Sending Invoices Using FTP

Use the Print Invoices window to generate a .csv file encoded with all of your invoice information and send it to your billing service's FTP site. Your billing service then creates professional invoices from the data provided and sends them to your customers. You can generate invoices based on a variety of parameters, including due dates, branches, zip codes, and customer names.

If an order with multiple generations is tagged to send a single invoice, your billing service extends the line item detail, but the total amount is only sent for the first generation. Generations beyond .001 have a total of zero.

Note: You cannot generate an invoice batch while another is running. You can, however, generate a statement batch at the same time, if needed.

To send invoices to your billing service using FTP:

From the Orders > Printing menu, select Print Invoices to display the Print Invoices window.
In the Branch/Territory field, enter the branches or territories whose invoices you want to generate. To send invoices for all branches and territories, enter ALL.

Note: Verify that your selection corresponds to the Selecting Branch field entry.

In the Invoice Select Code field, indicate for which customer group to generate invoices. Customer groups are typically identified by how often you send invoices to them, such as daily, weekly, or monthly.

If you leave this field blank, the system checks the customer level settings for the ship-to customer and then the bill-to customer and then the system level control settings to determine which invoices to print.

Note: Codes are set up in the Valid Invoice Select Codes control maintenance record, and are assigned to customers on the Customer Pricing/Printing screen in Customer Maintenance.

In the Bill-to/Ship-to field, enter one of the following:

Bill-To - Generates invoices for bill-to customers only.
Ship-To - Generates invoices for both bill-to and ship-to customers.

In the Ship Date Cutoff field, enter the last shipment date for which to include invoices. This field accepts variable dates.
In the Batch ID field, enter one of the following:

To generate...	Do this...
only a specific batch of orders	Enter the batch identifier.
all orders	Enter ALL.
a group of batch numbers	Click the Multiple Items button to display the Multiple Batch IDs dialog box. See Entering Multiple Values in Fields for more information.

In the Selecting Branch field, indicate whether to select invoices by shipping or pricing branch.
In the Sort by field, specify whether to sort invoices by:

Zip - Sorts first by ZIP code, then by bill-to account, then by ship-to account, and then by order number.
Name - Sorts first by customer name, then by bill-to account, then by ship-to account, and then by order number.
Bill-To/Ship-To/OrderID - Sorts first by bill-to account, then by ship-to account, and then by order number.

Note: The system default value for this field is set in the Default Invoice/Statement Sort control maintenance record.

In the Send via FTP field, enter Yes.

Note: You can change this field to N to print, fax, or e-mail your own invoices at any time.

The system assigns a batch number to the group of invoices being sent to your billing service.

To change the standard message that prints on all of the invoices, click the Message tab, if needed, to display the Invoice Message field. Enter the information in the space provided.
Do one of the following:

To...	Use this menu option...
send the batch to the FTP site now	File > Print
view the batch before sending it	File > Hold You can then send the batch using the Report > Print menu option from the Report Queue window.
schedule the batch to be sent later	Options > Schedule The Phantom Scheduler dialog box displays. Note: When you schedule the invoice batch, the system does not assign a batch number until it sends the batch. This is to prevent duplicate batch numbers when the batch is set up to be sent on a recurring basis.

More Options for Printing Invoices

The Print Invoice window also offers these options:

To...	Do this...
view a summary report before sending the invoices	From the File menu, select Preview. At the Do you wish to show errors or all invoices to be sent? prompt, to view errors only, enter Errors Only; otherwise, enter Everything. The Report Viewer window displays. If you selected Everything at the prompt, the report lists each invoice's number, ship date, customer name, and order total, along with any error messages.
set up batch faxing of invoices	From the File menu, select Fax Data Setup. The Fax Memo window displays.
view the status of the last invoice batch processed	From the FTP Options menu, select FTP Results. The FTP Results dialog box displays.
resend the batch to the listed FTP address	From the FTP Options menu, select Retransmit. The FTP Batch Re-Transmit dialog box displays. Select the batch to resend and click the Resend button. Note: The system resends only those items that were originally FTPd.
enter additional selection criteria	From the Selection menu, select Select Criteria. The Print Invoices dialog box displays.
clear any selection criteria	From the Selection menu, select Clear Selection.
set up the FTP upload information	Select the FTP Info tab.