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Invoice a completed tow call

Turn a completed call into one invoice from its stored quote, with the right customer, due date and tax, and see why a call can only be invoiced once.

For
Service advisorOwnerAdministrator
Hosting
Any hosting
Devices
All devices
Business
Towing

Checked against Pop Dispatch 0.1.0

One action turns a completed call into an invoice. You will be able to bill a call at the price it was quoted, send it to the right customer and be sure it is billed once.

Before you start #

  • The call has the status Completed.
  • You need the advisor, manager or owner role, because invoices belong to the money group.
  • A quote is stored on the call. A call with none is priced from the rate book at this moment.

Steps #

  1. Send POST /tow/calls/:id/invoice. Add due_in_days to choose the due date, notes for a line of text on the invoice, and include_storage set to true to bill storage that has built up for the call's vehicle.
  2. The answer gives the new invoice's id, number, customer, total and lines. The lines are the quote's lines, such as hook-up, mileage and surcharges.
  3. Open the invoice to take payment or print it.

Who is billed: the call's own customer when it has one, else the customer record behind the call's account (made the first time it is needed), else a new customer made from the caller's name and phone.

The due date follows the account's terms when they name a number of days, such as Net 30, and falls on the day of invoicing otherwise. due_in_days overrides both.

Tax comes from your tax rates and the defaults you set for each kind of line. Towing lines, fees and storage lines each take their own default.

Technical details
  • A call is invoiced once. While its first invoice stands, a second request answers with a conflict that names the invoice. A voided invoice frees the call to be invoiced again.
  • A quote typed over the rate book becomes one line for the typed amount, with the reason in its text.
  • The call, the stored quote and the invoice point at each other, and the invoice's source is the tow call.
  • The invoice carries the call number and any purchase order in its notes.
  • With include_storage, the chargeable days not yet billed on the call's yard record go on the invoice and are marked as billed, so a later yard invoice does not charge them again.
  • Invoicing queues the invoice.issued event for webhooks and adds the audit entry "invoiced a tow call".

On the web console #

  1. Open the completed call. Owners, managers and advisors see Invoice this call under the Quote.
  2. Tick the storage box to add storage already owed for the vehicle in the yard, enter Due in days if the account terms should not apply, and add notes.
  3. Choose Invoice this call. The page shows the invoice number and total with a link to it.

If something goes wrong #

  • "Complete the call before invoicing it": finish the call first.
  • "This call already has invoice INV-...": open that invoice. A call is billed once while that invoice stands.
  • "There is nothing to bill on this call": price the call from the rate book, or type a quote with a reason.
  • "No rate book version is in force on that date": add a rate book version (see "Set up your tow rate book").