Recurring Invoices - Schedule Regular Invoices to Automatically charge Customers

Recurring Invoices - Schedule Regular Invoices to Automatically charge Customers

New to Retailer 3.3, you can now create recurring invoices that will automatically be charged to customer accounts every day, week, month, quarter or year. These invoices will automatically appear on the customer's account, and will be no different than if they were processed in the Point of Sale screen.

This facility is excellent for any product or service you want to bill on a recurring basis.  Here are some examples you can use recurring billing for:
  1. Subscription based curated boxes and hampers
  2. Subscription based Pet food
  3. Billing for subscription based services such as Software eg Microsoft365
  4. Storage for firearms
  5. Billing for services such as Pool Cleaning or Garden Maintenance.
For Newsagencies wanting to set up Newspaper or Magazine subscriptions, you should instead use Customer Orders. See HERE for deliveries and HERE for putaways/hold orders.

Creating a Recurring Invoice

  1. Go to Customers->Recurring Invoices, then click 'New Recurring in the bottom-left.
  2. In the top left, either type the Customer Number or press [Enter] to open the Find Customer Screen, where you can search for and select the correct customer.
  3. In Frequency, select how often the customer should be invoiced
  4. In Start Date, enter the date of the first invoice the customer should receive. For End Date, enter the final day, or alternatively tick 'Ongoing' for the customer to be charged indefinitely.
  5. (Optional) In Order Number, you can add a purchase order number that will appear on the receipt.
  6. (Optional) In Invoice Notes, you can leave notes related to the invoice. These are NOT visible to the customer.
  7. Click into the barcode column of the grid to start adding items to the invoice. You can either scan the barcode of the item, or press [Enter] to search for them.
  8. For each item, you can enter a quantity, and select either to use standard Retail pricing or enter a special set price for this invoice. When you have finished an item, press [Tab] or [Enter] to go to the next item.
  9. Once all items are entered, click Save. You should now see that the Recurring Invoice is marked as 'Active'.
Once an invoice is active, you will see the next date/time it is due to be charged at. Every so often (allow up to 30 minutes), Retailer will check to see if there are any invoices due for charging, and invoice those that are.
If any recurring invoices are missed while your computer is switched off (eg. while store is closed), customers will be retroactively invoiced next time the computer is switched on again.

Editing an Existing Recurring Invoice

To edit an existing invoice, click the magnifying glass, then select the invoice you wish to edit. Here you will be able to see the status of the recurring invoice, the date it is next due to be charged at, and a list of the invoices on the customer account that were previously created. From here, you can make a number of changes to the recurring invoice:
  1. Change the End Date by clicking into the box and changing the date.
  2. You can change the items on the invoice. To remove an item, click the rubbish bin icon. To add a new item, click the final item on the invoice, then press [Tab] or [Enter] to add a new line.
  3. In the grid at the top right, you will see a history of invoices created by this recurring invoice. You can click an invoice, then click View Invoice to be taken to the Previous Sales screen.
  4. Click Invoice Now to immediately charge the customer. If the customer was due to be charged today, this will take the place of that regular charge. If the customer is not due to be charged, then this creates an additional invoice on their account.
  5. Click Raise Order to create a supplier order in Orders Maintenance for the items on the invoice. First, select the customer whose name will be attached to the order. You can then select between creating a new supplier order or adding onto an existing one. You can also change the quantity to be ordered.
  6. Click Stop to immediately end the recurring invoice and make it inactive. Once a recurring invoice is stopped, it cannot be started again - you must create a new one.
Once a Recurring Invoice has become inactive, you can no longer edit or make it active again. You must create a new one instead.

Settings

In the settings menu, you can toggle the option to 'Ignore Quantity on Hand'. If this option is ON, your customers will be invoiced regardless of the quantity on hand of your stock. If it is OFF, then invoices will fail to charge if some of the stock is missing. When this happens, you will receive a notification in the menu of Retailer to let you know - you can double-click the notification to be taken to the recurring invoice that failed.
Click HERE for how to run the Recurring Invoices Report.

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