Work with Invoices

You can generate an invoice in EMS Desktop Client based on a specific booking date or date range, a reservation number, or both. For example, you can generate invoices for all bookings from May 1 through May 14, for all bookings in reservation number 22, or for all bookings in reservation number 22 that occurred between May 1 and May 14. You can generate multiple invoices for the same booking, with each invoice showing the charges for a different category (such as room charges on one invoice, catering charges on another invoice, and so on). This might be necessary in situations in which you must produce multiple invoices for the same booking if the departments within your organization bill separately for the services they provide. You can also reprint an invoice and void an invoice.

You can work with invoices for a single reservation, or you can batch process multiple invoices. If you want to work with invoices for a single reservation, you do so through the Transactions tab in the Navigator. If you want to work with a batch of invoices, you do so through the EMS Desktop Client Billing menu: Billing > Invoices > Invoicing.

Generate an Invoice 

Before you generate an invoice, you should generate the Billing Worksheet report.

1. Do one of the following:
   • Open the reservation in the Navigator and on the Transactions tab, click New > Invoice.
   • On the EMS Desktop Client menu bar, click Billing > Invoices > Invoicing.

   The Invoicing window opens. In Setup, you can select a saved, or memorized, invoice. If you select a memorized confirmation, then the only changes that you can make are to the dates and/or times on the Date Range tab.

2. Review and make changes as needed, using the table below. You can also save these settings.

Field	Description
Date Range Tab
Department	Select the department that is creating the invoices. The department name and address is printed at the top of the invoice. This field is automatically populated if you have a default department assigned to your user account but you can select a different value if needed.
Reservation Number	Automatically populated if you are generating an invoice from the Transaction tab; otherwise, enter a reservation number.
Starting Date Ending Date	Automatically populated with the first (starting) booking date and the last (ending) booking date for the selected reservation when you are generating an invoice from the Transaction tab; otherwise, enter the date range of the bookings for which you are generating the invoice.
Use Specific Times	If only a specific time for the bookings is to be invoiced (for example, the bookings are from 8 am to 5 pm and you want to invoice the booking from only 8 am to noon), click Use Specific Times and then enter a specific time period.
Invoice Date	The default value is the current day’s date. You can leave this value as is, or enter a different date.
Due Date	The default value is 30 days from the current day’s date. (Your Administrator might have configured a different default value for this field.) You can leave in the field as is, or enter a different date.
Buildings Tab/Categories Tab/Statuses Tab/Group Types Tab
Open the appropriate tab on the window and select the buildings, resource categories, booking statuses, and group types that are to be invoiced. This information is displayed on the invoice. To select a building, category, and so on, select the item in the Available list (Ctrl-click to select multiple items), and then click Move (>) to move the items to the Selected list. You can click the Show Inactive option for both categories and statuses, to show inactive categories and statuses, so you can select these inactive items as part of your filtering criteria.
Options Tab—Format settings for a printed confirmation
Header Message Footer Message	Select the header message and footer message that is to be printed on the invoice. By default, the header and footer messages are printed on every page of the invoice. To print the header only on the first page of the invoice, clear the Print Header on Each Page option.
Currency	Select the currency that indicates how a room or resources in a category should be charged.
Print Comments	Include the comments for the reservation in the printed invoice.
Print Reminders	Include the reminders for the reservation in the printed invoice.
Print User Defined Fields	Include user-defined fields and their values in the printed invoice.
Suppress Reserved Time	Do not show the reserved time on the printed invoice. (Instead, only the event time is included on the printed invoice.)
Print Item Notes	Include the notes for any booking items in the printed invoice.
Print Zero Priced Items	Include resources for which there was no charge in the printed invoice.
Print Item Selections	Include any resource item selections in the printed invoice.
Print Header On Each Page	Include the selected Header message on each page of the printed invoice.
Suppress Logo	Do not show your logo on the printed invoice.
Print Billing Reference Allocation	Include the billing reference numbers for the event as well as the percentage of charges that is allocated to each number in the printed invoice.
Print Category Subtotals	Include the subtotal charges by category in the printed invoice.
Display Messages as HTML	If you have defined any HTML messages, then select this option to display the HTML version of these messages in the printed invoice; otherwise, the message is displayed in plain text.

3. Click Generate. 

   The generated invoices display in the Invoicing dialog. By default, invoices with a zero balance are not shown.

4. You can also do one or more of the following to work with the invoices that display. If you're satisfied with the invoices, go to the next step to post the invoice.
   • To show zero balance invoices in the window, clear the Hide Zero Balances option.
   • To preview an invoice, select the invoice (Ctrl-click to select multiple invoices), and then click Preview. An onscreen preview of the selected invoices opens, titled “Invoice Preview” (to distinguish the invoices from those that have been posted). The invoices also do not have invoice numbers, which are not issued until you post the invoices. The preview window contains options for printing a hard copy of the invoices, for emailing the invoices (see Send Email from EMS), and so on. Select the option or options that best fit your working needs.
   • To change the criteria for the invoices, click Filter. After changing the criteria, you can generate the invoices again.

5. To post an invoice, select the invoice (Ctrl-click to select multiple invoices), and then click Final. 

   A message opens warning you that you are about to post and print (#) invoices, and asking you if want to continue.

6. Click Yes. 

   An onscreen preview of the final invoices opens. The preview is titled “Invoices” and each invoice has been issued an invoice number. The preview window contains options for printing a hard copy of the invoices, for emailing the invoices. Select the option or options that best fit your working needs. 

After you generate and post an invoice, the message “Items have been invoiced” is displayed in red text on the Reservation Summary tab, the Booking Summary tab, and the <Booking Detail> Summary tab in the Navigator. The booking detail folder in which the invoiced items reside now has a green background in the Booking Details pane and the icon for each invoiced item also has a green background in the Items pane. Also, the invoice is permanently saved, and you cannot edit it. You can make changes to the balance due for a reservation only by creating an adjustment or by voiding the invoice and regenerating it after you edit the booking information. As invoiced bookings are locked and cannot be edited, you must void the invoice before you can edit the bookings.

Bill at Completion

You can suppress bookings from invoice reports until all bookings within the reservation are complete. This is helpful if you want to send one invoice for a full reservation. For example, you might have a reservation with bookings that span many weeks.

1. In Navigator, open the reservation.

2. Select Edit > Billing Information tab > Bill at Completion.

Reprint an Invoice 

You can reprint both non-voided and voided invoices. You can reprint invoices for only one department at a time from the Billing area of EMS. Reprinting an invoice does not recalculate the invoice. The invoice is simply printed as it appeared when it was first generated. You can specify the invoices that you are reprinting, or you can search for invoices that meet specific criteria, and then select specific invoices to reprint from the list of search results.

To reprint invoices for one or more departments, you must select the reservation in the Navigator, open the Transactions tab and CTRL-click to select the multiple invoices that you are reprinting, and then use the Reprint option on the Transactions tab.

To reprint an invoice:

1. On the EMS Desktop Client menu bar, click Billing > Other > Reprint Invoices. 

   The Reprint Invoices dialog opens.

2. Select the Department that generated the invoices. This field is automatically populated if you have a default department assigned to your user account, but you can select a different value if needed.
3. In Invoice No., enter the number of the invoice that you want to reprint, and then click Add. 

   The invoice displays by number in the lower right Invoice pane.

4. Repeat Step 3 until you have added all the invoices that you want to reprint.
5. Leave the reprinting criteria set to their default values, or change them as needed using the table below.

Option	Description
Invoices	The invoice type that you are reprinting—Non Voided (the default value) or Voided.
Format	Select the sort order for the reprinted invoices. The default value is By Reservation.
First Transaction Date Last Transaction Date	Leave these values blank to reprint the invoice for all bookings; otherwise, enter the date range of the bookings for which you are reprinting the invoice.
Print Header on Each Page	Leave this option selected to print the invoice header on every page of the invoice.
Print Transactions	Select this option to include any associated transactions (deposits, payments, and so on) in the reprinted invoice.

6. Click OK. 

   An onscreen preview of the invoices opens. The preview is titled “Invoices.” The preview window contains options for printing a hard copy of the invoices, for exporting the invoices to a .pdf and emailing the invoice. Select the option or options that best fits your working needs.

Void an Invoice 

You can void an invoice only if the invoice has not been paid. If payments have been made against an invoice, you must first void the payments. You can void invoices for only one department at a time. When you void an invoice, the invoice is removed from the Aging report and its associated bookings are unlocked. You can specify invoices to void, or you can search for invoices that meet specific criteria, and then select specific invoices to void from the list of search results.

You can also void an invoice from the Transactions tab when a reservation is selected in the Navigator.

1. On the EMS menu bar, click Billing > Other > Void Invoices. 

   The Void Invoices dialog opens. 

2. In Department, select the department that generated the invoices.
3. In Invoice No., enter the number of the invoice that you are voiding, and then click Add.

   Two results are possible:

   • If payments have not been applied to the invoice, then a Void Reason dialog opens. Continue to Step 4.
   • If payments have been applied to the invoice, then an error message opens indicating that payments have been applied to the invoice and it cannot be voided. You must void the payments first before you can void the invoice.
4. Enter a reason for voiding the invoice, and then click OK. 

   The invoice displays (by number) in the lower right Invoice pane.

5. Repeat Step 3 and Step 4 until you have selected all the invoices from the same department that you are voiding.
6. Do one of the following:
   • To review an invoice before you void it, go Step 7.
   • To void an invoice without reviewing it, go to Step 8.
7. Optionally, before you void a selected invoice, you can review it to ensure that it is indeed an invoice that you want to void. In the lower right Invoice pane, select the invoice, or Ctrl-click to select multiple invoices, and then click Preview. An onscreen preview of the selected invoices opens. The preview is titled “Invoices.” The preview window contains options for printing a hard copy of the invoices, for exporting the invoices to a .pdf, and so on. Select the option or options that best fit your working needs. For example, before you void an invoice, you might want to email a copy of the invoice to a colleague to confirm that the invoice should be voided.

8. In the lower right Invoice pane, select the invoice, or Ctrl-click to select the multiple invoices that you are voiding, and then click OK. 

   A confirmation message appears.

9. Click Yes. 

   A success message opens.

10. Click OK. 

    The Void column is set to Yes on the Transactions tab for each of the voided invoices in the Navigator.