Table of contents
Introduction
Using our invoicing module, you can automatically generate concept invoices and specifications in CrewPlanner.
The invoicing module is available for our Classic and Pro clients and can be
activated on the CONFIGURATION page in SETTINGS by selecting YES for the invoicing feature and save.
Once the invoicing module has been activated, you can integrate CrewPlanner with one of our invoicing partners such as Exact Online, Xero or Odoo, or you can use the module without integration. More information on creating these integrations and setting the general settings, like creating and linking your articles, can be found in the respective support articles.
In this article, we will discuss the general functionalities and setting options of the invoicing module and briefly go over the various connections you can make with a possible invoicing partner.
Set general invoicing rules
Read the relevant support articles to set up and link your articles and ledger accounts. Then we can continue by setting up the general invoicing rules.
Under INVOICING in SETTINGS, set the default invoicing rules on the GENERAL tab, this for work hours, travel expenses and calculable rules.
CrewTip! if you move your cursor to the question mark next to the titles, a pop-up will appear where you will find information about how that field works.
Work hours
You can set the following fields as invoicing rules for charging or not charging overtime and premiums.
1. If you are in Belgium, you will find several tabs with a number of Paritaire Comités here. Only the Paritaire Comités you need according to your planning will appear here. In the GENERAL tab you enter your default invoicing rules. If the rules for a particular Paritair Comité differ from the default rules, set them in the tab for this Comité. These will then override the default rules.
2. Day overtime: here you determine whether you charge overtime differently and from how many hours worked, overtime is charged. Using the minimum hours threshold, you specify after how many hours worked on one day overtime should be charged and using the multiplier and value, you specify how much.
Example:
Suppose the hourly rate is €10/hour, 12 hours are performed in a day and we apply a minimum threshold of 10 hours at a fixed rate of 50%. Then the invoice will show the following:
12 x €10 = €120
2x €5 (50%) = €10
Total = €130
3. Week overtime: similar to day overtime, here you determine whether you also charge overtime on a weekly basis (Mon-Sun) and from when. With the minimum hours threshold, you determine after how many hours worked in one week overtime should be charged. How much you charge is set by the multiplier and value.
Example:
Suppose the hourly rate is €10/hour, 50 hours are performed in a week and we apply a minimum threshold of 40 hours at a fixed rate of 50%. Then the invoice will show the following:
50 x €10= €500
10 x €5(50%) = €50
Total = €550
4. Saturday premium: here you determine whether you wish to grant a premium for work on Saturday and for how many hours. Unlike the minimum hours threshold, this logic works in reverse. Here, with the maximum hours threshold, you determine the ceiling over how many hours worked the Saturday premium should be invoiced.
Example:
Suppose the hourly rate is €10/hour, 10 hours are performed on a Saturday and we apply a maximum threshold of 5 hours at a fixed rate of 100%. Then the invoice will show the following:
10 x €10 = €100
5 x €10(100%) = €50
Total = €150
5. Sunday premium: as with the Saturday premium, you determine here whether you want to grant a Sunday premium and for how many hours. You use the maximum hours threshold to determine the ceiling for how many hours worked the Sunday premium should be charged and for how much.
Example:
Suppose the hourly rate is €10/hour, 10 hours are performed on a Sunday and we apply a maximum threshold of 5 hours at a fixed rate of 150%. Then the invoice will show the following:
10 x €10= €100
5 x €15(150%) = €75
Total = €175
6. Holiday premium: you can also allocate a premium for hours worked on a public holiday. Here you use the maximum hours threshold again to determine the ceiling for how many hours worked holiday premium should be charged and for how much.
Example:
Suppose the hourly rate is €10/hour, 10 hours are performed on a public holiday and we apply a maximum threshold of 5 hours at a fixed rate of 50%. Then the invoice will show the following:
10 x €10= €100
5 x €5(50%) = €25
Total = €125
7. Night hours premium: finally, here you can set whether you wish to charge a night premium. You determine between which hours the night premium should be applied and for how much.
Example:
Suppose the hourly rate is €10/hour, 10 hours are performed from 17:00 in the evening to 03:00 in the morning and we apply 22:00-06:00 as night premium at a fixed rate of 50%. Then the invoice will show the following:
10 x €10= €100
5(22:00-03:00) x €5(50%) = €25
Total = €125
Invoice example in CrewPlanner with day overtime
Travel expenses
There are 4 standard options that allow you to charge travel expenses. This is always calculated from employee address to project address.
1. Per Kilometre/Mile: here you can set a minimum kilometre/mile cost to one of your linked items of transport. Here the rule applies that if a minimum amount is set, it will be charged if the actual kilometre/mile cost is lower.
Here you enter a minimum amount to be charged. In this example, €5 will always be charged unless the calculated amount of kilometres driven is greater than €5. So for example 55 kilometres at 0.15 = €8.25.
Here you select the item from your accounting programme
Here you enter the value to which the rule based on distance should be calculated.
2. Per Person: here you select the article to be charged per working person on the invoice.
Here you select the article from your accounting program
Here you enter the value to which the rule based on persons should be calculated.
Example: you charge a flat rate of €20 travel expenses per employee.
3. Per Car: here you select the item to be charged per car on the invoice. Here we assume that there are a maximum of 5 people in a car and that these employees all start at the same time. If more than 5 persons were employed on a project, or employees started at a different time, multiple cars will be charged.
Here you select the article from your accounting programme
Here you enter the value to which the rule per car should be calculated. Examples:
If only 4 people were employed, all starting at the same time, €25 will be charged.
If the shifts of 7 employees started at 9 am and of 3 employees at 10 am, €75 is charged for 3 cars.
4. Per employee based on distance: if you use kilometre/mile charges based on minimum distance driven. For example, you can use this if you charge a standard amount in tranches (10, 20, 30 km) of distance.
Enter the minimum distance to be travelled by the employee
Here, select the article from your accounting programme
Here you enter the value to which the line should be calculated based on distance travelled in tranches
Example: 1 employee travels 5KM to a project, 1 employee 12KM and a final one 25KM. Consequently, €5 + €10 + €15 = €30 is charged.
General
The INVOICE EXTERNAL AGENCIES functionality allows you to include or exclude the costs of employees you have employed on your project via an external request.
Calculable rules
Here you set invoice rules you wish to invoice according to the multiplier you have chosen.
You give the calculable rule a good recognisable description.
Via the multiplier, you select on what basis you want to charge a calculable rule, for example per shift or per hour.
You can link an article to your calculable rule for processing it in your accounting records.
To determine the price of this rule, enter an amount here.
If you wish, you can use our coefficient calculation where a coefficient is charged on the cost price.
Example: You pay your employees a clothing allowance, but you charge this cost times the coefficient 1.20 for this on the invoice to your customer.
CrewTip: If you work with our service partner Offix, you use calculable rules to invoice your declarations. These rules are only applied if the employee was actually paid this item via Offix. However, if you also have employees whose wages are not settled via Offix , but you would like certain items to be invoiced for them too, you use the generally applicable calculable rules here, with for example the multiplier ‘per shift’. Once set, you activate these rule(s) per company via the tab FACTURATION in the company file.
These were the steps to take regarding your default settings. In the following sections, we look at how you can set up invoicing rules for shift functions and companies, which take precedence over the default settings.
Set invoicing rules for a company
You will notice that after activating the invoicing module, you now have an additional tab INVOICING in the company sheet.
In this tab, you can set different invoicing rules for a company, these always take precedence over the general invoicing rules. More on this in a moment.
You start by setting the price calculation, how the hours worked should be charged. This in the PRICE CALCULATION field:
You have two options to calculate the price for invoicing:
Defined fixed-price per hour: Based on the set invoicing price per hour, the invoicing rules are generated.
Wage with coefficient: The wage according to the wage rules settings is charged with a coefficient set by you.
After this, you can set different invoicing rules for a company.
DEFAULT: If you select this, the default setting for the invoicing rule is maintained, unless exceeded by a shift function rule set to YES or NO.
NO: If you select no for one of the rules, no invoicing rule will be applied for this company. Unless you have set a different invoicing rule in your shift function settings.
YES: If you select yes, you will have to set the deviation of the rule in the same way as discussed earlier. This rule will then take precedence over standard and Paritair Comité invoicing rules but not over any shift function invoicing rules.
You can also set per company whether or not you want the cost of an external query to be charged to the invoice.
Set invoicing rules for a shift function
You navigate via SETTINGS to SHIFT FUNCTIONS and here you select a shift function to edit or this is where you can add new shift functions. After activating the invoicing module, you will now find the extra tab INVOICING here. Here you can set the invoicing rules of the shift function.
As with general and company invoicing rules, you also have the option to set rules here.
The shift function invoicing settings largely determine which invoicing rules are used.
DEFAULT: This maintains all default invoicing settings, i.e. which ones you have set at the general level as just discussed. Unless other invoicing settings have been set for a particular company, which are retained in this case.
NO: If you select no for any of the rules, no invoicing rule will be applied here, including those from the default or company settings, and this will not be billed.
YES: If you select yes, you will have to set the deviation in the same way as discussed earlier. These settings always take precedence over both the default and deviating company invoicing settings.
This field allows you to select whether you will set invoicing rules by default or for a specific Paritair Comité.
In this field, you are required to select an article from your invoicing partner for this shift function, created by yourself or from your invoicing partner.
In these fields you define the rules for the work hours.
In these fields you define the rules for travel expenses
Here you determine per shift function whether or not you wish to add the cost of an external request to the invoice
Invoicing rule logic
In previous chapters we have indicated where you can set up invoicing rules, but how do these rules work together and what logic is applied?
We list this again for you:
First, CrewPlanner will check if a price for a venue shift function is present or a different hourly price for a shift function, entered in the FINANCE tab of the venue file, will apply to invoicing.
Then if present, the price of a company shift function or a different hourly price on a general shift function, entered in the FINANCE tab in the company file, will apply to invoicing.
Next, CrewPlanner will check which invoicing rules were set for the general shift functions and apply these.
Then we will check which invoicing rules have been set in the INVOICING tab in the company file.
If none of the above settings apply, the general invoicing rules apply as set up on the INVOICING page in SETTINGS, but first we check whether different rules have been set for a specific paritair comité.
Finally, the general invoicing rules apply if no other settings are present.
Ensure a successful integration
As mentioned earlier, you can use the invoicing module to establish an integration with an invoicing partner to create and send your invoices.. For this integration to work properly, correct connections and settings of the various components in CrewPlanner are crucial.
After your account manager has activated the link with your invoicing partner, you will find it in the INTEGRATIONS tab in SETTINGS from the menu bar. Here, in consultation with your invoicing partner, you can fine-tune your general settings.
Connect companies
Once your link is active, you have an extra tab in the company sheet with the name of your invoicing partner. This shows the company from your invoicing partner's database to which this company in CrewPlanner is linked.
Depending on your invoicing partner, the information found in this tab may be different. But for all partners, this is where CrewPlanner will automatically link this company with the first company with the same VAT number from your invoicing partner's database, allowing information to be exchanged correctly.
However, you can also perform or change this link manually by selecting from the dropdown menu at the top the desired company followed by SAVE.
For example, if you want to link your company in CrewPlanner with another office of the corresponding company from your invoicing partner's database.
If you have a link with Exact Online, you will be asked for additional information in this tab, more information can be found in this article.
The other tabs INVOICES and INVOICING will be addressed later in this article.
Connect articles
To set up the remaining invoicing rules as accurately as possible, we move on to connecting your articles. This is because it is important that you set up these basics properly to make the best use of them in CrewPlanner.
Via the INVOICING page you now have available under SETTINGS, select the last tab ARTICLES.
The articles you wish to use from your invoicing partner's system can be divided into 4 types by adding a piece of text to the code. These types are Work Hours, Transportation, Miscellaneous and Calculable rules.
Each type has its own names that you can add to the code. You then place the pink text in front of the code name in Xero followed by a “-” and then your name.
Here are a few examples:
WH-clerk
TR-car
MISC-rent walkie-talkie
You will find more information on connecting your articles in our invoicing partner support articles, but if you are not quite comfortable setting up your articles in your invoicing partner's system, we recommend you ask your accountant for help or advice on how to properly perform the next steps in your invoicing system.
CrewTip! you can also take advantage of our extra paid service, if necessary, where our Exact Online expert will set this up for you completely in consultation with your accountant.
You have the flexibility to make the use of articles as comprehensive as you wish. It all depends on how you want to see this information in your analytical accounts.
After you have set everything up, you must synchronize CrewPlanner to your invoicing partner. By default, this happens once every 24 hours as standard. But you can also SYNC MANUALLY, this can be found at the top of CrewPlanner's ARTICLES page.
Connect Exact online ledger accounts with CrewPlanner
Only if you have an integration with Exact Online, you have the option to link your general ledger accounts to your work hours and travel expenses per department, if you use this in CrewPlanner. You can find more information in this article.
Invoice from CrewPlanner
To create an invoice in CrewPlanner, you must first complete the time registration via the TIME REGISTRATION page in ADMINISTRATION.
CrewTip! The icons that appear next to the projects in AGENDA show for which projects you can create a concept invoice in CrewPlanner.
Once you have processed these performances, CrewPlanner will automatically create a concept invoice for your project. This can be found in the INVOICING tab of the project that you have available after activating the invoicing module.
CrewTip! please note that you can choose to exclude certain departments from invoicing, meaning they will not appear on the invoice. More information can be found here.
CrewTip! This tip is obvious, but the more carefully all invoicing rules and their application are set up, the more time you will save when creating your invoices.
Consult invoicing
Before you create a concept invoice in CrewPlanner, you can edit paragraphs or add various costs at this stage. Therefore, it is important that you understand how to consult this page.
In sections 1, 2 and 3, you will find work hours, transport costs and miscellaneous costs. These are the types into which you can divide the articles, as discussed earlier.
Work hours: this is where employees' performance is displayed. As you will notice, you cannot change anything here. If you still need to, make the necessary changes in the previous tab TIME REGISTRATION.
Transportation costs: these are the number of employees and the total distance in kilometres. The distance is counted from door to door, from the employee's address to the project address as entered in CrewPlanner. Or if you have set an address at department level, this replaces the employee address.
Miscellaneous costs: select the item to be added to the invoice as miscellaneous cost here.
Invoicing reference/purchase order: if applicable, you can add a unique reference here that will appear on the invoice.
Description: this is determined by what you entered in the article description field with your invoicing partner.
Quantity: refers to the number of working hours to be invoiced.
Price: this is determined by your hourly rate per shift function.
Discount: if applicable, you can offer a discount per line.
Subtotal: total amount to be invoiced from this invoice paragraph.
Regenerate: here you have the option to regenerate the invoice lines. Note that when you regenerate this page, all changed or added invoice lines are deleted. Therefore, a pop-up will appear asking if you wish to continue.
Invoiced manually: if you have not created an invoice via CrewPlanner and sent it via your invoicing partner, you have the option here to mark this project as invoiced nonetheless. This prevents duplicate invoices from being created.
After you select INVOICED MANUALLY, a pop up will appear asking you to confirm this choice, your invoice will then be marked as invoiced manually.
However, you will still have the option to generate the invoice again, which can be useful if you have modified certain invoice rules.
Save: this simply saves your changes.
Add to invoice: this takes you to the invoice page, here you can then create the concept invoice.
Create a concept invoice
As just mentioned, select ADD TO INVOICE to create the concept in CrewPlanner. If this client has several projects ready to be invoiced, you will first be asked which projects should appear on the invoice.
In this example, there are a number of completed projects for the customer, we only selected Saturday 5 November as you can see.
Once your selection is complete, use CREATE INVOICE to create your concept invoice in CrewPlanner.
You can still make amendments before we send this concept to your invoicing partner. You consult this page as follows:
Consult the status of the invoice here.
Company: the name of your customer.
Description: by default, this will show the name of the project or the number of projects invoiced. However, this is a free field where you can add your own description to the invoice.
Reference/PO number: in this additional free field, you can add a reference if required.
Invoice date: the day the invoice is created is specified here.
Project selection: via this handy button, you can still change the projects included in your invoice at this stage. The pop-up allows you to add or remove additional completed projects.
Project summary and total amount per project
Project summary and total amount per project
Total amount of all projects and the invoice
Delete invoice: delete the concept invoice in CrewPlanner
Download specification: a new tab opens in your browser with a pdf of the invoice specification, which you can download or print. This gives you an overview of which employees have performed the hours that are charged.
Save: If you have made changes to the concept, you should always save it before going to another page.
Process or Send to your invoicing partner: Once all the data are in order, you process or send your concept to your invoicing partner.
At the bottom, you will see a timestamp of who created the concept and when.
Once you have selected SEND TO NAME OF INVOICING PARTNER at the bottom of the page, a green bar will appear at the top of the page informing you that the concept invoice has been sent correctly. In addition, you will notice some extra fields with no content, such as invoice number, invoice date and due date. These will only be filled in automatically after the invoice has been created. The status at the top has also been changed to Concept in Invoicing partner.
You also have three new possible actions at the bottom of the page: SEND TO CUSTOMER, OPEN IN FACTURATION PARTNER and finally CREATE CREDIT INVOICE. More on this in a moment.
Create an invoice
Via two of the three new actions you have just been introduced to, you can create an invoice from within CrewPlanner with your invoicing partner.
You can do this directly from CrewPlanner via SEND TO CUSTOMER. The invoice will then be created with your invoicing partner and immediately sent to the customer's e-mail address that was entered in the company file.
After you have sent the invoice to the customer, you will again see a green bar at the top stating that the invoice has been sent correctly to the customer. Meanwhile, the additional fields have been completed and the status on the right-hand side has changed to the payment status of this invoice, being Open.
CrewTip! The payment status is read from your invoicing partner's environment. You can synchronise it manually on the general INVOICING page in ADMINISTRATION.
The second possibility to create an invoice via CrewPlanner is via OPEN IN INVOICING PARTNER. You will then be taken directly to the invoice in your invoicing partner environment, where you can now create the invoice and send it to the client.
Create a credit invoice
To create a credit invoice for an invoice, select CREATE CREDIT INVOICE at the bottom of the page. You will then be taken directly to the invoice with your invoicing partner, where you create the credit invoice.
Consult invoices
As mentioned earlier, you can consult your concept invoice for a project via the FACTURATION tab in a project, but you have two additional places where you can find an overview of invoices; on the invoicing page and in the company sheet.
The INVOICING page in ADMINISTRATION gives you an overview of all invoices in CrewPlanner.
You will note that we can divide this page into 4 parts:
Actions
Invoice overview
Search function
Filters
Actions
On the invoicing page, you can take a few more convenient actions:
Create invoice: this allows you to create an invoice from this page. If you select this, you will be asked to choose the company you wish to create the invoice for. The dropdown menu displays all companies for which you can create concept invoices, as well as the number of projects. After this, you will be taken to the familiar screen, where you add the necessary projects to your invoice and, after selecting CREATE INVOICE, you will create a concept invoice, as discussed earlier.
Ready to invoice: using this handy feature, you will be directed to the AGENDA page, where Ready to invoice has automatically been ticked in the filter Status. Note that you adjust the period displayed via the agenda.
Sync manually: as mentioned earlier, here you have the option to manually sync the status of your invoices in CrewPlanner with those of your invoicing partner. Otherwise, the status of your invoices will be automatically synchronised once every 24 hours.
Invoice overview
This overview displays invoices according to the filters you selected.
What information is displayed:
Company: the name of the customer for whom the invoice was generated.
Description: here the name of the project or number of projects is displayed from the invoice, unless you have changed this description.
Invoice number: after an invoice is sent to the customer, it is given an invoice number.
Invoice date: the date the invoice was created.
Due date: the due date of the invoice.
Total excl. VAT: the total amount of the invoice without VAT.
Status: the status of the invoice's creation or payment.
Edit concept invoice: use the pencil icon to open the concept invoice in CrewPlanner and make changes.
Consult invoice: as soon as a concept has been created at the invoicing partner, you can consult it using the eye icon.
Download pdf: once the invoice has been made and sent, you can open a pdf document of it.
Search function
Using the search function, you can quickly look up a particular invoice by, for example, entering the invoice number or company and selecting the magnifying glass icon.
Filters
Select the funnel icon to the right of the search function to hide or show the filters.
On this page, you also have 4 filter options:
Status: this allows you to display only these invoices in the overview with a certain status.
Date range: with this filter you only display these invoices within a chosen period. You have the usual options for this filter or select a period yourself.
Companies: as you can imagine, here you can select one or more companies for which you want to display the invoices by ticking them.
Has total amount difference (only when integrated with an invoicing partner): as a result of subsequent changes, the total of an invoice in Crewplanner may no longer match the invoiced amount. Using this selection field, you can quickly locate these invoices.
In the company file, however, you now also have the INVOICES tab, giving you a quick overview of all invoices for that company.
Here you will find the same information in the invoice overview as on the general invoices page and you can also edit concept invoices in CrewPlanner, view invoices or open a pdf file.
At the top of the page, you also find SYNC MANUALLY to synchronise your invoice statuses.
We hope this article has helped you!
If you still have questions, take a look at our Crew Academy first. You might find the answer in one of our articles.