There are the six billing types (four of which have optional additional functions) available in Ignition, which can be split up into two categories:

Billing types for one-time services, annual services, or project work

Billing Types for ongoing services

Finally, at the bottom of the article, you can see a video that shows how you can create a single proposal with a combination of billing types. 

Let's break down each of these billing types:
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If you provide one-time services for your clients, you have multiple options at your disposal in Ignition 

When should I use this billing type?
​There are two scenarios where you could use this billing type:

When will an invoice be generated?

If Xero or QuickBooks is integrated, Ignition will create an invoice as soon as the client accepts the proposal. Note: Even if the start date is in the future, an On Acceptance service within a proposal will create an invoice as soon as the proposal is accepted, regardless of the start date being in the future.

When will payment be collected?
If payments are enabled in your Ignition account, the once-off payment collection schedule will be applied (you can change your settings by clicking here). In the screenshot below, this account is set up to collect payments 3 days after the invoice is generated.  

If you haven't integrated your Ignition account with an accounting package, you can still use Ignition to collect on-acceptance payments.
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​For full details on using On Acceptance billing, click here.

(With the option to take a deposit)

When should I use this billing type?

There are two scenarios where you could use this billing type:

When will an invoice be generated?

When will payment be collected?

Just like on-acceptance, if Payments are enabled in your Ignition account, the once-off payment collection schedule will be applied. In this case, the payment collection will begin immediately when you generate the invoice.
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If you haven't integrated your Ignition account with an accounting package, you can still use Ignition to collect on-completion payments.

Apart from the deposit, you cannot invoice a single service with the on completion billing type multiple times. If you need multiple on-completion invoices for a single project, you'll need to include multiple services in your proposal. Check out this video below, to see how you can bill in phases with On Completion services:

(With the option to quote an hourly rate or a Price Range)

When should I use this billing type?

Estimates work the same as the On Completion invoice (but they do not include a deposit option). The difference is the price is displayed as an hourly rate or a price range, and the price will not be included in the total value of the proposal. As such, you would use the Estimate billing type when the scope of the project cannot be clearly defined upfront.

When will an invoice be generated?

You decide when the invoice is generated, which is pushed to Xero or QuickBooks at the click of a button (exactly the same way On-Completion is billed).

When will payment be collected?

Just like on-acceptance and on-completion, if Payments are enabled in your Ignition account, the once-off payment collection schedule will be applied. In this case, the payment collection will begin immediately when you generate the invoice. 

If you haven't integrated your Ignition account with an accounting package, you can still use Ignition to collect on-completion payments.
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For full details on using estimates, click here.

If you provide services for your clients on an ongoing basis, you have a few options available to you to automatically generate invoices and collect payment.

When should I use this billing type?

There are many scenarios where monthly recurring billing is appropriate:

When will an invoice be generated?

If you use Xero or QuickBooks, an invoice is generated automatically, once a month. When you create your proposal, you can choose the day of the month the invoice will be created. Each client can have a different monthly billing schedule. 

When will payment be collected?
Monthly recurring payments pick up the Recurring Payment schedule. In this case, payment will begin collecting immediately after the invoice is generated, once a month.

If you haven't integrated your Ignition account with an accounting package, you can still use the Monthly Recurring Billing feature to collect monthly payments.

When will invoicing and payment collection stop?

When Invoicing and payment collection stops are dependent on whether you choose continue or stop recurring billing in the recurring billing settings of your proposal:
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When should I use this billing type?
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Weekly Billing works exactly the same as monthly recurring. Weekly recurring will allow you to create proposals that generate weekly invoices as well as weekly payments. You might choose to use weekly recurring billing in cases:

When will an invoice be generated?
The major difference is that all weekly invoices (and therefore, payment collections) will happen on the same day every week. The good news is you can choose which day of the week you want invoices to be generated, but not at the specific proposal level (you can edit your weekly billing settings under general settings):

When will payment be collected? 

Weekly recurring payments pick up the Recurring Payment schedule. In this case, payment will begin collecting immediately after the invoice is generated, once a week on the global weekly recurring invoice day.

If you haven't integrated your Ignition account with an accounting package, you can still use the Weekly Billing feature to collect weekly payments.
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​For full details on using weekly billing, click here.
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(on Monthly and weekly recurring services)

Both monthly and weekly recurring billing types give you the option to enable pro-rata. In Ignition, pro-rata allows you to invoice and collect payments on missed billing periods in a proposal. Before we dive into pro-rata, it's important to understand the definition of a "billing period" in the context of Ignition.

What is a billing period?
​Specifically related to recurring billing, a billing period refers to a single month (or week, if using weekly billing) in a proposal. Billing periods are defined by the recurring invoice day. 

To come up with a proposal total value, Ignition counts the number of recurring invoice days that fall inside the contracted start and end date. 

Let's break down an example. 

I have started a new proposal where I've opted to have recurring invoices on the 1st of each month.

I've set the contracted start date as the 1st of January, and the end date as the 31st of December:

Ignition counts the number of billing periods that fall between the contracted start and end date. In this case, I have 12 billing periods, where billing will occur on the 1st of each billing period:
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If I change the Recurring invoice day to the 15th, it changes the billing periods, but there are still 12 recurring invoice days falling inside the contracted start and end date. Therefore, there are still 12 billing periods in this proposal:

Now let's change the example slightly to a common mistake new Ignition users make.  I've set the recurring invoice day to the 1st but I've changed the start date to the 15th. 

In this case, I've only got 11 billing periods:

If I do actually want 12 billing periods in this proposal, I can either:

With these examples in mind, let's now explore how pro-rata works. 

When should I use Pro-rata?

There are two scenarios where pro-rata billing becomes helpful:

It's important to note, pro-rata does not calculate a daily rate, rather, it calculates the number of missed billing periods based on the start date of the proposal. 

Collecting payment for catchup work immediately

Using the example from above, let's imagine that it's the middle of April and you have a new prospect that has catch up work from January and onwards. In this case, you want to collect payment for the January, February, March, and April billing periods immediately. So, you will set the contracted start date as the 1st of January and pro-rata calculate the number of missed periods:

- 1 Jan - 31 Jan - Missed billing period
- 1 Feb - 28 Feb - Missed billing period
- 1 Mar - 31 Mar - Missed billing period
- 1 Apr - 30 Apr - Missed billing period
- 1 May - 31 May
- 1 Jun - 30 Jun
- 1 Aug - 31 - Aug
- 1 Sep - 30 Sep
- 1 Oct - 31 Oct
- 1 Nov - 30 Nov
- 1 Dec - 31 Dec

"Future-proof" your proposals by using pro-rata to ensure you don't miss a billing period

Many Ignition users like to renew their client agreements each year as a way to manage scope creep, up-sell, or simply reconfirm the terms of their agreement. Let's imagine that I renew all my agreements on the 1st of January each year. I send all my new agreements in December, however, some of my clients might not sign their contract before the 1st of January passes. So, to ensure I don't miss out, I'll do two things:

Most of my clients sign on time but one client misses the "deadline" and signs on the 5th of January. In this case, Ignition automatically identifies the 1st of January as a "missed billing period" and generates an invoice as soon as the client accepts. Better still, if the client hadn't signed until February, pro-rata will continue to re-calculate the number of missed billing periods and adjust the on-acceptance billing appropriately.  

When will payments be collected?

pro-rata invoices are considered One-off payments. As such, your one-off payment schedule will apply

For full details on using pro-rata and catchup payments, click here.

When should I use this billing type?
If you provide value-added or complimentary services as part of your packages, use the Included Service billing type. Included services allow you to add additional services to your proposal that has no price. 

When will an invoice be generated?
​The included service billing type does not generate any invoices in Xero or QuickBooks.

When will payments be collected?
​The included service billing type does not generate any payments.