This topic explains an important part of billing: how to charge a group of customers their regular, recurring rate.
Before You Begin
You need one of the billing modules of Trash Flow. Customers must also have a bill code (or at least a description and rate) set up on their Rates tab or a container placement.
Context
This process will go through all the customers in a bill group, charge them the rate(s) set on their accounts, and put the dates you choose here next to that charge. Assessing charges is part of the billing procedure for regular trash service. Unlike some software Trash Flow splits billing up into two distinct steps: assessing the charges and printing the bills. This division of tasks lets you get charges onto customer accounts now, but wait to print until you're ready.
Assess the Charges
- Click .
- Use the drop-down menu to choose the Billing Group that you want to assess.
- Review the dates for the Assessment Period Start and Assessment Period End.
- Make sure the other four options (Include Zero Charges, Prorate when needed, Do not assess if the customer's Start Date is, and Do not assess if the customer's End date is) are set as desired.
- Click .
When You're Done
All the customers in that bill group will be charged their rate set up on their account. The next step is typically to print and email bills.
Reference: Options when assessing charges
- Billing Group: The bill group currently being assessed. You can only assess one bill group at a time.
- Include Zero Charges: If this value is checked, descriptions entered without any rate amount on the Rates tab will appear in the customers' history and will print on the bill. (Example: A line underneath the bill code, description, and rate might read, for example“1X Weekly Pickup.”)
- Prorate When Needed: If this value is checked and a customer's start date or end date falls in the middle of the assessment period Trash Flow will charge that customer a prorated amount rather than the full amount set by the bill code.
- Assessment Period Start: The date of the assessment start. Example: You come in to the office on Monday, May 3rd to do billing for your monthly customers who pay in advance. You would set this date to May 1st.
- Assessment Period End: The date of the assessment end. Example: You come in to the office on Monday, May 3rd to do billing for your monthly customers who pay in advance. You would set this date to May 31st.
- Do not assess if the customer's Start Date is: This value should usually be set to After the Period End Date. If you've entered a new customer whose service has not started yet—someone moving to the area for instance, or a seasonal customer who's notified you that they've left town—they will not be charged if their start date is after the assessment's end date. Other options are After Today's Date, After the Business Date, and Ignore customer start date.
- Do not assess if the customer's End Date is: This value should usually be set to Before the Period Start Date. This setting will prevent customers whose service has ended from being charged. Other options are Before Today's Date, Before the Business Date, and Ignore customer end date.