Streamline Your Business with an Accounting Invoice Template for Logistics

Accounting invoice template for Logistics

This video tutorial shows 3PLs how Magaya software can help manage accounting. We'll see how Magaya's built in connections between the accounting and logistics transactions helps streamline accounting tasks related to the shipping process. From the beginning of the process to the end, we looked at how to set up your system to automate the accounting and reduce the chance of mistakes. For example, options include setting up your system to determine how and when to create bills, setting payment terms, Incoterms, or credit limits for your customers in their profiles, and setting commissions for your salespeople. If you offered additional outbound services such as local delivery, then you can add the charges to the cargo release. You can generate the accounting for the freight rates and other charges directly in the cargo release. For the rest of this video, we will focus on the accounting processes related to warehousing and storage. The software gives you ways to automatically create recurring invoices for your services. Then the invoice gets created automatically for you each month for the customer and includes any new charges first check the option in the accounting Configuration menu "Automatically generate recurrent transactions." Next, create a recurring invoice template, Let me explain this step - we'll create a template that will be used each month or week - whatever you set up - to create the invoice. We're not creating the actual invoice yet. Go to the invoice list, click actions and select" recurring invoices". When the list of recurrent invoice is open, click the Add button. A dialog box opens the recurrent transaction wizard. This wizard will create a template for a new recurring invoice. All future invoices for this customer will be built on this. Every month, when the system automatically generates the recurring invoice for the customer, this template will be used. The date and charge amounts will be updated each month to reflect the new charges while the other elements of the template such as the customers address will be the same. You will not have to re-enter the information. If you need to change something such as the address in the future you can edit the recurrent invoice using the edit button. The first screen in the recurrent transaction wizard contains the following options: let's look at each field in detail. Enter the transaction number in the Number field. This is the number of this template, not the number of the invoice. The invoice will be generated at the moment that the invoice is automatically generated. Click on the "apply to" drop-down menu to select the customer that will receive the recurrent invoice. The address displays automatically to change it for this transaction, click the Change button. Select the account this transaction will refer to such as accounts receivable. For example, if your system handles more than one currency, there may be an AR for each currency. Select the one that applies to this customer. The transaction date is set automatically to today's date; change it as needed. This is the date that you created this template. Click the Add button in the wizard screen to add a charge. A dialog box opens; select the type of charge such as storage fee, which is an income item. Enter an optional description. For "Tax code", select a tax code from the dropdown list, if you have taxes set up in your system and if one applies to this charge. The quantity, units (such as pounds), and the price will be calculated by the system automatically each time the invoice is generated. A price can be added if you want to have a set charge not based on the cargo on hand. Click the ok button to save this charge and return to the wizard screen. Set the "paid as" option to either prepaid or collect based on the terms of the agreement for this recurring invoice. Click the "Next" button to go to the next screen in the wizard. The next screen in the wizard enables you to set the frequency of the invoice. Select the start date - (today's date is filled in automatically) - change it as needed this is the date that the system will begin generating these invoices. You may create the invoice template to begin invoicing the customer starting next week for example. Next week's date will be used in the invoice. You can also set up retroactive recurrent invoices by using a past date. Set the end date or check "never ends" if the service is continuous. For the "generate" field, select the frequency that you want to generate the invoice. If you select "monthly", also select the day of the month. If you select the 31st, the system will default to the 30th for months that do not have 31 days. If you select weekly, the invoice will be generated on Fridays. Enter the number of days before the date of transaction to create the recurrent transaction. Select the next day. You can charge the customer in advance by clicking on the check box; it is unchecked by default. When charging monthly in advance, the customer is paying for that whole month in advance. The checkbox for "on-hand cargo in the warehouse" is used for fees; the box is unchecked by default. Checking the box activates the fields below it. Use this option to calculate the field on the invoice based on the amount of the cargo on hand for the client. The price will be calculated based on the tariff you set up. In this example, it is for storage. If you want to give a customer some free days before charging for services such as storage to encourage quick movement of cargo, add the number of days in the days field "amount of days before". Other options are: generate a separate charge per line item. The number of charged lines in the resulting invoice will be the same as the number of charge lines in the related warehouse receipt. This is useful to itemize oversized cargo. Calculate charges based on the smallest packing unit. If unchecked, the price will be calculated by pallet. If the cargo is repacked in pallets, the price will be calculated based on the items inside the pallet. You can also disable the recurring transaction by clicking in the "disabled" box. Click the "Finish" button. The recurring invoice template is now added to the list of recurrent invoices. On the first day of the month or preset day, a new invoice will be created for that customer. The invoice appears in the invoices list. You can also save an existing invoice as "recurring" by clicking on the Actions button when you are in the document view of the invoice. The wizard opens. Fill in the fields as explained before. You can also save an existing invoice as recurring when you are in the invoices list: Right-click on the invoice and select "save as recurrent" from the pop-up menu. If you use your Magaya system for the other steps such as the warehouse receipts and sales orders, then the information in those transactions is easy to carry over into the cargo release. After sales order processing and pick and pack operations, you can create charges for all the other tasks involved such as the freight, if you didn't do it earlier in your workflow. To set up a recurring storage charge for an item, go to the items and services list by default Magaya has a storage fee for income and a storage cost for expense. We will edit the storage fee. Click on the tariff button. A dialog box opens. Please note that the tariff will be calculated in the currency that is selected in the items and services on the definition tab. The tariff can be applied by pieces, weight, volume, time, value, and calculated. All the "apply by" options except calculated are single variable tariff calculations. The calculated option is a multi variable tariff calculation. Please note that time in the apply by field is calculated between the time the cargo arrived at the warehouse - which is the warehouse receipt creation date - and the time the cargo left the warehouse, which is the cargo release or shipment creation date. We will look at an example using apply by volume. Next to the field, you can choose the measurement from volume. You can set a minimum price and a maximum price. In the "rate per" field, you can select by unit or by range. When using unit, you can enter how many measurement, units to charge by. In the below table you can add volume thresholds with rates. Just click the Add button to add as many volume lines as you want. In this example, we have a minimum of 50 US dollars or $3 per cubic foot, whichever is greater. When finished click the ok' button; the automatic creation tab in the storage fee applies globally for the entire system. If you would like automatic creation for specific customers, you will need to go to maintenance customers and set up automatic creation there. To enable automatic creation, click the "enable automatic creation for" checkbox and select the transactions you would like the storage fee to be automatically created on. Is this charge dependent on another? If so, check the box here. There are a few other key accounting options to touch on. You can also send invoices to LiveTrack so your customers can pay online: right-click the customer name and select it from the menu. You will need to have this option activated for your Magaya system. You also have the option to export accounting data out of your Magaya system to QuickBooks or Peachtree, now known as sage. The procedures explained in the Magaya knowledgebase found in your Page One the welcome screen in your software. Be sure to check out the knowledgebase for step-by-step articles you can print or email to help you use a software fully. Be sure to see our other videos in the 3PL series or contact our training and implementation department to optimize your use of the software specifically for your business. Thank you.