What this is
Before you add customers and rate cards, PortaPro asks how your company bills: how long a billing period is, when a customer's period starts, whether you bill before or after the period, what an invoice shows, your terms and fees. About ten questions, with Not sure on every one. Before anything changes you see a Sample invoice built from the same math PortaPro bills with, and a list of anything in your data that disagrees with your answers.
Where: Settings → Finance → Billing setup. A new company's Setup Guide starts with it (Tell us how you bill), and an admin who answers "What do you need to get started?" goes straight to it once. Companies that were already using PortaPro don't see it pushed; PortaPro support can turn it on for you.
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The steps
A question that changes money has no answer picked for you. It has an amber border until you choose an option or Not sure, and Continue reads Choose required options until then.
What each answer does
Every answer on the last step shows one of these:
| Shows | Means |
|---|---|
| In use | PortaPro already works this way. Nothing changes. |
| Will change | Confirming changes this setting. It is listed under What will change. |
| Not available yet | Saved with your setup and never applied. The line under it says how PortaPro bills until it ships, and automatic drafts are never turned on because of it. |
| Decide later | You picked Not sure. Today's setting stays as it is. |
| Set on its page | Tax, card costs and deposits are set on their own Settings pages (the Cash Discount Program needs your written agreement there). The link opens that page. |
| Saved for later | A roles or dispatch answer, kept for when that part of PortaPro arrives. |
The sample invoice
The Sample invoice shows the first three invoices for one rental delivered on the 2nd of next month: each period's dates, each line, the prorated first period, and when the draft would be ready. Change The sample rental (what it is, how many, the price per period) to look like yours. The numbers come from PortaPro's own billing engine, not a separate calculator, and are before tax. With the service period on every line, each line shows the dates it covers. With a late fee, it also lists If invoice 1 isn't paid: each fee and how many days past due it is charged, up to your limit for a fee that repeats.
What your data says
The last step lists anything in your account that disagrees with your answers, with a link to where you fix it. For example:
Confirm, Finish later, Skip for now
Who can use it
Owners and admins answer and confirm. Dispatchers see the saved answers read-only. Drivers and customers can't open it.
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