Bulk document creation

With the Bulk document creation function you create new documents from selected documents, amounts or time entries - for example invoices from received purchase orders, invoices from proforma invoices, purchase orders from purchase requests, or reminder notices from overdue invoices. By default, one document is created for each person.

You find the function in the Documents module and in the reports What to invoice, What we want to order, To whom to send a reminder notice and Receivables and payables. In the list you first tick documents or amounts from folders, or invoiced amounts, and then select the function “Bulk document creation”. In the What to invoice report you can also run it on ticked time entries.

In the form you choose the “New document type”. ReFIS offers these types in this order: “Purchase request”, “Issued purchase order”, “Issued proforma invoice”, “Issued tax document for payment”, “Issued invoice” (also as “Issued invoice - also serves as a delivery note”), “Issued delivery note / acceptance protocol” and “Issued reminder notice”. From a document you create the same type or one of the types after it in this order, for example from a purchase request only an issued purchase order, and from an invoice only an invoice, a delivery note or a reminder notice. A type that does not follow on from the selected documents is grayed out, and when you hover the mouse over it, ReFIS explains why. From a contract you create any type except a purchase request. From other documents, for example from received documents or from a quotation, you create only a proforma invoice, an invoice or a delivery note. ReFIS skips issued purchase orders and documents with payments, for example sales receipts and bank statements.

Further restrictions:

• You cannot create a purchase request or a purchase order if the selected amounts include an invoiced amount or a time entry.
• You cannot create a purchase order, proforma invoice, invoice or reminder notice if the amount due is zero, that is, the selected amounts from folders are already fully consumed. You also cannot create a proforma invoice or a reminder notice from amounts that are already paid.
• ReFIS offers a reminder notice only when at least one amount is overdue. A reminder notice is created from invoiced amounts.
• You create an issued tax document for payment only from a paid issued proforma invoice (or several), for which no payment confirmation or settlement invoice exists yet. It takes over the payments of the proforma invoice.

The default type is determined by the customer in the address book on the Invoicing tab - “Send proforma invoices by default instead of invoices” and “By default, send a delivery note before invoicing”. The second setting also moves the delivery note before the proforma invoice in the order. For unpaid overdue amounts ReFIS preselects a reminder notice, and for requested amounts a purchase order.

For each new document you see a row in which you set:

• “Date of issue” - today's date by default, mandatory
• due date - ReFIS calculates it as the later of these dates: the date of issue plus the customer's “Payment term (days)”, or the latest due date of the selected amounts. If the customer has no payment term, the payment term of your company is used. With amounts of several persons it stays empty. For a reminder notice it is the due date of the amount whose due date passed last.
• “Document description” - mandatory; ReFIS prefills it with the descriptions of the selected documents and amounts
• date of supply - ReFIS prefills it according to the rules in the Date of supply section below

You can move amounts between the new documents by dragging them with the mouse, or drag them into the green zone “Add a new document”.

You split the amounts of a new document with the icon with the description “Distribute the amounts based on the documents from which they come”. The icon is shown only when the new document contains amounts from several documents, or amounts from one document together with amounts from time entries. It splits them by source document.

You can also merge amounts with the icon with the description “Merge amounts”. It is shown only if the company has at least one merging method set. In bulk document creation ReFIS supports these methods: “All amounts into one”, “According to the same VAT rates” and “By label groups”. You can merge amounts only when they change to another type on the new document - for example from amounts from folders to invoiced amounts. If the new document only takes over existing amounts, for example an invoice from a proforma invoice or from invoiced amounts, the icon is not shown. If the company has only one merging method, the icon switches it on or off directly. If it has several, the icon opens the window “Merge amounts”, in which you choose the method. ReFIS merges the amounts after the documents are created.

ReFIS takes the payment method, bank account and payment symbols from your latest document or amount from which the new document is created, otherwise it uses the default bank account. If there is exactly one footer template for the document type and the customer's language, ReFIS fills it in.

Below the list of new documents, in the section “Sending documents”, there is the checkbox “Show form to send documents by e-mail, via Peppol or post after creating new documents”. If the company does not have Peppol enabled, Peppol is missing from the checkbox text. It is ticked by default and ReFIS remembers how you set it last time. The document is not sent automatically - after creation, the sending form is shown with the new documents.

You create a document from time entries in the What to invoice report. You can create any type except a purchase request and a purchase order. ReFIS groups the entries by project, entries without a project by person, and by default creates one document for each group. Before the form, ReFIS shows the screen “Set unit prices (hourly rates)” with a list of the entries that will and will not be invoiced. Each group of entries becomes one amount in hours with an hourly rate and the description “Work done for ...” or “Work done on project ...”. ReFIS also attaches the time entry statement to the new document.

Documents are always created in the background. ReFIS shows the progress (“Documents are being generated, please wait.”) and then redirects you:

• to the sending form, if you left the checkbox for sending ticked
• otherwise to the list of documents with the new document highlighted, if one was created
• otherwise to the saved search “Bulk created” with the new documents, if several were created

For an invoice and a proforma invoice, an invoiced amount is created from the amount from the folder and matched with it - that is why the amount from the folder disappears from the What to invoice report. For a purchase order and a delivery note, amounts are created in a folder of the corresponding type, for example in the folder for delivered amounts for a delivery note. If an amount was used only partly, ReFIS uses its remainder the next time. A proforma invoice becomes an invoice with the same amounts - no new amounts are created, so nothing is counted twice.

ReFIS adds the selected documents to the new documents as related.

ReFIS prefills the date of supply as follows:

• if a payment, even a partial one, is already assigned to the selected amounts, for example for an invoice from a paid proforma invoice, it sets the date of supply to the date of the last payment
• otherwise ReFIS determines the fulfillment period from the selected amounts - from the earliest start to the latest end. If you came from a report with a period filter, the period is narrowed to that period. Then:
  • if the start of fulfillment is in the future, it sets the date of supply to the start of fulfillment
  • otherwise, if the end of fulfillment is in the past, it sets the date of supply to the end of fulfillment
  • otherwise (during fulfillment) it sets the date of supply to the date the document is created

If the date determined in this way were more than 25 days before the date the document is created, ReFIS sets the date of supply to the creation date. This is how it is determined for an issued invoice, proforma invoice, purchase order and delivery note. For a purchase order and a delivery note it is also the delivery date.

A reminder notice has a date of supply equal to the date of issue of the amount whose due date passed last. It also takes over the due date from this amount.

You see the function if you have the operation “Bulk document creation” or “Bulk document creation only from approved records”. With the second one, ReFIS uses only approved documents, amounts from them and approved time entries.

• Documents
• Invoices and proforma invoices
• Tax document for payment
• Time entries
• Related documents
• Send documents