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Your organization most likely requires seamless backend invoicing and billing processes, with full payment visibility and a simple payment process through a single procedure. Having all approved time and expenses processed in a single consolidated billing extract would also be ideal.
Beeline Enterprise offers comprehensive solutions for statutory and pro forma invoicing that can help.
Overview
In some locations, clients cannot implement Beeline’s statutory invoice solution because regulatory requirements prohibit Beeline from being the system of record for invoices. Those regulations also frequently require specific processes like e‑invoicing, designated formats and registration with local authorities.
Clients in those locations, or clients with a regional Enterprise VMS, can take advantage of the pro forma invoicing solution, where they can manage statutory and pro forma invoices from Enterprise.
TIP: Any client can take advantage of the pro forma invoicing solution.
With the pro forma invoicing solution, a regulatory agency in the country where services are provided is the system of record for statutory invoices. Suppliers initiate the invoice process by pulling financial data from Enterprise and gathering data from their in-house system. Next, they submit the invoice to the regulatory agency. Once approved, the supplier receives confirmation and an assigned official invoice number from the regulatory agency.
After an official invoice is available, users can streamline aligning a supplier’s external invoice to data in Enterprise using the pro forma invoicing solution. Users can match detailed transactions (such as invoiced timesheets, expenses, miscellaneous fees, and milestones for contingent staffing or services procurement) in Enterprise to a supplier’s statutory invoice (which may not include specifics) and help clients efficiently reconcile financial transactions and payments for services rendered. Reconciled data can also be easily consumed in the client’s invoicing or accounts payable systems.
Main benefits
- View aggregated spend across your global program in a streamlined effective way.
- Simplify your financial reconciliation process.
- Achieve significant time and cost savings.
- Align your processes with global and local tax and invoicing requirements.
- Maintain Enterprise as the financial system of record for your extended workforce.
- Streamline adding invoice data using the Web Import tool and the CWS External Invoice Details Import template.
Persona
Clients, program office users or suppliers
Action required
Adding pro forma invoicing to Enterprise requires a Make a Change ticket and Enterprise configuration. Contact your Client Operations Manager (COM) to learn more.
Understanding your configuration options
Your COM will work closely with you to understand how to configure Enterprise to meet your invoice formatting, grouping and submission requirements. You can choose options to ensure you have full payment visibility through a single procedure in one consolidated billing extract.
Your setup criteria define how your client invoice numbers are generated, how transactions are grouped (such as by country, by supplier, by business unit, by legal entity, by cost center) and when subsequent feeds are generated and sent. Here are the options you’ll define.
| Setting | Definition | Option | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Triggering event | Your pro forma invoice feeds can be set up by header, supplier or client invoice number. Those options determine when your invoice feed is generated and sent. | ||
| By batch header | Your invoice feed is generated and sent when an entire batch is processed. | ||
| By supplier | Your invoice feed is generated and sent each time an individual, unique supplier invoice number is processed. | ||
| By client invoice number | Your invoice feed is generated and sent each time an individual, unique client invoice number is processed. | ||
| Timing | Define the number of days after the invoice statement date (which is when a successful final invoice batch was submitted) that pro forma invoices are processed. You also choose the time of day your invoice feed is generated and sent. The window you define with this setting gives suppliers time to pull their invoice, gather data, submit the invoice to the regulatory agency, receive confirmation, and then enter data into Enterprise. | ||
| Frequency/recurrence | Choose when the next scheduled run date is and how often your invoice feeds are generated and sent, such as daily, weekly or monthly. | ||
| Workweek or weekday | Opt to receive feeds only on weekdays or weekdays and weekends. | ||
| Hourly interval | Define when your invoice feed is generated and sent, where a setting of zero is once daily at midnight and a setting of zero twelve is twice daily at midnight and again at noon. | ||
| Notification timing | Define when system-generated notifications are sent to suppliers about their missing external invoice data and delaying your invoice feed. You can also generate notifications to program office users. |
Terms you should know
Although invoicing is a common process and concept, it’s important to understand how some basic terms are defined within Beeline Enterprise.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Client invoice number | A system-generated number assigned to an invoice processed through Enterprise. Your COM will work closely with you to understand how to configure Enterprise to meet your formatting, grouping and submission requirements. |
| e‑invoicing | Electronic invoicing. A form of electronic billing that generates, stores, and monitors transaction-related documents between parties and ensures the terms of their agreements are fulfilled. E‑documents may include invoices and receipts, purchase orders, debit and credit notes, payment terms and instructions, and remittance slips. Digital invoices are typically sent via email, web page, or app. |
| Feeds | Pro forma feeds are not statutory invoice feeds. Because Enterprise is not the invoicing system of record in some locations, custom pro forma feeds are sent as an account payable or account distribution file to the client’s in-house enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. |
| Invoice | A document used to notify a customer payment is due. Invoices also serve as a record for the issuing business to track its receivables. |
| Invoice date | The time-stamped time and date when services were billed and the transaction officially recorded. The invoice date has essential payment information, as it dictates the bill's credit duration and due date. |
| Invoice reference number | Suppliers may have a separate internal number for an invoice that helps them associate the invoice to transactions in their in-house accounts receivable ID in their ERP system. They can use that number on the Supplier External Invoice Details page to help them align Enterprise data to their internal data. |
| Master invoice schedule | Beeline configures your organization’s Master Invoice Schedule based on your annual financial calendar data. Your Master Invoice Schedule determines when each invoice submitted to Enterprise is processed. |
| Pro forma invoice | A preliminary bill of sale sent to buyers/clients. Typically describe the service provided. Frequently used for international transactions. Unlike an official invoice, a pro forma invoice is simply used to prevent misunderstandings about the specifics of a transaction, such as the amount due. |
| Supplier external invoice number | The official invoice number generated and assigned by the regulatory agency that validates invoices submitted by a supplier. This number is used on the Supplier External Invoice Details page to link Enterprise data to the supplier’s official invoice. |
| Statutory invoice | A legally binding invoice. Although there aren’t prescribed templates for statutory invoices, there are prescribed standards that must be adhered to that make an invoice legally binding. |
Ready to explore?
Documentation release: Beeline Enterprise | Q2 2025