When to invoice guests: booking invoice date

Setting the invoice moment

Go to the 'Bookings' tab of your administration settings. Here you can determine when you send your guests an invoice.

At confirmation:
An invoice and payment link will be included in the confirmation email. This invoice is dated on the date the booking is made and confirmed. Payments related to the reservation are linked to both the invoice and the reservation.
At check-in:
The confirmation email includes a payment link, but no invoice. The invoice is created and dated as soon as the guest has checked in. Payments related to the reservation that were made before the check-in date, are included in the invoice.
At check-out:
The confirmation email includes a payment link, but no invoice. The invoice is created and dated as soon as the guest has checked out. Payments related to the reservation that were made before the check-out date, are included in the invoice.

How order changes are handled

It may happen that a booker changes their reservation, or adds things to it, either between confirmation and arrival, or during their stay. How are these additional costs handled for the different invoice moments?

Invoice upon confirmation: When the order is changed, the previously sent invoice is no longer up-to-date. This will be indicated in a yellow warning bar, which should never be ignored. Click on 'send new invoice' here, and the old invoice will automatically be credited.
Invoice upon check-in: Between confirmation and check-in, changes can easily be added to the order since the invoice has not been sent yet. For changes during the stay, you will see a yellow warning bar. Click on 'send new invoice' here, and the old invoice will automatically be credited.
Invoice upon check-out: Any changes are easily added to the order, since the invoice will only be dated and sent once the guests are leaving.

Creating an invoice before the set invoicing moment

Regardless of the set invoice moment, it is possible to manually create a guest invoice under the 'Invoice' heading in the reservation page. The date on which you do this, becomes the invoice date. With every subsequent change, you will see the yellow warning bar asking you to send a new invoice.

Collecting payments before the invoice date

If you create a booking invoice at check-in or at check-out, payments are often received before the invoice itself is sent. All these payments are linked to the reservation and registered on ledger account 2050 (prepayments). When creating the invoice, these payments are included on the invoice, and the money is redistributed to the correct ledger accounts.

Open payments

Payments due for reservations without an invoice, are recorded under the booking number. You can filter these reservations in the 'Open Payments' overview by selecting the document type 'Booking'.

Effect on accounting

The timing of when the booking invoice is created, affects how your accounting is journalised. You should therefore take your journalisation settings into account, which determine when you record incoming turnover.
Read more: Correlation between invoice moment and journalization

Effect on commission agreements

Most commission agreements have a settlement method. In a settlement method, you attribute the rent turnover to a date relative to the reservation. Always make sure that these settlement methods are either on or after your set booking invoice moment.
So, if invoicing upon check-in, make sure the settlement methods of your commission agreements are set to either 'Arrival' or 'Departure'. This is because an owner settlement cannot be created if the related guest invoice has not been created yet.