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Split invoices

Zuora

Split invoices

Splitting an invoice lets a customer spread out payments for a single invoice across multiple invoices. You can split an original draft invoice into multiple invoices, allocating all original charges across the new invoices on a percentage basis of your choosing. This capability is useful if you have a large original invoice that you agree to let a customer pay in several installments.

You can split invoices from the Zuora UI or through SOAP API. This article explains how to split an invoice into multiple installments from the Zuora UI. For SOAP API, see Splitting an invoice to use flexible payment terms for information.

Enable splitting invoices

To enable the Splitting Invoices feature, complete the following steps:

  1. Click your username at the upper right and click Billing.

  2. On the Billing Settings page, click Define Billing Rules. The Billing Rules page opens.

  3. In the Billing Document section, edit and set the Allow invoice splitting rule to Yes.

  4. Save your changes.

How splitting an invoice works

Suppose a customer has an invoice that totals $100,000. The customer wants to make four payments spread across multiple billing periods on the invoice. You can split that invoice into four separate invoices, each for a specific percentage of the original amount. These percentages can be any amount that you want to set as long as the collection of split invoices total 100% of the original invoice. In our example, you can set the first split invoice to 40% ($40,000), then each successive split invoice to 30% ($30,000), 20% ($20,000), and 10% ($10,000).

If you add a new invoice to the billing period, Zuora will automatically distribute it across the split invoices. 

You can do the following things:

  • Split an existing draft invoice into two or more invoices. The splits are based on a percentage of the original invoice. 
  • Re-split an existing draft invoice, changing the percentage of the invoice split. You can reset and reconfigure the split percentages, and number of splits. You can only do this with invoices that have not been posted.

Invoice numbers

When you split (or re-split) an invoice, Zuora creates new, separate invoices. Each split invoice has its own invoice numbers and includes the same items as the original invoice. The original invoice is replaced by the new set of split invoices and will no longer be displayed. 

For example, if you split Invoice INV0001 into three parts, this will create three new split invoices: INV0002, INV0003, and INV0004.

Splitting an invoice can cause a gap in the invoice numbering sequence.  

Invoice numbering without gaps in the sequence is in Limited AvailabilityIf you wish to access this feature, submit a request at Zuora Global Support

Invoice percentages

You split an invoice into two or more parts by specifying the percentage of the whole that each split invoice represents. You can enter whole numbers or decimal numbers with up to nine decimal places. The total must add up to 100 percent.

All charges applied to invoice items, including discounts and taxes, are also split when you split the invoice.

If the split percentage results in uneven currency values, Zuora rounds the values for charges and discounts using the currency rounding rules you have specified in your billing settings, and applies any leftover amount to the final invoice.

Invoice dates

You can split an invoice into multiple draft invoices having different invoice dates and then execute another bill run that updates those draft invoices with new charges. If the new bill run has an invoice date later than the invoice date for any of the originally split invoices, all of the invoices that have earlier invoice dates will be updated with an invoice date equal to that of the bill run. 

For example, if the original split invoices have the following dates:

  • February 1
  • March 15
  • April 30

If you run another bill run with an invoice date of March 10 that updates those draft invoices, then the first invoice date will be changed to March 10. If you instead run a bill run on March 20, then the invoice dates of the first two invoices will be changed to March 20. 

However, the payment terms (for example, net-30 or net-60) will not change. 

Invoice notifications

If the communication profile that you're using emails the invoices when they're posted, Zuora will email all of the invoices to the customer at the same time. Because all split invoices must be posted at the same time, the invoice posted notification is triggered and acts on all of the split invoices at once.

If you want to mail the invoices separately, you must email them manually (instead of using the notification).

Custom fields

When you split a draft invoice, all custom fields of the resulting invoices will be given the same values as the original invoice. If you re-split a split invoice, the custom field values of the resulting invoices will also be given the same values as the original invoice.

When you have split invoices and you add a new invoice to the billing period, Zuora automatically distributes this new invoice across the split invoices. However, this causes the values of the split invoices' custom fields to be set to their default values, not the values of the original invoice.

Splitting draft split invoices that existed before August 13th 2014 (Release 179), causes the custom field values of the resulting re-split invoices' to be set to their default values, not the values of the original invoice.

Split an invoice

You can split an invoice into multiple invoices. Each split invoice is defined as a percentage of the invoice total. 

To split an invoice, complete the following steps: 

  1. Navigate to Billing > Invoices.
  2. Click the number of the draft invoice, which has not been posted, to open the invoice detail page.
  3. Click the three vertical dots icon to display more applicable actions, then click Split Invoice. The Split Invoice dialog opens.
  4. Select an invoice date, the percentage of the invoice total to apply this invoice, and a payment term.
    • Invoice date: This is the date you want to present to the customer on the invoice. Note that this is not the target date of the invoice, and is not necessarily the day the invoice is due.
    • Percentage: You can specify any value from 0.000000001 to 100 (inclusive). You can enter a whole number or a decimal number with up to nine decimal places. The total percentage of all split invoices must add up to 100. See the Invoice percentages section for more information.
    • Payment Term: Select the payment term to apply to this invoice. This specifies the number of days until payment is due on the invoice. You can apply different payment terms to every split invoice.
  5. To create another split invoice, click Add New.
  6. Click OK to save the invoices and generate new invoice IDs. 

When viewing the details of a split invoice, you can use the Split Invoices field in the Basic Information section to navigate to other invoices that were created as part of the same original splitting process. This field lists all of the split invoices created from the original invoice. Click any of the split invoice IDs to view the details of that split invoice. 

Split invoices also include a line at the bottom of the invoice detail that shows the percentage of this invoice and the total value of the invoice. For example, if the total invoice is $300, a split invoice that was set to be 40% of the total invoice will display 40% of $300.

Re-splitting a split invoice

You can re-split an existing split invoice if the split invoices are in Draft status.  

  1. Open the detail page for any of the split invoices.
  2. Click the three vertical dots icon to display more applicable actions, then click Re-split Invoice.
  3. In the Re-split Invoice dialog, enter new percentages for the invoices. You can also add and remove rows, as required. 
  4. Click OK. The invoice details will show the new split percentages. 

Post split invoices and apply payments

When you post one part of a split invoice, or post the bill run for a split invoice, all of the split invoices will be posted. Similarly, if you unpost a split invoice, all of the split invoices will be unposted at the same time.

Once you apply a payment or an adjustment to any of the posted invoices, you cannot unpost any of the split invoices. 

Cancel and delete split invoices

When canceling split invoices, they are treated as a group. If you cancel any of the split invoices, then all of the invoices will be canceled. 

However, you can delete a single split invoice without deleting all related split invoices. You can only delete an invoice that has been canceled.