Monthly invoices for subscribers without recurring billing
How an internet provider invoices every subscriber each month when Achekam has no recurring invoices, with a billing-run routine built from drafts.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Telecoms businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
For an internet or voice provider, billing is the heartbeat of the business. Every subscriber needs an invoice every month, for the right package, on time, or cash flow stalls. Most providers expect their accounting software to do this by itself: set up the subscription once and let the invoices generate.
Achekam does not do that today, and it is better to know before your first billing run than to discover it on the first of the month. This article is honest about the gap and sets out a monthly routine that works within it, for a provider whose subscriber base can be invoiced by hand.
What Achekam does not do: recurring invoices and automatic charging
Two things are missing at the time of writing.
No recurring invoices. A business cannot set up a recurring invoice for a customer. Repeating invoices exist only as retainers created from a signed engagement letter, a feature built for accounting firms, not subscription providers.
No automatic charging. Achekam never charges a customer automatically. There are no saved cards and no debit orders, and the overdue reminders sent by credit control carry no pay link.
So every monthly invoice is created by a person, and every payment is made by the subscriber, by pay link, bank transfer or a debit order your own bank runs. For a provider with a modest subscriber base and a disciplined monthly routine, that is workable. For a large base, be realistic about the staff time it takes before you commit.
A monthly invoicing routine built from drafts
Invoices begin as drafts, which can be changed or deleted until they are issued. That makes it possible to separate preparing the run from releasing it.
A routine that works:
- Update the subscriber list from your network or provisioning system: new connections, cancellations, upgrades, downgrades and suspensions since last month.
- Prepare a draft for every active subscriber, with the package, any add-ons and any once-off charges for the month.
- Check the drafts against the list. The count of drafts should equal the count of active subscribers. A second person checks a sample of lines against the packages.
- Issue the drafts only once the check is done.
- Send them, with pay links where subscribers pay online.
Keep the subscriber list and the record of the check with the month's billing records. If a subscriber later says they were billed for a package they had cancelled, that is where you will look.
Numbering, terms and the invoice date
Issuing a draft takes the next number in your sequence and posts the invoice to the ledger as debtors, sales and output VAT. The number format is set in Settings; choose one that makes billing months easy to spot.
Default terms are 30 days. Many providers bill in advance and want payment within a shorter period; set your terms to match your contracts, and say it on the invoice.
Issue all the month's invoices on the same date. When a line states no VAT rate, VAT is taken at the rate in force on the invoice date, so a consistent date also means consistent VAT treatment across the run.
E-mailing each invoice with a pay link
An issued invoice can be downloaded as a PDF on your letterhead and e-mailed from the invoice, with or without a pay link, and a failed send is reported as not sent. Check the failures after every run: a wrong e-mail address means a subscriber who will later say they never received an invoice. Knowing a subscriber actually got the invoice covers those send records in detail.
A payment link is created for an issued invoice, never a draft. The subscriber pays on a public page showing your name and branding. A link lasts 14 days by default, and an open link for the same amount is reused. What happens in the books when the subscriber pays is explained in how online subscriber payments reach the books.
Credit control for subscribers who fall behind
Credit control is on for new workspaces. Once a day it e-mails overdue reminders and a monthly statement to customers with a balance, never charges anyone, and records whether each e-mail went out. The default reminders go at 7, 14 and 30 days overdue, with the invoice PDF attached, and working e-mail settings are needed for any of it to send.
Because the reminders carry no pay link, a subscriber who wants to pay online after a reminder needs the original invoice e-mail or a fresh link from you. Tell your support team to resend the link on request rather than asking the subscriber to dig out the first e-mail.
Each month, after the run, look at the age analysis. Receivables are aged into 0-30, 31-60, 61-90, 91-120 and over 120 days, with overdue totals. Subscribers moving into the older buckets need a call, not just another automated e-mail, and a statement of account, which the server produces as a PDF, gives the conversation a clear starting point. ACCA's article on accounts receivable management explains how businesses monitor receivables with an aged analysis and speed up collection.
If you would rather avoid the monthly invoice altogether for some subscribers, memberships without debit orders describes how another subscription business lives with the same limits.
Running the first billing day
Pick a fixed billing day, write the five-step routine on one page and name who prepares, who checks and who issues. Run it once for next month's invoices with that page in hand, then refine it. A billing run done the same way every month is the foundation the rest of your collections depend on.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
