What are Billings and Payments?
Billing and Payments are major activities in AMS. They allow you to bill Friends for rentals, events, memberships and more!
How do I access the Billings and Payments tab?
The ‘Billings & Payments’ tab in the left-hand bar. When clicked, the ‘Our Payments’ and ‘Third Party Payments’ subsection’s dropdown.
Click ‘Our Payments’ or ‘Third Party Payments’ to view their associated page.
What is the ‘Our Payments’ subsection?
The ‘Our Payments’ subsection is your main list of invoices made through AMS.
The blue New Floating Invoice button in the top right corner allows you to create New Floating Invoices.
Current/Past Due/Paid are the three possible statuses for an Invoice. Click each to view all invoices within that category.
Export Invoices to CVS will export all invoices to a spreadsheet.
The Search tab allows you to search for specific invoices. Invoices can be searched by ID, Reference Number, or Name of the Reference.
Click the number on the right-hand side of Show Entries to select how many invoices you would like to see per page.
The headers beneath Show Entries provide a summary of basic invoice information.
What is an Invoice status? What does it mean?
Invoices have three possible statuses:
Current Invoices have not yet been paid and can be modified. You can modify notes, and add or remove line items or special payment instructions. The Invoice’s source information (i.e. the associated Ticket) can also be modified.
Paid Invoices are ‘frozen’ and cannot be modified. The Invoice’s source information also cannot be modified.
Past Due Invoices are invoices that have passed their due date (30 days after the invoice was created).
Note: The system does not automatically track payments or mark invoices as ‘paid‘. Invoices are manually marked paid by clicking ‘Mark Paid” once you are satisfied with payments and/or adjustments made to the invoice.
How do I search for Invoices?
Every Invoice is assigned a unique Reference ID.
You can search for a specific Invoices by entering the Reference Number, Reference Name, or ID Number into the Search bar.
Click an Invoice’s unique reference number to view the full invoice.
What are the different types of Invoices?
There are five different types of Invoices. All invoices behave the same, but are created through different activities. Each type of invoice has different restrictions for what you can do with them.
1. Rental Invoices
A Rental Invoice is generated automatically any time a Rental Ticket is created. It is automatically populated with information about the rental from the Ticket.
There is a strict one-to-one relationship between a Ticket and an Invoice: every Ticket has one Invoice, and every Invoice has one Ticket.
Additional line items can be entered on a Rental Invoice.
Once a Rental Invoice has been marked ‘paid’, the associated Ticket cannot be further modified in any way.
2. Program Registration Invoices
A Program Registration Invoice is created automatically any time a Friend registers in a Program. It is automatically populated with information about the Program and its’ cost.
There is a strict one-to-one relationship between a Registration and Invoice, just like with a Rental Invoice.
As with Rental Invoices, the user may enter additional line items.
Once a Rental Invoice has been marked ‘paid’, the associated Registration cannot be cancelled.
3. General Invoices
A General Invoice is associated with a Friend, but was not automatically generated for a Rental or Program Registration.
General Invoices are created from a Friend’s Account tab and consist entirely of manually entered line items.
This type of Invoice is useful when charging a Friend for non-inventoried items (such as film stock).
General Invoices are sometimes automatically generated by the system, for example, when renewing a Membership.
4. Floating Invoice
A Floating Invoice is an Invoice that is not associated with a Friend.
Floating Invoices are created using the ‘New Floating Invoice’ link in the upper right hand corner of the ‘Our Payments’ subsection. Floating Invoices are only visible from the Billing & Invoices page, since they are not associated with any Friend.
This type of Invoice is useful when charging someone who is not currently affiliated your organization.
Floating Invoices are sometimes automatically generated by the system, for example, when creating a drop-in Registration for a Program.
Since Floating Invoices are not associated with a Friend’s Account, they are the only Invoice type where Payments are directly recorded.
Payments are recorded by clicking ‘Make Payment’ at the top of the Invoice.
Like General Invoices, Floating Invoices consist of manually entered line items.
5. Program Cost Tracking Invoice
A Program Cost Tracking Invoice represents the value of Assets that are reserved for use in a Program. Since Members are not required to pay for rental of these Assets, they are tracked internally using this type of Invoice.
You will don’t generally deal with these Invoices, and they are not included in most calculations and reports unless specifically noted.
Program Cost Tracking Invoices are not available from the Billing & Payments section of the application; they are only available from the actual Program Summary they are generated for.
How do I create a Floating Invoice?
1. Navigate to the ‘Our Payments’ subsection
2. Click ‘New Floating Invoice’. This is located in the top right-hand corner.
3. Fill out information for New Floating Invoice
- The Invoice Date is automatically set to the date the invoice was created, but can be manually changed
- The Contact Information of the invoice recipient
- The First & Last Name of the invoice recipient
- Invoice Notes provides space to include key information about the invoice
4. Add Invoice line Items
The Invoice line items are the Assets, Programs, or other fees that will appear on the invoice. Description and Price are entered manually.
5. Click ‘Save Invoice’. You’re done!
How do I edit an Invoice?
1. Navigate to the ‘Our Payments’ subsection
2. Click the unique Invoice Reference Number to view the full invoice.
3. Click the yellow Edit Invoice button in the top right-hand corner.
4. Make the necessary edits.
Note: It is possible to remove the Tax charge from an Invoice by editing the Invoice and un-ticking the ‘Charge Tax’ tickbox at the top.
5. Click Update Invoice to save changes (or cancel to go back).
How do I pay a bill?
1. Navigate to the ‘Our Payments’ Subsection
2. Click the unique Invoice Reference Number
3. Select one of the three payment options.
Pay Online takes the user to a screen where they can input their debit or credit card information.
Make Payment is a manual method to input a payment, but not necessarily the full amount. Friends can make multiple payments on a single invoice
Mark Paid once the invoice is fully paid. This signifies there is no longer an outstanding amount.
What is the ‘Send to Accounting’ button?
The ‘Send to Accounting’ button is a way of formalizing the invoice. This locks the invoice and syncs it with QuickBooks accounting software.
What is the ‘Third Party Payments’ subsection?
If your organization rents assets that are owned by someone else, this is where payments are made.
Select ‘Unpaid’ or ‘Paid’ to view lists of unpaid, or paid Third Party rentals.
Invoice information is sorted into five columns:
- The Booking Date is the date that the asset was booked.
- The Asset Owner is the name of the owner of the equipment or facility.
- Notes allows space for additional key information.
- Amount is the cost of the Third Party Rental (i.e. $15, $30, etc…)
Underneath Status there is blue text that says Update Payment. Select Update Payment for additional invoice information, and to make modifications. A pop-up will appear:
- Asset shows details about the specific asset that was rented.
- Owner is the same at Asset Owner from the previous screen.
- Calculated Amount Due is the amount of money which is still owed (unpaid).
- Payment to Record allows you to change the amount owed on the invoice.
- Notes allows you to add additional information.
Select Mark Paid to mark the invoice as paid.
Select Save to apply your changes, or Cancel to return to the previous screen.
How are Invoice post dates determined?
The Invoice Post Date is the starting Date and Time of the earliest Booking on a Ticket, or the first Scheduled Program Date for a Registration. This value is dynamically calculated (i.e. not stored in the database), and so changes based on the content of the Ticket or Registration with which the Invoice is associated.
For General and Floating Invoices, the Post Date is the date the Invoice was created, but this can be edited manually.
Due Dates for all invoice types are automatically calculated to be 30 days from the Invoice Post Date. After 30 days the Invoice becomes Past Due.
How do I send & export Invoices?
1. Navigate to the ‘Our Payments’ Subsection
2. Click the unique Invoice Reference Number.
3. Click the three dots underneath the ‘Send to Accounting’ button.
4. Select one of the four options that pop up…
Clicking ‘Print Invoice’ will generate a PDF version of the invoice for print, and the browser will prompt the user to download the file. Note that the system does not store generated PDF documents internally. Clicking ‘Print Invoice’ will always create a version reflects the current state of the Invoice.
The ‘E-mail Invoice’ function allows you to email copies of an invoice. The field is automatically populated with the e-mail address on file, but can be changed. Unfortunately, sending emails is a background process and there is no way to tell for sure if the e-mail reached the recipient successfully.
How do I delete an Invoice?
Floating and General Invoices with a status of Current can be deleted by clicking ‘Trash Invoice’.
If a Ticket with an associated Invoice is destroyed, the Invoice is destroyed along with the ticket unless the Invoice has Line Items that have been added manually. In this case the Ticket is still destroyed, but the Invoice is turned into a General Invoice with only the Line Items present. This Invoice can then be deleted manually if desired.
If an Invoice that is destroyed was partially paid using AMSbucks, those AMSbucks are added back to the Friend’s Account.