Patriot supports three types of Master Charges: Service, Activation & Work
Order.
Patriot can integrate with a number of different ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and Accounting software packages by adding an integration module to your registration. When you add an integration module to your Patriot software, a standard set of features become available to you through Patriot's main Billing menu. These standard features are described in this document. If you choose the Odoo (previously Open ERP) integration module then additional features are also available to you - refer to Odoo Integration for more information.
Patriot's Master Charge list should be setup to contain a complete list of all charges for which your clients and/or dealers can be billed. Patriot supports three types of charges: Service, Activation and Work Order which are assigned to clients, activations and work orders respectively.
Patriot bills clients (directly or via dealers) for their assigned charges. Service charges (e.g. recurring monitoring entitlement charges) are assigned to clients on the client billing tab. Activation charges (e.g. alarm call out fees) are assigned to completed activations. Work Order charges (e.g. labour, parts etc.) are assigned to completed work orders. Once an activation or work order has been billed, it is marked as such in Patriot. The master charge value amount for any charge type can be overridden at either the dealer or client assignment level if necessary.
You can bill a client directly for recurring service charges by assigning one or more master service charges on the client billing tab. You must choose a start and end date for each charge. Patriot's billing batch runs will only bill clients for a billing period if the billing period fits within these dates (part charging is supported). You may override the master charge value amount for individual clients if necessary.
You can bill a dealer/installer for service charges assigned to clients belonging to that dealer. Whether a client with service charges assigned is billed directly or via a dealer is decided by the configuration of your billing batch runs (covered next). When billing dealers it is possible to override the value amount of each master service charge billed to each of a dealer's clients. This is achieved by inserting charge overrides on the dealer user's Charges tab.
A single charge may be assigned to a current or completed activation. Billing status on the completed activation will read "Chargeable" if the activation belongs to a billed client (one who has a billing account no. set either directly on the client billing tab or via the dealer on the dealer details tab) and the activation charge has not yet been processed by a billing batch. After the charge is processed by the next periodic activation billing batch run the completed activation's billing status will read "Charged". Once an activation has been marked charged it cannot be billed again by subsequent activation billing batch runs.
One or more charges may be assigned to a work order before or after it is has been completed. Billed status on the work order will be blank until the charge[s] have been processed by a billing batch. Work order charges, like Service and Activation charges, are only processed by billing batches if they belong to a billed client (one who has a billing account no. set either directly on the client billing tab or via the dealer on the dealer details tab). Usually a work order will also need to be marked as Completed before it can be billed, but this is configurable in the work order batch settings. After the charge is processed by the next periodic work order billing batch run (the first that occurs after the To Be Billed date) the completed work order will display the billed date. Once a work order has been marked with a billed date it cannot be billed again by subsequent work order billing batch runs.
Patriot can perform scheduled billing batch runs to periodically process your client and dealer assigned charges and send raw billing data to your accounting software package for invoicing. Typically you will setup one billing batch run for each charge type, but you may need more depending on whether you bill clients directly or via a dealer/installer or a combination of both.
Once a billing batch run completes, you can easily review all invoice data sent to your accounting package. You can also choose (by unchecking the Authorised option in the batch settings) to delay sending the invoice data to your accounting package until after it has been reviewed in Patriot. The invoice data displayed includes the Invoice No. generated by your account software . By expanding the invoice lines you can run a standard client, activation or work order report on any item being charged in the invoice.
An
Invoice Charge summary report can be printed for each invoice generated by a
billing batch run. A copy of the charge summary report format can be downloaded
here, and the procedure for
importing a report format file is explained in custom report layouts. Charge summary
reports can be automatically emailed to the invoice recipient at the same time
the invoice is sent to your accounting software for processing. This is useful
when billing large dealer accounts - by enabling the Amalgamate Invoice Lines
option and choosing an email output option you can send a single line invoice
to your accounting software to produce a formal invoice, while at the same time
a full charge break down is sent to the dealer directly from Patriot.
