Configure required document rules for customer invoicing

Depending on the business needs of your organization and of your customers, some shipments and orders may require additional documents or fewer documents be attached to the invoices that you submit to the customer. 

Turvo’s required document rules will automate the process of checking your shipments and orders for required documents and allows you to tailor the requirements for all customers as a whole and for each individual customer account, minimizing the manual intervention needed for customer invoices. We also have a video on this topic! Check out the Adding required documents to shipments video.

In this article, you’ll learn more about utilizing these settings, including:

• Tenant vs Customer account settings
• How to configure default required documents for all customer invoices
• How to configure required documents for specific customer accounts
• How Turvo checks shipments/orders for required docs

Tenant vs Customer account settings

Turvo allows you to set up required documents at the tenant level and at the individual customer account level. Tenant-level settings serve as a default that will apply to all customers. If a customer account has individual settings that require fewer or more documents than the default, then the customer-specific settings take precedence.

We recommend utilizing the tenant-level settings to create a default set of required documents for all customers, then updating the profiles of individual customers who will have additional or fewer documents attached to their invoices.

How to configure default required documents for all customer invoices

Users with Admin-level permissions use the steps below to configure the default required documents for all customer invoices: 

Note: Users with permissions below Admin will not be able to configure settings via the Admin console.

1. Once logged into Turvo, navigate to the Admin console in the upper right corner of the application.

2. In the Admin console, select the Payments tile.

3. In the Admin console > Payments page, click the Billing document rules section header to expand the section.

4. Use the following fields and toggles within to set your tenant’s default required documents for customer invoicing:
1. Automatically append required documents to Customer Invoice: If this toggle is switched on, when a customer invoice is generated for an order or shipment, all required documents will be included as pages within the PDF document as long as they are attached to the order or shipment.
   1. Note: When creating a customer invoice manually, the Append POD checkbox that appears in the Add document modal is checked automatically if this setting is toggled on and POD or BOL or POD are selected in the required document types below. This checkbox only affects whether the Proof of delivery is appended to the customer invoice.

1. 2. Automatically advance status from Route Complete to Ready for Billing: If this toggle is switched on, all shipments will be automatically updated from the Route Complete status to the Ready for Billing status if all required documents have been uploaded and the #HasDocs tag attached to the shipment.
      1. Note: If your tenant uses order-based customer invoicing, all shipments associated with an order must be moved to Ready for Billing before the invoice can be generated for the order.
   3. Billing tags and billing status based on documents uploaded: Use the drop-down to select the document types that are required for invoicing this customer. 
      1. All document types in Turvo are available, as well as the BOL or POD option, which will make either the Bill of Lading (BOL) or Proof of Delivery (POD) required for all shipments and the None option, which removes all document requirements.
         1. Note: Selecting the BOL or POD options individually would mean that all shipments require a BOL or a POD specifically. Using the BOL or POD means that one or the other is required.
   4. Select all additional documents that apply, or use the x next to a selected document type’s name to remove it from the requirements.

5. Once you’ve made your selections, click SAVE to apply your settings.

How to configure required documents for specific customer accounts

The steps below outline how to update the documents required to invoice a specific customer account.

1. Once a customer has been created, you can view and edit the customer details by navigating to Accounts > Customers in the left navigation bar. 
   1. Customer accounts can also be looked up directly using the global search bar.
2. On the Customers page, find the customer account that you wish to update the required document settings for.

3. In the customer profile, open the Details tab, then click the Billing segment header to view the customer’s billing settings.
4. Below the customer’s Bill to information, you will find the following fields that control the document requirements and invoicing settings for the customer:

4. 1. Use tenant default: This checkbox will be checked automatically, indicating that customer invoices match the default settings created in the tenant’s Admin console > Payments > Billing document rules. Uncheck this box if you wish for this customer to have specific settings that do not match the tenant default.
   2. Billing tags and billing status based on documents uploaded: Use the drop-down to select the document types that are required for invoicing this customer.
      1. This field will automatically populate with the default required documents configured in your tenant’s Admin console > Payments > Billing document rules.
      2. All document types in Turvo are available, as well as the BOL or POD option, which will make either the Bill of Lading (BOL) or Proof of Delivery (POD) required for all shipments and the None option, which removes all document requirements.
         1. Note: Selecting the BOL or POD options individually would mean that all of the customer’s shipments require a BOL or a POD specifically. Using the BOL or POD means that one or the other is required.
      3. Select all additional documents that apply, or use the x next to a selected document type’s name to remove it from the requirements.
   3. Automatically advance status from Route Complete to Ready for Billing: If this toggle is switched on, shipments for this customer will be automatically updated from the Route Complete status to the Ready for Billing status if all required documents have been uploaded and the #HasDocs tag is attached to the shipment.
      1. Note: If your tenant uses order-based customer invoicing, all shipments associated with an order must be moved to Ready for Billing before the invoice can be generated for the order.
   4. Customer pays unloading: If checked, the customer will always pay the unloading fee for their shipments.
   5. Auto invoice: If checked, when a shipment for the customer reaches the Ready for billing status, Turvo will automatically generate a customer invoice, create an email with the invoice and pertinent documents attached, and deliver to the designated billing email address for the customer.
      1. Protip: See our article on How to use Auto-invoicing for customer invoices  to learn more about this feature.
5. Once you’ve made your selections, click SAVE to apply these required document settings for your customer’s account.

How Turvo checks shipments/orders for required docs

The steps below outline the process by which Turvo checks for required documents on shipments and orders.

Note: For tenants using order-level customer invoicing, the same process is applied to an order once the associated shipments reach the same milestones. 

1. The driver delivers the shipment and uploads any documents they have.
2. The shipment status is changed to Delivered
3. Driver marks the route as completed.
4. The shipment’s status is automatically changed to Route Complete.
   1. Driver App makes the driver available for another shipment.
5. Turvo checks to see if the shipment has required documents attached by checking the tenant-level and customer-account level settings.
   1. If the customer account uses the Use tenant default setting checked, Turvo checks to see if the tenant’s default required documents are attached.
   2. If the customer account uses custom settings, Turvo checks to see if the required documents configured in the shipment customer’s account are attached.
6. If the required documents are not attached, the #NeedsDocs tag is added to the shipment.
   1. Whenever an additional document is uploaded to the shipment, Turvo checks again to see if all required documents are attached. If not, #NeedsDocs remains on the shipment.
7. Once all required documents are attached to the shipment, the #HasDocs tag is added to the shipment automatically.
   1. Note: If the #NeedsDocs tag was attached to the shipment, it is removed once #HasDocs is added.
8. Once the #HasDocs is added to the shipment, Turvo checks to see if the Automatically advance status from Route complete to Ready for Billing checkbox is checked in the tenant’s Billing document rules or in the customer account’s Billing details.
   1. If checked, Turvo automatically moves the shipment to the Ready for Billing status.
   2. If not checked, a user will need to manually review the shipment and move its status to Ready for Billing.
9. Once the shipment is moved to the Ready for Billing status, Turvo checks to see if the Auto-invoice checkbox is checked in the tenant’s Billing document rules or in the customer account’s Billing details.
   1. If checked, Turvo automatically generates the customer invoice document and emails it to the customer. If the Automatically append required documents to customer invoice checkbox is also checked in the tenant’s Billing document rules, the required documents are included in the invoice document that is generated.
   2. If automatic invoice sharing is enabled for your tenant, and invoice auto-sharing is enabled for the customer’s connected tenant on your Turvo network, then the auto-invoice will also be shared to the customer’s tenant. 
      1. Protip: See our How to use Auto-invoicing for customer invoices article to learn more about automating customer invoice delivery and sharing.
   3. If the Auto-invoice checkbox is not checked, the user must manually generate the customer invoice document and submit the invoice to the customer via email.
      1. Protip: See our How to create and share a customer invoice article to learn more about manually generating and submitting customer invoices.