)
What you control
Settings
- Frequency Monthly, Day of the Month 1, Timing In Arrears, Grouping One per Order, Proration By the Rate Plan
- Charge the Saved Card: off
- Rental product: the invoice product when the item and rate plan name none
Approvals
- Rental charge: charges To Confirm (damage, early end, late return, repairs) wait. Confirm and Drop go through the Rental charge chain, Rent Managers by default, on every plan
Notifications
- Invoices are sent the usual way for invoices; a card that could not be charged gives the salesperson a to-do with the pay link
- Rental Payment Link and Rental Payment Received go to the customer for pay links (Growth)
Questions
What happens when a car comes back early on a hire billed in advance?
The time billed and not used comes back as a credit line on the next invoice of that order.Can we bill one invoice per project?
Yes. Choose Grouping One per Site / PO on the cycle. Each invoice carries that site's PO.We missed a billing run. What now?
Use Bill Up To with the customer and the day. It bills everything up to that day, as a run on that day would have.Can the customer's card be charged each cycle?
Yes. Tick Charge the Saved Card on the cycle. Each invoice is posted and charged to the order's saved card or mandate; if that fails, a pay link is made and the salesperson told.Related features
HIRE ORDERSLong hires with notice period, lock-in and customer sitesMonthly and open-ended hires carry a notice period and a lock-in date. When a customer calls off short or ends before the lock-in, the rent of the time short is worked out for you. It waits as an Early End charge for a manager to confirm. Each hire can be booked to the customer's own site with its PO.CHECKSCharges from return checks: fuel, AdBlue, kilometres and damageWhen the return check is signed, what the customer owes is worked out from it. That covers kilometres or hours over the allowance, missing fuel, AdBlue and charge, a lost key, and new damage marked to charge. Damage waits for a manager; the rest goes on the next bill.BILLING AND PAYMENTSDeposits taken, topped up, used and refundedEvery confirmed hire that asks for a deposit gets its own deposit record, held on a liability account. You take it, top it up, use it for what the customer owes and refund the rest. The order cannot be closed while money is still held.BILLING AND PAYMENTSPay links, card holds, saved cards and mandatesAsk for money with a pay link on your own payment provider. Hold a deposit on the card, and charge a saved card or mandate each billing cycle. Every request follows its payment to Paid, Held, Failed or Refunded by itself.HIRE ORDERSExtend, swap, call off, roll on and overdue hiresChange a hire while it runs: extend or shorten it, or swap the car through return and handover checks. Call it off with a call-off number, and nothing is charged after that time. Hires that roll on go on by themselves, and overdue cars are flagged every hour.ACCOUNTINGFull accounting with GST returnsRent invoices, charges, deposits, pay-link payments, fines passed on, supplier bills for cars hired in and car sales all post into the same books. Scale adds the full accounting screens and reports, from ledgers with drill-down to cash flow, and GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B for Indian Entities.
See your fleet on it.
Tell us how many cars or machines you hire out, from how many depots, and how bookings reach you today. We will set up your fleet with you on SmartMy Rental.