Recurring Bills
For: Anyone who owes the same vendor, same items, on a fixed repeat — rent, retainers, standing purchase
A Recurring Bill is a saved template plus a schedule. You fill it once, Mark As Active, and Books creates a real Bill on each due date. Those bills land as Draft in the Bills module — this page does not record a payment or apply credit. Prefix is RECB, not the split-debit SDN series.
What this module does
1. Creating a recurring bill
Pick Division, Branch, Warehouse. Only Save — that creates Draft. It does not start the schedule.
Profile Name: Required. Name of the schedule, not the bill number.
Bill# (Recurring Bill number): Auto-generated unless you turn that off under Recurring Bill Configuration. Default prefix RECB. Locked after save.
Vendor and shipping: Vendor required. Shipping Organization or Customer. After save, vendor and location stay locked.
Payment Terms: Required (the form label can read Payment Trems). Copied onto each generated bill to calculate due date. There is no due-date field on this form.
Note: No Bill is created on Save. No stock, no ledger, no Current Balance. There is no Duplicate and nothing converts into this module.
2. Repeat schedule
Repeat Every / Frequency: Day(s), Week(s), Month(s), or Year(s), plus how many of that period.
When the first bill actually falls: For Day(s), Start On itself is a generation day if already Active. For Week / Month / Year, first generation is Start On plus that frequency.
Never Expires / End On: Never Expires keeps generating. With End On, after a successful generation if the next due would fall on or after End On, the profile becomes Completed.
Note: Schedule fields only stick while Draft. Pause does not reopen the form.
3. How bills actually get created
A daily job looks at every Active Recurring Bill. If today matches the pattern and this date has not already succeeded, it creates one Draft Bill.
4. Viewing, searching, and the list toolbar
Status tabs Draft / Active / Paused / Completed / Cancelled. No Export. Preferences opens Recurring Bill Configuration. Detail: View Vendor, Download, Print. Tabs: Basic Info, Next Bill, Attachments, History, Recurring Activities.
5. Editing a recurring bill
Draft only. You can still change items, amounts, schedule, and address on a Draft. Vendor and location stay locked.
6. Changing status
Button: Mark Recurring Bill As.
| From | Mark As |
|---|---|
| Draft | Active, Cancelled |
| Active | Paused, Cancelled |
| Paused | Active, Cancelled |
| Completed | You cannot Mark As Completed yourself — the job does that when the last cycle is done. Cancelled may still be offered on the list |
| Cancelled | Nothing. Mark Recurring Bill As is hidden. Cancelled is a dead end |
7. Recurring Activities — success, failed, retry
Tab Recurring Activities → Execution Log & Bills. SUCCESS / FAILED. FAILED row tooltip Create Bill retries from the current template and marks that cycle SUCCESS.
8. The bill this schedule creates
A normal Bill in the Bills module: Draft, Bill Configuration number, Inventory Config stock-add rules, Current Balance already updated. Mark it Open there before you pay it.
9. Deleting a recurring bill
Draft only. Generated bills stay in Bills.
Business rules
| Topic | Rule |
|---|---|
| This is a schedule, not a bill | Saving a Recurring Bill does not create a Bill, add stock, post the ledger, or change the vendor's Current Balance. Those happen later, when a real Bill is generated |
| Subscription gate | Creating a Recurring Bill is limited by your plan. Editing, Mark As, and deleting are not. Retrying a failed cycle (Create Bill on Recurring Activities) also checks Create and the plan feature |
| Save always makes Draft | There is no Save & Active. Nothing generates until you Mark As Active. Draft and Paused are skipped by the daily job |
| Recurring Bill number | Auto-generated unless you turn that off under Recurring Bill Configuration on the form (prefix, next number, Terms & Conditions). Default prefix is RECB. The field is labelled Bill#. Locked after save. Generated bills use Bill numbering (Bill Configuration), not RECB |
| Division, Branch, Warehouse, Vendor | All four are required to create, plus Profile Name, Repeat Every, Frequency, Start On, Payment Terms, shipping address, and at least one item. After save, location and vendor stay locked |
| No primary-bank gate | You can save a Recurring Bill without a primary bank |
| Stock and ledger live on the generated Bill | Settings → Inventory Config for Bill applies when the Bill is created. The Recurring Bill itself never takes warehouse quantity. Ledger and Current Balance follow the Bill rules once that Draft bill exists — including while it is still Draft |
| You can only edit or delete a Draft | Active, Paused, Completed, and Cancelled cannot be edited or deleted. Bills already generated from this schedule are not deleted with it |
| Paused does not catch up | While Paused, due dates are skipped. Marking Active again does not create the missed bills |
| Generated bills start as Draft | The job creates a Draft Bill, copies items, charges, notes, and payment terms, and sets due date from those terms on the generation date. You still Mark Bill As Open on the Bills module |
| Failed cycle retry | Recurring Activities shows FAILED with the error. Create Bill on that row makes a Draft bill from the current template and marks that cycle SUCCESS. Only a FAILED history row can be retried |
| No Duplicate, no Export, no Convert from | Nothing converts into a Recurring Bill. Outbound only: schedule → Bill |