Table of contents
- 1. Overview
- 2. Solution
- 2.1. If the invoice charged too little, possible reasons include:
- 2.1.1. Proration is turned off
- 2.1.2. Proration is turned on
- 2.1.3. A discount charge was applied
- 2.2. If the invoice charged too much, possible reasons include:
- 2.3. Invoice Includes a Credit
- 2.4. Invoice Item Amounts on the Invoice PDF Don't Add Up Correctly
- 2.1. If the invoice charged too little, possible reasons include:
- 3. Related
- 4. Contributors
- 1. Overview
- 2. Solution
- 2.1. If the invoice charged too little, possible reasons include:
- 2.1.1. Proration is turned off
- 2.1.2. Proration is turned on
- 2.1.3. A discount charge was applied
- 2.2. If the invoice charged too much, possible reasons include:
- 2.3. Invoice Includes a Credit
- 2.4. Invoice Item Amounts on the Invoice PDF Don't Add Up Correctly
- 2.1. If the invoice charged too little, possible reasons include:
- 3. Related
- 4. Contributors
Overview
Billing is complex and involves many parameters to ensure that your customers are billed correctly. This article will help you troubleshoot invoice charges that did not bill as expected by walking you through some scenarios that would cause an invoice to charge a certain way.
Solution
If the invoice charged too little, possible reasons include:
Proration is turned off
The first partial month was not billed at all because billing begins on the first Bill Cycle Day. See Proration for more information.
Proration is turned on
If the Effective Start Date of the charge does not fall on the Bill Cycle Day (we call this Anniversary Billing), then the first invoice will bill only for the partial month when the billing period starts (based on the charge's Trigger Condition) through the next Bill Cycle Day. See Proration for more information.
A discount charge was applied
A discount may be used to reduce the amount charged for subscription fees. If the discount doesn't exist in the subscription, review previous subscriptions for the account level discount charge. Account level discounts apply to the subscription, which contains the discount charge, as well as any subscriptions created thereafter for the duration of the discount period. See Discount Charge Models for more information.
If the invoice charged too much, possible reasons include:
A cancelled subscription is still billing
If a subscription's charges were billed and that subscription has a cancelled status, verify that the subscription's cancel date is less than the bill run target date. If the cancel date is greater than the bill run's target date, the invoice was generated to cover the service period through the cancel date.
Bill Run Target Date is too far in advance
The bill run target date allows you to specify which charges the billing engine should pick up and bill. For example, if you want to bill for all charges from January 1, 2011 through January 31, 2011, you need to set the bill run target date to be January 31, 2011. By doing so, Zuora's rating and billing engine picks up all charges due through January 31, 2011. If you accidentally set your bill run target date through January 31, 2012 (note the year), it will pick up all charges through the following year. Thus, make sure you have set the correct bill run target date.
For new subscriptions, if proration is turned on and the bill run target date is after the first bill cycle date, the first invoice will show a prorated amount combined with the charges for the next (full) billing period. See Proration for more information.
Note: In Z-Billing, recurring charges are billed in advance for one billing period, which means that charges are billed ahead of time, prior to the service being rendered. For example, you can bill a recurring monthly fee on September 1, 2010 for service between September 1, 2010 through September 30, 2010.
Invoice Includes a Credit
- Your subscription was cancelled in the middle of a period that has already been billed and a proration credit is reflected on the invoice for the unused amount. See How do I properly cancel or downgrade customers to avoid issuing a credit or refund?.
- The customer submitted a payment for an amount greater than the total amount of a previous invoice (an overpayment), and the remaining payment amount was transferred to a credit balance in Z-Billing. This credit balance was then applied (just like a payment) towards the invoice. See Handling Overpayments.
Invoice Item Amounts on the Invoice PDF Don't Add Up Correctly
- Review the setup of your invoice template and verify that are no missing fields. The invoice total includes all charges, but for example, if you omitted usage charges, then the charge events will not compute to the invoice total. See more on Creating an Invoice Template.
If you are still are unable to understand why an invoice is displaying the values, please contact Zuora Global Support for further assistance and analysis.
Related
- Define Billing Rules
- Use the Billing Rules page to define your company's billing policies concerning prorations, billing in advance, and arrears billing. Navigate to Settings > Z-Billing Settings and select Define Billing Rules. You can configure the following billing rules:
- Invoices
- An invoice is generated from a bill run. Invoices are your bills that you are sending to your customers. Once your invoices are created, you can email the invoices in PDF format to your customers in batches or individually. You can also choose to print out your invoice(s) and send them to your customers via postal mail. You can change the format of your invoice (for example, by adding a logo or adding more fields to your invoice) by customizing your invoice template.
- Deleting Incorrect Invoices
- Posting an invoice in Zuora is similar to posting an invoice to your accounting system's general ledger - that is, once the invoice is posted it is considered final and locked from changes.
- Why are some items on an invoice discounted and some are not?
- You apply a fixed-amount discount to an account or an invoice. You generate that invoice. The total charge for the invoice is greater than the amount of the discount. When you look at the invoice, you don't see an entry for that discount.
- Reviewing and Posting Bill Runs
- When reviewing a bill run, you can click into the individual invoices to verify that the proper amount is being billed. Once you have completed your review of the bill run, you can post it.
- Discount Charge Models
- Zuora's Product Catalog contains two discount charge models that provide you the ability to handle discounts and promotions, as well as automatically control the duration of time the discount should be applied.
- Proration
- You can set proration from the Z-Billing Billing Rules settings. If the trigger date is not aligned to the bill cycle day, the billing behavior depends on whether you have enabled the Prorate partial charges for partial months feature.
- Invoice Subscriptions to Different Accounts (Owner Transfer Amendment)
- Using the Invoice Subscription to Different Accounts feature, you can configure a subscription in an account to be rated and billed by a billing run initiated from a different account. This is typically used to create a hierarchical billing situation for larger companies with many departments, divisions, or subsidiaries.
- Editing Invoices (Beginner)
- How do I remove the Zuora logo from my invoice template? (Beginner)
- Splitting Invoices (Beginner)
- Creating and Changing Discount Charges (Beginner)
- Using Discount Charges (Beginner)
- Creating Credit Balances (Intermediate)
- Invoice Adjustment Use Cases (Intermediate)
- Invoice Item Adjustment Use Cases (Intermediate)
- Handling Overpayments (Intermediate)
- How do I set up concurrent annual subscriptions to always bill for the full amount? (Intermediate)
- How do I create an ad hoc charge or credit in Zuora?
- How do I customize the invoice template to show transactions, show payments, and create a statement?
- How do I handle a negative invoice?
- How do I handle discounts in Zuora?
- How do I handle free trials in Zuora?
- How do I handle overpayments (the customer pays more than they owe)?
- How do I update a Bill To or Sold To address on a posted invoice?
- How do I use an invoice number to find a payment?
- How do I use proration in Zuora?
- How does changing the bill cycle day on a customer account impact billing for that account?
Contributors
- seechung.lee (36 edits)
- jim.foley (4 edits)
- melanie.dolgachev (3 edits)
- jeff.feldstein (2 edits)
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