Billing Accounts: Fleets, Dealers and Other Payers

When someone other than the customer pays for the work — a rental fleet, a car dealer, a property owner — set them up as a billing account so the job stays on the customer's history and the invoice goes to whoever pays.

Updated 3 days ago 1 views accounts invoicing insurance billing-accounts fleet dealer

Billing Accounts: Fleets, Dealers and Other Payers

Sometimes the person whose car, boat or house you work on isn't the one paying:

  • a rental or delivery fleet sends its drivers to you, and head office pays the bill;
  • a car dealer sends its own customers for glass and pays you directly;
  • an insurer pays claims for its policyholders.

The work belongs to the driver or owner. That's who you talk to, whose vehicle it is, and whose history it should appear on. The money belongs to the payer.

A billing account keeps those two apart. The job stays on the customer's account, and the invoice goes to the billing account. Both can see it: the customer's account lists the job, and the payer's account lists every invoice it owes across all its drivers.

Insurance works a little differently. See Insurers are not billed this way below.

When to use one (and when not to)

Use a billing account when one organization pays for many different customers' jobs, and you'd send it one statement for all of them. That's fleets, dealers and property owners who settle monthly.

Don't use one for:

  • A business paying for its own work. A plumbing company getting its own van's windshield replaced is just a customer. Book the job on their account.
  • Someone paying a friend's bill once. Take the payment on the customer's invoice. It doesn't need an account relationship.
  • Splitting a bill. Billing accounts move the whole invoice. For "the dealer pays the glass, the customer pays the upgrade", see Common situations below.

Setting one up

  1. The payer needs a normal account in Suprata first. If they don't have one yet, create it the usual way, with their billing contact, email and the payment terms you agreed. Net 30 is typical for fleets.
  2. Go to Workflows → Workflows & Job Types in the admin menu and scroll to Billing accounts.
  3. Add billing account, find them (Search by name, phone, email or account number) and pick the Kind of payer:
    • Fleet: pays for the vehicles its drivers bring in.
    • Insurance: pays claims for its policyholders.
    • Dealer: sends in work for its own customers.
    • Other: anyone else who pays for a job.

The kind is only a label that helps your team pick the right account when booking. It doesn't change how invoices work.

Set the payer's default terms on their account, not on each invoice. Invoices created for a billing account pick up that account's terms automatically.

Booking a job that someone else pays for

On a guided job (such as Auto Glass), the Payer step asks who pays? Choose Fleet or business and pick the billing account. Three things happen:

  • The estimate moves to the billing account, so the approval request and the estimate PDF go to the people paying.
  • Prices switch to that payer's agreement, if you have one. Fleets usually negotiate their own rates. See Contract prices below.
  • When the work is done, the invoice is created on the billing account. The job, vehicle, photos and notes stay on the driver's account.

The approval still has to come from someone. Most fleets give their drivers a PO number or authorization code, or approve by email from the fleet office. Record whichever they use on the Approval step.

Seeing what a payer owes

Open the payer's account and go to Invoices. Below the normal invoice list is a table, Paying for Other Customers' Jobs, listing every invoice they owe for someone else's job, with the customer's name on each line. It only appears once there's something in it. Statements and the aging report include these invoices like any others, so your monthly fleet statement is the normal statement.

On the driver's account, Jobs Billed to Another Account lists the jobs someone else paid for. It answers "did I get charged for that?" when the driver calls, without showing them the fleet's whole bill.

Contract prices

Fleets and dealers almost always have negotiated prices. For Auto Glass, put them in a payer agreement (Auto Glass Settings → Payer agreements, with the fleet account as who it is for):

  • the discount off NAGS list for glass, for example 32% instead of your retail 25%;
  • the labor rate, kit price and calibration prices, filling in only what differs from your defaults;
  • a start date, and an end date if the contract has one.

The estimate re-prices to the agreement as soon as the fleet is chosen as payer. When the contract renews at new rates, add a new agreement starting on the renewal date rather than editing the old one. Jobs quoted under the old contract keep the old prices.

Insurers are not billed this way

It's tempting to set an insurance company up as a billing account and bill it directly. Don't. For insurance jobs:

  • the invoices stay on the customer's account, because if the insurer denies the claim, the balance is the customer's to pay;
  • the claim goes to the insurer's administrator electronically, and what the insurer owes you is tracked there, with its own aging.

On an Auto Glass job, choose Insurance as the payer, not Fleet or business. See Insurance billing for auto glass.

Common situations

The fleet pays the glass, the driver pays for an upgrade. Book the fleet as payer. Put the upgrade on a separate invoice on the driver's account, created from the standard job page. Or, for an insurance job, mark the line Customer pays on the estimate.

A driver shows up without authorization. Book the job with the fleet as payer, lock the estimate, and send it to the fleet contact for approval. Don't start work until it's approved. Fleets are strict about unapproved work.

The fleet changes its billing address. Update it on the fleet's account. Invoices already sent keep the old address; new ones use the new one.

You stop working with a fleet. Remove it from Billing accounts so it can't be picked on new jobs. Everything already billed stays exactly where it is.

Common mistakes

Creating the driver's job on the fleet's account. Then the fleet's account fills up with vehicles and history that aren't theirs, and the driver has no record of their own. Book the job on the driver, and pick the fleet as the payer.

Forgetting the payer's terms. Without them, fleet invoices use your default terms, which is often "due on receipt" and gets you a grumpy call from accounts payable. Set the terms on the fleet's account once.

Using a billing account to hide a bad debt. If a customer can't pay, moving the invoice to another account doesn't make it collectable. Use the normal credit and write-off tools.

Related