Recurring Billing, also known as Fixed-fee Billing, allows you to charge clients fixed fees on a regular schedule for a defined set of services, streamlining invoicing and ensuring consistent revenue streams. Whether you offer monthly consultations, quarterly reviews, or annual maintenance contracts, Recurring Billing automates the invoicing process, saving you time and ensuring accuracy.
In this guide, you'll find everything you need to know about setting up, managing, and optimizing Recurring Billing in Karbon. From creating engagements and adding services to editing billing plans and handling invoicing, each step is designed to help you leverage Karbon's capabilities effectively.
Index
Set up Recurring Billing
Navigate to Billing in the main menu and select Engagements.
Click New Engagement to begin setting up the Billing Plan for a specific client.
Client: Select the client for whom you are setting up Recurring Billing.
Engagement Period: Choose start and end dates for the billing agreement.
Billing Method: Select how invoices should be handled (e.g., Automatically Approve).
Billing Frequency: Specify how often invoices should be generated (e.g., Monthly).
First Invoice Date: Set the date for the first invoice, based on the chosen Billing Frequency.
Adding Services to an Engagement
Once you have an Engagement set up, you can add existing fixed-fee work items to the Engagement.
If it is a repeating work item, represented by circular arrows symbol, it will automatically choose all the work items that have a start date within the range of the Engagement Period you nominated. You can edit this if you like before adding it.
After you have added your services for the engagement, it will automatically calculate the monthly fee to bill based on the number of work items in the period and the fixed fee for each.
From the (...) menu to the right side of a service, you can select View Work and you’ll be redirected to the work item itself or the repeat settings for recurring work. Clicking the client name at the top will take you directly to the contact’s work tab.
Editing a Service
From the options menu (...) next to each service:
Edit Details: Modify service name, description for the invoice, and associated work item range.
Adjust Fees: Edit fixed fees calculated for the service or remove it from the Billing Plan.
Editing the Billing Plan
From the options menu (...) next to the total invoice amount:
Edit Details: Adjust invoice name, description, Billing Method, Billing Frequency, and First Invoice Date. Save changes to update.
Approve the Billing Plan
Initially in Draft status, finalize the Billing Plan by clicking Approve when ready. This activates the plan, and invoices will be generated as scheduled.
Ending an Engagement
From the options menu (...) on the Engagement page, choose End Engagement to stop automatic invoice generation and return unbilled work items.
Voiding invoices for an Ended Engagement
Post-engagement end, void approved invoices chronologically to return associated work items to the Unbilled section.
Deleting a Draft Engagement
From the options menu (...) on the Engagements overview page or within an Engagement, select Delete to remove a draft. Work items return to the Unbilled section for reuse.
Once confirmed, you’ll see work items associated with the draft engagement returned to the Unbilled section of Billing, making them available to be added to other engagements, or to be billed manually.