Invoicing sub-organization items to a parent organization

Most often, a parent-sub-organization relationship between organizations in Autotask is set up to make the parent organization the billing organization for the sub-organization. This lets you set up a separate Autotask organization record for a sub-organization, department, or franchise that is not an independent business entity, so you can track the address, contacts, projects, and tickets for the sub-organization. However, invoices are sent to the parent organization.

It is also possible to set up a parent organization for several other organizations (the sub-organizations) so you can search, group, filter, and report on the sub-organizations as a group. In this scenario, you may well bill the individual sub-organizations.

You can also invoice some things to the parent and some to the sub-organizations.

NOTE  Parent organization items cannot be billed to a sub-organization.

NOTE  If Multi-currency is enabled, parent organization and sub-organizations must have the same currency.

NOTE  If you use the Invoice Now feature to bill directly from a ticket, any billing items on the ticket that are billable to a parent organization will not be included on the invoice. Refer to Generating an invoice from a ticket.

What determines the organization that will be billed?

  • If a billing item is governed by a contract (either a parent organization or sub-organization contract), the billing organization is determined by the contract and cannot be altered.
  • If you select Invoice non-contract items to Parent Organization on the Invoice Settings page, sub-organization items that are not under a sub-organization contract will automatically be billed to the parent. You do not have to select the Show Sub-Organization Items check box on the Invoice /Items to Invoice page or the Show Available Sub-Organization Items check box on the Choosing Billing Items dialog box.

IMPORTANT  You can, however, de-select an automatically included item on the Choose Billing Items dialog box!

  • If the Invoice Settings option is cleared, those items will by default be invoiced to the sub-organization. But if parent or sub-organization invoicing is not automated using the Invoice Settings setting, you can still invoice sub-organization items to a parent organization when invoicing for an individual organization. Refer to Invoice non-contract sub-organization items to a parent organization.

The following flowchart shows which organization is invoiced for labor performed for a sub-organization organization, depending on contract and invoice settings.

Revenue and costs are never tracked with the Billing Organization. The following flowchart shows where they appear, based on the organization the contract is associated with, and the Invoice Settings setting Invoice Non-contract items to Parent Organization.

NOTE  We are aware that the Profit & Loss Detail by Contract report incorrectly associates revenue/costs with the sub-organization instead of the parent when there is a parent contract. This is due to a mismatch in how the data is grouped and the different way the reporting engines work. Both reports work as designed.

How to...

  1. When you add or edit an organization that will be the sub-organization of an existing organization, use the organization selector to select the parent organization. Refer to Parent Organization Name.
  2. When you add or edit an organization that will be the parent of an existing organization, click the Sub-Organizations tab and select one or more sub-organizations for the parent organization. Refer to The Sub-Organizations tab.

NOTE  The billing organization must be set up as the parent, and the organization where the work is done as the sub-organization. You cannot bill the sub-organization for work done at the parent organization.

  1. Create a contract for the parent organization. Any contract type can be a parent contract. Refer to Creating a contract.
  2. When you create a ticket or project for the sub-organization, the contract selector displays both the sub-organization's contracts and the parent organization's contracts. Parent contracts are identified with a check mark in the Parent Contract column.
  3. Select the parent contract as the billing contract. You can do this manually, by making the parent contract the default contract for the sub-organization, or by associating the parent contract with the devices of the sub-organization.
  4. The invoice is created for the parent organization.
  • Do not set up any contracts for the sub-organization.
  • Set up all contracts for the parent organization. Optionally, make one of them the default contract. If the sub-organizations do not have a default contract, the parent contract becomes their default contract as well.
  • Open the invoice settings for each sub-organization and check Invoice non-contract items to Parent Organization. Refer to Invoice non-contract Items to Parent Organization.

NOTE  To apply the sub-organization's tax region to the sub-organization's billing items on a parent organization's invoice, disable the Contracts and Billing system setting Use parent tax region when invoicing sub-organization items on a parent invoice. Refer to Contracts and billing system settings.

  • Set up all necessary contracts for the sub-organization.
  • Optionally, make one of them the default contract. This is recommended, especially if the parent organization has a default contract too.
  • Open the invoice settings for each sub-organization and make sure Invoice non-contract items to Parent Organization is cleared.
  • Set up all necessary contracts for the sub-organization.
  • Optionally, make one of them the default contract. This is recommended, especially if the parent organization has a default contract too.
  • Open the invoice settings for each sub-organization and make sure the Invoice non-contract items to Parent Organization check box is cleared.
  • On the Invoice Settings page in the Billing section, make sure that one of the following is selected: Use Parent Organization Address, Use Parent Organization Billing Address or Enter address manually.

This option keeps track of financials at the sub-organization level, but all invoices are mailed to the parent.

Even if Invoice non-contract items to Parent Organization is not checked on a sub-organization's Invoice Settings page, sub-organization transactions can still be invoiced to the parent organization when generating an individual invoice for the parent organization. 

  1. Go to Contracts > Invoices & Adjustments > Invoicing / Items to Invoice. All organizations with items to invoice will be listed.
  2. In the Organization field, select the parent organization.
  3. Select the Show Sub-Organization Items check box.
  4. In the Results table, click the parent organization name to launch the Process Selected Invoices dialog box.
  5. Click Choosing Billing Items.
  6. Select the Show Available Sub-Organization Items check box.
  7. On the table below, available sub-organization items will be listed with the parent items for invoicing. To invoice for all items, parent and sub-organization, leave all items selected.

NOTE  Invoices to a parent organization can include billing items from multiple sub-organizations.

  1. Click OK and complete the invoice process. The sub-organization items will appear on the parent invoice, grouped by organization.
  2. Once sub-organization items have been invoiced to the parent, they no longer appear on the Items to Invoice page for the sub-organization.

Breaking the parent-sub-organization relationship will have the following impact:

  • Parent contacts that are associated with sub-organization billing items will be cleared.
  • If invoice emailing is enabled and the email contact is a parent contact, invoice emails will be sent to the Account Manager.
  • Any sub-organization items associated with a parent contract (such as tickets) will no longer be associated with any contract.
  • Posted labor items will remain associated with the parent contract and will be billed to the parent.
  • Pending labor items are no longer associated with the parent contract.
  • Non-contract billing items that are not yet posted, and were previously affected by the setting Invoice non-contract billing items to the parent, will be billed to the sub-organization.

There will be no impact on posted billing items.