Main Tab of the Batch Billing Form

Use the Main tab to select settings for processing a group of draft or final invoice or to submit a group of invoices for approval if you use the Invoice Approval feature.

These settings allow you to do things such as generate invoices with our without printing them, send the invoices to others by email, and create other reports for the batch run.

Contents

Field Description
Saved Options From the drop-down list, select a set of options to use with the current batch run.

To select a set of options, click the Global Options or Personal Options folder to expand options, and click the option that you want to use.

You, or your company, must have saved at least one set of global or personal settings to have options available from this dialog box. You save settings using the Organize function.

Organize Click this option to display the Organize Options dialog box, where you can save all current settings for the Batch Billing run, such as the run type, to use for future runs.
Default Click this option to restore the Vision default Batch Billing options. You can establish any set of global options as the default by selecting Use as default options from the Organize Options dialog box.

Clicking Default does not affect any saved sets of Batch Billing options.

Run Type Select whether to create draft or final invoices for the batch run:

This option is only enabled for users who belong to a role with the Batch Billing - Allow Final Processing option selected in the Billing Security area on the Accounting tab of Roles Security. This field prefills with Draft Run for all other users.

  • Draft Run — Select this option to produce draft (pre-billing) invoices that you can review before you create final invoices to send to customers. Draft invoices can be previewed and edited in Interactive Billing. When draft invoices are ready to be final invoiced and sent to customers, you either process them as a final run in Batch Billing or you accept each draft invoice individually in Interactive Billing.

    You must select Draft when you select the Submit invoices for Projects with approvals enabled check box.

  • Final Run — Select this option to produce final accepted invoices that you can send to customers. An invoice transaction file is created for the final invoices. You must post the file in Transaction Center > Transaction Posting.
Run Description Enter a name for this batch billing run. For example, if you firm creates separate batch runs for each office, you can include the office name in the description.

This description displays in the Run Description field in the Batch Billing Runs grid on the Previously Run Invoices tab. The description entered here does not need to be unique. Vision distinguishes runs by their date stamp (displayed in the Date field in the Batch Billing Runs grid).

Submit invoices for Projects with approvals enabled This check box displays only if the Invoice Approvals feature is enabled. If you use the Multicompany feature, this check box is enabled only if the company that you have open has the Invoice Approvals feature enabled.

You can select this check box only if you select Draft Run in the Run Type field.

Select this check box to submit invoices that require approval. Invoices for projects without billing terms will not be submitted. This option is similar to the submit functionality in Interactive Billing.

After you click Run on the Batch Billing form toolbar:

  • The status of the invoices and the transactions associated with the submitted invoices changes from New to Submitted. You can see the invoice status in the grid in Billing > Invoice Approvals.
  • On the Billing Comments dialog box, you can enter a comment that applies to all submitted invoices in the draft run.
  • Vision sends an alert to the person or people who are responsible for approving invoices if alerts have been set up for the submit action for the invoice approval process that is specified for a project.

Billing Terms Overrides Section

Field Description
Outstanding AR The options for printing outstanding accounts receivable on invoices are:
  • Billing Terms — Select this option to print outstanding accounts receivable on a project-by-project basis, according to the AR printing options on the General tab of the Billing Terms form.
  • Always Print — Select this option to print outstanding accounts receivable for all of the projects included in this Batch Billing run, regardless of the settings on the General tab of the Billing Terms form.
  • Never Print — Select this option to bypass printing outstanding accounts receivable for the projects included in this Batch Billing run regardless of the settings on the General tab of the Billing Terms form.
Billed to Date The options for printing billed-to-date amounts on invoices are:
  • Billing Terms — Select this option to print billed-to-date amounts on a project-by-project basis, according to the Billed-to-date printing options on the General tab of the Billing Terms form.
  • Always Print — Select this option to print billed-to-date for all of the projects included in this Batch Billing run, regardless of the settings on the General tab of the Billing Terms form.
  • Never Print — Select this option to bypass printing billed-to-date for the projects included in this Batch Billing run, regardless of the settings on the General tab of the Billing Terms form.
Billing Backup The options for printing Billing Backup reports are:
  • Billing Terms — Select this option to print billing backup information on a project-by-project basis, according to the Print Backup Report option on the Billing Backup tab of the Billing Terms form.
  • Always Print — Select this option to print billing backup information for all of the projects included in this Batch Billing run, whether or not Print Backup Report is selected for those projects on the Billing Backup tab of the Billing Terms form.
  • Never Print — Select this option to bypass printing billing backup information for the projects included in this Batch Billing run, regardless of the settings on the Billing Backup tab of the Billing Terms form.

If your firm uses the Multilingual feature, Vision generates the Billing Backup report in the same language as the associated invoice.

If you use the Invoice Approval feature, the Billing Backup options allow you to view the Billing Backup report for previewing submitted invoices in Billing > Invoice Approvals or Billing > Interactive Approvals.

If your firm uses the Deltek First Vision Essentials cloud version of Vision, printing the billing will open the Preview window. Use the print option in the Preview window to continue printing.

Print Invoices with Zero Amount Due Select one of the following options for printing invoices with zero amount due:
  • Billing Terms — Select this option to print invoices with no current billings on a project-by-project basis, according to the Print Invoices with Zero Amount Due option on the Misc tab of the Billing Terms form. When this option is selected on the Billing Terms form, Vision includes projects in the run that have no current billings, providing the projects have fee terms established and/or outstanding accounts receivable. Deltek recommends this option for Fee projects.
  • Always Print — Select this option to print invoices for all projects, regardless of the setting on the Misc tab of the Billing Terms form.
  • Never Print — Select this option to bypass printing invoices for projects with no current billings, regardless of the setting on the Misc tab of the Billing Terms form. Please note that if the Print Invoices with only AR option is selected on the Billing Setup form (Configuration > Billing > General), then invoices without current activity, but with outstanding accounts receivable will print, even if the Never Print option is selected.
Invoice Template Select a template to use for all invoices to be printed during this Batch Billing run. For this Batch Billing run only, this overrides the default invoice template set on a project-by-project basis on the General tab of the Billing Terms form.

You can use this option, for example, when all draft invoices use a single draft template, but final invoices use a variety of templates.

Sort Invoices By Section

Field Description
First Select the option for your first sort when printing invoices, such as Billing Client Number, Principal Name, or Organization Level 1.

Some of the sort options are default labels, which may have been tailored in your application to meet your company's business requirements. Contact your system administrator for further information about the labels your company uses.

If your company added user-defined fields to the Project Info Center, these fields also appear as sort options from the First, Second, and Third sort fields.

Invoices are sorted in alphabetic order by project name or number, based on the option selected from the Project field, and in all sort fields (First, Second, Third) in the corresponding order. For example, If you select Project Manager as your First sort, and Client as your second sort, the invoice associated with Project Manager Scott Andersen and client Ace Builders will print before the invoice associated with Project Manager Scott Andersen and client Blue Builders.

Second Select the option that you want to use as your second sort when printing invoices.

Some of the sort options are default labels, which may have been tailored in your application to meet your company's business requirements. Contact your system administrator for further information about the labels your company uses.

If your company added user-defined fields to the Project Info Center, these fields also appear as sort options from the First, Second, and Third sort fields.

Invoices are sorted in alphabetic order, based on the option selected from the Project field, and in all sort fields (First, Second, Third) in the corresponding order.

Third Select the option that you want to use as your third sort when printing invoices.

Some of the sort options are default labels, which may have been tailored in your application to meet your company's business requirements. Contact your system administrator for further information about the labels your company uses.

If your company added user-defined fields to the Project Info Center, these fields also appear as sort options in the First, Second, and Third sort fields.

Invoices are sorted in alphabetic order, based on the option selected in the Project field, and in all sort fields (First, Second, Third) in the corresponding order.

Project Select whether you want to sort invoices by the project Name or project Number.
Do not print when generating invoices Select this check box to generate draft or final invoices without automatically sending the invoices to a printer to be printed. After invoices are generated, you can review or print them on the Previously Run Invoices tab.

If you are submitting invoices for approval and you select this check box, you can print and preview submitted invoices in Billing > Invoice Approvals or Billing > Interactive Approvals.

If your firm uses the Deltek First Vision Essentials cloud version of Vision, this option is not available.

Do not create report for submitted invoices This check box is enabled only if you are submitting invoices for approval. This means you have selected both of the following on this tab:
  • Draft Run in the Run Type field is selected.
  • Submit invoices for Projects with approvals enabled check box is selected.

Leave this check box cleared, if you want all invoices in the batch to be printed automatically when you run the batch.

Select this check box if you do not want all invoices in the batch to be printed automatically when you run the batch. This reduces the time it takes to process a Batch Billing run.

When you select this check box:

  • Approvers can preview the submitted invoices in Billing > Invoice Approvals or Billing > Interactive Approvals.
  • You will not be able to preview the submitted invoices on the Previously Run Batches tab on the Batch Billing form.
  • You can select the Print batch invoice list check box on this tab to print a list of the submitted invoices in the batch.
  • Invoices will not be emailed.
Include unbilled detail report with each invoice Select this check box to print the corresponding Unbilled Detail report with each invoice. The Unbilled Detail report lists all posted transactions for the project with a pending status, such as to be billed (B), to be deleted (D), hold (H), or to be written-off ( W).

If you select this option, Vision uses the Bill-thru Date set from the Batch Billing form for the report, rather than the Aging Date option set in the Unbilled Detail Report's Options dialog box.

Vision formats the report's name as follows:

Batch Unbilled [wbs1Label] [WBS1] [Invoice Number]

For example, you might see:

Batch Unbilled Project 199900100 Draft.roi

Vision stores the username and time (in seconds) to ensure that even when you run multiple batch billing runs, the Unbilled Detail reports from that are from separate batches will be unique.

If your firm uses the Multilingual feature, Vision generates invoices and supporting reports in the language saved with the applicable invoice template. However, it does not automatically use that language for Unbilled Detail reports. The Unbilled Detail reports, because they are intended for internal use only, are generated in the language that you select when you log in to process batch billing. (You can, however, create a set of saved options for a specific language for the Unbilled Detail and Aging report in Reporting and then select that set of options for the report when you run the batch billing process.)

Use default terms for draft invoices Select this check box if you want Vision to use the default billing terms (Configuration > Billing > Project Default Terms) for all projects that do not have billing terms established.
Print batch invoice List Select this check box to print a list of invoices with current activity for the current run. The list includes the project name, invoice number, and invoice totals for each invoice at the end of the batch run.

If you use the Invoice Approval feature and you select this check box when you are submitting invoices for approval, the default billing terms are used for previewing the submitted invoice in Billing > Invoice Approvals.

Print Supporting Documents Select this check box to print supporting documents with the invoice. The supporting documents print based on the following:
  • The Expenses and AP Vouchers and Disbursements options in the Print Supporting Documents group box on the Billing Backup tab in Billing > Billing Terms.
  • The Print with Invoice setting for the supporting document that is associated with the transaction on the draft or final invoice.

The batch runs listed in the Previously Run Batches include the supporting documents, if they were printed with that batch run.

Projects Selection Section

Field Description
Select Specific Projects Click Search in this field to select the projects whose invoices you want to process in Batch Billing. In the Project Lookup dialog box that opens, you can perform a Standard, Advanced, SQL Where Clause or Saved search to select a group of projects. To include all projects in the run, leave the default All Projects selected in the Select Specific Projects field.

If you use the Invoice Approval feature

Three Include options also display below the Select Specific Projects field if you use the Invoice Approval feature. After you select one of the Include options, click Search in the Select Specific Projects field to open the Project Lookup and select a group of projects whose invoices you want to include in the Batch Billing run.

The Include option that you select does not affect the list of projects that display in the Project Lookup in the Select Specific Projects field. All projects are included in the Project Lookup.

When you use invoice approvals, the invoices included in the Batch Billing run are based on which Include option that you select and what you select in the Select Specific Projects field. For example, if you select Include Only Projects with Approvals enabled, and in the Select Specific Projects field, you select projects from only one organization in your company, then the invoices included in the batch run are only for the projects from that one organization that have Invoice Approvals enabled.

Include These options display only if you have the Invoice Approval feature turned on (the Enable Invoice Approvals check box is selected on the Miscellaneous tab in Configuration Billing General).

Select one of the following options to determine which invoices will be included in the Batch Billing run:

  • All Projects

    Select this option to include invoices for all projects. This includes projects that require invoice approvals and projects that do not require invoice approvals.

    For draft runs, this includes invoices that have not yet been submitted for approval if they require approval and all invoices that do not require approval that meet the project selection criteria in the Select Specific Projects field.

    For final runs, this includes draft invoices that have a status of Approved for projects that require approval and all draft invoices that do not require approval that meet the project selection criteria in the Select Specific Projects field.

  • Only Projects with Approvals enabled

    Select this option to include invoices for only projects that require invoice approvals (Enable Invoice Approvals is selected on the Misc tab in the Billing Terms for a project).

    For projects that are part of billing groups: Vision looks at the Invoice Approvals setting for the main project of a billing group to determine whether or not to include the invoices for the whole group of projects that make up the billing group.

    For draft runs, only invoices with a New status are included in the run. Invoices with a Not Submitted, Approved, or Rejected status are not included.

    For final runs, only approved invoices that meet the project selection criteria in the Select Specific Projects field are included in the run.

  • Only Projects with Approvals not enabled

    Select this option to include invoices for only projects that do not require invoices to be approved (Enable Invoice Approvals is cleared on the Misc tab in the Billing Terms for a project) that also meet the project selection criteria in the Select Specific Projects field.

    For projects that are part of billing groups: Vision looks at the Invoice Approvals setting for the main project of a billing group to determine whether or not to include the invoices for the whole group of projects that make up the billing group.

After you select one of the Include options, enter selection criteria in the Select Specific Projects field on the Project Lookup to include invoices for a smaller or specific set of projects. For example, if you select Include Only Projects with Approvals enabled, and in the Select Specific Projects field, you select only projects from only one organization, then the projects included in the run are only the invoices for that one organization that have Invoice Approvals enabled.

The Include option that you select does not affect the list of projects that display in the Project Lookup in the Select Specific Projects field. All projects are included in the Project Lookup.

Email Invoices Section

Field Description
Email Invoices Select this check box if you want to send copies of draft or final invoices as email attachments.

If you normally print the Billing Backup report and the Unbilled Detail report along with your invoices, Vision also sends these reports as email attachments along with the invoices.

If you use the Invoice Approvals feature and you are submitting invoices for approval in Batch Billing

The invoice approval process for a project may be configured in Invoice Approval Configuration to automatically send email alerts to invoice approvers when invoices are submitted. If that is the case and you select the Email Invoices check box to send submitted draft invoices as email attachments to invoice approvers, they will receive two email messages regarding invoices that they need to approve.

When you select the Do not create report for submitted invoices option, email messages with invoices attached are not generated.

Email single file If you select this check box, Vision merges all invoices and supporting reports for a recipient into a single file and sends that file as an email attachment. Each recipient gets one email message.

If you do not select the Email single file check box, Vision merges each invoice with its supporting reports into a separate file and attaches each file to a separate email. In this case, Batch Billing could generate multiple email messages for a single recipient.

In either case, Vision also creates a single file for the billing batch that contains all invoices and related reports. You can view that file from the Previously Run Batches tab of the Batch Billing form.

If you want to generate the reports as Microsoft Excel files, do not select this check box. if Email single file is selected, the option to generate Excel files is not available.

To Specify the recipients of the invoices that you will distribute by email.
  • Biller — Select this option to send invoices to the biller that is associated with each project that is being billed. The Biller is defined on the General tab of the Project info Center.
  • Project Manager — Select this option to send invoices to the project manager associated with each project that is being billed.
  • Principal — Select this option to send invoices to the principal associated with each project that is being billed.
  • Supervisor — Select this option to send invoices to the supervisor associated with each project that is being billed.
  • Billing Contact — Select this option to send invoices to the billing contact associated with each project that is being billed.
  • Primary Contact — Select this option to send invoices to the primary client contact associated with each project that is being billed.
  • Specific email address — Select this option to send invoices to an email address you specify, rather than to a predefined group of recipients. Enter the email address in the field below the To field. If you want to send email to multiple addresses, enter all of them in that field, with semicolons (;) as separators between them. You can also click to select the addresses that you want from the Contact or Employee Info Centers.
CC and BCC To send copies to recipients other than the primary recipients, enter one or more email addresses for CC and BCC recipients. If you want to send copies to multiple addresses, enter all of them in the field, with semicolons (;) as separators between them. You can also click to select the addresses you want from the Contact or Employee Info Centers.
Insert Field To insert a field as part of the subject line of the email (for example, [:Invoice Number] and [:Invoice Date] ), click Insert Field, select one or more fields on the Fields dialog box, and click OK.

As it generates the email messages, Vision substitutes the corresponding values for any fields you have inserted in the subject line so that each one is tailored for its recipient.

The project-specific and invoice-specific fields are only available if you do not select the Email single file check box.

Subject Enter the subject line for the email messages.

You can click the Insert Field button to select and insert fields into the subject line (for example, [:Invoice Number] and [:Invoice Date] ). As it generates the email messages, Vision substitutes the corresponding values for any fields you have inserted in the subject line so that each one is tailored for its recipient.

Message Enter the text of the email message.

Click Edit to open the Text Editor to view and work on the message in a larger space, to apply formatting options, and to check spelling.

To insert a field as part of the subject line of the email (for example, [:Invoice Number] and [:Invoice Date] ), click Insert Field, select one or more fields in the Fields dialog box, and click OK. As it generates the email messages, Vision substitutes the corresponding values for any fields you have inserted in the message text so that each message is tailored for its recipient.

The project- and invoice-specific fields are only available if you do not select the Email single file check box.

Invoice file type If you selected the Email invoices to option, select the file format for emailed invoices:
  • Adobe PDF — Sends email messages with a PDF attachment. The PDF format can be viewed in Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you own a full copy of the Adobe Acrobat product, you can make minor edits to the PDF file.
  • Rich Text Format (RTF) — Sends email messages with an RTF attachment. This format can be opened and edited in any Word Processing program, such as WordPad.
  • Microsoft Word Document — Sends email messages with a Word document (DOC) attachment. This format can be opened and edited in Microsoft Word.
  • Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet (Display Format) — Sends email messages with an Excel spreadsheet ( XLS) attachment. This format can be opened and edited in Microsoft Excel. The spreadsheet will have no visible gridlines or row and column headers.
  • Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet (Data Format) — Sends email messages with an Excel spreadsheet ( XLS) attachment. This format can be opened and edited in Microsoft Excel. The spreadsheet will have visible gridlines and row and column headers.
  • HTTP link to invoice — Sends email messages with a hyperlink that when clicked opens the invoice within Vision. When the email recipient clicks on the link, the link directs the user to Vision and opens the invoice in a browser window. If the email recipient is not currently logged in to Vision, the recipient is directed to the Vision login page first. Then after the user logs in, Vision displays the invoice in a browser window.

The Microsoft Excel file format option is only available if you are using SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services on your report server and if you do not select the Email single file check box. If you generate the Unbilled Detail report along with the invoices, the invoice and the report will be in separate attached Excel files because there is no way to merge Excel files.