Correct a period that was billed wrong

How you correct a period depends entirely on how far it has already gone. Find your situation below and use the route for it — the earlier routes are simpler, and using a later one unnecessarily leaves an audit trail that has to be explained.

Before you start, open the billing period and note two things: the transaction's status, and whether Linked Invoice names an invoice. The statuses and what each one permits are listed in Billing period, transaction and invoice statuses.

The transaction is still Open

Edit it. Adjust the line, or use Add New Line for something the contract does not cover. Nothing has left the building.

The transaction is Released but not invoiced

Use Unrelease on the transaction. It returns to Open and can be edited as above, then released again.

An invoice exists but has not been sent

Cancel the invoice. The transaction returns to Released rather than to Open — it is not recalculated, because nothing about the calculation was necessarily wrong.

If the figures themselves need to change, unrelease the transaction after cancelling the invoice, correct it, then release and re-invoice.

The invoice has been sent to the customer

The transaction is Completed and the invoice is out. Nothing can be edited, and the correction is a new document rather than a change to the old one. Choose between two routes.

Reverse and rebill

Use this when the period was substantially wrong — wrong readings, wrong rate, wrong assets.

1. On the transaction, use Generate Reversal. This creates a reversal transaction that cancels the original in full.
2. Use Generate Rebill to create a corrected replacement.
3. Correct the rebill's lines while it is Open, then release it and generate its invoice.

The customer receives a credit for the original and a fresh invoice for the corrected amount. This is the right route when the original figures should not stand as a record.

Adjust

Use this when the period was broadly right and needs a single correction — a charge that was missed, or a credit that was agreed.

Use Generate Adjustment on the billing period. This raises a correcting transaction against the period without disturbing the original.

The customer receives the original invoice plus an adjustment. This is the right route when the original was a fair record of the month and the correction is a separate event.

The whole period should not have been billed

If the period should not exist at all — the contract had already ended, or the site was never live — do not correct it with an adjustment. Reverse the transaction, then cancel the billing period. A cancelled period is excluded from the contract's history rather than sitting in it at zero.

Where the underlying problem is that the contract itself should have ended, terminate the contract as well; otherwise the same period will be generated again next month.

Check what else was affected

A correction to a metered period is rarely isolated. Before closing the job:

• Reconciliation balances. On a contract with minimums, a corrected volume changes the carried balances. Use Reconcile volumes on the contract to recalculate them.
• Agent settlements. If the charge splits across finance or service agents, their share moves with it. Check the Agents area for the affected period.
• The next period. A corrected end reading is the next period's start reading. If the next period has already been generated, check its opening figures.