Districts, school calendars and invoices

District invoices is being switched on company by company. With it on, Routes has a third tab, Districts, and every school has a School days calendar. A route's Price is per school day, so a district is billed for the school days of its schools — never for a day a school is closed.

Districts

• A district appears on Routes › Districts as soon as a school names it — nothing to set up.
• Open a district to fill in its billing details: billing contact, Billing email (where its invoices go), phone, address, PO or contract number and Payment terms (days to pay — 30 is net 30). Districts are invoiced monthly.
• Renaming a district renames it on its schools too.
• Only Super Admins and Accounting can change billing details; everyone who can see Routes can read them.

A school's calendar

1. 1Open Routes › Schools and click School days next to the school (or open its district and click Calendar).
2. 2Start the calendar: enter the first and last day of the school year and tick the days of the week it's open. The bank holidays are marked closed for you — if the school stays open on one (some do on Columbus Day or Veterans Day), Remove it.
3. 3Add a closed day for breaks, PD days and anything else: pick the day (and Until for a break of several days), the Kind and a reason.
4. 4When school is called off — a snow day or an emergency closure — add it here the same day. Closed days are never billed.

• Each month shows its school days in green and its closed days by kind; the year's total is at the top.
• Copy the closed days of another school saves typing when schools share most of their calendar (the same district's schools are listed first).
• Change the dates fixes the first or last day or the weekdays; Start another school year begins next year's calendar.
• Super Admins, Accounting, Fleet Managers and Dispatchers can change calendars. Every change is in the audit log.

A route's billing dates

• With district invoices on, a route's form has Billed from and Billed until. Leave them empty to bill the route for the whole school year.
• Set Billed until when a route ends mid-year, and Billed from when it starts late — the dates decide what's billed, not the route's status. An inactive or suspended route without a Billed until date is still billed, and its invoice line says so.

Preparing a district's invoice

1. 1Open the district (Routes › Districts, then its name). Under Invoices, pick the Month and click Prepare invoice. A district has one invoice per month — if there's already one, it opens.
2. 2The draft has a line per route: its School days that month (from its school's calendar and its billing dates) × its Per day price, grouped by school.
3. 3Check Held back on the right: a route is left off when its school has no calendar yet, it has no price, or it has no school days that month. Fix it, then click Count again from the calendars.
4. 4If a route didn't run on a school day (a breakdown, a strike), change its Days billed and say why in the note — the note is required and printed on the invoice. Click Save.
5. 5Add Extra charges (a field trip, extra miles) or a Credit under Extra charges and credits, and any Notes on the invoice.

• Changed a calendar, a route's price or its dates after preparing? Count again from the calendars — extra charges, credits and notes stay, and so do your day changes unless that route's school days changed.
• Delete this draft throws it away; nothing has been sent.
• Super Admins, Accounting, Fleet Managers and Dispatchers prepare and change drafts; issuing, sending, voiding and payments are for Super Admins and Accounting. Every change is in the audit log.

Issuing and sending

1. 1When the draft is right, click Issue invoice (Super Admins and Accounting). It gets the district's next number, today's date and its Due date — today plus the district's Payment terms. From then on it can't change.
2. 2Click Download PDF to see it: your company's logo and address, the district's billing details and PO number, the routes by school, extra charges and credits, notes and How to pay.
3. 3Click Send to the district. The PDF is emailed to the district's Billing email, from your company — replies come to you. Send again sends it once more.

• Invoice numbers run per district: Riverside Unified's are RU-0001, RU-0002… The prefix is made from the district's name; Super Admins and Accounting can change it under Invoice number prefix in its billing details until its first invoice is issued.
• How to pay — who checks are payable to, your ACH details — is written once in Settings › District invoices and printed on every invoice and in the email.
• District invoices have no tax.

Payments

1. 1Open the invoice. Under Payments, fill in Received on, the Amount (what's left is filled in for you), How (check, ACH / bank transfer or other) and the Reference (a check number or ACH trace), then click Record payment.
2. 2A part payment leaves the rest under Left to pay, and the invoice shows Part paid. When nothing is left it's Paid.
3. 3Recorded one by mistake? Remove it — the invoice goes back to what's left.

• An invoice past its due date with money left shows Overdue, and Super Admins and Accounting get a District invoice overdue notification (once). Nothing is sent to the district by itself — you can Send again as a reminder.
• The district's page lists its invoices with their status, due date and what's left.

Fixing an issued invoice

An issued invoice never changes. Under Something wrong?, say why and click Void and make a fixed copy: the invoice stays on file marked Void with your reason and keeps its number, and a copy opens as a new draft. Fix the copy, issue it (it gets the next number) and send it. An invoice with payments can't be voided until they're removed.