The Goal: Get oriented in GrowthZone billing: what each page in Finance, Billing is for, what the Dashboard tells you, and why billing sometimes looks different from what you expect.
Before You Begin:
- You need staff access to Finance. Billing for many members is managed here; much of the same work can be done for one contact on their Billing tab (see Billing on a contact record).
- Billing settings, such as automated billing, live under Finance, Administrative section, Billing Settings. See General Billing Settings: every setting explained.
Pages in the Billing section
Go to Finance and look under the Billing section. (Accounting Summary and Billing Settings are under the Administrative section.)
| Page | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Dashboard | Where your billing stands today, plus every billing report. |
| All Credit Memos | Every credit memo. |
| All Deposits | Every deposit you’ve recorded. |
| All Payments | Every payment received. |
| All Sales/Invoices | Every invoice and sale. |
| Create Invoices from File | Import invoices from a file. |
| Upcoming Billing | Scheduled billing coming due, and where you run billing. |
| Unsent Invoices | Invoices waiting to be emailed or printed. |
Automated billing is not Autopay
- Automated scheduled billing creates invoices for scheduled billing automatically. Turn it on with Use Automated Billing in General Billing Settings. See Automated Scheduled Billing.
- Autopay charges a contact’s stored payment profile. See Autopay overview.
- They are separate settings; turning on one doesn’t turn on the other.
Because invoicing is built in, there’s no double entry. The Accounting Summary gives you a summary file for accounting systems such as QuickBooks or Sage 50.
The Billing Dashboard
Go to Finance, Billing section, click Dashboard.
- Invoices: how many invoices are waiting for email or print delivery. Click a number to deliver them; see Deliver invoices by email or print.
- Payments: how many payments haven’t been deposited yet. Best practice is to record a deposit that matches each bank deposit; click the number to create it. See Deposits: create and view.
-
Open Invoices: a graph of invoices open today, with count and value. Hover for a summary; click to open the Open Invoices Report.
- Reports: every billing report, grouped by type (Credit Card Processing, Banking, Collections, Accounting General Ledger, Historical & Planning), including your own custom ones (marked with a yellow asterisk). See Reports.
- Best Practices & White Papers: guidance on managing billing.
What you may see in billing (and why)
IMPORTANT: Check billing carefully before you run it. Fixing billing errors may incur fees, so practice in your Clone database first.
New prices don’t show on Upcoming Billing
-
Recalculated pricing: make sure it’s turned on; you’ll see the spinning-arrow icon next to old prices. New prices appear when you review renewal billing, and on screen after billing runs. If you change prices and bill the same day, review renewal billing first or the old prices are used.
-
Effective date pricing: the membership type must be set to Do not recalculate price, with the change date set in its pricing. A double-arrow refresh icon marks prices that will change. See Effective Date Pricing.
- You can override one member’s renewal pricing from their record; see Keep a member on their current price.
Can’t see which invoices were emailed
Turn on Bulk Email Tracking before you email invoices.
Upcoming billing runs slowly
Billing for thousands of organizations runs around the first of the month. If you can, run billing on another day. You can keep working and check the billing run’s progress.
Next Bill Date isn’t what you expected
Next Bill Date is the member’s renewal date, not the date you run invoices. Billing early doesn’t change it.
Common Pitfalls
- Mixing up automated billing and Autopay: one creates invoices, the other charges cards.
- Same-day price change: review renewal billing before running billing.
- Undeposited payments piling up: check the Dashboard regularly and record deposits to match the bank.