New invoice batches can be created at any time prior to the issue of the invoices, but generally you will want to wait until the pupils and parents are as up-to-date as possible to avoid unnecessary editing.  That said, it is possible to add invoices for pupils who join the school subsequently,to check for and update changed addresses, and to edit the details of any invoice.

There are five types of batch which can be created, however, for all types, four of the first five lines of the Invoice Setter window MUST be completed and the fifth is optional depending upon whether your chosen invoice layout splits ‘Fees’ from ‘Extras’:- 

• The ‘Title’, which is your way of identifying the invoice run, and will appear on each invoice as its title
• The ‘Fees heading’ is for the text which you want to appear on the invoices as a sub-heading for the fee items:-  
• The ‘Charges heading’ is for the text which you want to appear on the invoices as a sub-heading for the other charges or disbursement items.  This is optional, and if used will necessitate an amendment to your invoice layout.
• ‘Dated’ is the date you wish to be printed on the invoices as the issue date
• ‘Due date’ is the date you want printed on the invoice indicating when payment is due

Use of the ‘Invoice note’ field is optional.  It allows you to type a brief comment which will appear on ALL invoices in the batch.

NB:   If you choose to use this function, you must contact Furlong to arrange for the comment field to be added to your invoice layout, otherwise it will not be printed!

The next group of settings relate to various other options when setting up the invoices. 

• ‘Link Repeat Items from Previous Batch’ will look at the pupils included in the selected invoice batch for items which have been ticked as ‘Repeat Items’ and re-apply the same charges to the current batch.   NB: As this function will, in future releases of the software, be superceded by the new ‘Recurring Items’ function, we advise that you begin to phase out use of the ‘Repeat Items’ option.
• ‘Academic Year’ will be the current year for the autumn and spring invoices, but will usually relate to the following academic year for summer invoices, based on the pupils’ ‘Shadow’ information.
• Select Invoice Type: The five types of batch which can be raised are:- 

1. Create Invoices for the Whole School, where you want to create a batch of invoices for the whole school, including charges previously set up in ‘Pupil Type Fees’
2. Create Invoices for a Specific Pupil Type, where you want to create a batch of invoices for issue towards the end of the Summer Term in which the fee elements are based on the pupil’s next year’s fee type
3. Create Invoices from a Finance Tag, where you want to raise a batch of invoices based on a group of pupils who do not fall into any of the standard SchoolBase categories or groups.  THIS WILL NOT INCLUDE FEES SET UP IN THE ‘PUPIL FEE TYPE’ AREA
4. Create Invoices for a Single Pupil, where you need to raise a ‘one-off invoice for an individual pupil.
5. Create Invoices for Payment Plan.  This enables you to set up fee payers who will pay their invoices in installments (which you can define) and then carry out (say) monthly invoice runs.

Recurring Items will eventually replace the Repeat items over the next year or so. Therefore schools should get out of the habit of using the old repeat items way of doing things in favour of recurring items.  Repeat items are still in the system purely for compatibility reasons.