Managing invoices

An invoice is a financial document issued to an account after the end of a billing period that indicates subscriptions consumed during this billing period. Invoices use the default language of the Operator Control Panel for a reseller. A PDF form of an invoice is configured in a UI template (see Viewing UI templates list). Depending on the payment model and how they are closed, invoices have their specifics, but every invoice is always issued for an entire month and has the following information:

• Charges for subscriptions (see Charges) with the close dates within the previous billing period.
• Subscriptions with the same billing day consumed during the previous billing period.
• Corrections marked as to be included in an invoice and approved during the previous billing period (see Managing corrections).

An invoice is considered as issued to an account only when gets the Closed status, regardless of its creation date.

In this article:

Invoices for the Prepay model

Invoices for the Prepay model are generated for subscriptions consumed during the previous billing period and already paid. Invoices for the Prepay model are used only to inform an account about the used subscriptions, closed charges, and corrections approved in the previous billing period (see Charges and Managing corrections).

Invoices for the Postpay model

Invoices for the Postpay model are generated for subscriptions consumed during the previous billing period but not yet paid. Therefore, besides the information about the charges and corrections, invoices for the Postpay model include information about the used subscriptions and payments for these subscriptions to be completed.

Invoices for the Postpay model are used to:

• Link subscriptions and payments.
• Inform an account about:
  • Subscriptions consumed during the previous billing period (see Managing subscriptions).
  • Charges for these subscriptions (see Charges).
  • Corrections marked as to be included in an invoice and approved during the previous billing period (see Managing corrections).
  • A payment linked to the invoice (see Managing payments).

Invoices for the Postpay model are linked to a special type of payment — Payment for rendered services (see Payment types). Payments of any other type cannot be linked to invoices for the Postpay model.

When a payment linked to an invoice is not completed timely, all subscriptions linked to the invoice are blocked (see Blocking a postpaid subscription). After completing an expired payment, all subscriptions linked to the invoice are automatically activated.

By default, the platform itself manages invoices and payments for the Postpay model. For external management by a third-party ERP system, see Managing invoices for the Postpay model by a third-party ERP system.

Invoices closed by the platform

For subscriptions to plans with the Invoices are closed by platform setting in the linked service term (by default), invoices are closed by the platform and issued to an account on the second day of the next billing period. When an account has several subscriptions with the same billing day (see Creating a service term), a single invoice is generated for all these subscriptions.

Invoices closed by an external system

For subscriptions to some services like Microsoft Azure Plan and Google Cloud Platform, before closing an invoice, it is necessary to wait until a vendor provides information about the subscription consumption during the previous billing period. The exact day when the information is ready may differ from period to period. To process these cases correctly, the Invoices are closed by external system setting must be used in a service term of a plan (see Creating a service term) together with the Unite invoices with external closing of the financial period setting for an account (see Viewing and updating account's details), and then:

1. For subscriptions to plans with the Invoices are closed by external system setting in a service term, the start and end date of a billing period is stored, as well as an attribute that defines whether the billing period is closed.
2. After receiving and processing information from a vendor about the subscription consumption, an external system sends a request to close a billing period for a subscription. If a subscription does not have consumption according to information received from a vendor, its billing period is closed anyway.
3. If the Unite invoices with external closing of the financial period setting is selected for an account (by default):
   1. A single joined invoice is generated for subscriptions that have the same billing day (see Creating a service term), the same payment model (see Viewing and updating subscription's details), and are ordered to plans based on the same application template (connector) (see Viewing and updating a plan). Subscriptions without consumption are not displayed in an invoice.
   2. After the request to close a billing period for a subscription, the invoice remains open.
   3. Every night, a billing process checks the billing period closure attribute for all subscriptions of the invoice:
      • If the billing period is closed for all subscriptions of the invoice, the invoice gets the Closed status. If all subscriptions in the invoice do not have consumption, the invoice amount is 0.
      • Otherwise, the invoice remains open.
4. If the Unite invoices with external closing of the financial period setting is not selected for an account:
   1. 1. For every subscription of an account, a separate invoice is generated.
      2. After the request to close a billing period for a subscription, an invoice gets the Closed status.
5. For a postpaid subscription, the payment expiration period starts only after closing the linked invoice.

Invoices and closing documents in the Customer Control Panel

In the Customer Control Panel, the only financial documents issued to an account after the end of a billing period are external invoices issued by a third-party ERP system (see Managing invoices for the Postpay model by a third-party ERP system) and closing documents (see Closing documents). An external invoice is displayed in the Customer Control Panel in a card of the linked payment. Closing documents are issued by a third-party ERP system via API (see Closing documents in the Reseller API Reference Guide) and are displayed only in the Customer Control Panel in a dedicated section. The amount and currency of an external invoice and a closing document may differ from an invoice issued by the platform.

Operations with invoices

The following operations with invoices are available:

• Viewing the list of invoices
• Viewing details of the invoice for the Prepay charging model
• Viewing details of the invoice for the Postpay charging model
• Saving an invoice to a local computer
• Resending an invoice
• Paying for the subscriptions that are linked to the invoice for the Postpay charging model
• Managing invoices for the Postpay model by a third-party ERP system