Each year, NetSuite launches two service upgrades that include new features and functionality updates for your current NetSuite Environment. One of the newest features in the 2020.2 NetSuite New Release is the Use of “Invoice Groups.” This gives NetSuite users the ability to combine invoices for a single customer based on certain characteristics the invoices share, also known as Consolidated Invoicing. A customer can have multiple invoice groups based on the different criteria for each group.
This feature functionality has been widely requested and is now available to NetSuite users through this new release. Not only is Invoice Groups beneficial for your company, but it also provides greater flexibility for meeting your client’s expectations for when and how they receive those invoices.
Keep in mind when using Invoice Groups that you can apply payments to an invoice group. Payments are applied to all the invoices that are in that group. Another thing to note is, NetSuite supports both full and partial payments for invoice groups. When accepting a partial payment, choose the invoices in the group to which you want to apply the payment. Invoice groups also support the Consolidated Payments feature. For more information, see Consolidated Payments.
An Invoice Group is not a transaction, but it is comparable to an invoice. Below are some key tasks that this new feature will help your company accomplish:
- Setting up of custom numbering
- Customizing of the Invoice Group form
- Accepting of customer payments
How do Invoice Groups work?
Invoice groups work with SuiteFlow, they appear in searches and in reports, and they can appear on customer statements.
One thing to keep in mind, to be able to use the Invoice Groups feature, you must create the invoices directly from sales orders, as it will not work with standalone invoices. After the invoices have been selected, they will group based on the purchase order in the system that matches the Sales Order. After enabling the Invoice Groups feature for a customer, you must check the Group Invoices box located on the Financial subtab of the customer record. If you have a sales order for which you do not want the invoice grouped for this customer, clear the For Invoice Grouping box. For an invoice to be eligible for grouping, the For Invoice Grouping box must be checked on the sales order.
Invoice groups do not post to the general ledger, however, invoices within the invoice group do post to the general ledger. After an invoice group is created, you can add or remove invoices from the group.
One thing to note when using Invoice Group is that each user has restrictions and permissions for viewing the invoice groups. All permissions and restrictions that were on the individual invoices will still apply to them when they get brought into the invoice group.
Enable the Invoice Groups feature by going to Setup > Company > Enable Features. On the Transactions subtab, check the Invoice Groups box.
For more information on the Invoice Groups feature, see Invoice Groups Overview.
