Barrierline

Bill finished visits and record what customers pay

For the office

Billing turns finished visits into invoices and keeps track of what customers pay. Barrierline does not take card payments or text invoices. You can print an invoice or email it (see below), and Card only records that the customer paid by card.

Price the visit

A visit gets its price from its plan (Price per visit) or when it is booked (Price: 0 for no charge, empty to price it later). If it has none, open Billing and type the price on Ready to bill, then click Save or No charge. A visit at no charge is left off the list and never billed.

Make invoices

  1. Open Billing, then Ready to bill.
  2. Only finished visits are listed. Customers with a priced visit start ticked. Untick anyone you want to leave out. A customer with no priced visit cannot be ticked.
  3. Set the Invoice date.
  4. Click Make N invoices. It asks once, with the day on the invoices: click Make them (or Make it, when it is one invoice) to go on, or Cancel. You get one invoice per customer, with a line per visit.

If plan charges are waiting, a line under the figures says how many and how much (“3 plan charges ($258) are on Plan charges”), with a link. Plan charges says the same about the finished visits on Ready to bill, so neither list hides the other.

On one customer’s page, Money has Bill now for just their finished visits that have a price.

Plan charges: a plan that bills a flat amount

A plan can bill a flat amount for each period (a month, three months, a year) instead of a price for each visit. Setting a plan up that way is not on a screen yet, so this tab stays empty until a plan bills that way. When one does, each period’s charge shows up under Billing, Plan charges, by customer: the service, the days it covers, the amount, how many visits are booked in those days, and what the customer owes now.

  1. Tick the charges to bill, set the Invoice date and click Make N invoices. A customer gets one invoice, with the visits and the charges together. The charge’s line says the days it covers, like Oct 1 to Dec 31.
  2. To leave a charge out, click Skip and pick why: Pays at the visit, Billed by hand, Credit for earlier, Plan paused or Other. A charge that says its visits were already billed opens on Billed by hand; the others open on Pays at the visit. A charge with no visit booked in its period starts unticked: tick it yourself if it should bill. It stays under Skipped with the reason, and the plan’s visits do not go back to Ready to bill. Put back puts it on the list again.
  3. To bill a different amount, click Change amount and say why. It shows “changed from” the plan’s amount.

A plan that bills by the period does not also bill its visits: they leave Ready to bill from the day plan billing starts, unless a visit has a price of its own (an add-on you priced on that visit). If the days of a charge already have visits billed at the plan’s price, the charge is held and its row says what to do, like “Skip it: this visit was already billed at $89.” Skip it unless part of the plan’s price is still owed, in which case change its amount. Either way a customer is not billed twice. A plan charge is not taxed. Voiding the invoice puts the charge back on the list.

Bill something that is not a visit

On the customer’s page, click New invoice under Money. Fill in each line (what it is for, Qty, Price each), click Another line for more (up to 30), then click Make the invoice. Each line is a Service, a Fee (a trip fee, say) or a Discount.

Take money off an invoice: a discount

A discount is a line with a minus amount and a reason. On New invoice, pick Discount as the line’s kind, type how much comes off in Amount off each, and say why. Or use Discount on the whole invoice: pick Dollars or Percent, type it, and say why. A percent is of the services and fees on the invoice. On Ready to bill, click Add a discount under a customer’s name to do the same for the invoice you are about to make.

The invoice shows each discount with its reason, and the total is what the customer owes after it. An invoice can’t go below zero. A discount can only be added while the invoice is made. To take money off one that is already made, give a credit.

Give a credit

A credit is money you give back on what a customer owes, with its own number and a reason. Open Billing, then Credits, and fill in Give a credit. You can also click Give a credit on the customer’s page (under Money) or on an invoice.

  1. Pick the customer, type the Amount, and say Why.
  2. Under Put it on, leave Oldest first, or pick the invoice it is for. Pick invoices lets you split it. It can’t go on an invoice for more than the invoice owes.
  3. Click Give the credit.

A credit lowers what the customer owes right away. If it is more than they owe, they have a credit, and the next invoice uses it. To put a credit on an invoice later, open Credits, click the three-dot button on its row and choose Put it on an invoice. On an invoice’s page, Credits on this invoice lists them, and Take it off (with why) sends one back to the usual order. On the printed invoice and the emailed one, credits show on their own Credits line, apart from Paid, whether you put one on that invoice or left it to the usual order.

To undo a credit, click the three-dot button on its row, choose Void this credit, and type why. It stays on file, marked void. A credit does not give money back. To record money you gave back, see Record a refund below.

Who may give a credit or a discount. The owner picks, in Settings, Invoices: Only the owner can give a credit or a discount is ticked to begin with. Office staff then see a short note, Ask the owner for a credit or a discount, where the owner would add one (Ready to bill, New invoice, an invoice, a customer’s page, and the Credits tab) and no button. Making and printing a plain invoice is still the office’s job.

Record a payment

  1. Open Billing, then Payments, and find Record a payment. You can also click Record a payment on the customer’s page (under Money) or on an invoice.
  2. Pick the customer, type the Amount and the date Received.
  3. Under How they paid, pick Card, Check, Cash, Bank transfer or Other. All five always show, on a second line when the form is narrow, on Billing and on a customer’s page alike. For a check, type the Check no. For a card, you can type its last 4. When you press Record payment on a customer’s page or an invoice, the form comes up on your screen with the cursor in Amount, even on a phone-sized window.
  4. Under Put it on, leave Oldest first as it is (it says Goes to the oldest unpaid invoice first.), or pick the invoice it pays (see below).
  5. Click Record payment.

Unless you say otherwise, a payment goes to the balance brought over from your old system first, then the oldest invoice. Every payment says which invoice it paid: its row in Payments and on the customer’s page reads Paid invoice 1528 (the usual way; with several invoices it says oldest first) or Put on invoice 5002 (you chose it), and an invoice that is only part paid reads “Part paid, $1,325 left”, so the balances on a customer’s invoices add up to what they owe.

Put a payment on a chosen invoice

A customer sometimes pays one invoice ahead of an older one. Under Put it on:

  • Oldest first is the usual way, and it is the one that is ticked to begin with.
  • Pick invoices lists what the customer still owes, oldest first. Tick each invoice the payment is for and type how much goes on it. A line under the list says Left over when you put less than the whole payment on invoices. That part goes the usual way, oldest first.
  • On an invoice’s own page, Record a payment puts the payment on that invoice to begin with. If the payment is more than the invoice owes, the invoice takes what it owes and the rest goes the usual way.

You can’t put more on an invoice than it owes, or more than the payment, and you can’t put a payment on an invoice that is void or paid already. It has to be an invoice of the same customer.

The invoice’s page has What happened too, day by day: made, each email, each payment, credit and refund, and the day it went late. Inside one day, a line that has a time goes in time order, so an email kept at 1:47 PM sits below a payment recorded at 11 AM when the payment has a time. A payment that shows no time sits after that day’s emails, and so does one recorded later for an earlier day.

The invoice’s page shows Payments on this invoice: every payment that paid it, with its day, how it was paid and the amount (like Oct 14, check no. 4471, $175.00), whether you put it on that invoice or it went to the oldest invoice first. Click Take it off (and type why) on one you put there to send it back to the usual order. Money that came from a credit brought over from your old system has no payment to name, so the page says so. The invoice and the payment stay on file either way. If you void the invoice, what was put on it goes back to the usual order, and if you void the payment, what it paid on the invoice is gone and the invoice reads whatever the other payments leave it.

If you left a payment on Oldest first and later want it on a particular invoice, open Billing, Payments, click the three-dot button on its row and choose Put it on an invoice. A payment row says which invoices it was put on and how much was not put on any.

What the customer owes does not change when you choose an invoice. Only which invoice reads Paid and which reads late.

Record a refund

A refund is money you gave back to the customer yourself, from your card machine, by check or in cash. Barrierline does not send it and does not email the customer. It only records that you did.

  1. Open Billing, then Payments. Click the three-dot button on the payment and choose Record a refund. You can give back all of the payment or part of it.
  2. Type the Amount, the day you gave it back, and how (Card, Check, Cash, Bank transfer or Other). For a check, type the check no.
  3. Say Why. This is required, and it is kept with the refund.
  4. Click Record the refund. The page says which invoices owe more now.

The customer owes that much more, or has that much less credit. How much of an invoice a refund undoes depends on how the payment was recorded. A payment you put on chosen invoices (Pick invoices) takes its refund off those invoices, the one put on last first. A payment recorded the usual way, Oldest first, was paying the customer’s oldest invoices, so a refund of it makes the oldest invoice owe again. Only money the customer paid beyond everything they owed (a credit) can be given back without any invoice owing again. An invoice that loses money reads Part paid or Not paid again, and counts days late again. If you gave the money back because the work was not done, void that invoice or give a credit, so the customer is not left owing it. A payment can be refunded in parts, but never for more than it holds, and not once it is void. A payment that has a refund on it cannot be voided until you void the refund.

The payment’s row in Payments says what was given back, when, by whom and why. Payments also lists the refunds for the dates picked, with a Refunds file (CSV). A customer’s page lists theirs under Money, and an invoice’s page lists a refund that took money off a payment you put on that invoice. A refund that made an invoice owe again by the usual order shows there as the invoice reading Part paid or Not paid. To undo one, click Void on its row in the list and type why. It stays on file, marked void, and the payment and its invoices read as they did before. A refund is never deleted.

The Payments file (CSV) does not have refunds in it. We looked in Intuit’s own help and found nothing that says how QuickBooks Online imports a refund, so enter refunds in QuickBooks by hand from the Refunds file. Billing, Money log has a line for each refund recorded or voided. No receipt is emailed for a refund. A payment that has a refund on it has no Email a receipt button, and Barrierline refuses one if asked, because a receipt would not match what the payment now pays. Void the refund and you can email it again.

Email an invoice or a receipt

An invoice or a receipt goes out as your company name followed by “via Barrierline”, and replies reach the address you confirmed in Settings, Email. It goes only to a customer whose email address you have marked OK, and never to one who asked to stop. If email is not switched on yet, the owner turns it on in Settings, Email first.

  1. Open the invoice and find Email this invoice. If it can’t go, the reason is written there: email is not turned on, the customer has no email address, has not said yes to email yet, said no, or asked to stop.
  2. Click Email it (on a paid invoice the button reads Email a copy). It asks once, and says who it goes to, who it is from and where replies go. Then click Send it. The invoice goes as you print it: the lines, the total, what was paid and what is left on that invoice, and your note. There is no PDF attached and no payment link.
  3. The invoice then says how it went: Waiting, Sent, Kept (see below), Not delivered or Stopped. To send the same invoice again, click Email it again (or Email a copy on a paid one). That is a second email, marked again, 2.
  4. For a receipt, tick Email a receipt under Record a payment, or click the three-dot button on a payment in Payments and choose Email a receipt. The box says The receipt lists the invoices it paid. A receipt names the amount, how it was paid and the invoices it was put on. If you did not put the payment on a particular invoice, it says “Put on: no particular invoice” (and for a part, how much was not put on one). It does not say what else the customer owes. If you void an invoice or a payment while its email is still waiting, the email is not sent.
  5. After Make N invoices you can click Email these N invoices. Customers who can’t get one are listed with the reason.

Billing, Sent mail lists everything emailed, newest first, who sent it and how it went. Send it again is there for one that was not delivered.

Until our mail service is connected, an email is kept and not delivered, and the page says so. In the demo nothing is ever sent: the email is kept in Settings, Email, under Mail the app would send, and View the email shows it.

Sales tax

Sales tax is off to begin with, and there is no rate in Barrierline. We have not checked how Arizona taxes pest control, so ask your accountant first: whether your services are taxed, at what rate where you work, and whether a discount comes off before the tax or after.

If you collect it, the owner opens Settings, Invoices, Sales tax, and:

  1. Clicks Add a rate and types the name and the percent your accountant gave you, like 8.1. You can add more than one rate.
  2. Picks when a discount is given: before the tax is worked out, or after. Barrierline does not pick for you.
  3. Ticks Add sales tax to invoices and clicks Save.

New invoices then end with one Sales tax line, worked out once for the whole invoice on the lines that are taxed and rounded to the cent (a half cent goes up). It is not rounded line by line, so ask your accountant if they want that. On New invoice, each line has a Taxable tick. Visits billed from Ready to bill are taxed unless the owner unticks Tax the visits I bill from Ready to bill.

A customer who pays no sales tax: on their page, click Change beside Sales tax, tick Tax exempt, and type the certificate number. The same place can give a customer a rate of their own. Invoices already made keep the tax they were made with, even after you change a rate or turn sales tax off. A credit or a refund does not change the tax on an invoice. Ask your accountant how to treat the tax on those.

The printed invoice, the emailed one, Who owes and the month’s money all count the tax. Sales tax billed shows what was billed in the month: a number to hand your accountant, not a tax return. If your QuickBooks has sales tax turned on, ask your accountant before you import invoices that have a tax line. QuickBooks Online will not import them that way.

See who owes

Who owes groups customers by how late they are, worst first. Each customer has two figures: Late, what is past its due day, and Owes in all, which also counts what is not due yet. A group says how much of its customers’ money is late (“31 to 60 days late, 24 customers, $4,247 late”). The line under the headline cuts the same late money the same way, so “31 to 60 days $4,247” is that group and the lines add up to the headline, for example “Late: $4,850 from 23 customers”. The Late column at the foot is that number too. Sort by either figure. Click Only the late ones to narrow it. Download (CSV) saves the list, with both figures.

Void, print, export

  • On an invoice, click More, then Void this invoice, type why, click Void it. It stays on file, and its visits can be billed again. To void a payment, click the three-dot button on its row in Payments, choose Void this payment, and type why (a payment with a refund on it waits until the refund is voided). A voided invoice or payment says who voided it and on what day. One voided before Barrierline kept that says so instead.
  • On an invoice, Print or save as PDF.
  • Invoices shows two figures over the list that are easy to read as a gap: Original total of these invoices (what they were made for, with how many) and Not paid (left to collect) (what is still owed on them, after part payments). The first is more than the second when some of them are paid or part paid.
  • Invoices, QuickBooks file downloads the invoices you issued in the dates picked under Issued (this month when it says All time), for QuickBooks Online (Settings, Import data, Invoices). QuickBooks takes at most 100 invoices and 1,000 rows in one file (Intuit’s own limits), so when the dates hold more, Barrierline saves several files named part1-of-3 and so on, and says so under the buttons. Check that all of them saved, and if your browser asks to allow several downloads, say yes. Import them one after the other. An invoice is never cut across two files. QuickBooks can’t import a discount or a credit (it calls them credit memos), so this file shows each invoice before its discount. Discounts and credits saves a second file of them, for the same dates, to enter in QuickBooks by hand.
  • Payments, Payments file (CSV) saves the payments for the dates picked under Received. Refunds are not in it (see Record a refund).

Money log

Billing, Money log lists every invoice made or voided, every payment recorded or voided, put on an invoice or taken off one, every credit given, voided, put on an invoice or taken off one, and every refund recorded or voided: who did it, when, how much, and why for a void or a take-off. Use the buttons to see one kind of line, or find one customer. Nobody in your office can change or delete a line. It is removed only when your company’s account is closed and its 90 days end. The log starts the day it was added, so invoices and payments from before that are not in it.

Invoice settings

Only the owner can change Settings, Invoices (office staff can see it): Due, Next invoice no., Bill visits finished from (earlier visits never show as ready) and On every invoice, a note printed on each one. Invoices already made keep their old settings.

Three boxes say who may void, refund and give credits. Only the owner can give a credit or a discount is ticked to begin with. Only the owner can void is off to begin with. When it is ticked, office staff see the Void buttons greyed out, with a note to ask the owner. Only the owner can record or void a refund is ticked to begin with. When it is ticked, office staff see a note to ask the owner and no Record a refund button.

Good to know

  • A billed visit’s price cannot change until you void its invoice.

Still stuck? Email help@barrierline.com.