With the Group invoice module, you can create a combined invoice from delivery notes or sales orders from different customer addresses, billed to a central, separate address. Group invoices are relevant in a B2B context — for example, when you work with companies that have multiple branches or subsidiaries and a central parent company or group headquarters should receive the invoice from you.
Important
The Group invoice module is only available if you use Xentral on the Pro plan.
For more information about Xentral plans, visit our website.
You always create a new group invoice in the Group invoice module, where you first select the delivery notes or sales orders you want to combine into a group invoice.
For the following practical example, imagine you supply the REWE branches in Dorsten and Langenfeld with organic coffee. 100 units were delivered to the Dorsten branch and 150 units to the Langenfeld branch. You now want to create the invoice for the total quantity of 250 units to the REWE headquarters in Cologne.
Follow these steps to create the group invoice.
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Use Smart Search to open the Group invoice module.
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Select the delivery notes for which you want to create a group invoice.
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Scroll down and select the invoice recipient in the Invoice for field (in this case: REWE Zentrale Köln).
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Optional: If needed, use the options Add up identical items (combines identical products from different delivery notes into a single invoice line item) and Apply groups and subtotals (transfers subtotal positions from the delivery notes into the invoice) to define how product positions and amounts are listed in the group invoice.
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Click on Create.
The group invoice is created and automatically opened for further editing. The customer REWE Zentrale Köln is automatically pre-selected in the Customer field. The invoiced delivery notes disappear from the overview. If the invoice draft is deleted, they reappear and can be recombined. You can now carry out additional settings in the invoice as needed and then send it like any other invoice. The Free text field of the invoice is also automatically pre-filled with the reference Delivery note count: 2 in this case. You can also customize this text using variables. How this works is described in the Practical tip: Customizing free text for delivery note references section.
Tip
Do you need a refresher on working with and the available settings for invoices in Xentral? Take another look at our article on the topic Invoice.
Especially when you work with many headquarters or parent companies because you supply multiple branches, the filters in the Group invoice module help you quickly and easily find the delivery notes or sales orders to be invoiced.
The following table contains detailed information about the available filters.
Filter |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Country |
Filters by the country of the customer address. |
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ZIP code |
Filters by the ZIP code of the customer address. |
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Customer number |
Filters by a specific customer number. |
|
Project |
Filters by sales orders or delivery notes from a specific project. |
|
Group |
Filters by a specific customer group. For more information, see the article Groups and price groups. |
|
Only selected |
If you have already selected entries from the delivery notes or sales orders overview, you can use this filter to hide the unchecked entries, making it easier to navigate. |
|
From orders |
If you prefer to create group invoices based on sales orders rather than delivery notes, use this option. The list then displays sales orders instead of delivery notes. |
Xentral automatically fills the free text of the invoice with references to the included delivery notes. You can customize the text of these reference lines to suit your needs.
Note
The relevant variables are as follows:
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gruppenrechnung_lieferschein_freitext: Outputs the text per delivery note, with the placeholders {BELEGNR} and {DATUM} replaced automatically.
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gruppenrechnung_lieferschein_anzahl: Closing line with total count, with the placeholder {ANZAHL} replaced automatically.
Follow these steps to customize the free text for group invoices.
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Open the menu Settings > General settings > Documents > Translations.
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Use the Search field to search for the variable gruppenrechung_lieferschein_freitext.
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Click on the pencil icon on the right to open the variable for editing.
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In the Text from default language field, enter the text that should be displayed in the free text field of the invoice when a group invoice is created.
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Optional: If you create group invoices in multiple languages, make sure to select the German option in the Language field and enter a translation in the Translation field.
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Click on Save.
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Repeat the above steps for the variable gruppenrechnung_lieferschein_anzahl.