Invoices and taxation

On the Invoices and taxation panel you can define which invoice template to use and how to enumerate the invoices, how to tax the customer for provided services, and whether to send statistics and invoices by email.

Here you can also create invoices on demand for the customer.

Use invoices on demand to charge the customer immediately for the service usage, equipment purchase, etc. without waiting for the current billing period to close. This way you save the customer's time and provoke early payments.

You can generate these invoices on demand:

• Initial invoice, which includes charges for the first billing period. You can generate this invoice for the customer during their first billing period only. From then on, use Midterm invoices.

• Midterm invoice, which covers the charges from the beginning of a current billing period up to the time of the invoice generation.

• Out-of-turn invoice, which includes manual credit/charge transactions.

The invoice wizard guides you through the configuration steps to generate invoices on demand. It includes these steps:

• Invoice type, where you select which invoice to generate;

• Fees, where you review applicable fees and add new ones manually;

• Invoice review, which shows the invoice summary and where you define the payment terms and due date.

• Payment, which provides the payment options.

In the Invoicing configuration section you can define which invoice template to use, how to enumerate the invoices, and whether to send statistics and invoices by email.

To configure invoicing, expand the section.

Define which statistics to deliver to the customer by email after the billing period ends.

• Select As defined by the customer class to use the settings defined for the customer class.

• Select Full statistics to send a .csv file with a complete list of xDRs.

• Select Summary only to send only a brief summary of charges.

• Select Do not send to not deliver any statistical data to the customer.

Turn on the toggle switch to include the charges produced for this customer onto the consolidated bill issued to the main office. To avoid discrepancies during tax calculation, disable the tax calculation for this customer and make sure their billing period is the same as that for the main office.

If you disable this option, PortaBilling generates an individual invoice for this customer.

Define whether to generate a .pdf file of the invoice for this customer.

• Select As defined by the customer class to use settings defined for the customer class.

• Select At the end of the billing period to generate a .pdf file at the end of the billing period.

• Select Postponed, based on resource availability to generate a .pdf file when PortaBilling completes calculations related to the previous billing period for all customers.

• Select On demand to generate a .pdf upon request.

Choose a regular invoice template for this customer.

• Select As defined by the customer class to use the regular invoice template defined for the customer class.

• Select Do not create invoice to prevent regular invoice generation for this customer.

• Choose a predefined regular invoice template from the list.

Choose an out-of-turn invoice template for this customer.

• Select As defined by the customer class to use the out-of-turn invoice template defined for the customer class.

• Select Do not create invoice to prevent out-of-turn invoice generation for this customer.

• Choose a predefined out-of-turn invoice template from the list.

Define whether to deliver regular invoices to the customer by email.

• Select As defined by the customer class to use the settings defined for the customer class.

• Select Yes to send regular invoices by email.

• Select No to not send regular invoices by email.

Define whether to deliver out-of-turn invoices to the customer by email.

• Select As defined by the customer class to use the settings defined for the customer class.

• Select Yes to send out-of-turn invoices by email.

• Select No to not send out-of-turn invoices by email.

Define how to number invoices for this customer.

• Select Default to keep the default invoice numbering sequence for the whole environment.

• Select Individual for environment to use the global sequential numbering (throughout the environment).

• Select Individual for customer to use the individual sequential numbering for this customer's invoices.

In the Taxation section you can define how to tax the customer for the services provided. To configure applying taxes to the customer, turn on the Assess taxes toggle switch.

Choose a taxation plug-in for calculating taxes.

Define the parameters for the Avalara plug-in.

Choose the type of customers to whom you provide the services.

• Select Industrial for manufacturing companies.

• Select Business for business entities that use the services for business purposes.

• Select Residential for customers who use the services for personal purposes.

Define the customer location:

• Select Inside for customers located inside an incorporated city area.

• Select Outside for customers located outside of an incorporated city area.

Define which additional taxes to calculate for the customer:

• Select Non-switched trunk services to calculate axes on the quantity of DID numbers the customer uses.

• Select Switched trunk services to calculate taxes for the number of customer sites, extensions and PBX customer's simultaneous outgoing calls.

Select whether the customer is entitled to a lifeline assistance program.

Choose which taxes the customer is exempt from.

Define parameters for the SureTax plug-in.

Choose the number of decimal digits to round the tax amount.

SureTax uses mathematical rounding on tax amounts. For example, if you configure to round the charged amount to two decimal digits, then 1.204 rounds to 1.20, 1.205 and 1.206 all round to 1.21.

Choose the type of customers for whom you provide the services.

• Select Default to apply customer class settings.

• Select Business for business entities that use the services for business purposes.

• Select Industrial for manufacturing companies.

• Select Lifeline for customers granted a subsidy.

• Select Residential for customers who use the services for personal purposes.

Choose how to display taxes in the customer invoices:

• Select Default to apply customer class settings.

• Select No summary to separately display federal, state and local taxes.

• Select Summary by Federal, State and Local Taxes to display federal, state and local taxes summarized.

Click Add exempts to choose which taxes the customer is exempt from.

Define parameters for the Fixed VAT Rate plug-in.

Choose whether to include taxes in the rates. When taxes are included, PortaBilling back-calculates the defined tax percentage from the total amount of charges or payments. Otherwise, PortaBilling adds a defined percentage of value-added tax to the charges.

Choose when to apply taxes to prepaid customers.

• Select At the end of billing period to calculate and apply taxes at the end of the billing period.

• Select At the moment of payment to calculate and apply taxes when a prepaid customer or a debit account tops up their balance.

For postpaid customers, taxes are calculated at the end of the billing period based on the tax rate and the amount of payment/charge.

Define whether the customer is excused from taxes:

• Select Default to apply customer class settings.

• Select Yes if the customer is not required to pay this tax.

• Select No to apply a fixed VAT rate to this customer.

Type a certain percentage of value-added tax.

Choose whether to calculate taxes per service and include them on invoices. This option is applicable if your rates do not include taxes

Define the parameters for the Custom taxation plug-in:

PortaBilling rounds the tax amount to the pre-defined number of digits applicable to the customer currency.

By default, the tax amount for custom taxation plug-in rounds upward. For example, if the customer currency is USD which rounding precision is 0.01 (2 decimals), then 1.204, 1.205 and 1.206 all round up to 1.21.

Choose whether to include taxes in the rates. When taxes are included in the rates, PortaBilling back-calculates the defined tax percentage from the total amount of charges or payments. Otherwise, PortaBilling adds a defined percentage of value-added tax to the charges.

Choose which custom taxes to apply to this customer.

Define parameters for the GST (Malaysia) plug-in:

PortaBilling rounds the tax amount to the pre-defined number of digits applicable to the customer currency.

The GST (Malaysia) uses mathematical rounding on tax amounts. 

For example, if the customer currency is USD which rounding precision is 0.01 (2 decimals), then 1.204 rounds to 1.20, 1.205 and 1.206 round to 1.21.

By default, the GST plug-in applies a 6% goods and services tax. If the customer has a relief certificate code which applies 0% tax for goods, type the code in this field.

Choose the customer's relief certificate expiration date.

Choose the goods that fall under the relief certificate with 0% tax.

Define the customer's tax ID.

The Issued invoices links leads to the Invoicing section where you can browse and manage the customer's invoices.