Lesson 42-- Sales & Rental Billing

This lesson explains how to use the Billing commands to bill for customer sales and property rentals. It's the principle way you'll handle accounts receivable with Goldenseal accounting software.

Billing Setup

Before you start sales billing, follow these steps:

Create Customer Payment Terms with your usual terms.
Create Customer accounts.
Create Payment Methods for the payments you receive.
Enter Sales transactions for the goods or services that you provide.

Before you start rental billing, follow these steps:

Create Rental Payment Terms with your usual terms.
Create a Lease for each tenant. Fill in the rent amount, the rent period, and any damage deposits or pre-paid rent.
Create Payment Methods for the payments you receive.

Sales Billing

To create bills for customer sales, follow these steps:

Choose Billing from the Bank menu, then choose Sales from the submenu.
You'll see a list of customers, and the amount that is due from each.
Click in the first column to choose which customers to bill now.
To see detailed sales for a customer, double-click on their name (or elsewhere in the same row).
You'll see a list of sales that are due. Click on the check marks in the first column to determine which sales to include in this bill.
When you are finished looking at itemized sales, click the OK button.
To create bills, click the Create Bills button. Goldenseal will create billing records for each customer.

Viewing Accounts Receivable

The Billing command is a quick way to see the status of your Accounts Receivable.

To view the billing status for a different date, type a date into the Cutoff Date field, and press the Tab key to recalculate billing amounts.

To see a more detailed report of receivables that are due and overdue, choose Income from the Reports menu, and choose Receivables Aging from the submenu.

To see a list of all unpaid billing records, choose Income from the Reports menu, and choose Unpaid Bills from the submenu.

Rental Billing

To create rental bills or to accept rent payments, follow these steps:

Choose Billing from the Bank menu, then choose Rentals from the submenu.
You'll see a list of tenants, and the amount that is currently due from each. Click in the first column to determine which tenants to bill now.
To see details for a tenant, double-click anywhere in their row.
You'll see a list of all payments and credits over the entire rental term. Items that have already been billed are marked with an x in the first column. Items that are due now are checked.
Click in the first column to change the items to bill now. Click in the Adjust column to enter early payment discounts or late charges.
When you are finished with the itemized rental dialog, click OK.

To create bills, click the Create Bills button. Goldenseal will ask you for a payment method. If you are creating bills for unpaid rent, enter Billed. Otherwise enter the type of payment you have received.

Goldenseal will create Rental Transactions for the rent that is due. If you are billing for rent, it also creates a Billing Record.

Damage Deposits

To bill for damage deposits, key deposits and pre-paid rent, follow these steps:

Choose Billing from the Bank menu, then choose Rentals from the submenu.
Double-click on the tenant who has paid a deposit.
Put a check mark next to each item that they are paying now. HINT: If you don't see the correct deposits or pre-paid rent, you'll need to enter them into the Lease.
Continue rental billing, the same as for basic rent.

Using Prepaid Rent

When tenants pre-pay rent at the beginning of a lease term, enter it the same as damage deposits.

When tenants use the pre-paid rent at the end of the term, follow these steps:

Choose Billing from the Bank menu, then choose Rentals from the submenu.
Double-click on the tenant who is using pre-paid rent.
You'll see a rental amount for the usual rent. Put a check mark next to it to include it.
You'll see a line for Last Payment Used. Put a check mark next to it.
Continue rental billing, the same as for basic rent. If the two amounts cancel out, you won't need to bill anything.

Damage Charges

If you charge a renter for damages, follow these steps:

Choose Rental Transactions from the Income menu.
Click the New button.
Enter the renter, and any details about the damages.
Enter Damage Charge into the Transaction Type popup field.

Rental Deposit Return

To return deposits at the end of a lease term, follow these steps:

Choose Billing from the Bank menu, then choose Rentals from the submenu.
Double-click on the tenant who is using pre-paid rent.
Put a checkbox next to the deposit return item(s) at the end of the lease. If there are damage charges, also include them.
Continue rental billing, the same as for basic rent. When you are asked for a payment method, choose Billed.
Goldenseal will create a Rental Transaction for each credit and charge, and a Billing Record for the total refund (or charge).

To issue a deposit refund check, follow these steps:

Choose Checking Transactions from the Bank menu, then choose the account from which you'll make payment. HINT: If you keep damages in an escrow account, choose Escrow Transactions from the Bank menu.
Click the New button.
Enter Renter in the Pay To field, and enter the tenant into the Account field.
Enter Billing Refund into the Transaction Paid popup field.
Enter the billing record into the Reference field.

Billing Records

Billing records keep track of the bills that you send out to customers, tenants, project owners, and anyone else who owes you money.

You'll create most billing records with one of the Billing commands. When you click the Create Bills button, Goldenseal automatically creates billing records for each marked account.

To view billing records, follow these steps:

Choose Billing Records from the Bank menu.
You'll see a browser window that includes bills of all types.
Each record shows one billing cycle for one customer, tenant or project. The total billing amount is calculated, including sales tax, retainage and finance charges.
Most bills include a breakdown table, which is a list of unpaid transactions or steps in a project. The table shows the same information as in the Billing commands. You can change the items or billing amounts in the table, just as you did in the Billing commands.

Printing Bills

To print a billing statement for a customer, choose Print Form from the File menu, then choose Billing Statement in the Form Type field.

To find and print the sale transactions covered by a customer bill, follow these steps:

Choose Billing Records from the Bank menu.
Find the record that lists the sales you'd like to include.
Choose Detail Transactions from the View menu.
Goldenseal will open the Sales window and show the listed transactions in the found set.
To print the invoices, choose Print Form from the File menu, choose Billing Invoice in the Form Type field, and choose Found Records in the Record Range field.

Individual Billing

If you'd like to make a bill for just one customer or just one project, you can create a billing record without using the Billing command. For example, to create a bill for a single customer, follow these steps:

Click the New button.
Enter Customer into the Account Type popup menu.
Enter Sales into the Breakdown popup menu.
Goldenseal will automatically fill in a list of sales that are ready to be billed for this customer.

Bill Tracking

Each billing record keeps track of an amount that is owed to you-- whether it comes from sales, rentals or project work.

To view a list of unpaid bills, choose Income from the Reports menu, then choose Unpaid Bills from the submenu.

When you receive payment for the bill, you'll apply the payment to a specific billing record. The billing record will then 'pass along' the payment to any transactions that are included in the bill.

Finance Charges

When you use the Billing command, Goldenseal automatically computes finance charges based on the unpaid balance for the customer or tenant, and the finance charges included in the payment terms. Finance charges are shown in the Finance Charges field in the Billing Record.

You can also bill for finance charges manually. To do so, follow these steps:

Choose Billing Records from the Bank menu.
Click the New button.
Enter the account type and account being billed.
Enter Finance Charge into the Billed Item popup menu.
Enter the amount of the charge into the Gross Amount field.

Finishing Up

In this lesson you've learned how to make customer and rental bills.

Before you move on, you may want to take a quick break to take your pet for a walk. Or if it's a fish or a gargoyle, teach it to speak.