Transactions

Transactions and Invoices

In previous version, payments on invoices were done through an accounting application and those payments were then either manually set in Dispatch Science against the invoices or through an API.

Transactions, a new feature, has been introduced to manage payments/credits/debits on invoices directly in Dispatch Science. 

This feature can be toggled on for you. Once toggled on, it cannot be turned off to return to Invoices. 

Please send an email to [email protected] to request the feature to be turned on. 

In order to use the new feature, new transactions fields must be setup on the account.  

Setup Accounts for Transactions

1) Open Accounts and click on the Account Name to open its details.

2) In the Account Details, click on the Billing Options section Edit button

3) In the Billing Options, setup the Billing Cycle, the Billing Method, decide if you want one order per invoice, select the taxes to apply to the invoice, its invoice template, the transaction method and the invoice delivery method.

a) Billing Options: select from the following choices where Daily will generate invoices automatically at the end of every day, Bi-Weekly, Monthly, Weekly where invoices will be generated manually. 

This list may be different for you as this is configurable according to your needs.

b) Billing Method: select from the following choices where By Account will be generating invoices which will be sent to customers for payment (manually) or Credit Card where customer will assign a credit card to their account and the invoice will be paid, through Stripe, when the invoice is created (automatically).

c) Single Order by Invoice: check this option if every order should be on a separate invoice. Uncheck this option if orders are grouped on one invoice at the end of the billing cycle.

d) Verify Orders Before Invoicing: check this option if you need to set a flag at order creation for this account to ensure that orders cannot be included in an invoice unless the order is verified and the flag is removed.

e) Verify Orders Before Driver Settlement: check this option if you need to set a flag at order creation for this account to ensure that orders cannot be settled unless the order is verified and the flag is removed.

f) Taxes: select the tax to apply to the order total on the invoice.

g) Invoice Template: select your invoice template.

h) Transaction Applied Method: select the default method to apply adjustments/payments to your transactions (by invoice or by order). This can be changed on the fly when applying the adjustments/payments.

i) Select to Print, Email or Print and Email the invoice. By default, this is set to print:

4) Click on Save to save the changes

Setup Accounting Profile

Accounting profiles allows you to maintain separate account rules for each set of books or different companies. It allows you to specify individual posting accounts for each transaction and revenue or expense types.

Create an Accounting Profile

1) Open Settings and click on the Accounting Profiles.

2) Click on New Accounting Profile

3) Enter a required name and code for this accounting profile and press save. The empty accounting profile will be displayed.

A warning is displayed when all codes are not filled in:

No postings will be created on the Transactions if not all codes are filled in. 

4) Edit the Income Postings

a) Enter the account receivable code and the default sales account code. 

b) If needed, you can overwrite the default sales account for one or more service levels by clicking on the

Select the service levels and enter the account code.

c) Enter a fuel surcharge account and a default extra fee account.

d) If needed you can overwrite the default extra fee account for one or more extra fees by clicking on

Select the extra fee and enter the account.

e) Click on Save to save the Income Postings setup. You will be returned to the Accounting Profile you are editing.

6)Edit the Adjustment Postings

a) Enter the debit and credit account codes for each adjustment types.

b) Click on Save to save the Adjustment Postings setup. You will be returned to the Accounting Profile you are editing.

7) Edit the Cash Postings

a) Enter a debit account code for each type of payment. The Account receivable code will automatically be credited.

Note: If no type is selected during payment in Transactions, Default accounts will be used. 

b) Click on Save to save the Cash Postings setup. You will be returned to the Accounting Profile you are editing.

9) If taxes are setup, you will also have a tax section. Edit the Tax Postings

a) Enter the credit account for each tax type and click Save. 

Note: No GL account entries will be created for transactions associated to the accounting profile if some of the accounts are left blank. It is important to fill in all accounts.

Transactions

The invoices menu, located in Accounts, has been replaced by Transactions. 

You can now generate your invoices, receive payments, apply payments and credits and make adjustments directly in Dispatch Science. A set of reports is available to extract the GL account entries created automatically when transactions are recorded if the Accounting Profile is completed and assigned to the companies.

Generate Invoices

Invoices can be generated automatically at the end of each day or manually according to the needs of the different accounts. 

To generate invoices manually, you will need to associate a billing cycle, other than None and Daily, to the accounts and fill in the remaining fields in the Account Billing Options section.

Note: There must be a billing cycle selected on the account when the order is created for the order to be invoiced. Any orders created before a billing cycle is selected on the account cannot be invoiced.

Generate Invoices Manually

1) Open Accounts and select Transactions then click Generate Invoices

2) Select the Billing Cycle, enter the End Date and click on Search.

The end date is used to select all orders that were delivered before the date/time selected. Be sure to select a time past now to include the orders that were just delivered.

3) All accounts will automatically be selected once the search is completed. You can unselect all accounts  by unchecking the checkbox in the header and only select the accounts to process or unselect specific accounts that should not be processed  by unchecking the associated checkbox. 

Note: If you make a change in the search criteria, make sure to click on the Search button to update the list.

4) The number of orders that will be included in the invoice show under the # Orders. The number of orders that were not yet verified for this period show in the To Verify. 

Only orders that are ready to be invoiced will be included in the invoice. 

To check the orders that are under the To Verify column before generating the invoices, please review Verify Orders set to To Verify Before Invoicing below.

5) Once the accounts to be processes are selected, review the summary:

6) Check the Automatically send invoice to ensure that the accounts set as Email or Print and Email as the delivery method will automatically have the invoices emailed upon generation.

Click on Generate Invoices to start the manual generation:

7) You will be returned to the list of invoices with a message that invoices are being generated. The generation will take a few minutes. 

You can leave this screen and come back in a few minutes to see the generated invoices. 

Note: If an account is set to Credit Card billing method, the amount on the invoice will automatically be paid using the credit card setup on the user for the account once the invoice is generated.

Once an invoice is created, the orders on the invoice will show an Invoiced icon on the order details in the Back Office and on the Dispatch Board order details. This will also lock the order.

When an invoice is generated and is 0$, it will automatically be set as Paid in the Transaction List.

Cancel an  Invoices

Invoices can be cancelled as long as no payments nor adjustments have been applied to it.

1) Open Accounts, select Transactions.

2)On the Actions column of the invoice to cancel, click on  to open the menu and select Cancel.

3) In the dialog box, click Confirm to confirm cancelling the order or Cancel to return to the transaction list without cancelling the order.

Email an Invoices

Invoices can be cancelled as long as no payments nor adjustments have been applied to it.

1) Open Accounts, select Transactions.

2)On the Actions column of the invoice to cancel, click on  to open the menu and select Send Email.

3) Click on Send to send the email or cancel to return to the transactions list without sending the email.

Verify Orders set to Verify Before Invoicing

Orders set to Verify before invoicing will not be included in the Account invoice. You must first remove the flag to have them included on an invoice.

1) Open Orders

2) Using the filters, filter the order list by To Verify = Yes and Status = Delivered

3) Click on the order to open it.

4) Beside the Order #, you will see the .

Review the order, make the necessary adjustments and save. From the menu, select Ready for invoicing.

The icon will disappear and this order is now ready to invoiced. 

5) Click on Orders to return to the filtered list.

6) Repeat steps 3 to 5 to review all orders.

Receive a Payment

Payments can be applied against invoices or orders. Once a payment is entered, it cannot be cancelled.

Paid invoices are closed and cannot be cancelled.

Receive a Payment on a specific invoice

1) Open Accounts, select Transactions.

2) Payments can be received for a specific invoice using the Receive Payment in the Actions column on the invoice row:

3) The Receive Payment window is displayed showing the selected invoice.

Showing an account with no credit adjusments: 

Showing an account with credit adjustments:

4) Select if payment will be applied to the invoice or to the orders within the invoice. When selecting Orders in the Payment Applied By, the invoice will show the different orders and their prices:

5) Enter the date if payment is not from today. 

6) Select the Payment method from the drop-down field.

7) Enter an optional Reference Number such as the cheque number.

8) Enter an optional memo

9) In the Amount Received, enter the amount received using the selected Payment method.

10) Enter the amounts in the invoice or orders this amount will pay.

11) If credits are available, they can also be applied to the the invoice/orders.

Note: Any unused amount will be added as available credits and can be used to pay another invoice:

Payment will show as partially applied and invoice as paid:

This unapplied payment will be available in the credits for the account when receiving another payment.

Note: If there are credits available on the account, these will be applied automatically however, they can be zeroed out if they should not be applied.

Receive a Payment for an account

1) Open Accounts, select Transactions.

2) In Transaction menu, select Receive Payment

3) In the Receive Payment, select the account. The payment applied by will default to the choice selected on the Account but this can be changed. Date defaults to today but can be be changed. 

Select an optional Payment Method, enter an optional Reference Number, an optional Memo.

Note: If there are credits available on the account, those will be applied automatically however, they can be set to 0 if they should not be applied.

Enter the Amount received, enter the amount paid on each invoice/invoice order.

The payment applied on an invoice/invoice order cannot be greater than the amount in the open balance. When trying to enter an amount greater than the open balance, the open balance will replace the entry.

4) If the Amount Received is greater than the amounts paid, the payment will be marked as Partially Applied in the list and will display in the credit section the next time you receive a payment.

Enter an Adjustment

Adjustments can be applied against invoices or orders. 

Enter an Adjustment on an invoice.

Credit or debit adjustments can be applied on invoices. 

A debit adjustment can be applied on a partially paid invoice up to the original amount of the invoice.

A credit adjustment can be applied on an invoice.

1) Open Accounts, select Transactions.

2) Adjustments can be created for a specific invoice using the Make an Adjustment in the Actions column on the invoice row:

3) Select the Adjustment Applied By. This defaults to the setting on the account but can be modified. 

Enter the adjustment date, this will default to today.

Select the Adjustment Method. When selected, this will show the invoice number and the Adjustment type will be displayed.

Enter a reference number if needed and optional memo.

4) Enter the Adjustment Amount and then apply this amount to the invoice/order then click on Save.

Note: If the total amount of the credit adjustment is not applied or partially applied to an invoice/order, the remainder will be available as a credit for future payments.

Debit adjustments must be applied to an invoice and the adjustment cannot exceed the original amount of the invoice.

Enter an adjustment for an account

1) Open Accounts, select Transactions.

2) In Transaction menu, select Make an Adjustment

3) Follow steps 3 and 4 above to complete the adjustment.

Batch Payments

Payments can be entered by batch. Multiple batches can be in process at the same time. Once a batch is posted, the payments will be applied to the invoices/orders.

Create a New Batch

1) Open Accounts, select Transactions.

2) In Transaction menu, select Create a Batch

3) A batch number will automatically be assigned to the Batch however, this can be changed:

Note: The batch # must be unique. You will get an error message if you attempt to enter a batch # which already exists.

Clicking on the  will give you the list of shortcut keys to use when working with batches. Use the shortcut keys to speed the data entry.

4) Enter your Reference total. The payments entered must match the reference total for the batch to be posted.

5) Create a new batch entry by clicking on Add New Batch Entry button or pressing Shift+Enter.

6) Enter an optional Reference Number then press tab to move to the Method of payment.

7) Press C for cash, C again for cheque, C again for credit card or D for direct debit or select from the drop-down.

8) The date will automatically default to today and can be updated, press tab to update each of month, day, year then tab to move to account.

9) Type the Account Number or Name, continue typing until you have one entry and press Enter then tab to move to amount.

10) Enter the amount of the payment.

11) Using the Shift+F, you can search for a specific invoice/order or press tab to navigate to the correct invoice/order.

12) Enter the amount to pay in the invoice/order.

Repeat steps 5 to 12 for each batch entry.

Note: You can delete batch entries by clicking on the batch then clicking Delete this Batch button or Shift+Delete.

13) Once all batch entries are completed, click on Post button to Post the batch.

The button will only be enabled if the Reference total matches the Current Total.

All payments will be displayed in the Transaction List and the invoices status will be updated. 

Note: All information is saved as you go. If you move out of the batch, you will be able to reopen it to continue your edition.

Open an Existing Batch

1) Open Accounts, select Transactions.

2) In Transaction menu, select Continue a Batch

3) In the Continue a Batch dialog box, select the batch # and click on Continue.

Applying Accounting Profile Codes to Transactions

This will only be done if the Accounting Profile linked the company of the Account has been setup, every code entered. 

When an invoice is generated, the following will be applied:

1) Debit Account Receivable

2) Credit Sales Accounts

3) Credit Fuel Surcharge Account

4) Credit Extra Fee Accounts

When a payment is received, the following will be applied:

1) Credit Account Receivable

2) Debit appropriate Cash account

When an adjustment is generated, the following will be applied:

1) The Credit and Debit accounts according to the selected 

Note: No postings are created on a code when the amount is equal to 0.

Printing Reports

The following reports are available to be printed for the transactions:

A/R Aging Detail : can be filtered by companies and applied as of a specified date.

A/R Aging Summary: can be filtered by companies and applied as of a specific date, with account contact info if needed.

Sales Journal: Applied to a date range with grouping by company, account or date. Can be filtered by transaction type and statuses. 

G/L Detail: Applied to a date range with filter by companies.

G/L Summary: Applied to a date range with filter by companies. 

From 1.54:

Transactions Aging Summary (Unpaid Invoices)

A new Aging Summary view is available under Transactions (requires Finance Option). The Aging Summary will show the Accounts which have unpaid invoices, presented in aging buckets.

The Current column will show the invoices total that are within the Net terms on the Account. 

The other columns will show late invoices in buckets of 30 days starting after the Account Net terms.

Unapplied credit notes will not be included in the Aging Summary.

1) To view the Aging Summary, click on Accounts, Transactions then Aging Summary:

Automatic Late Fee Addition for Late Invoices

Dispatch Science now offers the ability to add late fees automatically when generating invoices in the event that an account has unpaid invoices past their term date (either manually created invoices or system generated invoices). This feature will only work for Accounts which have the option to apply Late Fees. 

Late Fees can automatically be added to the generated invoice if one or more invoices from the same Account have passed the Net Terms setup for that Account.

The Late Fees will then be added on the system-defined Late Fee Accounting Item. This Accounting Item will automatically be included as part of the Sales Account in the Accounting Profile, or this Account Item can have its own Account. 

Late fee will be calculated for invoices that are generated as well as manual invoices. There is no late fee calculated for Debit notes.

Accounting Item for Late Fees

A system defined Account Item is available for Late Fees. This Accounting item will be part of the Sales account in the Accounting Profile unless specified.

Setting Taxes and Name for Late Fee Account Item

1) Click Settings, Configuration, Accounting, Accounting Items.
A system-defined Accounting Item titled “LateFee” followed by the Setting icon is now available in the list 

2) Click on the row to edit the Late Fee Accounting Item:

3) You can change the Name, indicate a Tax Schedule and decide if this tax schedule can be edited. 

4) Once you have made the desired changed, click on Save.

The system-defined Late Fee Accounting Item cannot be deleted, its ID cannot be changed, and it is only available for Invoices. The Amount is locked since this will be calculated automatically.

Setup Late Fee in Accounting Profile

The new system defined Accounting Item has been added for the Late Fee. This can be setup in the Accounting Profile to specify the proper Account:

1) Open Settings, Configurations, Accounting, Accounting Profiles.

2) Open the Accounting Profile.

3) Edit the Income Postings.

4) Click on the Add an Accounting Item Sale Account  link to add a new line.

5) Select Late Fee and enter the Account number then click on Save:

Setup Late Fee on Account

An Account can be setup to calculate a Late Fee on Invoices that are passed the specified Terms.

1) Open Accounts, click on the Account to edit.

2) Click Edit Button in Billing Options.

3) Setup the Term:

Terms are created in Settings> Configuration> Accounting. If you have not made any changes, a Term of 30 days was added as the default Terms in version 1.53. You can create additional Terms, making sure to correctly enter the number of days since this will be used to determine if an invoice is late. 
For more information on how to setup Terms, please refer to the 1.53 Release notes.

4) Enter a Day Buffer if you want to extend the Net term by a few days for mailing or other grace period purposes: 

5) Click on the Apply Late Fee checkbox, this will automatically enable the Late Fee % per 30 days and enter the % charged for 30 days:

6) Click on Save.

Adding Late Fees to Invoices

You can decide, when generating invoices, which Account(s) (that are already setup with Late Fee) and invoices will be used to calculate the Late Fee.

1) Open Accounts then click on Transactions

2) Click on Generate Invoices button.

3) If one or more Accounts is setup with Late Fee and there are invoices that are past due (unpaid after net term days + buffer day), you will be asked if Late Fee should be applied:

4) To apply a Late Fee, click on Yes otherwise click on Cancel and the invoices will be generated without any Late Fees. 

On Yes, the list of Accounts and their invoices will display with the Late Fee calculated as follows for each past due Invoice: (Late Fee %) / (30 days) X (Current Document Day -  Invoice Document Day - Net Days) X Late Invoice Total

5)By default, all invoices will be selected and the Late Fee amount will be automatically calculated on the unpaid portion of each invoice. Invoices can be unselected from the list and the Late Fee amount can be edited.

Once the information is correct, click on Generate Invoices and the invoices with Late fee selected will have an additional entry for the Late Fees, the others will be generated as is. 

The Late Fee will be added on the generated invoices that matched the selection. If more than one invoice is generated for the same Account, the Late Fee will be added to one Invoice only. 

Transactions

Payment Transactions Automatically Created when Credit Card Payment processed via Stripe

Accounts configured with a Credit Card Billing Method will now automatically have a Payment Transaction created and applied against the corresponding invoice or debit note. These payments will appear automatically in the Transactions and show as Applied.

Payment information will show as follows:

Payment Method will be credit card, Reference Number will contain the Stripe transaction ID and the Memo will show the last four digits of the card used.

If a payment is declined by Stripe, the payment information will be created in Dispatch Science and set as cancelled and the invoice will not be paid.

The payment will show the error in the Memo: