Recurring Invoice - A complete Tutorial

Title – Setting up of Recurring Invoices

Objective – To set up recurring invoices to generate rent payment invoices as per the special calendar as an alternative to the Custom Invoice upload program.

In the below section, the steps for generating the Recurring Invoices are provided in detail with screenshots. This ought to help the user setup the Recurring Invoices for the Rent Vendors

Benefits – Invoices for such recurring payments can be generated at one time for the entire year. Alternatively they can be generated for a few periods in advance. This can be made to have amounts that are incremental after every payment These can be generated in specific batches. For example, the Apr-05-06 rent payment invoices for each vendor can be generated in a single batch say RENT_APR_2006 or so. Hence grouping is possible during invoice generation and hence bulk validation can be done. The invoices are created and further modification is possible to Header and Distribution Line amounts, Charge Account etc Supplier Pay Group would group these Rent Vendors together and all the rent checks can be paid in a single Payment Batch.

Caution – Multiple payment calendars can be created by the user and hence caution should be exercised against issuing multiple payments per month Invoice Batch Name should be accurately entered to group the invoices together in the same invoice batch to permit batch validation.

Step 1 – Defining the Special Calendar

Special calendar can be defined as per the payment agreement. This would depend on whether the rent is paid monthly or quarterly or so. In the below example, the setup is explained for a recurring invoice setup that needs to be paid monthly for a period of 12 months.

Navigation : Setup > Calendar > Special Calendar

Type of Calendar = Recurring Invoice

Periods Per Year = Needs to be defined (In this case, since rent is paid monthly, this is 12

Period Name, Year, Seq, From Date, To Date is entered by the user to define each period

System Name = It is system generated and is used to identify the invoice as it becomes the Invoice Number of the Invoice Created

Step 2 – Check the Period Statuses

The Recurring Invoices can be created in either Open, Future or Never Opened periods. This needs to be ensured in Oracle Payables. Further, invoices can be processed in either Open or Future periods. Invoices can be viewed in Never Opened periods but cannot be processed.

Navigation : Accounting > Control Payables Periods

Do ensure that all the future periods are defined and are preferably in Open (or alternatively Future status) when this invoice is to be processed.

Step 3 – Generating Recurring Invoices

Navigation : Invoices > Entry > Recurring Invoices

Template Definition TAB : The Value provided in the Number section is prefixed before the invoice number while generating the invoices. For example in this case, the invoices will be named as 1. The Pay Alone checkbox checked would create individual checks for payments to this vendor. Hence every month check would be uniquely generated that would be separate from any other checks that are used to pay this vendor for any other invoices.

Amounts TAB : Click on the button “Create Recurring Invoices” and it will open the below screen

One has the option to give different batch names to each of these invoices. The LOV provides a list of all existing batches and one can also enter a new batch name. This batch gets created. Click on the OK Button to proceed to creating the Recurring Invoices. In the example, the batch name for every invoice is provided as RENT-RANJIT_TRIAL. This is queried in the later steps for illustration.

Step 4 – Processing invoices

Invoices can be processed in either Open or Future periods. Invoices can be viewed in Never Opened periods but cannot be processed.

Example 1 – Processing invoice in Future Period – Apr-05-06

This is Validated, Accounted, Paid in Full and Accounting for Payment is also done.

Example 2 – Processing invoice in Future Period – May-05-06

These invoices cannot be processed, as the period status is Never Opened.

Hence we need to ensure that the periods where we need to process invoices are in the appropriate statuses in Step 2

Step 5 – Making payments for the Recurring Invoices

Navigation: Payments > Entry > Payment Batches

Here, assuming that the entire batch (say RENT_APR_2006) is created for the rent payable in April 2006. We can select all the invoices in that particular Invoice Batch by entering the Invoice Batch Name as the criteria to select the invoices for payment. Based on this, we will have invoices selected for payment in the particular batch and hence we would be able to make payment to all the invoices through one single Payment Batch.

The invoice batch needs to be validated entirely (Validate 1) button on the Invoice Batches Window would ensure this. The Payment Batch could be built only for the Invoices contained in the Invoice Batch. This can be confirmed by reviewing the Preliminary Payment Register. As this is complete, payment could be made for all the invoices that have been in the batch.

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