Automatic recurring variable billing

ydma · ‎March 23, 2019

I am looking at different accounting software and need to know if QuickBooks can handle our workflow. We have a property management business that charges a monthly fee, plus we pass on the billable services from vendors, if applicable that month.

I see Quickbooks can pass a billable item to a customer. This is great.

I need the customer to enter their payment information once (and authorization if needed) and then be set to auto bill. I understand that recurring payments are allowed, but only for the same amount monthly. I also understand that I can create a sales receipt instead of an invoice and charge the client on that date from a card on file. These are not exactly what I'm looking for.

I'd like to be able to finalize the invoices before the 7th of the month. Then have the invoices sent to the customer (with the billable items attached) on the 10th, then have their card charged 7 days later. Just like a phone bill or utility bill. Is this possible? Thanks!

MarshallA · ‎March 23, 2019

Hello,

I think I understand what you're trying to do. The good news is that this can all be done in QBO, the bad news is that it cannot be 100% automated. It WOULD require some actions by you every month.

1. You can setup recurring invoices to your clients every month and set them to automatically include any billable charges that have not been billed to your client yet.

2. You can also setup the template to create the invoice with a certain day on it but actually create the invoice days earlier. Ex: Invoice #100 is dated 4/10/2019 but its created in QBO on 4/7/2019.

Here are the parts that require a little work on your part.

1. You would have to either collect the billing info from your client and manually add it to their customer profile, OR you have to send the 1st online invoice to them and MAKE SURE they select the box when making a payment that says "Use this billing info for future payments".

2. With the recurring invoice template you can set the default invoice delivery to SEND LATER. This will create the invoice and put it in a queue. Then on whatever day you want to send your invoices, you just go to your invoice list and set filter to SEND LATER and then click batch actions and select SEND TRANSACTIONS. That will email all the invoices in the queue to the clients.

3. On the date you actually want to charge the customer, you would have to go to each open invoice for them and select receive payment. It will have their default billing method saved and then you just click OK and it will process the payment and close the invoice.

View solution in original post

MarshallA · ‎March 23, 2019

Hello,

I think I understand what you're trying to do. The good news is that this can all be done in QBO, the bad news is that it cannot be 100% automated. It WOULD require some actions by you every month.

1. You can setup recurring invoices to your clients every month and set them to automatically include any billable charges that have not been billed to your client yet.

2. You can also setup the template to create the invoice with a certain day on it but actually create the invoice days earlier. Ex: Invoice #100 is dated 4/10/2019 but its created in QBO on 4/7/2019.

Here are the parts that require a little work on your part.

1. You would have to either collect the billing info from your client and manually add it to their customer profile, OR you have to send the 1st online invoice to them and MAKE SURE they select the box when making a payment that says "Use this billing info for future payments".

2. With the recurring invoice template you can set the default invoice delivery to SEND LATER. This will create the invoice and put it in a queue. Then on whatever day you want to send your invoices, you just go to your invoice list and set filter to SEND LATER and then click batch actions and select SEND TRANSACTIONS. That will email all the invoices in the queue to the clients.

3. On the date you actually want to charge the customer, you would have to go to each open invoice for them and select receive payment. It will have their default billing method saved and then you just click OK and it will process the payment and close the invoice.

ydma · ‎March 24, 2019

This is wonderfully detailed information @MarshallA . Thanks for being so thorough.

Could you confirm that the billable item PDFs will be attached to the customer invoice for them to click and view?

Can I choose to leave off the "Pay Now" button on the invoice? I want to look as polished as possible and not leave any question in the customer's mind that everything flows smoothly behind the scenes without them lifting a finger (unless they want to).

Also, do you know of any software that automates this and integrates with QuickBooks? I've been searching for two weeks including on the QB website and haven't found anything.

Thanks again.

MarshallA · ‎March 24, 2019

Hello,

Let me answer in easiest way I can by breaking it down part by part.

Could you confirm that the billable item PDFs will be attached to the customer invoice for them to click and view? Yes. If you checkmark the box that says "attach to email" then any attachments that were included on the billable expense you created, will be able to be seen by the customer when they view the invoice. In order for this to be a default, you might have to manually select it the first time and then after that it will remember. I'd recommend trying out with a few test transactions that you email to yourself to be sure.

Can I choose to leave off the "Pay Now" button on the invoice? I want to look as polished as possible and not leave any question in the customer's mind that everything flows smoothly behind the scenes without them lifting a finger (unless they want to).Once you have the clients billing info saved in their customer profile, you can uncheck the boxes to allow them to pay online. This will change the link from Review and Pay to Review and Print. They won't be able to pay the invoice online by their own hand.

Also, do you know of any software that automates this and integrates with QuickBooks? I've been searching for two weeks including on the QB website and haven't found anything. You can look into 3rd party apps. Some claim that they can add more automation into tasks in QuickBooks Online. I don't know of any off the top of my head. Just keep in mind of a couple things. They may add more functionality but if something isn't working correctly and you're using an app, Intuit support will be limited in what troubleshooting they can do depending on where the issue lies. I would ALWAYS recommend thorough testing by sending yourself emails and transactions to make sure everything is flowing correctly. Like Scotty on Star Trek once said "The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain"

Side Note: Also, (and I'm sure you're already aware but never hurts to make sure) remember that you'll need to create a recurring invoice template for EACH customer.

ydma · ‎March 25, 2019

Thanks so much. I really do appreciate your time.

MarshallA · ‎March 25, 2019

My pleasure. Let me know if you have any more questions.

pwhite9279 · ‎January 16, 2021

Can you setup recurring VENDOR transactions with variable amounts each month ?

Adrian_A · ‎January 16, 2021

It seems that this is a duplicate post, pwhite9279.

You can view my colleague's response through this link: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/payments/re-can-i-set-up-recurring-bills-that-are-....

Let us know if you need help. Keep safe!

drbboyd@gmail.co · ‎February 03, 2021

What idiot came up with this. The point of this program is to automate processes. everywhere I look the recurring biling has holes in it.

Recurring Sales Receipts.
I sell internet. Customer pay monthly. After reading the documentation, a monthly sales receipt instead of an invoice was recommended by qb. I use ACH as my monthly payment choice as it is only 1% vs 3% . I put in about 50 this month and it worked great. On the second, I wanted to verify everyone had paid. NO ONE at qb can tell me how find out which sales receipt was paid. Austin said, use invoices but I would have to reschedule them every monht. What good is recurring billing if you can't tell who is paid. I am now looking for new software. The recurring billing is why I chose qb online. Now I find I have wasted a lot of time. If someone knows how to run a report of not paid sales receipts, please tell me.

ReymondO · ‎February 03, 2021

Hi there, drbboyd@gmail.co.

I definitely understand how it can be frustrating to sign up for a service and have it not work the way you think it should be.

The sales receipt is the customer's proof that a purchase was made, what they bought, and how much they paid.

For now, there are no available reports that would help us determine if the sales receipts are paid or not in QuickBooks.

I can see how this option would be helpful for you and your business. Therefore, let me take note of this as a suggestion to improve your QuickBooks experience.

In the meantime, I recommend visiting our Firm of the Future site. This is where we share recent happenings and future developments, such as updates to newly added features.

The Community always has your back, so please let me know if you have any other questions. I'll be more than happy to help. Keep safe.

MarshallA · ‎February 03, 2021

Hello drbboyd@gmail.co

I need a little more clarification as your statement is a little confusing

When you bill your customers, are you automatically charging them at the same time you send them the bill? Or, are you sending them the bill and relying on them to make the payment?

Reason I ask is because if you are automatically charging them each month and they don't have to do anything (Think a Netflix subscription) then you use sales receipts and there is no need to run a report to see who paid because with a sales receipt, you charge them automatically.

If you send them an invoice and you rely on THEM to pay you every month (think utility bill) then you can simply run a report for any unpaid invoices.

Please let us know what exactly your billing model and we will be happy to help.

drbboyd@gmail.co · ‎February 03, 2021

You are correct on the Netflix scenario. I use sales reciepts with ach as payment method so the payment is made automatically the first of each month. It seemed to work great. The problem is, unlike invoices, I can't find any way to see who paid and who did not. You have to know if all were paid.

MarshallA · ‎February 03, 2021

drbboyd@gmail.co

As stated, once the sales receipt is created, it will start the process to draft from the customers bank account right away.

So, are you asking for some kind of report or method to show if the automatic payment failed? If so, you can run a report from the Merchant Portal that will show your transactions and if any failed.

In QBO go to Gear Icon/Account and Settings/Payments/Manage My Account

This will bring up the merchant portal. Then at top click on Activity and Reports. Then Transactions. From here you can run a report based on date range of all transactions and see which ones failed.

Is that what you are looking for?

Fiat Lux - ASIA · ‎February 03, 2021

drbboyd@gmail.co

Consider having a billing app with more features to integrate with your QBO account.

drbboyd@gmail.co · ‎February 03, 2021

Yes. The merchant portal shows a list of payments. It does not tell me if all my paments were made.

I can open invoice and see at a glance who is not paid. Why wouldn't I want the same feature for my monthly subscriptions?

drbboyd@gmail.co · ‎February 03, 2021

Consider continue to use my desktop qb and get rid of qb on line because it is stupid to advertise recurring billing with no way to track that it was paid. If I am going to have to pay for a seperate billing software, why would I pay for quickbooks. It infuriates me that I have wasted 2 months filling in all these customers and I am not going to have to start over.

Fiat Lux - ASIA · ‎February 03, 2021

drbboyd@gmail.co wrote:
Yes. The merchant portal shows a list of payments. It does not tell me if all my paments were made.
I can open invoice and see at a glance who is not paid. Why wouldn't I want the same feature for my monthly subscriptions?

drbboyd@gmail.co

When you are using a billing management app, you will have more features (e.g subscription management). You can monitor all open invoices for your subscribers easily. The app should comply to ASC 606 and IFRS 15. Your customers may self update their plan or payment method in a portal.

If you don't need such feature, switching to QBD is not a bad decision. You may purchase a one time license of QBD 2021 Pro for 1 user worth $399 or Premier for 1 user worth $499 thru a partner. Deploy a private cloud if required to access data by internet.

Topics

Training

Community

Resources

Automatic recurring variable billing