How to define a commercial and invoicing entity in the sales documents?

In sales documents, it is possible to define invoicing entities and entities to unload the goods, as well as invoice in different entities from the commercial entities.

Define invoicing entity

In the Sales documents, there are 2 entities:

• Commercial Entity: Identifies the entity for which you are performing the sales. As far as information history is concerned, the app considers this entity for sales statistics purposes;
• Invoicing Entity: Identifies the entity that will be responsible for the sales payment. The app will record this entity as far as current accounts and accounting is concerned.

Note: The document will be assigned to the Invoicing Entity, but by default, the app considers the commercial conditions (Payment Mode and Payment Condition).

• A Commercial Entity can have one or more Invoicing Entities defined;
• An Invoicing Entity can be associated to one or more Commercial Entities;
• It is not possible to configure a scenario in which a Commercial Entity has an Invoicing Entity defined as the last one and Commercial Entity as the first one. The only exception is the Entity that, by nature, assumes the role of Commercial and Invoicing Entity;
• In the Sales document, only the entities of the type Customer or Other Debtor can be selected for the Invoicing Entity.

To define an Invoicing Entity, follow these steps:

1. Access Marketing & Sales | Sales | Customers;
2. Specify a Customer;
3. On the tab Other Data, on the chart Associated Entities select the Type and the Entity;
4. Activate the column option Invoicing;
5. Click Save.

Define different entity

Besides being possible to define an invoicing entity different from the commercial entity, it is still possible to define an entity to unload the goods different from the other two entities.

To specify an unloading address different from the commercial entity, follow these steps:

1. Access Marketing & Sales | Sales | Documents;
2. Click New;
3. Specify the commercial entity;
4. In the tab Load/Unload, select the option Use alternative address for Unloading Location;
5. The commercial entity and all entities defined on the customer file as Associated Entities and with the option Unloading selected;
6. Specify the desired Entity;
7. Select an address from all the alternative addresses suggested; Note: If the entity has no filled in alternative addresses, the main company address will be used;
8. Finally, click Save.

To print a document of the type invoice, you must ensure that the corresponding entity (Invoicing or Commercial) is correctly configured in Marketing & Sales | Sales | Resources | Tables | Sales Document, on the tab Series, on the field Printing. For document of the financial type, it is by default Invoicing, and for documents of another type, it will be the Commercial entity.

Invoicing an entity other than the commercial entity

In the goods and services commercialization process, it is possible to identify three types of entities:

• The entity buying the items/services;
• The entity receiving;
• The entity paying.

In most situations, these entities are the same. However, it is also normal that a sales document involvesdifferent entities. This scenario occurs mostly in company groups or when an entity has a relationship with other entities (for example, business partners, franchising), by determining the invoicing process to an entity different than the commercial entity.

In the Customer file, it is possible to create Associated Entities that will be considered not only in Current Accounts, but when Invoicing. This way, it is possible to define when an associated entity can be the one being invoiced or unloading the goods.

The sales editor allows to select the following entities:

• Commercial on the tab General;
• Invoicing on the tab Invoice;
• Shipping on the tab Loading/Unloading.

By default, the sales editor considers the commercial entity as the invoicing entity. If the commercial entity has one or more invoicing entities associated, it is possible to select one of those entities as the entity responsible for the payment (invoicing entity). The tab Loading/Unloading allows to specify an entity/address different from the commercial one to unload the goods.

Example

Let's consider the company “L-Drive” as a Rental Car company based in Lisbon, with another Rental Car company called “F-Car” (that operates on the Faro airport). “L-Drive” will be responsible for the purchase of the new cars. But will make a contract with “Fin-car”, which will be the company paying the cars to the supplier (the one receiving the invoice).

This way, “L-Drive” will order the car o the “Green Car” Stand, so the order slip performed by the “Green Car" Stand will be made of three entities:

• Buyer: “L-Drive”, Lisbon;
• Paying entity: “Fin-Car”;
• Unloading Location: “F-Car”, Faro Airport.

On the “Green Car” Stand, the app will have 3 entities defined as Other Third Parties (“L-Drive”, “F-Car” and “Fin-Car”). For the “L-Drive” customer, the following business partners (Associated Entities) must be defined: F-Car (unloading) and Fin-Car (invoice).

To invoice an entity different from the commercial entity, follow these steps:

Step 1: Associate an entity different from the commercial entity

Step 2: Specify the invoicing entity in invoices

When saving a purchase order, the app will have the following behavior:

• The buying entity (commercial entity) will be saved for sales information (in the example, L-Drive);
• The unloading entity will be an information in the document being generated (for goods transportation);
• The paying entity will be used for financial purposes, such as Current Accounts and Charts of Accounts (in the example, Fin-Car). However, the payment terms, conditions, discounts and payment plans will be inherited from the commercial entity;
• For advanced payments in current account, the app will consider the invoicing entity in the context option Advanced Payments.

Only entities of the type Customer or Other debtor will be allowed as invoicing entities. The financial documents only allow the printing to be performed for the invoicing entity.

Behavior of the fields on the purchase and sales documents

The purchase/sales documents are divided in header data and row data. Some of the header data condition the row data, among which we highlight entity and the document currency: