Receivables billing schedules

Overview

For QuickBooks Online businesses, billing schedules require the Receivables add-on plan. See Get started with Receivables for access details. If you use another accounting provider, see Receivables availability by accounting provider.

Billing schedules create invoices for recurring or contract-based customer charges. A schedule groups its customer, billing details, phases, and line items so you can preview the projected invoices before you start it.

Complete Receivables setup before creating a billing schedule.

Create a Receivables billing schedule

Open Billing schedules, then select New schedule. You can create a schedule manually, upload a contract, or forward a contract email to Ramp.

When you upload or forward a contract, the Intake agent creates a draft billing schedule from the contract terms. Review the draft before you start it, including the customer, dates, amounts, payment terms, payment methods, and each phase.

For a manual schedule, select the customer and, when applicable, entity. Then set the payment terms, PO number, billing day from 1 through 31, invoice memo and footer, collection method, and payment methods that each invoice should use.

If the billing day does not occur in a month, Ramp uses that month's last day. For example, a schedule billed on the 31st is billed on February 28 or 29.

Add billing schedule phases and line items

Each billing schedule needs at least one phase. Set a phase start date and add at least one product line item with a product, price, quantity, and unit amount.

You can add more phases when contract terms change over time, such as a renewal price increase. You can also create products or prices while building the schedule and override a line item's unit price when needed.

For catalog prices, choose a one-time charge or a recurring frequency. Recurring prices can be monthly, quarterly, semiannual, or annual.

To configure a line item's revenue recognition method or service dates, see Set up Receivables revenue recognition.

Review and start a billing schedule

Select Continue to validate the schedule and review its projected invoices. The review shows projected invoice dates, line items, totals, payment details, and customer-facing invoice information.

Save the schedule as a draft if it needs more work, or start it when the projected invoices are correct. If automatic sending is off, invoices remain drafts until you finalize them.

Important: Review contract terms and the invoice preview before starting a schedule. Stopping an active schedule is irreversible. It deletes draft invoices already created by the schedule but does not affect invoices that are no longer drafts.

Manage billing schedules by status

The actions available for a billing schedule depend on its status.

Edit or delete a draft schedule: Draft schedules can be edited or deleted.
Edit a scheduled schedule: Scheduled schedules can be fully edited before they become active. Update the schedule before its start date if the contract changes.
Change an active schedule: Update its memo, footer, or payment methods, or split the current phase to apply new terms. Historical phases and future phases that already have invoices are protected when you split a phase.
Stop an active schedule: Stop a schedule when it should not create future invoices. This is irreversible. Stopping deletes draft invoices already created by the schedule but does not affect invoices that are no longer drafts.

Track billing schedule invoices and payments

Open a schedule from Billing schedules to see its customer, terms, phases, products, linked invoices, and linked payments. The schedule also shows a timeline and paid, open, and upcoming amounts across its invoice preview, so you can compare its progress with the underlying invoices.

Open a linked invoice to review or finalize it. Draft invoices open in the invoice draft editor; invoices in other statuses open on their invoice detail page.