➤ Product: OfficeRnD Flex
➤ Who: Admins with billing permissions
➤ Where: On the Admin Portal, under Billing
➤ Availability: All Flex plans
A bill run is the process of generating customer invoices in bulk. Instead of creating invoices one by one, a bill run lets you issue them for all members and companies at once. This saves time, reduces errors, and keeps billing periods consistent.
This article explains what bill runs are, when to use them, and how they affect your invoices.
In this article:
Identify which charges a bill run collects, and for which billing period.
Generate invoices automatically on a monthly schedule.
Generate invoices on demand, with control of the dates.
Invoice the charges that a bill run never collects.
Prerequisites
Set up each item below before your first bill run. A bill run reads all of them when it starts.
A billing period start date for your organization. The billing period start date decides which charges belong to which period. Configure your billing period start date →
A payment gateway integration, if you want Flex to charge the invoices as well as generate them.
How a bill run works
A bill run is the operation that turns the charges on your customer profiles into invoices.
Flex collects 3 kinds of charges for each customer: membership fees, one-off fees, and booking fees. A bill run groups those charges per member and per company. The bill run then generates the invoices for every customer in the run.
A bill run starts in 1 of 3 ways.
Flex generates the invoices automatically on each member's or company's own billing date.
Flex generates the invoices automatically on a fixed day of the month.
You start a manual bill run yourself, on any date.
The first 2 ways need no action from you after setup. The third way gives you a review step before Flex sends any invoice.
Which charges a bill run collects
A bill run collects the charges that fall inside a billing period. The billing period decides which membership, one-off, and booking fees reach the invoice.
A billing period is the time frame that Flex uses to select the charges to invoice. The billing period start date is the day of the month when that time frame begins. For example, if you set the billing period start date to the 1st, each billing period runs from the 1st day of a month to the last day of the same month.
The 3 kinds of charges do not come from the same billing period.
A bill run invoices membership fees for the next billing period. Flex knows the amount of a membership fee in advance.
A bill run invoices one-off fees and booking fees from the previous billing period. Flex knows the amount of a booking fee only after the member makes the booking.
By default, a bill run collects the one-off fees dated in the 30 days before the run. When your billing period is a calendar month, that 30-day window matches the previous month.
For example, your billing period start date is the 1st of the month. A bill run then generates invoices on October 1. Those invoices cover the memberships from October 1 to October 31. The same invoices include the one-off fees and booking fees from September 1 to September 30.
A manual bill run has a 'Fees Period' field. Set 'Fees Period' to collect one-off fees from a different period. For example, select a period that an earlier run already passed.
Generate invoices automatically on a monthly schedule
The billing period tells Flex which charges to invoice. The automatic bill run decides when Flex generates the invoices, with no action from you.
Go to Settings > Billing > Billing Rules to set the schedule. You have 2 ways to schedule the automatic run.
Enter the number of days before the billing date on which Flex generates the invoices.
Set the exact day of the month when Flex generates invoices. Flex can place that day in the same month as the billing date, or up to 3 months earlier.
The same section controls the dates that Flex writes on the invoices. Enter the number of days before the billing date for the issue date. Enter the number of days after the billing date for the due date. Review both numbers before your first automatic run, because the issue date decides the month that reports the revenue.
The issue date comes from these settings. An automatic run can therefore carry an issue date in the month that the invoices cover.
If you want a review step in every cycle, cancel the automatic bill run in Settings > Billing > Billing Rules.
Generate invoices on demand, with control of the dates
An automatic run generates the invoices with no review step. A manual bill run adds that review step. A manual bill run also lets you set the issue date and the due date for the whole run.
Go to Billing > Invoices and click Bill Run. The Bill Run page has these fields.
Invoice Services From – select the location to invoice. With no location selected, Flex invoices every location.
Period Start – select the billing period that this run invoices. The day of the month for that period comes from your billing period start date.
For – select the item types to invoice: 'Fixed contract memberships', 'Monthly memberships', or 'One-off fees'.
Revenue Account – select 1 or more revenue accounts. For example, select the virtual office revenue account to invoice all virtual office memberships separately.
Fees Period – select the period that supplies the one-off fees.
Issue Date and Due Date – set the dates for every invoice in this run.
More Options – apply a discount or a custom property to every invoice in this run. You can also export invoices as PDF or CSV for easy review or sharing.
Changes to any field on the Bill Run page apply to all invoices in the run. To change 1 invoice on its own, click its invoice number. Flex then opens a dialog with the full breakdown of that invoice. In the dialog, you can change each property, add items, and remove items.
You can bill for the month ahead and still send the invoices a few days early. For example, you generate the invoices 5 days before the month starts. You then set 'Issue Date' to the 1st day of that month. The customer receives the invoice early. Your revenue still reports in the month that the invoice covers.
Combine a manual bill run with the automatic schedule
A manual run does not cancel the automatic run for that cycle. The automatic run still starts at its scheduled time.
The automatic run then generates invoices only for the memberships and fees that your manual run did not include. If your manual run already invoiced every customer, the automatic run generates nothing for that cycle.
To keep a cycle entirely under your own control, cancel the automatic bill run before you start the manual one. No invoice then reaches a customer without your review.
Charges that a bill run does not invoice
Both bill run types work from the same timing rules. A charge that falls outside those rules never reaches an invoice.
Important: A later bill run doesn't invoice a charge that an earlier bill run missed. Generate those invoices manually, or the revenue stays uncollected.
A bill run does not invoice the following charges.
A membership that starts inside a period that Flex already invoiced.
A one-off fee that you add after the run for that period finished.
A one-off fee dated outside the 30-day window before the run.
You must generate the invoice yourself for each of those 3 charge types. Generate a single invoice manually →
Flex handles late fees another way. Flex creates a new one-off fee on the customer profile for the late amount. The next bill run then invoices that new one-off fee. Set up automatic late fees for overdue invoices →
Invoice a purchase immediately with a purchase flow
A manual invoice covers a charge that a run missed. A purchase flow invoices a charge at the moment the customer buys it.
A bill run works on a schedule. Each run covers a whole billing period. A purchase flow works in real time. Each purchase flow covers 1 purchase. The purchase flow decides whether Flex generates the invoice, charges it, and sends it as soon as the purchase completes.
Use a purchase flow for a booking or a one-off service that must not wait for the next run. Configure your purchase flows →
Best practices
Apply these rules after your bill run schedule works, to keep your revenue in the correct month.
If your accounting month must match your invoices, use a manual bill run and set 'Issue Date' yourself.
If you generate invoices early, state the payment date in your message to the customer. An early invoice then does not read as an early due date.
If you apply discounts or deposits in a run, open each invoice before you send it. A change to a field on the Bill Run page reaches every invoice in the run.
If a member joins after your bill run, generate that member's first invoice on the same day. No later run invoices that first period.
FAQs
Why did my new member not receive an invoice from the bill run?
A bill run does not invoice a membership that starts inside a period that Flex already invoiced. Generate the first invoice for that member manually. The next bill run then collects the following period as normal.
Does a bill run send the invoices as well as generate them?
A bill run generates the invoices. Your invoicing settings decide whether Flex also sends them. Flex can send an invoice automatically only when a bill run generated it. You must send an invoice that you generated manually.
Can I keep the automatic bill run active and still run a manual one?
You can keep the automatic bill run active and still run a manual one in the same cycle. The automatic run then invoices only the memberships and fees that your manual run did not include.
Which period do booking fees belong to?
A bill run invoices booking fees for a billing period that has already finished. Flex knows the amount only after the member makes the booking. A bill run invoices membership fees for the next period instead.