How to Create a Return Invoice | Latner Software Documentation

A Return Invoice bills a rental contract for the equipment that has come back, so you can charge out a returned machine as soon as it lands in the yard instead of waiting for the whole hire to finish.

Overview

Long hires rarely end all at once. Gear trickles back a machine at a time, and the Return Invoice is how you bill each piece as it arrives without disturbing whatever is still out on site. One thing to know before you start: on the Invoice Type list it is called Returned/Completed Items - there is no entry named "Return Invoice".

Bills only the lines whose equipment status is Returned. Lines still on hire are left out entirely, and so are lines that have only been off hired.
Charges each returned line up to its actual off hire date and time, not up to the Bill To date you type. Return a machine on the 20th and invoice on the 31st and the customer is still only charged to the 20th.
Brings the charges that came back with the equipment along with it - pick up transport, fuel, damage, sanitation and admin lines attached to the returned line.
Leaves the hire running. The contract stays Active, and the lines still on rent carry on progress billing as normal.
Credits back instead of charging when a line was billed past its off hire date, which is what happens when equipment comes home earlier than expected.
Always shows you a preview before it commits, so you can see exactly what will be charged and untick anything you aren't ready to bill.

Before You Begin

You need one permission, a contract that is still open, and at least one line that has actually been returned.

Requirement	Where to Find It
Invoice Rental Contract permission	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups › your group › Rental › Option
A rental contract that is Active or Reserved	Rental › Rental Contracts - check the Contract Status at the top of the contract
At least one line whose equipment has been returned	The contract's Details tab - check the Detail Status column. If the gear is back but the line isn't, use Options › Return first
Enables Crediting of a Rental Contract setting (only when the return has to credit an over billed line)	Security › Settings › Rental

Enables Crediting of a Rental Contract, under Security › Settings › Rental. With it switched off, a return that has been over billed has nothing left to invoice and the preview comes back empty

Off hiring is not the same as returning. Off Hire stops the clock; Return is what actually brings the equipment back into your fleet, and only a returned line is eligible for this invoice. An open return inspection does not block it, though - a line showing Pending Return Inspection can still be billed.

Creating the Return Invoice

Step 1 - Check which lines have come back

Open the contract from Rental › Rental Contracts and look at the Details tab. The Detail Status column shows Returned - or, when Show Rental Sub Statuses is switched on under Security › Settings › Rental, the more specific sub status:

Pending Return Inspection - the equipment is back but a return inspection is still open.
Pending Final Invoice - the equipment is back, the inspection is done, and the line has not yet been billed up to its off hire date.

Either way the line is waiting for a Return Invoice. Last Billed To Date tells you where that line stopped last time; everything between that date and the off hire date is still to charge.

The Details tab. Line 1 has come back and still carries its June billed to date, while line 2 is on hire and will be left out of a Return Invoice

Step 2 - Open the invoice dialog

Choose Options › Invoice. The Invoice Rental Contract dialog opens with the contract, customer, site and branch already filled in and read only. The option is greyed out once the contract is Completed, Cancelled or Lost.

Options › Invoice. The same dialog handles every rental invoice type, so nothing here is specific to returns yet

Step 3 - Set the dates

Two dates drive the invoice, and they do different jobs.

Invoice Date - required. The date shown on the invoice and the date the due date is calculated from. Defaults to today.
Bill To - required. The date to bill the contract up until. Defaults to today. Set it on or after the off hire date of the lines you are billing - a returned line is never charged past its own off hire date, so a later Bill To costs you nothing.
Credit Card Surcharge? - optional. Adds a credit card surcharge line. It is ticked automatically for cash on delivery customers when the Credit Card Surcharge Percentage setting has a value.

The dialog as it opens. Invoice Type starts on Progress Invoice, so that is the field you have to change

Step 4 - Choose Returned/Completed Items

Open Invoice Type and pick Returned/Completed Items. That is the Return Invoice. The four choices decide which lines are eligible:

Invoice in Advance - bills every line up front, whether or not it has gone out yet.
Progress Invoice - bills what has fallen due since the last invoice on lines that are already on hire.
Returned/Completed Items - bills only the lines whose equipment has come back.
Final Invoice - the same returned lines, plus every remaining charge on the contract, including the ones deliberately held back for the end of the hire.

The Invoice Type list. Returned/Completed Items is the Return Invoice - nothing on this list is called "Return Invoice"

Step 5 - Preview what will be billed

Click Preview. Latner works out the charges and lists one row per line it intends to invoice, with the running Sub Total, Tax and Total underneath. This is the step where the difference from a Progress Invoice becomes obvious - the lines still on hire simply aren't there.

Billing Period and End - the window being charged. The End date is the line's off hire date, not the Bill To date you entered.
Billed To Date - where the line was billed to before this invoice. Blank means the line has never been billed.
Rate Type, Rate, Calc. Daily Rate, Adj. Daily Rate and Billable Units - how the charge was worked out, so you can see why a line came to what it did.
Required - untick a line to leave it off this invoice. The totals recalculate straight away and the line stays on the contract for a later invoice.

Some rows can't be unticked. Damage waiver and levy style charges are worked out from the lines you are billing rather than being contract lines of their own, so they carry the tooltip "Cannot deselect related lines"; operator docket lines carry "Cannot deselect operator docket lines".

The preview. Bill To is 31 August, but the returned line ends on 20 August - its actual off hire date - and the line still on hire is not on the list at all

If the preview comes back empty you'll see a Nothing to Invoice message. On a Return Invoice that usually means nothing on the contract has actually been returned yet, or the returned lines are already billed up to their off hire date. It is not an error.

Step 6 - Create the invoice

Click Create Invoice. Latner creates the customer invoice and shows a confirmation with a link straight to it. If the previewed lines happen to net to a negative total the button reads Create Credit Note instead, and you'll get a credit note rather than an invoice.

The finished invoice. Its status is Completed here because Default Rental Contract Customer Invoices to Completed is switched on; otherwise it would be created Open

After Creation

Last Billed To Date on each returned line moves to that line's off hire date - not to the Bill To date you chose.
Transport, admin and other one-off lines that were Pending or Applied change to Invoiced.
Lines still on hire are untouched. Their Last Billed To Date does not move and you carry on progress billing them as usual.
Once the return inspection on a billed line is closed, its sub status becomes Invoiced.
The invoice appears on the contract's Invoices tab and under Customers › Customer Invoices, with Rental Invoice Type showing Returned/Completed Items.
The due date comes from the customer's payment terms.
The invoice is created Open, unless Default Rental Contract Customer Invoices to Completed is switched on under Security › Settings › Customers, in which case it is created Completed.
The contract stays Active. A Return Invoice never offers to complete the contract for you - that prompt only follows a Final Invoice, and only once every line has been returned.

After the Return Invoice. Line 1 is billed to 20 August, its off hire date, while line 2 keeps its 30 June date and stays on hire

The contract's Invoices tab. The Return Invoice sits on top of the run of Progress Invoices, labelled Returned/Completed Items

A Return Invoice moves that line's billing forward, so you can't simply delete it if the dates were wrong. Use Options › Cancel Customer Invoice on the invoice instead - it rolls Last Billed To Date and Total Invoiced back to where they were and returns the invoiced lines to their pre-invoice status. It asks for a note explaining the cancellation. A Paid invoice can't be cancelled, and neither can one linked to a completed rental contract; raise a credit note against it instead.

FAQs

There is no "Return Invoice" in the Invoice Type list. Which one is it?

Returned/Completed Items. The invoice it produces is recorded against the customer invoice as Rental Invoice Type Returned/Completed Items, and that is what everyone means by a Return Invoice.

The equipment is back but the line isn't in the preview. Why?

Check the line's Detail Status. A Return Invoice only picks up lines whose status is Returned - a line sitting at Off Hire has had its clock stopped but has not been returned, so it is not eligible. Use Options › Return to bring it back, then preview again. The other common reasons are that the line is marked non chargeable, or that it has already been billed right up to its off hire date.

Why does the preview stop at a date earlier than my Bill To date?

Because that is the line's actual off hire date. Once equipment has been off hired, Latner never charges it past that moment, so pushing the Bill To date out further does not add a day of hire. This is the main thing a Return Invoice does differently from a Progress Invoice.

What is the difference between this and a Final Invoice?

For equipment they behave the same way: both bill only the lines that have been returned. A Final Invoice goes further and sweeps up every remaining charge on the contract - transport, fuel, sanitation, labour and admin lines - regardless of whether they were held back for the end of the hire. Use Returned/Completed Items while gear is still coming back a piece at a time, and a Final Invoice when the hire is finished. After a Final Invoice, and once every line has been returned, Latner offers to complete the rental contract for you.

A charge is still sitting on the contract after the Return Invoice. Where is it?

Check the line's Invoicing Stage. A charge set to Return Invoice only comes through on a Returned/Completed Items invoice if it is attached to a piece of equipment that has come back. A standalone charge - an admin charge or a labour line that isn't linked to an equipment line - stays behind until you raise a Final Invoice. Change the line's Invoicing Stage to Next Invoice if it should be billed now.

The button says Create Credit Note instead of Create Invoice. What happened?

The previewed lines add up to a negative total, which means the contract has been overcharged - usually because the equipment came back earlier than it had been billed to. Latner switches to a credit note so the correction goes out as a credit rather than a negative invoice. Credit lines only appear at all when Enables Crediting of a Rental Contract is switched on under Security › Settings › Rental; with it off, the preview simply comes back empty. See How to Create a Credit Note from a Rental Contract for the full flow.

Can I raise Return Invoices for a lot of contracts at once?

Yes. Go to Rental › Cycle Billing and set Invoice Type to Returned/Completed Items. The contract list narrows itself to the contracts that have returned equipment still waiting to be billed up to its off hire date, so you are not hunting through the whole book. Contracts with a billing hold are left out of Cycle Billing and have to be invoiced from the contract itself.

Is the new invoice Open or Completed?

Open by default, so you can still adjust it before it goes to the customer. If Default Rental Contract Customer Invoices to Completed is switched on under Security › Settings › Customers, rental contract invoices are created Completed instead.

I used the wrong dates. Can I undo the Return Invoice?

Use Options › Cancel Customer Invoice on the invoice. It rolls the line's Last Billed To Date and Total Invoiced back to where they were before, returns the invoiced lines to their pre-invoice status, and asks you for a note explaining the cancellation. You can then re-invoice with the right dates. A Paid invoice can't be cancelled, and neither can an invoice on a rental contract that has since been completed.

Watch the Demo

Prefer to watch it? Step through the same flow here.