A fee is a line that Invoice+ adds for you. Environmental charges, administration fees and delivery surcharges are the usual examples.
You set a fee up once. After that it either lands on every new invoice by itself, or you tick it when you need it.
Setting one up
Fees are under Configuration in the Invoice menu. Each one has:
|
Field |
What to put in it |
|---|---|
|
Fee |
The name. It becomes the line text on the invoice, so write what the customer should read. |
|
Product number |
The product the fee is booked against. This is what puts the fee in the right place in your accounts. |
|
Automatic? |
Tick it and the fee is added to every new invoice. Leave it and you tick the fee on the invoices that need it. |
|
Fee type |
How the amount is calculated. Three options, below. |
|
Strategy |
How many times it is charged. Two options, below. |
The three fee types
-
Flat fee. A quantity and a price you decide. The same amount every time, regardless of the invoice. Use it for a fixed administration or delivery charge.
-
% of total. A percentage of the ordinary lines, not counting any fees. Use it for a charge that should scale with the job, such as a materials surcharge.
-
% of total incl. fees. A percentage of everything, the ordinary lines and the other fees. Use it where a charge is levied on the whole invoice amount.
The type you pick decides which fields you fill in. A flat fee asks for a quantity and a price, a percentage fee asks for a percentage.
Choosing between the two percentage types. Ask whether the charge should be calculated on the work, or on the bottom line. If in doubt use % of total, which is the smaller number.
When you have several fees
Flat fees and % of total fees are calculated first, against the ordinary lines. Only then are the % of total incl. fees fees calculated, on a total that now includes the others.
A % of total incl. fees fee will therefore always be larger than a % of total fee at the same percentage. If two fees with the same percentage give different amounts, this is why.
The two strategies
Once per invoice gives you one fee line, whatever the invoice contains. This is what you want for most fees.
Once per task per invoice gives you one fee line for every task the invoice covers. Use it where the charge is per job, for example a call-out or a disposal charge. An invoice collecting five jobs for one customer then carries five of these lines.
The per task strategy only counts tasks that reached the invoice as lines. Lines you typed by hand belong to no task and do not trigger it. If you expect five fee lines and get one, check whether the work came from tasks or was entered manually.
Putting a fee on an invoice
Automatic fees are already ticked when you create an invoice. For the rest, edit the invoice and select the fees you want in the Fees field.
The fee lines appear when you save. From then on Invoice+ keeps them in step with the invoice: add lines and a percentage fee grows, remove lines and it shrinks, untick a fee and its line goes away.
This is why the fee lines are locked in the line editor. Anything typed into them by hand would be overwritten at the next save.
Checking that it is working
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Create a new invoice. Every fee marked automatic is already selected.
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Add a line worth 1,000 and save. A 10% fee line appears at 100.
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Double the line and save again. The fee line follows to 200.
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Untick the fee and save. The fee line disappears and the total drops accordingly.
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On an invoice covering three tasks, a once per task fee produces three lines.
Credit notes do not carry fees. The Fees field is not shown on one, and the fee lines copied across from the original invoice are left as they are rather than being recalculated.
Next: 4.2 Service value