Batch Billing: Generate Invoices in Bulk

Batch billing creates many invoices at once from work that’s already been done, so you don’t have to type them one at a time. There are three flavors, reached from two places: Generate Visit Invoices and Generate Monthly Fixed live on Billing > Invoices & Payments; program-round invoicing lives on a Program’s summary page. In every case you press the button, the system finds what’s billable, and it skips anything that’s already been invoiced.

Before you start

Jobs must have a Billing Mode set (turn on Set Job Invoicing on the job, then choose Per Visit or Monthly Fixed). Seasonal Prepay / Manual and On Job Completion jobs are never batch-billed.
Know what each run prices from:
- Per-visit invoices use the job’s product/service lines (catalog products or description-only lines). A job with no priced lines is skipped and named in the result.
- Monthly Fixed and program-round invoices use the job’s most recent accepted estimate. No accepted estimate means no invoice for that job.
Jobs must be Active for Monthly Fixed and program-round runs (completed visits are what drives Per Visit).
The work has to actually be done: visits must be marked completed, and program rounds must be marked Completed, to be picked up.

Steps

Per-visit invoices (Invoices & Payments page)

Creates one invoice per completed, not-yet-invoiced visit on Per Visit jobs. Each completed date of a repeating appointment is its own visit.

Go to Billing > Invoices & Payments and open the Batch billing section above the list.
Optionally set the Completed visits from and through dates to limit which visits are included (leave both blank for all).
Click Generate Visit Invoices.
A message reports how many were created, e.g. “Generated 5 visit invoice(s).”, and lists anything skipped with the reason: visits already billed on a program round or monthly fixed invoice, visits another billing run invoiced at the same moment, and jobs with no priced lines. When jobs need pricing you’re offered Open Unbilled work to fix them.

Each invoice is dated today, due per the job’s Invoicing Terms (or 30 days).

The dashboard’s “Completed visits to bill” card and the crew day’s “Bill today’s visits” link open this section with the dates filled in.

Monthly fixed-fee invoices (Invoices & Payments page)

Creates one invoice per Monthly Fixed, Active job for the current month.

In the Batch billing section, click Generate Monthly Fixed.
A message reports the count, e.g. “Generated 3 monthly fixed invoice(s).”, followed by Not invoiced this month with each skipped job and why. A line starting Needs review may be work that is on no invoice (for example a job whose billing mode changed), so check it.

The run never bills a job twice for the same month, so clicking it twice is harmless. Each invoice is priced from the job’s accepted estimate, keeps the estimate’s taxable and tax-exempt parts, and is dated to the billing month.

Program-round invoices (Program summary page)

For fertilization / plant-health-care programs, invoices are generated per completed round. Open the program (Work > Programs, then the program) to find these controls:

On a single completed round: a round marked Completed shows Create invoices on its row. Click it, confirm, and it creates one invoice per customer for the active jobs in that program.
All completed rounds: the Invoice Completed Rounds button (in the program’s Quick Actions) sweeps every completed round in the program. Rounds that already have invoices are skipped. You’ll see a count, or a No invoices created notice saying why: every completed round was already covered, some jobs need manual review (lines marked Needs review may be work that is on no invoice), or “Rounds may already be invoiced, or no rounds are completed yet.”

Program-round invoices are grouped so each customer gets a single invoice covering their program jobs for that round, priced from those jobs’ accepted estimates. The rounds of a job add up exactly to its estimate.

What happens next

New invoices land on Invoices & Payments as Open (or Overdue if past due) and under the Not sent chip, ready to review, send, print, and collect on, exactly like a manually created invoice. See Create and Manage Invoices.
Nothing is emailed to customers automatically. Batch billing creates the invoices for you to review and send.
These invoices behave like any other from here: record payments against them; when one is fully paid and the job’s work is done with nothing else owing, the job is closed. See Record Payments.

Tips & best practices

Run monthly fixed at the start of each month. Running it more than once is harmless; only jobs not yet billed for the month get an invoice.
Use the date range on visit invoices to bill a specific week or pay period rather than everything outstanding.
Mark visits and rounds completed promptly — batch billing only sees completed work. Anything still open is invisible to the run.
Each job is billed one way. A visit already covered by a program round, monthly fixed or job completion invoice is not billed again per visit, and round billing skips jobs that bill per visit or monthly.
Batch and automatic invoicing coexist. If a job is opted into automatic invoicing, its visits are already billed as they complete; the batch buttons remain useful for jobs you haven’t opted in, or as a manual catch-up. See Automatic Invoicing.
Visits you billed by hand are skipped. If a manual invoice records a visit (the Visit choice on the invoice form), that invoice counts as the visit’s bill, so Generate Visit Invoices will not bill that visit again. A manual invoice with no visit chosen is an extra charge and does not stop the visit from being billed here. If you billed a visit some other way, use Mark as billed on the Unbilled Visits report. See Find Work You Have Not Billed.
Re-treat visits are never billed. A re-treat repeats work the job already billed. Create an invoice by hand if you are charging for it.
Check the count the button reports. A count of 0 usually means everything is already invoiced, nothing is completed yet, or the jobs lack pricing.

Troubleshooting

“Generated 0 invoices”: the most common causes are no completed visits/rounds in range, Per Visit jobs with no priced lines, Monthly Fixed jobs missing an accepted estimate, jobs not set to the matching Billing Mode, or everything already invoiced.
“No job in this program can be billed by round. Round billing needs an active job with an accepted estimate; per-visit and monthly jobs are billed their own way.”: the program’s jobs either have no accepted estimate, aren’t Active, or are set to bill per visit or monthly.
A specific job didn’t get billed: confirm its Billing Mode matches the run (Per Visit vs. Monthly Fixed), that it’s Active (for monthly/program runs), and that it has the pricing that run uses (job lines for per visit, an accepted estimate for monthly and rounds).
Monthly fixed skipped a job: read its line under Not invoiced this month. Usually it already has an invoice for the current month, or the job isn’t Active.
A program round shows no Create invoices button: the button only appears on rounds marked Completed. Mark the round completed first (Edit round in the row’s More menu).
Duplicate worry — you can re-run any batch safely; already-invoiced work is skipped, not re-billed.

Invoicing Overview — manual vs. batch vs. automatic at a glance
Automatic Invoicing — let the system generate these invoices without pressing a button
Create and Manage Invoices: review, send, print, and edit the generated invoices
Record Payments — collect on the invoices you generated
Find Work You Have Not Billed: Unbilled work and the Unbilled Visits report