Invoices

The short version

• Invoices are created per bill group, not per quote. A bill group is a customer's billing arrangement: who gets the invoice, in what currency, how often, and on what terms. One account can have several bill groups, each with its own invoices.
• Each bill group has a Next Invoice Date. On that date, MonetizeNow bills whatever the contract's billing schedule says is due.
• Preview Invoice shows you exactly what the next invoice will contain. It doesn't create an invoice and doesn't change anything, so you can open it as often as you like.
• If there's nothing on the billing schedule for that date, no invoice is created and the preview is empty.

Where to find invoice information

Open an account and stay on the Overview tab. Each bill group is listed with its status, its Next Invoice date, and a Preview Invoice link.

The Next Invoice Estimate column is a forecast of recurring charges only. Usage is added when the invoice is actually created, so the final invoice can be higher.

Click a bill group's name to open it. The top of the bill group page summarizes where billing stands:

When invoices are created

MonetizeNow creates an invoice when all of the following are true. If any one fails, no invoice is created and the preview comes back empty. That's expected behavior, not an error.

1. The bill group is Active

Only Active bill groups are invoiced. Inactive, Canceled, and Suspended bill groups are skipped.

A bill group with an unresolved problem is also paused until the problem is fixed. The most common is a tax calculation error on the previous invoice (see Troubleshooting).

2. The Next Invoice Date has arrived

The bill group's Next Invoice Date sets which billing period is due. It moves forward automatically after each invoice is created. A monthly bill group invoiced on Oct 1 moves to Nov 1.

You can't bill a date that's already been billed. MonetizeNow won't create an invoice for any date before the Next Invoice Date, which protects you from billing the same period twice.

3. A contract is billable on that date

The contract must be billable on the Next Invoice Date:

4. The billing schedule has a period due on that date

The billing schedule is the contract's list of every invoice it will ever produce. MonetizeNow looks for the period whose Invoice Date matches the Next Invoice Date exactly. No match means nothing is due, so no invoice is created.

5. The invoice is built and sent

Charges are added, tax is calculated, and any available credits are applied. The invoice becomes Unpaid and gets its invoice number. If the bill group has Email Customer Invoices set to Automatically, it's emailed to the billing contact.

Check the billing schedule

To see exactly which invoices a contract will produce, open the bill group and go to the Billing Schedule tab. Expand a contract to see each period.

• Invoiced periods link to the invoice that billed them.
• Upcoming Invoice rows are periods that haven't been billed yet. The next one should match the bill group's Next Invoice Date.
• An asterisk (*) means the amount excludes usage. Usage is only known once the period is over, so it's calculated when the invoice is created.
• One-time invoices don't appear on this screen.

How the bill group controls timing

Open the bill group's Details tab and scroll to Invoice Settings:

Generate a pending invoice

If a bill group's invoice date has passed but no invoice exists yet, you'll see a banner on the account overview:

The bill group page shows the same thing as a Pending Invoice indicator in the top right:

This usually happens on bill groups set to create invoices Manually. Click Generate to create the invoice now.

Generate is only available when the account and the bill group are both Active and your role can update billing.

What's on an invoice

An invoice is built from the billing period's charges, then tax and credits are applied. This is why the invoice total often differs from the quote total.

Line types

Totals, top to bottom

Minimum commitments

Commitment billed in arrears (a "true-up"). If eligible usage for the period is below the commitment, a Minimum Commit line is added for the difference. If usage meets or exceeds the commitment, the true-up is $0.

Monthly minimum commitment     $1,000.00
Eligible usage this period       $700.00
──────────────────────────────────────────
Minimum Commit line              $300.00   (brings the period up to $1,000)

Commitment paid in advance. The customer prepays the commitment. Later invoices show usage at full price, then a negative Minimum Commit line that draws the usage down from the prepaid balance. The line shows the Starting Balance and Balance Remaining, and usage lines covered by the commitment are marked with an asterisk ("Applied to your minimum commitment balance").

API Calls (Usage)                    $900.00*
Minimum Commit (drawdown)           ($900.00)
──────────────────────────────────────────
Subtotal                               $0.00

Credits

Available credits are applied automatically when an invoice is created. They're applied in this order:

1. Credit notes
2. Service credits
3. Prepaid credits, which can be limited to all products or to usage products only. Expired credits are skipped.

Credits appear in the Credits row of the totals. They never change the individual line amounts.

$0 invoices

A recurring invoice that totals $0 (for example, fully covered by a commitment) is still created and is marked Paid right away. There's no setting to switch this off.

The exception is an amendment that changes nothing billable. If there's nothing to charge or credit, no adjustment invoice is created.

Amendments and past invoices

Pricing comes from the contract's most recently processed quote and its billing schedule. MonetizeNow never edits an invoice after it's created. If an amendment changes a period you've already billed, MonetizeNow creates a separate adjustment invoice, or a credit note if the customer is owed money. Periods that haven't been billed yet are simply invoiced at the new pricing.

Invoice statuses

Paid, Reversed, and Void invoices can't be changed.

Preview an invoice before it goes out

Preview Invoice runs the same billing logic used to create real invoices, then shows you the result without saving anything. The Next Invoice Date doesn't move, no invoice number is used, and nothing is sent to the customer.

How to preview

1. Open the account and find the bill group on the Overview tab.
2. Click Preview Invoice next to Next Invoice.

Things to notice on a preview:

• It's watermarked DRAFT, and the invoice number reads Generated upon finalization.
• Invoice Period is the period being billed in advance (Nov 1–30). Usage Period is the period whose usage is being billed in arrears (Oct 1–31).
• Use the download icon in the top right to save the preview as a PDF, for example to share it with the customer's AP team for pre-approval.

You can also preview from the account's Contracts tab when it's in Cards view. Open the Invoicing menu on a contract card and choose Preview Invoice.

What a preview may not match exactly

Use the preview to check that the right products, quantities, prices, and periods are billed, rather than to predict the final Amount Due to the cent.

When there's nothing to preview

If nothing is due on the Next Invoice Date, the preview drawer opens without an invoice and shows Failed to load PDF file.

Despite the wording, this usually doesn't mean something is broken. It means there's no invoice to show. Check the billing schedule to confirm what's due next.

The Preview Invoice link is hidden entirely when the bill group has no Next Invoice Date, or when the bill group uses a custom Output Configuration (split invoicing). On the Contracts tab, the Invoicing menu shows No upcoming invoice to preview instead.

If a renewal contract is waiting to start, the preview shows the renewal's first invoice.

Troubleshooting