Bill in advance of a contract's start date

This topic describes how to automatically create a billing schedule that starts before a contract line starts.

This topic is only applicable to termed contracts. A termed contract has both start and end dates.

About billing in advance

The bill-in-advance feature automatically creates billing schedules that start before a contract line starts, allowing you to get your invoices out earlier. For example, say you have a contract line for a training class that is scheduled for March 1, but you want to invoice the customer on February 1.

When you create a new contract, you define the desired number of days or months before the contract starts that you want to start the associated billing schedule. When you add a contract line to the contract, the billing schedule for the contract line automatically defaults to start on the contract line start date minus the bill-in-advance period.

The end date defaults to end on the contract line end date minus the bill-in-advance period. The exception is that if a billing schedule starts on the last day of a month (for example, Feb 28) and the bill-in-advance period is months, the first billing period is scheduled on the last day of the applicable month instead of the same day number (for example, Jan 31 instead of Jan 28).

Set up a contract to bill in advance

You must define the bill-in-advance settings before the contract has had any revenue or expense recognized, any invoices generated, or had any MEA allocations defined. After the first recognition or billing event occurs, the bill-in-advance settings aren’t editable.

Note the following about using billing in advance:

• There’s no limit to the number of days or months in advance that you can choose to bill.
• Unbilled AR and Unbilled deferred revenue ("booking revenue") for all contract lines will have a posting date equal to the contract line's GL posting date regardless of the actual billing schedule start date.

• The bill-in-advance start date cannot occur in a closed period. For example, today is February 9, and you've just closed January's books. You have a new contract that starts March 9. You want the bill-in-advance period to be two months. When you save the contract, Intacct tries to create a billing schedule that starts January 9, but fails as the period is closed.

You can define bill-in-advance settings when you create a new contract or you can edit an existing contract. The following procedure assumes you’re editing an existing "In progress" contract to include bill-in-advance information.

1. Go to Contracts > All > Contracts.
2. Find the contract for which you want to set up bill-in-advance.
3. Select More actions > Edit at the end of the row.
4. In the Bill in advance section, use the dropdown to select "Days" or "Months", then enter the number of days or months in the When field.
5. Select Save.

   The system updates the billing schedules for any existing contract lines to start on the applicable contract line start date minus the selected bill-in-advance length/period.

6. Add contract lines as desired.

   The "Include with every invoice" Flat/fixed amount frequency option on the contract line is not supported when the bill-in-advance period = "Days". To bill more than once during the contract term, set the contract line's Flat/Fixed amount frequency to "Use billing template".

   You can now generate an invoice for the contract as per your business process.

1. Go to Contracts > All, select Contracts, and then select Edit next to the desired Contracts.
2. In the Bill in advance section, use the dropdown to select "Days" or "Months", then enter the number of days or months in the When field.
3. Select Save.

   The system updates the billing schedules for any existing contract lines to start on the applicable contract line start date minus the selected bill-in-advance length/period.

4. Add contract lines as desired.

   The "Include with every invoice" Flat/fixed amount frequency option on the contract line is not supported when the bill-in-advance period = "Days". To bill more than once during the contract term, set the contract line's Flat/Fixed amount frequency to "Use billing template".

   You can now generate an invoice for the contract as per your business process.

Edit bill-in-advance billing schedules

You can edit a bill-in-advance billing schedule to change the billing start date as applicable, with the exception that you can’t change the start date to a date prior to the default billing start date. The billing schedule must start on or after the default billing start date, except in specific scenarios where the GL posting date is a different date. See How the contract line GL posting date affects billing schedules for details.

For example, if the default billing schedule start date and the GL posting date is July 1, you can change the billing schedule to start on July 15, but you can't change it to start on June 30. Keep in mind that even if you change the billing schedule start date, the Unbilled AR and Unbilled deferred revenue ("booking revenue") for the contract line will still have a posting date equal to the GL posting date.

To edit a billing schedule, see Billing schedules.

Specify bill-in-advance parameters for contract renewals

You can define separate bill-in-advance parameters specifically for contract renewals. All contract lines in the child renewal contract will default to start their billing schedules on the child contract line start date minus the bill-in-advance period. You can edit the child contract and change the bill-in-advance settings (prior to invoicing or revenue recognition) and/or contract line billing schedule dates as desired.

If you add a contract line to the source bill-in-advance contract after it's renewed, the contract line will automatically be added to the child contract. This "link" is only applicable when you add a new contract line. Edits to existing contract lines in the source contract won’t be propagated to the child contract.

You can define renewal bill-in-advance settings when you create a new contract or you can edit an existing contract to add them. The following procedure assumes you’re editing an existing "In progress" contract to include renewal bill-in-advance information.

1. Go to Contracts > All > Contracts.

2. Find the contract for which you want to specify bill-in-advance parameters.
3. Select More actions > Edit at the end of the row.
4. Select the Renewals tab.
5. If the contract isn’t set up for renewal, select the Renew checkbox, select a Renewal template, and specify the Renewal length and period. Learn more about setting up a contract for renewal.
6. In the Bill in advance section, use the dropdown to select "Days" or "Months", then enter the number of days or months in the When field.

   If the bill-in-advance start date is earlier than the renewal template start date, an information message appears at the top of the page to let you know that the renewal will be created on the bill-in-advance start date.

7. Select Save.

1. Go to Contracts > All > Contracts.

2. Select Edit next to the desired contracts.
3. Select the Renewals tab.
4. If the contract isn’t set up for renewal, select the Renew checkbox, select a Renewal template, and specify the Renewal length and period. Learn more about setting up a contract for renewal.
5. In the Bill in advance section, use the dropdown to select "Days" or "Months", then enter the number of days or months in the When field.

   If the bill-in-advance start date is earlier than the renewal template start date, an information message appears at the top of the page to let you know that the renewal will be created on the bill-in-advance start date.

6. Select Save.

What to do when not all contract lines should bill in advance

Bill-in-advance settings affect all contract lines in a contract. They will also affect contract renewals, as typically a bill-in-advance contract will be set up to renew with bill-in-advance parameters specified. When you have a contract where not all contract lines should bill in advance, there are several ways that you can achieve the desired billing schedules for the different contract lines. Some options include the following:

• When you’re initially setting up the contract, create two contracts: one containing the contract lines that do bill in advance, and one containing the contract lines that don't bill in advance. This solution works if none of the contract lines are participating in MEAs.
• In the parent bill-in-advance contract and in the child bill-in-advance contract after renewal, change the GL posting date for the contract lines that don't bill in advance to the applicable later date. You can do this manually or via the API.
• When you’re initially setting up the contract, do not specify bill-in-advance settings. Instead, change the GL posting date for the contract lines that should bill in advance to the applicable earlier date. You would need to do this after renewal in the child contract as well if you wanted the renewal contract line to also bill in advance.
• If the contract lines that should not bill in advance can use billing templates, use billing templates with the applicable offset values that will start the billing schedule as applicable. For example, if the bill-in-advance period is one month, the first entry in the billing template would have an Offset value of 1. In order to use this solution, the Billing schedules option in the Configure Contracts page must be set to "Do not change the default billing schedule".

Remove bill-in-advance settings from a contract

Say your original bill-in-advance contract renewed, but you later decide you don't want to bill the child contract in advance. If the child contract hasn’t had any revenue or expense recognized for it or had any invoices generated against it, you can remove the bill-in-advance settings. If the contract has an MEA allocation, you must clear the MEA allocation prior to completing this procedure.

1. Go to Contracts > All > Contracts.

2. Find the contract for which you want to remove bill-in-advance.
3. Select More actions > Edit at the end of the row.
4. In the Bill in Advance section, delete the number in the first field and then use the dropdown list in the second field to select the blank row at the top of the list.

   Both fields should now be blank.

5. Select Save.

   The system resets the billing schedules to start on the contract line start date.

1. Go to Contracts > All > Contracts.

2. Find the contract for which you want to remove bill-in-advance.
3. Open the Contract in Edit mode.
4. In the Bill in Advance section, delete the number in the first field and then use the dropdown list in the second field to select the blank row at the top of the list.

   Both fields should now be blank.

5. Select Save.

   The system resets the billing schedules to start on the contract line start date.

Define default bill-in-advance settings for a customer

If you want the bill-in-advance settings to always default to a specific period for a customer, you can define the default settings on the customer record. When you create a contract for the customer, the system will automatically populate the bill-in-advance settings with the customer settings. You can change or remove the default bill-in-advance settings as applicable on the contract.

1. Go to Contracts > All > Customers.

2. Find the customer to which you want to define default bill-in-advance settings.
3. Select More actions > Edit at the end of the row.
4. Select the Additional information tab.
5. In the Bill in advance section of the Invoicing details section, use the dropdown to select "Days" or "Months", then enter the number of days or months.
6. Select Save.

1. Go to Contracts > All > Customers.

2. Select Edit next to the desired Customer.
3. Select the Additional information tab.
4. In the Bill in advance section of the Invoicing details section, use the dropdown to select "Days" or "Months", then enter the number of days or months.
5. Select Save.