Customer Invoicing
Customer Invoicing
Identifying Rating/Pricing Issues
When using TransVirtual pricing etc from time to time you may experience an unexpected price or no pricing against a consignment.
These will be flagged upon invoicing and highlighted in the invoice window and will also be listed by going to the following (Finance > Tools > Consignment Price Reviews)
The first step will be to open the finance tab with the consignment and view the rating notes as below.
In this box It list the various steps used to generate a price. On the top line you will see the name of the rate card being used 'Standard Rates' and the Service Level applicable 'Express 1 day'.
The next line of this Box indicates the route and based on the zones in this example it is travelling from NSW to NSW
The following lines indicate it is charging for a 'Pallet'
1 Pallet @ $100.00 = $100.00
Then also a 'Carton'
1 Carton @ $6.00 = $6.00
In the below example, this indicates it has been unable to match the suburbs to zones, you should then check to ensure each them from and to suburbs on the consignment are assigned to a zone within the applicable zone listing for this customer's rate card.
In the below example, this has found a zone for its Suburbs however no rate based on the Item Descriptions within the consignment, you should check to ensure the Freight Items in step 2 match to items on this consignment or that a Default freight item has been set for when no match is found.
In the below example we have found a rate for one of the items but not all, as above you would need to identify a match for the other descriptions within the consignment either via setting freight item descriptions or adding a default freight item.
Approving an Invoice
Approving an invoice should only be done once the invoice has been manually checked to ensure that the pricing is correct.
1. To approve an invoice, open the relevant invoice (Finance > Operational Tasks > Customer Invoices OR Supplier Invoices, double click on the applicable invoice to open).
2. Once the invoice is open, you will see the Invoice Info at the top left of the page, and it will look something like the below.
3. Go through the invoice and check for any pricing issues. If the invoice is as expected, click on the Approve and Lock Invoice button at the top to approve the invoice, a confirmation popup will display as shown below.
The reason behind this confirmation popup is because of Approving and Locking an Invoice act as the trigger for Invoice EDI rules to send emails to customers or send invoice data across to your accounts package (Myob or Xero). Be sure all prices are correct before approving.
4. If all the details are correct then click on Yes, I want to to confirm.
The Approve and Lock button will only appear once an invoice has been closed. You can close an invoice manually using the toggle located in the Invoice Info section as shown below.
To Edit an Approved Invoice
It is possible to make changes to an invoice after it has been approved and locked. Ideally consignment prices should be checked prior to an invoice being Approved and Locked, however, if needed, you can Un-approve an invoice.
Invoices Changed after being approved and locked will not be sent to customers or your accounts package again this will need to be done manually.
1. To un-approve an invoice, navigate the invoice that needs to be update, you can search for this invoice directly using the search bar at the top as shown below.
Or you can go to Finance > Operational Tasks > Customer Invoices, OR Supplier Invoices, depending on what type of invoice this is for-customer or agent. From here you can search for the invoice number using the Invoice Number field and then press the Enter button.
2. If you do not know the invoice number, you can search using the other search fields-such as customer name; or you can change the date range and scroll through to find the correct one.
3. After step 2, you will be redirected to the invoice page as shown below.
4. As you can see there is an Un-Approve? button. This is the button you will need to use to edit this invoice.
Also take note of the Additional tab. This tab gives you information such as what EDI rules have been triggered for this invoice. Chances are that if you have an Approved and Locked invoice there will be an EDI rule that sends off an email (or similar) to the corresponding customer etc. This is important to take note of as if there have been EDI rules triggered this means the customer or agent will have already received a copy of this invoice. You will need to let them know that you are amending their invoice and are going to re-send it; just to avoid any potential confusion or issues etc.
3. Once you click on the Un-Approve? button, a confirmation pop up will display, here manually enter the Invoice Number in invoice number field and then click on the Un-approve button, as shown below.
Make sure you read this warning message carefully before Un-approving an invoice! Always check Invoice prices are correct in your Accounts package.
4. Once you Un-approve the invoice, you will see the invoice screen something like below.
5. You will notice that the Un-approve button has now changed back to the Approve and Lock Invoice button as shown above. You can now make changes to any affected consignments on that invoice.
6. You will now also see that where it previously said 'Price invoiced and locked' on the related consignments for that invoice-these no longer have that message, indicating they can now be changed.
7. Make any changes you need to, ensuring that the prices are definitely correct before the corresponding invoice is approved and locked.
Use the Delete button as shown above to delete any prices of a consignment that you do not require. If you accidentally delete a price from a consignment, you can re-enable it as to describe below.
8. If you accidentally deleted any price, then click on the Show Deleted checkbox as shown below.
9. Once you done the step 8, you will then see the deleted prices in Red color shown below, now if you want to use the same price, then first click on the deleted price (Marked in Red Color) and then click on the Activate button to re-enable that price/charge for this consignment as shown below.
10. A confirmation pop-up will display, here click on Yes, I want to button, the price will then re-appear in orange indicating it is pending/pending invoice as shown below.
11. Once the consignment has been invoiced it will appear in white indicating the price is set/complete, as highlighted below.
When you delete a price and then re-activate, this price may not get added to the invoice that it was previously on. Make sure if it is not on the same invoice, that you add/move it to the correct invoice.
12. Use the Invoice Actions button to change what invoice this consignment is put on. When you click this button you will see a list of all current invoices, or you can create a fresh invoice if you wish as shown below.
13. Once you select the applicable invoice as per above screenshot, the consignment has now changed to the selected Invoice as shown below.
14. Once all necessary changes have been made, you will need to approve and lock the invoice, to do so click on the Approve and Lock Invoice button, a confirmation pop-up will display, here click on Yes, I want to button to approve the invoice as shown below.
Approve and lock the invoice once its correct.
8. As this Invoice has previously been approved and locked, if any EDI rules that have been triggered against it will not re-send. This means that after you edit an Invoice, the customer will not automatically receive the updated version. To re-send any EDI rules that have previously been sent, all you have to do is click on the Additional tab of the invoice, and then double-click on the EDI rule to re-send that information.
Resending EDI rules to your accounts package will not update the accounts package, this will need to be done manually.
Invoice Statuses and Invoice Colour Legend
Invoices in TransVirtual can have a variety of different statuses or states. Consignments on an Invoice can flag in various colours. Below is an overview of what each Invoice status and colour means and is used for.
Invoice Statuses
OPEN/CLOSED: When an Invoice is open more consignments can be added to it. An Invoice will remain open until a user closes it or the system closes it. The system will only close an invoice if it has been setup in the global setup as shown below.
Finance > Operational Tasks > Customer Invoices, select Applicable Invoice where you will see something similar to the above image.
Closed Invoices do not allow for new consignments to be automatically added to them. This is handy so that a user can go in and review the prices on an Invoice before finalizing it.
APPROVED DRAFT: This function allows users to create a draft copy of an Invoice, which can be used in EDI rules to send the invoice to Customers/Agents as shown below.
APPROVED AND LOCKED: This is the final stage in the Invoice process. Approving and locking an invoice should only be done after a user has manually reviewed the prices of an Invoice to ensure that they are as per expected. This status is typically used in EDI Invoice exports, which are setup to send the Invoices via PDF/Excel files to a customer or agent email address etc.
Invoice Colour Legend
Consignments on an Invoice can flag in various colours.
WHITE: The consignment has no pricing issues and has priced correctly as per what the system was expecting.
RED: When a Consignment is flagged in red, it means there is a pricing problem with the consignment or there are Additional Services that are pending approval. Red can also be when a consignment has been imported and has a price difference between the imported price and the system price. Essentially, this consignment has an incomplete price requiring review:
YELLOW: This applies to when a price has been imported onto an Invoice. When a consignment is imported and the imported price is different to the price the system has calculated, the consignment will flag in yellow-which is essentially telling the user that there is a price difference between the imported price and the system calculated price:
ORANGE: A consignment will flag orange when there have been other import issues (this could be that the import has fewer details than the consignment in the system)/also when a consignment has been moved from an existing invoice to the current invoice.
In the above situations where you have a consignment flagging with a price or import issue, a user can manually check each consignment and rectify any potential issues.
An Invoice can still be Approved and Locked with pricing issues; however, it is advised that each invoice is checked and reviewed prior to Approval.
Invoice Filter (Customer) + Supplier Invoice Filter
These pages work in a similar method as describe in the consignment search page. This will allow to view any invoice results that are returned for your selected date range.
Depending on which of these two pages you are viewing (Finance > Operational Task > Customer Invoices OR Supplier Invoices), you will see either customer or agent invoices.
These pages are handy to see what invoices may require action - you can use the status column to see whether an invoice is open, closed or if it has been approved and locked.
Depending on which of these two pages you are viewing (Finance > Operational Task > Customer Invoices OR Supplier Invoices), you will see either customer or agent invoices.
These pages are handy to see what invoices may require action - you can use the status column to see whether an invoice is open, closed or if it has been approved and locked.
Both of these pages operate in the same manner, but this article will use the Customer Invoice Search Filter to illustrate the functions of the page.1. There are different ways where you can filter the Invoice page, at the top-right of the page, you can change the selected date range, if required:
2. The results that are returned in the grid will be invoices that have an invoice date within the selected date range as shown above.
3. You can also edit the columns of the grid by using the column selector button as shown below.
4. Once you click on the column selector button, column selector pop-up will display as shown above, now select the appropriate columns from the ColumnsSelected field.
5. Now select the appropriate column, click on the Update button at the bottom of this window to implement any changes you have made. Now, refresh the page, you will see the updated column selection.
6. If required, you can export the grid results using the export button at the bottom-left of the page as shown below.
7. This export button will provide you excel or csv file containing the information/columns with the help of drop and down button as shown above.
8. To view an invoice in greater detail, double-click on it and open it. You will then see a screen similar to the below:
9. As seen in the above, the state of the invoice as well as consignments that are on the invoice and then any relevant pricing information on the right of the page.
10. The additional tab in the middle of this page can be used to see any EDI rules that may have triggered against the invoice.
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