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Auto-invoicing for customer invoices

Auto-invoice is a convenient tool that saves you time when sending invoices to customers. When a shipment reaches the Ready for billing status, Turvo automatically generates a customer invoice, creates, and sends an email with the invoice and pertinent documents attached, to the customer’s designated billing email address, and shares the invoice to the customer’s Turvo tenant.

In this article, you’ll learn more about:

Understanding Auto-invoice

Auto-invoicing can be configured on a per-customer basis by checking the Auto-invoice box in the Billing section of their Details tab. This allows you to pick and choose which customers will be billed automatically.

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However, it’s important to note when the feature is first configured for your tenant, auto invoicing is enabled by default for all customers unless otherwise noted during the initial set up request. Any new customers added will also default to auto-invoice, so it’s important to uncheck the Auto-invoice checkbox upon the initial setup if you don’t want their invoices to be automatically sent. 

If enabled for the customer on the shipment, Turvo will automatically performs the following actions when a shipment reaches Ready for billing status: 

  1. Generate the customer invoice.
  2. Create an email with the invoice and any required document types attached.
    1. Note: Required document rules are available at the tenant level for all customers and in customer accounts to change requirements for specific customers. See our Configuring required document rules for customer invoicing article to learn more about configuring the documents required to complete the shipment for customer invoicing.
  3. Send the invoice to the billing email address on file with the customer.
  4. Share the invoice to the customer’s tenant, if they have a connected tenant in your Turvo network, using the invoice auto-share feature.

Note: It’s important to understand the difference between sharing a document and sending a document in Turvo:

  • Sharing: Sharing a document refers to making a shipment or order document available on a shipping partner’s connected Turvo tenant. The shipping partner will be able to access the document from within the shipment or order. This can be done manually or via auto-sharing configurations.
  • Sending: Sending a document means creating and delivering an email message with all attached files in the shipment or order document. This can be done manually or via the Auto-invoicing feature described in this article.

Once an auto-invoice is generated on a shipment, if the Automatically append required documents to Customer Invoice toggle is switched on in Admin console > Payments > Billing document rules, the BOL or POD will be appended the invoice document to create a single PDF file. So, anywhere the customer invoice is exposed (e.g. in the A/R report) clicking on the invoice will bring up the single PDF invoice with the required documents included.

Note: If the Automatically append required documents to Customer Invoice toggle is not checked, invoices will be generated as a PDF and required documents will be attached to the customer invoice email as separate files.

Once an auto-invoice is generated on a shipment, the Proof of delivery document will be appended to create a single PDF file with the customer invoice. So, anywhere the customer invoice is exposed (e.g. in the A/R report) clicking on the invoice will bring up the single PDF invoice plus proof of delivery.

Configuring the customer invoice template

The auto-invoice feature relies on the document template feature found in Admin console > Document templates. Your tenant must have a default template configured for the customer invoice document type in order for the Auto-invoice feature to generate a customer invoice. 

If auto-invoicing is being used for customers that have specific requirements for their invoice, you can create a secondary customer invoice template that is assigned specifically to that customer.

See our Configuring Document templates in Admin console article to learn more about creating and managing customer invoice document templates. 

Note: The Document templates feature is not enabled by default. Contact your Turvo representative to have the feature enabled for your tenant.

Enabling Auto-invoicing

Auto-invoicing isn’t enabled for all tenants. If you’d like to activate the Auto-invoice feature, submit a request to our support team. If you don’t want the feature activated for all customers, specifically name the customers you’d like activated.

Accessing the auto-invoicing tenant configuration

Once Turvo has enabled the auto-invoice feature in your tenant, a new configuration is available to Admin and Super Admin users in your tenant with access to the Admin Console. 

Note: The toggle is ON by default. If you access and turn off this toggle, auto-invoicing will be disabled for all customers on your tenant.

To update the auto-invoicing configuration for your tenant:

  1. Access the Admin console by clicking the profile icon at the top-right corner of the page and selecting Admin console from the drop-down menu.

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  1. From there, select the Rules tile.

  1. In the Rules page, click the Payment option in the left pane.
  2. In the Configurations section, click the Invoices segment header.

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  1. Click the Automatically generates and sends an invoice to the customer email address toggle to enable the feature.
  2. In the Email field below, set the email address that will serve as the sender when the invoice is sent to your customer.
    1. Note:The fallback email address is NOT required to be a contact in the system.
  3. Click SAVE to complete the changes.

Note: After each configuration is saved, you’ll see the Update rules? pop-up. It’s important to note any rules enabled or disabled will affect your entire tenant. You can also choose to force all users in your tenant to refresh in order to apply the changes using the provided checkbox. To continue with the setup, click YES.

Enabling a specific customer account

Once Auto-invoicing is enabled for your tenant, you can configure whether specific customers should or should not follow the tenant’s setting.

  1. Locate the customer's account profile either using the left navigation menu Accounts > Customers, or search for the customer name in the search bar.

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  1. Once in the customer's profile, select the Details tab then click the Billing segment to expand. This segment features fields and checkboxes related to customer invoicing document requirements and auto-invoicing: 
    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. 
    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: Check this box to enable auto-invoicing, which will trigger the system to perform the behavior described above when a shipment reaches Ready for billing status.

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  1. Make sure to click SAVE to save your changes!

Note: Make sure the Billing email is filled out for the customer prior to enabling Auto-invoicing.

Appending required documents automatically

Once an auto-invoice is generated on a shipment, if the Automatically append required documents to Customer Invoice toggle is switched on in Admin console > Payments > Billing document rules, the BOL or POD will be appended the invoice document to create a single PDF file. So, anywhere the customer invoice is exposed, such as the Turvo Reports > Billing > Accounts Receivable report, clicking on the invoice brings up a single PDF file that contains the invoice and the required documents.

Note: If the Automatically append required documents to Customer Invoice toggle is not checked, invoices will be generated as a PDF and required documents will be attached to the customer invoice email as separate files.

Configuring automatic sharing of auto-invoices

If the customer your auto-invoice is generated for has a connected tenant in your Turvo network, then the auto-invoice can also be shared to their tenant automatically using the invoice auto-share feature. Invoice auto-share can be configured with a tenant-level default setting, individual customer account settings, and the sharing settings in a specific shipment.

Important note: This feature is only applicable when the customer has accepted your invitation to join your Turvo network. If their account’s connection status is not Connected, then invoices are not shared.

Configuring invoice auto-share at the tenant level

The auto-share invoice feature is toggled on by default if your tenant has the auto-invoice feature enabled. The auto-invoice feature requires the enablement of the Document templates page in your Admin console. Contact your Turvo representative to have both of these features activated. See the sections below for an introduction to each feature.

Note: If you wish to use Auto-invoicing, but do not wish to have automatic sharing enabled for all customers, contact your Turvo representative. If this configuration is made, then auto-invoices are still sent (emailed) to all customers with auto-invoicing enabled. However, invoices will not be shared to customers’ tenants unless otherwise specified in the shipment.

Customer account-level invoice auto-share configuration

Use the following steps to access the account-level auto-sharing configurations. Remember, by default, all customers will use your tenant’s default invoice auto-sharing feature. These steps should be used when you have a customer that you do not want to have auto-invoices automatically shared to their tenant.

  1. Locate the customer's account profile either using the left navigation menu Accounts > Customers, or search for the customer’s name in the search bar.
  2. In the customer account, click the Details tab.
  3. Click the Settings section header to expand the section.
  4. Click the Document sharing segment header to expand the segment.

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Note: The Document sharing segment controls settings for both the invoice auto-share feature described in this article, and the automatic document sharing feature. Only the Use tenant default checkbox and Invoice auto-share toggle are relevant to the invoice auto-sharing feature.

  1. The Use tenant default checkbox in the customer account’s Details tab > Settings section > Document Sharing segment is ON by default. This means the customer or carrier account will use your tenant’s default invoice auto-sharing configuration. Remember, if your tenant has the auto-invoice feature enabled, then the invoice auto-sharing feature is ON by default and you will need to contact Turvo Support to disable it.
  2. Depending on your tenant settings, your configurations at the account-level will have different results:
    1. If the tenant-level default configuration is ON, and:
      1. If the account-level the Use tenant default toggle is ON, then: 
        1. Invoices will be shared to the customer and the Invoice auto-share toggle will be locked in the OFF position.
      2. If the Use tenant default is OFF and the Invoice auto-share is OFF, then: 
        1. Invoices are shared by default to all customers, but will not be shared to the selected customer.
    2. If the tenant-level default configuration is OFF, then these toggles will not be present.

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Note: These toggles are not present if the customer does not have a connected Turvo tenant.

Shipment-level sharing configuration

The invoice auto-sharing feature can also be overridden at the individual shipment-level. If you have a particular shipment where you need your account-level invoice auto-sharing configurations to be bypassed, you can use the shipment’s Sharing tab to update sharing preferences for that shipment. 

In the shipment’s Sharing tab, you will see a Sharing toggle listed alongside the customer or carrier account’s name.

  • If the Sharing toggle is ON for the customer, then the customer invoice will be shared, even if the tenant-level and account-level settings are all set to OFF.
  • If the Sharing toggle is OFF for the customer, then the customer invoice will not be shared, even if the tenant-level or account-level settings are set to ON. 

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Note: The Sharing toggle will not be present if the customer does not have a connected Turvo tenant.

Important notes about auto-invoice:

  • If your auto-generated invoice documents routinely exceed 20MB, which may occur due to attached documents and photos, you can configure your tenant to send the document as a downloadable link to the customer instead. See our Configuring business rules for emails article to learn more about configuring attachment size rules.
  • If one of the required documents is not present on the shipment, the shipment status does not automatically change from the Route complete status to the Ready for billing status.
    • However, if you manually moved the status to Ready for billing with the Auto-invoice feature enabled, and the following statements are true,
      • If there is no manually-created customer invoice on the shipment, and;
      • If the customer costs on the shipment are more than $0.00, and;
      • There are no #issue or #claim tags on the shipment; then;
    • Turvo generates a customer invoice and appends the available required documents to it and sends the invoice in an email to the customer contact;
  • #claim or #issue tags can be added by users when a user has a claim or issue on the shipment and would not like an auto-invoice to send until the claim or issue is resolved.
  • An #issue tag will be added to the shipment automatically if a user manually deletes an auto-generated invoice.
  • By default, when an auto-generated invoice email is sent to your customer, Turvo uses the “TurvoBot” name as the sender at the top of the email. If you would like to have your company name appear as the sender instead, submit a Support request to have the configuration changed for your tenant.
  • If the customer account has a customer invoice ID number sequence assigned, invoices will be created with invoice ID numbers that follow the sequence’s rules. See our Configuring and assigning customer invoice ID number sequence rules article to learn more about customer invoice ID sequences.

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