What do Billing Rules do?
Billing Rules define when services in a service group will be billed.
A billing rule is made up of:
A billing frequency (recurring or one time)*
A billing start date (a specific or relative date)
*Note: If recurring billing is selected, you'll need to define how often it recurs and any potential end to the recurrence.
Multiple services can be housed together in a service type, meaning all of the services in the group will follow that particular billing rule.
Also, a single proposal can have as many billing rules as you need - e.g. quarterly, monthly, and annual billings altogether on one proposal.
You can edit a billing rule any time by clicking the drop down menu in the title of the group.
When editing a billing rule, you will be presented with settings that you can customize.
Let's take a look at the different options.
Recurring
If you want to create a Recurring billing rule, all services will be billed on a recurring basis depending on how you configure the billing rule.
Recurring Period
You can choose how frequently the billing will occur by configuring the Recurring Period (# days, weeks or months).
Start billing on
You can choose when to Start billing:
On Acceptance of the proposal - use this to bill immediately when the client accepts a proposal. You can also choose to delay when this begins.
On the Proposal start date - use this to bill on the start date of the proposal. You can also choose to delay when this begins.
On a Specific date - use this if you have a precise or estimated date when this will be billed
End billing
You can choose when to End billing for a recurring fee:
Selecting Indefinitely means the fee will continue until it is ended or changes
Selecting Set Period will end billing after a number of billing periods. If selecting this option, check the date range shown aligns with your expectations.
Once you have confirmed the Billing Rule, you can start adding services to the service group and begin building out your proposal.
One-off (On Acceptance & On Completion)
If you want to create a One-off billing rule, all the services under that service group will be only billed once.
Use this for upfront or on completion billing where all fees will be charged one time for that service.
You can then choose when this one time fee is billed by editing the billing rule:
On Acceptance of the proposal - use this to bill immediately when the client accepts a proposal. You can also choose to delay when this begins.
On the Proposal start date - use this to bill on the start date of the proposal. You can also choose to delay when this begins. You can change the start date in the General step of the proposal editor.
On the Proposal end date - use this to bill at the end of the proposal or when it finishes. You can change the start date in the General step of the proposal editor.
On a Specific Date - use this if you have a precise or estimated date when this will be billed
On Completion billing
When you create a new One-off Service Type, Ignition will ask you if you want to bill On Acceptance or On Completion.
If you choose On Completion, the billing rule will default to billing manually on the proposal's end date - displayed to the client as "Billed on completion".
If you want to bill On Acceptance of the proposal, you simply need to select One-off and then change the billing rule to start billing On Acceptance!
Deposit
You can also set a service or a group of services to be a Deposit. This means that all the services under that billing rule will have a deposit created that will be billed for once the proposal is accepted.
Please note that Billing Rules do not take into consideration the Default Recurring Invoice Day setting (found in Settings → General tab). This setting is for Classic Proposals only and do not apply to New Proposals. They will follow the Billing Rule.