Lesson 5.1: Items for Billing and Templates

If your organization uses the Accounts Receivable module to bill for services, tuition, or events, you must set up Items. Items act as shortcuts that represent the specific services or goods you provide. Instead of manually selecting a General Ledger revenue account every time you create a bill, you simply select an “Item,” and the system automatically handles the accounting distribution. This lesson covers how to create these items and how to customize the Templates used for your invoices and statements.

Understanding Items for Billing

Items represent the different ways your organization generates revenue, such as “Counseling Services,” “Tuition,” “Gala Tickets,” or “Merchandise”.

• Efficiency: Items provide a quick way to create bills without needing to remember account numbers.

• Accounting Control: Each item is linked to a specific General Ledger (revenue) account. This ensures that when a staff member creates a bill for “Tuition,” it always posts to the correct “Tuition Revenue” account, preventing misclassification.

Creating a New Item

To set up a new billing item:

1. Navigate to Lists > Data > Items.

2. Click the New (+) icon.

3. Name: Enter a unique name (up to 15 characters).

4. Type: Select the category from the dropdown (e.g., Service, Fees, Tuition, Event, Inventory).

5. Account: Select the General Ledger revenue account that will be credited when this item is billed.

6. Description: Enter the text that will appear on the client’s printed bill (e.g., “Fall Semester Tuition”).

7. Amount: You can enter a default rate. For example, if a counseling session is always $75.00, enter it here. This can be overridden during billing.

Special Case: Sales Tax

If your organization must collect sales tax on certain items, you must set up a specific Sales Tax item.

1. Create a new item and select Sales Tax as the Type.

2. The “Amount” field will change to Rate. Enter the percentage (e.g., 7.25 for 7.25%).

3. When setting up other items (like “Merchandise”), check the Taxable box. FastFund will automatically calculate the tax on bills using the rate you defined,.

Using Templates

FastFund uses Templates to format the documents you send to constituents, including Client Bills, Balance Due Statements, and Purchase Orders. These templates allow you to control the layout, text, and branding of your communications.

Template Types:

• Client Bill: The invoice sent for services rendered.

• Client Balance Due Statement: A summary of open receivables sent to clients.

• Client Email: The email body text used when sending bulk billing emails.

• Purchase Order: The form sent to vendors authorizing a purchase.

Customizing Templates

You can create up to five different versions of each template type (e.g., one bill layout for “Tuition” and another for “Grants”).

1. Navigate to Utilities > Customization > Templates.

2. Select the Template Type (e.g., Client Bill).

3. Clone: The best way to create a new template is to open the Default template and click Clone. This creates a copy you can edit safely.

4. Editing: Templates are built using HTML code. You can modify the text, add images (like your logo), or remove fields,.

    ◦ Note: You must upload images to the Company Images library before adding them to a template.