SASSIE

DESCRIPTION :  The Shopper Billing page allows the user to export invoice information, view invoice history, and export shopper tax information

The Shopper Billing pages allow you to manage your shopper billing.  You can download invoices that need to be paid, view the payment history of each invoice, and export a list of shoppers for whom you need to submit tax forms.  You may also view and edit the payable status of shops individually and en masse.

Invoices

Each invoice represents one shop. Shops that are of a status of Finalized or higher, or Excluded, may be processed as invoices. These invoices start out as New, and may be moved to Pending or Paid using the various Shopper Billing functions. The typical meaning of these three invoice statuses are as follows:

• New: An invoice that has not been processed yet.  Though it has been completed by the shopper, no action has yet been taking toward payment.  New invoices can be moved to Pending or directly to Paid.
  
  
• Pending: When you first download a list of new invoices, you will typically want to set them to Pending.  Pending indicates that you have exported the invoices with the intention of paying them, but that payment has not yet been sent.  Pending invoices can be moved to Paid.
  
  
• Paid: This status indicates that the payment has been sent to the shopper.  The date that the invoices have been marked as Paid will be recorded and shown in the shoppers' logs.  Only Paid invoices are totaled in the Shopper Tax Export.
  
  

The payment amount for each invoice is made up of the shopper payment amount and the sum of any expense or special expense questions that the shopper answered on the shop form. Expenses and special expenses are capped at the limits specified at the time each shop was scheduled. Only forms with expense and/or special expense questions will have these amounts factored into the total payment.

Note that it is possible to mark individual invoices as not payable, thus preventing them from being processed through the billing system. New and Pending shops that are marked as not payable will not be marked as Paid. Once a shop has been paid, however, it is not possible to mark it as not payable.

The Shopper Billing pages are made up of five different parts, which can be accessed by clicking the buttons at the top of the page.

The five parts of Shopper Billing will be discussed in more detail below, but their general purpose is as follows:

• Process New Invoices: This is used to set New invoices to Pending or Paid.  It generates one or more export files of invoices that have had their status changed.
  
  
• Mark Invoices as Paid: This is used to set Pending invoices to Paid.  A QuickBooks export may be generated.
  
  
• View Invoices/Edit Status: This allows you to view the current status of the invoices of your choosing, and alter their status individually or in bulk.  Exports can be generated if necessary.
  
  
• Edit Payable Shops: This allows you to view the current payable status of the invoices of your choosing, and alter their status individually or in bulk.  Shops can be marked as not payable to prevent them from being processed in the billing system and can later be set back to payable if desired.  This can prevent a shopper from being paid until submitting a receipt, for example.
  
  
• Shopper Tax Export: This page exports a list of shoppers who have earned a specified amount during a specified period of time.  The intention of this page is to generate a list of shoppers who must pay taxes on their mystery shopping income.

Process New Invoices

As mentioned above, this section is used to set New invoices to Pending or Paid. You may choose which invoices to process, what status to set them to, and in what format to export them.

Invoice Selection

The first choice to make is which invoices to export. Invoices can be filtered by date range, client, shopper PayPal preference, and status.

• Date Range: Invoices with a submit date within the range you specify will be included in the processing.  Submit date is used so that shops that may have been submitted after deadline will not be missed.
  
  
• Client: You may choose to process invoices for one specific client or for all clients together.  When an individual client is processed, shops for all of that client's surveys will be included.
  
  
• Shopper PayPal Preference: You may choose to process invoices only for shoppers who do or do not accept PayPal payments.  This will allow you to create a PayPal export only for shoppers who accept PayPal, and later export invoices for shoppers who do not accept PayPal.
  
  
• Include Excluded: Excluded shops are ones that for some reason cannot be Finalized but for which the shopper should still be paid.  Including Excluded shops is optional, and unchecking this box will cause Excluded shops not to be included in the processing.

Mark Invoices As

You may mark the New invoices as either Pending or Paid. Pending invoices will need to later be set to Paid, while Paid invoices will immediately be displayed as paid in the shoppers' logs. To choose which status the invoices should be marked as, simply choose the radio button next to that option.

Display and Export

If you would like to see a list of the New invoices before changing their status, leave the DISPLAY ONSCREEN box checked. To create an export file of the invoices, check off the boxes next to the types of exports you would like to create.

If you are creating an export, you may choose what type(s) of export(s) you would like to create. The export types are as follows:

• PayPal (separate invoices): This will generate a file that can easily be imported into the PayPal system.  Each invoice is listed as a separate payment, and includes the payment amount, shopper email address, and Shop ID as a reference.  Note that PayPal exports wll only include invoices for shoppers who accept PayPal.

• PayPal (combine same-shopper invoices): The file this generates can also be imported into PayPal.  However, each shopper's invoices are combined into single payments, listed with the total payment amount and shopper email address.  Combining invoices in this manner can help decrease PayPal costs.  Note that PayPal exports wll only include invoices for shoppers who accept PayPal.

• QuickBooks: If you have purchased the QuickBooks module, you may generate a QuickBooks export specially formatted to your QuickBooks database.  This export will contain whatever information has been setup for your system, along with up to two optional memo fields that you specify at the time of export.  Note that QuickBooks exports only contain Paid shops.

• Tab delimited file: This will generate a file with a tab character between each field.  This type of file is easily imported into Microsoft Excel and many other programs.  If you choose to export to a tab delimited file you may choose what information to include in the file and how it should be sorted in the Include and Sort sections below.
  
  To include or exclude certain information in your file, simply check or uncheck the boxes next to each type of information.  The file can also contain up to two optional memo fields that you specify at the time of export.  You may also change the order of the information by making a selection in the Sort menus.  Information will be sorted by the first option and then by the optional second option.

After making your selections, click GO to process the New invoices.

Processing

The first thing you will see on this page is a summary of the invoice selections you made, the number of invoices that will be processed, and the total amount that will be paid.

Next, you will see a GO button, which you must click to finalize the processing and change the status of the New invoices. Below this is a Back button. Click this if you would like to change your settings.

If you chose to display your invoices on-screen, you will also see a list of all invoices that will be set to Pending/Paid. This list includes the Client Name, Shop ID, Shop Date, Store ID, Location Name, Shopper Name, and Total Expenses for each invoice. You may review this list to determine if it includes the invoices you wish to process.

Once you have verified the invoice information, click GO to process the New invoices and set them to Pending or Paid, as you have specified.

When processing is complete, you will once again see the invoice summary. If you choose to create an export, a link to this export will also be displayed and labeled Download Invoices.

Mark Invoices as Paid

This section is used to set Pending invoices to Paid. You may choose which invoices to process and whether to display them on-screen.

Invoice Selection

The first choice to make is which invoices to export. Invoices can be filtered by date range, client, shopper PayPal preference, and status. See the Process New Invoices section for a more detailed explanation of these options.

Display Options

You may also choose whether you would like to see an on-screen list of the invoices that are being marked as Paid. If you choose the Display onscreen option, all invoices that will be marked as Paid will be displayed before you finalize the status change. If you choose No display, you will not be shown which invoices will be marked as Paid. This option may cause the page to run faster when large numbers of invoices are being processed.

Export Options

QuickBooks: If you have purchased the QuickBooks module, you may generate a QuickBooks export specially formatted to your QuickBooks database. This export will contain whatever information has been setup for your system, along with up to two optional memo fields that you specify at the time of export.

Processing

The first thing you will see on this page is a summary of the invoice selections you made, the number of invoices that will be processed, and the total amount that will be paid.

Next, you will see a GO button, which you must click to finalize the processing and change the status of the Pending invoices. Below this is a Back button. Click this if you would like to change your settings.

If you chose to display your invoices on-screen, you will also see a list of all invoices that will be set to Paid. This list includes the Client Name, Shop ID, Shop Date, Store ID, Location Name, Shopper Name, and Total Expenses for each invoice. You may review this list to determine if it includes the invoices you wish to process.

Once you have verified the invoice information, click GO to process the Pending invoices and set them to Paid.

When processing is complete, you will once again see the invoice summary and a confirmation that the invoices have been set to Paid. If you have selected to create a PayPal export, you will be given a link to the export at this time.

View Invoices / Edit Status

This page allows you to view the current status of the invoices of your choosing, and alter their status individually or all at once. You may export Pending and Paid invoices if desired.

Invoice Selection

The first choice to make is which invoices to view. Invoices can be filtered by date range, client, shopper PayPal preference, and status. See the Process New Invoices section for a more detailed explanation of these options.

Display Options

First, you can choose which status of invoices to view. You may view All Invoices at once, or New, Pending, or Paid invoices individually.

You may also search for a specific invoice or set of invoices. You may search for a Shopper ID, Shopper Last Name, Location ID, Location Name, or Shop ID. When searching for a Shopper Name, Location ID, or Location Name you may supply a partial name or ID. To do an exact search, add a # sign to the end of the name or ID for which you are searching.

Once you have made your selections, click GO to view the invoices that fit your criteria.

Invoice List

You will then be shown a list of the invoices that matched your settings. Displayed at the top of the list are the date range you specified and the number of invoices found. After this comes each individual invoice, with its Client Name, Shop ID, Shop Date, Store ID, Location Name, Total Expenses, and Shopper Name. To the left of each invoice are three radio buttons, one of which will be selected. These buttons correspond to New, Pending, and Paid, and indicate the current status of the invoice.

Changing Status

There are two ways to change the status of an invoice on the View Invoices/Edit Status page - individually and in bulk.

To set each invoice's status individually, choose the Individual Selections Below option. You may then change the status of each invoice as desired, by selecting the appropriate radio buttons beneath the New, Pending, and Paid headers.

To set all invoices in the list to one status at once, select the desired status under the SET INVOICE STATUS TO header. This will update the status of all invoices that are not already in that status.

Export

You may create exports of any Pending or Paid invoices by checking off the EXPORT box next to the type(s) of export(s) you would like to generate. If there are both Pending and Paid invoices to export, they will be placed in separate files. For more information on export options, see the Display and Export section under Process New Invoices.

Processing

Once you have made all necessary selections and changes, scroll to the bottom of the page and click GO to update all invoices and create exports.

If you have chosen to create exports, and if there are any Pending or Paid invoices to export, you will see links to these files, labeled Pending Invoices or Paid Invoices, at the top of the list when the page reloads.

Note: The date an invoice is set to Paid is stored in the system for later reference. If an invoice is already set to Paid and remains at Paid when this page is updated, its Paid On date will not be changed. However, if the invoice is moved out of Paid status, and then set back to Paid, its Paid On date will be set to the current date.

Edit Payable Shops

This page is designed to allow you to quickly view and alter the payable status of one ore more shops. A shop may have been marked as not payable during the review process pending further response from the shopper. The Edit Payable Shops page displays shops that meet the criteria you select and allows you to easily change the payable status for those shops.

Invoice Selection

The first choice to make is which invoices to export. Invoices can be filtered by date range, client/survey, shopper PayPal preference, and status.

• Date Range: Invoices with a submit date within the range you specify will be included in the processing.  Submit date is used so that shops that may have been submitted after deadline will not be missed.
  
  
• Client: You may choose to process invoices for one specific survey, client or for all clients together.
  
  
• Shopper PayPal Preference: You may choose to process invoices only for shoppers who do or do not accept PayPal payments.  This could allow you to mark all shops for non-PayPal shoppers to not payable if you require that shoppers accept payments through PayPal.
  
  
• Status: You may select a start and end status for the shops you would like to view.  This allows further narrowing of your search criteria.
  
  

First, you can choose which status of invoices to view. You may view All Invoices at once, or only shops that are marked as payable or not payable.

You may also search for a specific invoice or set of invoices. You may search for a Shopper ID, Shopper Last Name, Location ID, Location Name, or Shop ID. When searching for a Shopper Name, Location ID, or Location Name you may supply a partial name or ID. To do an exact search, add a # sign to the end of the name or ID for which you are searching.

Once you have made your selections, click GO to view the invoices that fit your criteria.

Invoice List

You will then be shown a list of the invoices that matched your settings. Displayed at the top of the list are the date range you specified and the number of invoices found. After this comes each individual invoice, with its Client and Survey Name, Shop ID, Shop Date, Store ID, Location Name, Total Expenses, and Shopper Name. To the left of each invoice is a checkbox that indicates the current payable status of the invoice.

Note that invoices already marked as paid will NOT appear in this list.

Clicking on the headers above the list will cause the data to be sorted by that type of information.

Changing Status

To change the status of a shop, simply check or uncheck the Payable checkbox. To mark the entire list as payable, check off the box under the Payable header. If you then wish to mark the entire list as not payable, uncheck this box.

Once you have made the desired adjustments to the invoices, click GO to save your changes. Note that if you have selected to view only shops of one status those that were changed to the opposite status will no longer be displayed.

Shopper Tax Export

The Shopper Tax Export is designed to list all shoppers for whom you must send tax forms. However, it can be used to generate a list of shoppers who have earned more than any specified amount. If the amount is set to $0, you can view a list of all shoppers and how much they have earned within the time span specified. Do note that only the shop pay amount it taken into account on this page. Expenses and special expenses are not taxed and therefore are not included in the totals.

Invoice Selection

The invoice selection on the Shopper Tax Export page is very similar to the other billing pages. You may select a date range, and any invoices with a submit date within this range will be included. You may also choose whether or not to include invoices with a status of Excluded. Additionally, you may specify a minimum pay amount that shoppers must have earned to be included in the export. This amount defaults to $600, the amount someone must earn to be taxed in the United States. However, this amount can be changed to any other value.

Display and Export

If you would like to see onscreen a list of all shoppers that fit your criteria, leave the DISPLAY ONSCREEN box checked. To create an export file of the shoppers and their information, leave the EXPORT box checked. This will create a tab-delimited export file.

If you choose to create an export, you may choose what information to include in the file and how it should be sorted in the Include and Sort sections. To include or exclude certain information in your file, simply check or uncheck the boxes next to each type of information. You may also change the order of the information by making a selection in the Sort menus. Information will be sorted by the first option and then by the optional second option.

When you have made your selections, click GO to generate the list of shoppers.

If you have chosen to display shopper information onscreen, you will then see a list of all shoppers that fit your criteria. If you have chosen to create an export, you will see a link labeled 'Download export'. Clicking on this link will download the list of shopper information.

You may also click on 'Generate new report' to go back and make new selections.