Billing Proposal (IR)
A billing proposal says which of a buyer's open instalments, charges or transfer fees a payment covers, and how the money arrives: cash, cheque, bank. For an ordinary sale it is the slip the receipt is then made against in Receivables; for a buy back sale it posts on Save.
What it is for
The proposal draws its lines from the buyer's live agreements: every instalment and every additional charge billed on its own (not in the payment plan) that still has a balance, oldest due date first. You tick the lines being paid and the amount cleared on each. On Collection Through you say how the money comes in. The cleared amounts are what the agreement shows as Settled Amount, and what aging, boards and transfers count as paid.
| Billing Type | Lines it offers | On Save |
|---|---|---|
| Sales | Open lines of the buyer's live agreements, of either agreement type | Nothing posts. The receipt is made in Receivables, on a collection with the Billing Proposal journal indicator and this proposal's number |
| Buy Back Sales | The same lines as Sales | Posts a journal at once |
| Ownership Transfer | Open transfer fee lines of ownership transfers to this customer | Nothing posts; collected in Receivables |
A proposal made by a fund transfer (billing type Adjustment) is created by the system; every button on it is disabled.
The one rule people get wrong: a Sales billing proposal is not the receipt. Until the collection is saved in Receivables, no money has been booked, even though the agreement already shows the lines as settled.
Every field in plain words
Top part
| Field | What it means | What to put |
|---|---|---|
| Billing Proposal | The number | Required |
| Billing Type | Sales, Buy Back Sales or Ownership Transfer | Required |
| Posting Date | The date | Required |
| Notes | Free text | |
| Project, Property, Unit No | Narrow the lines to one unit | Required when Mandatory Billing Internal Reference is ticked on Real Estate Setting; they are then also stamped on every line |
| Customer | The buyer | Required |
On Create the lines are loaded, and the top fields are locked.
Billing Proposal tab
| Column | What it means | What to put |
|---|---|---|
| Line Type | Scheduled (an instalment), Additional (a separate charge) or Transfer (a transfer fee) | |
| Selected | This line is being paid | Tick it. Ticking fills the clearing amount with the balance |
| Sales Agreement, Payment Category, Schedule, Due Date | Which line it is | |
| Payment Amount | The line's full amount | |
| Settled Amount | Already cleared by earlier proposals | |
| Transaction Clearing Amount | What this payment clears | Up to the balance; must be above zero |
| Balance Amount | What is left after this payment | |
| Tax Zone, Tax Group | The line's tax | The tax lines can be opened from the grid |
| Account | The account the line is credited to | From the posting profile, by payment category |
Unticked lines are dropped on Save. The auto-collection button asks for one amount and spreads it over the lines in order, filling each to its balance until the amount runs out.
Collection Through tab
| Column | What it means | What to put |
|---|---|---|
| Payment Method | How the money comes | Cash, cheque, bank transfer |
| Account | The cash or bank account | Required |
| Bank, Instrument No, Instrument Date | The cheque or transfer details | Hidden on a buy back proposal |
| Payment Amount | The amount through this route | Required. The first line is filled with the total cleared |
| Bridging Posting | Hidden on a buy back proposal |
Net Receivable Amount is the total cleared; Balance Receivable Amount is what is not yet covered by Collection Through. It must be zero to save.
How to configure it
Give every payment category its account on the posting profile; the lines cannot load without it. Tick Required Partially Clearing on Real Estate Setting if the collection in Receivables may clear less than the whole proposal.
Scenarios
- A buyer pays two overdue instalments by cheque. Billing Type Sales, the customer, Create. Tick the two lines, put the cheque on Collection Through, Save. Then make the collection in Receivables against this proposal.
- A buyer pays a round sum that does not match any instalment. Use the auto-collection button with the sum: it fills the oldest lines first and leaves the last one part-paid.
- The buyer of a transferred unit pays the transfer fee. Billing Type Ownership Transfer.
What it is connected to
- Sales Agreement and Ownership Transfer supply the lines.
- Receivables collects the money against it on a Collection; see How do I record a buyer payment?.
- Posting Profile - the account of each payment category, in the real estate lines.
- Unit to Unit Transfer counts its cleared amounts as paid, and creates Adjustment proposals for fund transfers.
If something looks wrong
- "No Schedule found". The customer has no open lines of that billing type.
- "Account is not defined in Posting Profile of Payment Category ...". Set the account for that category on the posting profile.
- "Billing Propsal Lines - select atleast 1 line". Tick at least one line.
- "Lineid - ... - Billing Proposal - clearing amount cannot be 0 or smaller then 0" or "Transaction Clearing Amount connot be zero or less then zero". A ticked line has no amount.
- "Lineid - ... - Collection Through - Payment Amount cannot be 0 or smaller then 0". A collection line has no amount.
- "There is Balance Receivable Amount is left, please clear Balance amount". Collection Through does not add up to the amount cleared.
- "Line ID: ... Clearing Amount cannot be greater then balance Amount ..." or "Lineid: ... - Balance amount connot be smaller then zero". Another proposal cleared part of the line meanwhile. Lower the amount.
- "Line ID: ... is not found". The agreement line was removed.
- "Billing Proposal : ... cannot be deleted." A collection in Receivables refers to it. Reverse that collection first.