How do I invoice an advertiser?
- Former user (Deleted)
Before you start
How you invoice an advertiser depends on the billing mode you have defined for the advertiser:
When you are not working with external advertisers and you do not want to use the platform for inter-company billing, you probably selected the ‘no billing’ or ‘self-billing’ mode. In this case, this article is irrelevant because you do not invoice your advertiser.
If you chose the ‘postpayment direct’ or ‘postpayment standard’ mode, you will need to create, validate and dispatch invoices for your advertiser.
If you chose ‘prepayment’ as a billing mode, the platform will create deposits automatically when the deposit threshold has been exceeded. Of course, you can create deposits manually before the threshold has been exceeded as well. Deposits need to be validated and exported as well.
To find out the billing mode of an advertiser, please click on ‘advertiser’ in the main navigation menu and proceed to click on the icon next to the advertiser you want to check the billing mode for. The billing mode is mentioned at the top of the left column on the page that is loaded now.
Getting started
Make sure you are logged in to the admin UI, click on ‘finance’ in the main navigation menu and proceed to click on advertiser billing. If you do so, a page will appear looking like this:
The page consists of two main panels: above, you find a filter panel which allows you to search for invoices; in the panel below, you will find the output of the filter panel, offering you an overview of existing invoices. Please note the default setting is configured in such away that you will see the invoices created for all advertisers during the last seven days that have an open or a confirmed status.
Creating a new invoice
Creating a preview
To make sure you can verify the data in your invoice, the platform allows you to create a preview of your invoices. To do this, start by clicking on the button ‘Create new invoice’ in the right top corner of the advertiser billing overview page. If you do so, the following page will appear:
In the directly shown panel, you can define the main filters for the preview you create. Start by selecting the entity/entities, then define the time period by either choosing one of the predefined options or click on custom to define your individual. Via the ‘Perspective‘, you define whether you relate to the moment on which the conversions were validated or on which the conversions were tracked.
By clicking on ‘Advanced options‘ further filter options appear including advertiser labels, billing country, advertisers as well as options on whether you want to summarize commission and fee or display them separately.
When you have set your criteria, click on the ‘Preview’ button in the right lower corner of the panel. If you do so, you will see a preview of all invoices matching your criteria listed below the filter panel as well as an overview bar displaying the status of invoices to be created:
As you can see in the legend, invoices can be ‘Success’, ‘Invalid’ or ‘Deactivated’, enabling you to generate all invoice documents (even for invalid or terminated advertisers). The bar chart itself is interactive so you can switch between the different statuses. The status ‘Success‘ indicates that there is commission and fee to be billed, the advertiser billing data is valid and the advertiser is activated. The status ‘Invalid‘ indicates that there is commission and fee to be billed, the advertiser is activated but the advertiser billing data is invalid. The status ‘Deactivated‘ indicates that there is commission and fee to be billed, the advertiser billing data is valid but the advertiser is deactivated.
In the corresponding preview of the selected status, all invoices to be created with that status are listed. From left to right, you can find the ID of the advertiser (MID), the name of the advertiser, the advertiser’s entity, the net amount of the invoice (i.e. the sum of all amounts included), the tax imposed on the net amount (usually VAT) and the gross amount.Via the icon, you can download the preview in PDF format. At the bottom of the list, all totals are shown, grouped by currency. Please note you can also download the data in the preview of your invoices in XLS format using the icon at the bottom of the panel.
Creating invoices
If you find all the figures in the preview of your invoices correct, you can proceed to create your invoices. To do this, all you have to do is select the invoices in the preview by using the tick box in the left of the overview panel. If you want to create all the invoices in your overview, just use the ‘select all’ tick box in the left lower corner of the panel. Proceed to click on the button ‘create’ at the bottom of the page. If you do so, you will find the invoices added to the overview on the main advertiser billing page.
The CSV and PDF files for the invoices (and all payment documents generally) will then join the generation queue. Until the files have been generated and stored you will see the following icons:
In order to check the availability of the files please refresh the page after some time (approx. 5 minutes) and if available then the icons will be updated and you will then be able to access them as normal. Editing the details or confirming the status will cause the PDF document to be generated again (with the updated details).
Please be aware that generation may be delayed (a refresh time of longer then 5 minutes) if the system is under considerable load.
Please note that after creating invoices, you still have the opportunity to cancel them during validation.
Creating a new deposit
As was mentioned above, deposits will be created automatically when the deposit threshold you have defined is exceeded. If you want to create a deposit earlier, just click on ‘create new deposit’ in the top right corner of the main advertiser billing page. If you do so, a page will appear on which you can select what advertiser you want to create the deposit for. You can also decide to create deposits per entity. After selecting the entity or advertiser, please proceed by clicking on ‘Next’. After this the following panel will appear:
The panel shows you information on the current credit of the selected advertiser. Further, under ‘Pending deposit‘ you can check whether there is any pending (incoming) money from other deposits of this advertiser which are not yet paid. Based on the selected advertiser, the configured deposit amount is shown as as default in the ‘Amount‘ field. If there is no deposit amount specified it is shown as 0.00. Either way, the amount can be set freely. After defining the properties of the deposit you would like to create please complete your action by clicking on ‘Create’ in the right lower corner of the page and the deposits you have created will be added to the overview on the main advertising billing page.
Please note that after creating deposits, deposit PDF file generation and storage follows the same process as mentioned above and you still have the opportunity to cancel the deposit during validation.
Creating a new refund
For cases where you would want to end an advertiser program and this advertiser still has credit left, you need to be able to refund this credit. This can be done by creating a new refund. In order to do this, please click on ‘create new refund’ in the top right corner of the main advertiser billing page. If you do so, a page will appear on which you can select what advertiser you want to create the refund for. After you selected the advertiser please proceed to click on ‘Next’. The following panel will appear in which you can define the specifics of the refund:
The panel shows you information on the current credit of the selected advertiser. This is followed by ‘Open conversions‘ representing the internal obligations of this advertiser which might become effective. Further, under ‘Pending refund‘ you can check whether there are any pending (unpaid) obligations this advertiser has which might become confirmed and would therefore need to be paid to partners. The ‘Available amount’ is therefore the difference between current credit and the sum of open conversions and pending refunds and represents the maximum amount for the refund to be created. From this sum you can chose to refund the whole amount or a sub-amount. After defining the properties of the refund you would like to create please complete your action by clicking on ‘Create’. You can then find this document together with invoices and deposits, as explained in the following paragraph.
Finding invoices, deposits and refunds
As was mentioned above already, you will see the invoices, deposits and refunds created for all advertisers during the last seven days that have an open or a confirmed status if you do not modify the filter panel. If you want to find older invoices deposits and refunds, you can use the dynamic timeframe and look for invoices created in the current week, the current month and the previous month. You can also use the custom timeframe for a more extensive search. Invoices deposits and refunds can also be filtered by user, entity (the legal body responsible for the payout), advertiser label, advertiser, type (invoice, deposit or reversal) and currency. Further to the right, you can filter invoices by status (open, confirmed, paid, rejected or reversed) or use the search option for a comprehensive text search. The difference between list and group display is explained below.
Please note the filter panel allows you to save filter settings. This might come in handy, for example when you look for invoices of a specific advertiser regularly.
Validating invoices, deposits and refunds
Let’s have a closer look at the overview with the invoices, deposits and refunds:
This overview contains one deposit (indicated in red) and one refund (indicated in green). Regular invoices are displayed in black color. In the section on the outmost left, you will find the time and date on which the refund or deposit was created. Further below, you will find a series of icons with the following functions:
If you click on the icon a panel will appear displaying the history of the invoice, deposit or refund: this history includes the time and date on which they were created, the time and date on which they were validated and the name of the user which processed these actions.
Via the PDF icon, you can export the invoice, deposit or refund. The document you see here will be the document you will send to your advertiser. When this document is still being generated and stored the icon will be greyed out until it is available.
The icon allows you to export key data of all conversions included in invoice in CSV format. For deposits, this icon is not available because a deposit does not contain conversions. When this document is still being generated and stored the icon will be greyed out until it is available.
For a broader overview of what conversions are included in the invoice, use the icon. The panel opening when you click on this orders the conversions included by conversion target, tracking category, ad space and period. For every possible combination, you will find the commission amount and the number of conversions.
Via the icon you can edit the invoice or deposit. Please note this icon will only be available if the invoice or deposit has not been validated yet. You can adjust the contact person, the address data and the banking data.
If you see the icon, it means the original commission and fee amounts for an invoice have been converted to a different currency. In the panel which opens when you click on this icon, you can see the original amount, the date on which the currency was converted, and the exchange rate.
In the second section, you will find the booking number, the type (invoice or deposit), the net amount and the tax imposed. The two sections in the middle contain the name and address of the entity and the advertiser respectively. In the last section, you can validate your invoice or deposit by selecting the dot under the following icons:
The icon represent an open status. As long as its status is open, the invoice or deposit will not have a booking number and can still be edited.
If the dot is standing under the icon, the invoice or deposit has been confirmed. If you change the status to confirmed, the invoice or deposit will be numbered. Please note confirmed invoices and deposits cannot be canceled anymore.
If your advertiser has paid the invoice or deposit, you can select the icon. If you register a deposit as paid, the platform will register the amount and create a new deposit automatically when the deposit threshold has been exceeded.
The icon signalizes the invoice or deposit has been canceled. If you cancel an invoice, the conversions included are cleared and can be generated in a new invoice.
By clicking the circle below the icon, you reverse the invoice or deposit. This means an already paid invoice or deposit will be subtracted from the next invoice or deposit generated for the advertiser. Use this option only when you are absolutely sure the invoice or deposit was incorrect.
Exporting invoices, deposits and refunds
Before you send the invoices, deposits or refunds to the relevant advertisers, you will need to export them from the platform. In case you are dealing with a small number of invoices, deposits or refunds, you will probably export them individually in PDF format, using the icon.
For a bulk export, you can use the option to display your invoices, deposits or refunds by group. You will find this option in the right lower corner of the filter panel. To display your invoices and deposits by group, select the tick box next to group and define one or more criteria (type, month, entity, status and text case) to order your invoices and deposits. Proceed to click on search in the left lower corner of the filter panel. If you do so, you will see the overview will look more or less like this:
In the section on the right, you will find the criteria you chose to order your invoices and deposits listed. You will find that you can download all the invoices and deposits data in the group you’ve created in CSV format.