Set up a recurring bill

A recurring bill is a schedule that enters the same bill for you — office rent, a software subscription, a monthly retainer — so you never forget one. On each run Spine creates the bill and either records it or saves it as a draft for you to check.

Who can do this

Owners, and Staff whose Team has Manage recurring bills. The Recurring documents module must be on in Settings › Modules.

1. Open recurring bills — Go to Vendor Bills and press Recurring bills.

2. Start a schedule — Press + New recurring bill. Or, on an existing bill’s page, open More and choose Make recurring to start with its vendor and lines.

3. Say what to enter — Give it a Name (for example “Office rent”), choose the Vendor and add the Lines.

4. Say when — Choose how it will Repeat (weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly) and the day On which it runs. Set Starts on, and when it Ends: Never, On a date or After a number of bills. Due sets when it’s due, from On the bill date to 60 days after the bill date.

5. Choose what happens — Under When it runs, choose Record the bill or Save as a draft for me to check. Paid from is for reference only — paying the bill is still up to you.

6. Save — Press Save schedule. The toast says when the first bill is.

The New recurring bill dialog with Name, Vendor, Repeat, Starts on, Ends, Due, Paid from and When it runs

What happens on the day

Runs happen at 6:00 AM organisation time. Each run creates one bill with that day’s date, the schedule’s lines and its due date, and says “Created by Recurring bill <name>”. With Record the bill, it’s posted straight away. With Save as a draft for me to check, Owners are told “Recurring bill ready to review: <name>”.

If Spine was off on a run date, each missed bill is created once, in order, when it starts again. When the end condition is met, the schedule shows Finished.

Pause, change or stop a schedule

The list shows each schedule’s name, vendor, how often it repeats, the next bill, the amount, when it runs and its status: Active, Paused or Finished. Open a row’s menu to:

• Pause — no bills are created until you press Resume, which sets the next bill to the next date still to come.
• Edit — changes apply to bills it creates from now on. Bills it already created stay as they are.
• Delete — Spine asks “Delete this schedule?” first. Bills it already created are kept.

Caution

Deleting a schedule can’t be undone. Pause it instead if you might need it again.