Collective Invoices in Odoo

Background

We are familiar with the separation of payment conditions and payment method/type as two different kinds of information in shop systems. In other words, the information structure separates the due date of the receivable from the customer’s decision on how to settle it, e.g., by invoice, direct debit, PayPal, credit card, etc.

In a shop, such a separation makes sense since this information directly impacts the checkout process.

Once payment is completed, the checkout process is finalized, and the shopping cart changes to an order. However, if there are problems with the payment, the checkout is still ended, but the confirmed shopping cart is no longer considered an order but an offer that requires a further declaration of intent.

This does not play a direct role within an ERP system (and certainly not in Odoo). The offer is entered into the system by an internal employee. Usually, a customer’s credit, commercial conditions, etc., are checked before a quotation is triggered. Further processing will only start after the customer declares intent. Subsequently, the payment process is initiated, usually with an invoice sent by the accounting department. Here, it is essential that the customer can see on his receipt what further action is expected of him (purchase on account or direct debit), and a sales employee can see within the invoice run what is to be settled related to a specific order and what should be bundled in a collective invoice.

Since Odoo allows free filtering AND grouping as well as flexible combinations of both, there is no need for separating the processes, thus making maintenance much more straightforward.

Creation of payment terms

Let us take a look at a few key points within the creation and configuration of payment terms:

 
It is essential to know that Odoo distinguishes between an “internal“ and “external“ name. The “internal“ name is chosen by the user in the sales department within the customer master and assigned to the quotation/order as the standard payment terms. These are noted on the document for invoice verification and accounting as a payment term and for determining the due date.

The payment terms are ONLY printed on the receipts, unless a different text is assigned to the payment term, thus providing not only the possibility to include more information for the customer such as “direct debit, payment will be collected automatically after 30 days”, but also to integrate additional instructions for the internal user, such as “direct debit, monthly invoice, 30 days net” (if this is too long, you can always use abbreviations).

In this case, the internal user will see that the order does not need to be invoiced directly after delivery, even if Odoo suggests otherwise.

Configuration

Here is an example: Let us create another version by simply duplicating the existing “30 days“. This will generate the same due date and is only named differently for internal use:

 

How to use

Suppose we now convert a customer to collective/monthly invoicing and use it directly. In this case, the result is quickly visible by simply grouping according to payment terms under open orders:

Of course, you may use this immediately by marking all orders within the group and initiating settlement:

This concept can be continued accordingly. You can also use it to create different filters that only select payment terms that include or exclude collective invoices – depending on the chosen process.

Conclusion

Using the described configuration and process steps, both pieces of information may be accommodated in the payment terms without any extension. Basically, this step even simplifies the use of the filters, as it is only necessary to search within one piece of information. Thus the groups support their use.

Of course, it also extends the list of payment terms. However, you should remember that.
a) the list’s scope is only visible when you edit the master data,
b) the terms may be sorted, i.e., the most common ones will be at the top and
c) by using abbreviations in combination with the autocomplete function, the number of conditions is hardly noticeable.

Was this article helpfull information to you? 
Would you mind to leave us a review of your experiences with openfellas?

​​​​​​review openfellas