Basics of Invoices
The Invoice Edit & Query function provides two primary capabilities:
- Invoice maintenance, including adding, editing, and voiding/deleting.
- Advanced searching to query the invoices and then tag account IDs, print the results, and export data.
An invoice is made up of one or more invoice items that are all related to a particular trip. It can include items for different types of travel (air, cars, hotels, tours, service fees, express mail, and so forth). It can also have items for subsequent refunds (or debit memos). These items can be entered all at once or at different times. Items that have the same general ledger branch and invoice number comprise an invoice.
A useful feature of GlobalWare is the ability to enter tours, cruises, and similar transactions as multiple invoice items (for example, deposit and final payment) with different receivable and payable due dates. The receivables and payables do not appear on aging reports, statements, and check selection until these due dates. For more information, see Multiple Items for One Service.
Airline Ticket Segments and True OD Segments
GlobalWare stores all of the individual segments for airline and rail tickets. It also stores the true origin/destination segments (true OD segments), which exclude connection cities. Several GlobalWare segment reports provide the option of reporting on individual segments or true OD segments.
For example, if on a trip from Austin to Philadelphia to you connect through in Chicago, the true OD segment is AUS-PHL, while the individual segments are AUS-ORD and ORD-PHL.
GlobalWare stores both the GDS connect field (O/X), and a true destination indicator (X/D). In the following example, O is origin, X is connection city, and D is destination. The O/X field refers to the origin city, and the X/D field refers to the destination city. So in the following example in the second segment (ORD-PHL), ORD is a connection point and PHL is the true destination.
| Segment | O/X | X/D | True OD Segment |
|---|---|---|---|
|
AUS-ORD |
O |
X |
AUS-PHL |
|
ORD-PHL |
X |
D |
|
|
PHL-ORD |
O |
X |
PHL-AUS |
|
ORD-AUS |
X |
D |
|
Using the Invoice Edit & Query function, you can see and edit only the individual segments. When you edit fields in a segment that affect true OD, the corresponding true OD segment is updated automatically.
Note: True OD segments are derived from the O/X and X/D fields, so it is important that you enter these correctly.
Invoice Types
The Invoice Type is a four-letter code that enables you to quickly assess what type of item is being displayed. Invoice Type is used in the Search Results grid on the Invoice Edit & Query screen and on the Invoice screen to distinguish between the various invoice items on a particular invoice. The four letters of the code represent the following: Sale, Settlement, Revenue, and Form of Payment. The sale type is retail or group; all items are retail unless you are using group accounting (for more information, see Types of Groups: Group and Retail).
Form of Payment
GlobalWare provides four forms of payment:
| Form of Payment | Description |
|---|---|
|
Plastic (P) |
Credit card merchanted by the provider/ARC |
|
Agency Plastic (A) |
Credit card merchanted by your agency |
|
Receivable (R) |
Accounts Receivable |
|
Cash (C) |
Cash or check |
In accounting, R, A, and C are all treated as receivables. The only difference is how the customer payment is created:
- For form of payment R, you enter all of the information about the receipt (account ID, amount, check number) on the Bank Deposit screen.
- For form of payment C, you use the Get Cash Receipts link on the Bank Deposit screen, which creates receipts automatically with the correct account ID, amount, and check number.
- For form of payment A, you use the Get Agency Plastic Items link on the Bank Deposit screen, which creates receipts automatically with the correct account ID, amount, and check number (the last few digits of the credit card number are used for check number).
Settlement Types
The settlement type indicates how the provider payable or provider commission receivable will be handled and how this is accounted for in the general ledger. There are four settlement types:
Tracking
Tracking is used for car and hotel reservations. No payable or commission receivable is created in the general ledger. Commission checks can be applied to items individually, or they can be posted directly to the general ledger and the items are then marked received in Commission Reconciliation or Commission Tracking.
Invoice
Invoice is used for items to which you apply provider checks and receipts individually. If the FOP is non-plastic, an individual payable is created when you post invoices to the general ledger (accrual) or receive customer payment (cash-basis). You must apply the provider check to close the item. If the form of payment is plastic, a commission receivable is created when you post invoices to the general ledger (accrual); with cash-basis, plastic invoice items are treated like tracking items.
ARC and Direct
The payables for ARC and Direct items are batch-posted to the general ledger and they are marked paid/received at that time. Checks and commission receipts (or bank transfers) are also posted directly to the general ledger. You do not apply individual items or mark individual items received. Accounting-wise, ARC and Direct items are handled the same; the primary difference is whether the item will appear on the ARC settlement or direct settlement report (although typically different charts are used in the general ledger).
Deciding Which Settlement Type to Use
All items that are reported to ARC must have settlement type A. Any other settlement type can be used for non-ARC items. When deciding which settlement type to use, note the following:
- The interfaces default to ARC for airline tickets. Apollo has overrides for Invoice and Direct. Sabre has a Direct format but not an Invoice override. Worldspan has overrides for Invoice, Direct, and Tracking.
- Non-ARC air is typically direct and non-ARC tours and cruises are typically Invoice. Some agencies using accrual accounting prefer to use Tracking as the settlement type for tours and cruises with FOP plastic, because of the general ledger implications (no commission receivable is created).
- The interfaces default to tracking for car and hotel bookings. Additional entries are required for other settlement types.
- If you want to use GlobalWare Commission Reconciliation, the settlement type must be Tracking for cars and hotels. For other travel types, the settlement can be Tracking or Invoice.
- Every invoice with settlement type I posts individually to the general ledger and must be handled individually. This requires more work, but also provides more audit trail.