Recurring billing (Add-on)

• “Products” in this article, and generally in Severa, is used to mean fixed fees, flat rates, products and services.
• Once a product has been saved with the billing type set as Recurring it can’t be changed to any other billing type.
• The Frequency and Start date of recurring billing can’t be changed after the first time the item has been billed.
• The product Description, Quantity, Unit, Cost, Price and Tax can be changed at any time; and products from this recurring billing that are ready to bill but haven’t been added to an invoice yet will be effected.
• Options to end a recurrent billing cycle can be changed at any time; but the end date can’t be made earlier than the last date billed; and the number of times can’t be made less than the number of occurrences that have already been billed.
• Products that reach the end of a recurring billing cycle become inactive, but unbilled items related to that product are still ready to be billed if they haven’t been yet. Deleting a recurring billing product will make it inactive, and all unbilled items related to that product will be deleted.
• On the occasion that a recurring billing product is invoiced, and then the invoice is deleted or the product is removed from the invoice, the product is made available in the case for billing as a regular product and changes to the recurring product will not affect this item.
• Administrator access rights may be required to perform some or all of the following steps related to recurring billing.

Recurring billing is a convenient way to ensure that repeat charges are ready to bill on schedule. For example, ongoing cases may have flat rate service fees that are billed monthly, retainer fees that are billed quarterly or site maintenance fees that are billed upon completion of a project phase. In this way Recurring billing accommodates various billing structures and will automatically release fees for billing at set intervals.

Inside a case, in the Sales and Financials section under Products, items such as products, services and fixed fees can be entered for inclusion on the invoice. These items are entered on the fly, or using previously created product templates (go to Settings, and click on Products) which can then be altered if desired.

Recurring billing can be selected for a product by clicking to mark the Recurring checkbox, but remember, once a product is entered as recurring the billing structure can’t be changed. The edit product window must then be opened by clicking on the Edit icon  to set the recurrence pattern for the product.

Another way to choose the billing structure is to add a product without selecting Recurring, and then click the Edit icon  to open the edit product window. On the right, the billing type drop-down menu allows you to choose “Immediate,” “On this date,” “When phase is completed,” or “Recurring.” Other than “Immediate,” each billing type has specific parameters such as date, phase or frequency that must be entered. Recurring products require that the frequency and timeframe are defined. Remember to Save changes made to the billing structure.

The price of a Recurring billing product will be released to the case and appear in the Ready to bill amount on the date or with the frequency specified when the product was created. Once this billing amount has been released to the case, the case invoice must be drafted and sent to complete the billing process.