Recurring Sales Documents - Cost Control Software

Recurring Sales Documents 

Recurring Sales Documents is designed to save time and expedite recurring billing related to Contracts 

or to ongoing project. Recurring Sales Documents is ideal for businesses that bill for services on a 

contract basis. 

Many companies have to bill 

monthly or quarterly for various 

services or products that they 

provide. Rather than entering these 

Invoice manually each time 

products or services are provided, 

we set up a master file (template) to 

hold the document for recurring 

purposes. A periodic process, the 

frequency code, and the next 

occurrence date on the document 

header will trigger the master 

template to be copied to create a 

Sales Order or a Sales Invoice. 

A Contract number can be placed 

on the Master document and will be 

passed on to the posted history. 

Printing a report of posted invoices by Contract No. will give the user a profit analysis on a contract or ongoing 

project. 

Master documents can have a start and a stop date. A report based on the stop date will assist knowing 

when contracts are about to expire. The stop date will also prevent the master document from being 

copied past its expiration. There is an expired contract document screen to help maintain the master 

document file by allowing the deletion of expired documents by three methods. 

Recurring Sales Documents are different from Recurring Journals. Recurring Sales Documents allow 

you to have line transactions. You can sell items and resources (services) on a scheduled basis and 

have the details posted to Invoice History. At anytime one-time line entries can be added to the Master 

document. These one-time lines appear on the next generated document and are then dropped off the 

master. 

Examples of businesses that could use Recurring Documents are: 

Water and salt delivery services 

Lawn Care Services 

Swimming pool service companies 

Trash pickup services 

Companies with preventative maintenance contracts and even warranties, and many more. 

Benefits: 

Generate all Invoice Documents with one Periodic Launch. 

Generate routed to Sales Orders or Invoices based on Setup. 

Simplifies Invoice generation process. 

Reduces time to produce monthly billing runs.

Installation: 

PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE BEGINNING. 

THE INSTRUCTIONS AND OBJECTS INCLUDED HERE ARE FOR 

USE WITH AN ATTAIN 3.1+ DATABASE. 

WARNING!! These instructions require a working knowledge of the C/SIDE development 

system. There are no dependencies for other add-on products. You must have Sales & 

Receivables Invoicing at least. You will need the Sales Order processing for creating recurring 

orders. 

COMPILE ALL OBJECTS IN THE DATABASE AND RESOLVE ALL UN-COMPILED 

OBJECTS BEFORE STARTING THE INSTALLATION. 

Upgrade Information: If you are upgrading to Recurring Documents from Recurring 

Documents and Line Posting Dates the following information will apply. The Navision 

Attain database is considerably different than the 2.6 version of Navision Financials. 

Because of these differenced and in an attempt to offer similar functionality to that 

found in Attain, there are some objects additions and new functionality that you will 

need to accommodate as you upgrade. Recurring Documents provides for some new 

functionality. You can process recurring documents from the periodic menu. You have 

a view expired Contracts form on the Periodic menu too. The Master Contracts now 

have a start and stop date. The create recurring documents will not create a document 

that has passed it's stop date. Recurring Documents no longer provides for recurring 

Quotes and Credit Memos. 

Please note that we have added two codeunits and a couple of extra forms. See chart 

below with the list of objects. 

The following is a list of all objects that will be modified when the Recurring 

Documents is fully implemented. 

Type Count ID Name 

Table 1 36 Sales Header 

Table 2 37 Sales Line 

Table 3 112 Sales Invoice Header 

Table 4 113 Sales Invoice Line 

Table 5 115 Sales Cr. Memo Line 

Table 6 14005031 Contract Documents Setup 

Table 7 14005032 Contract Header 

Table 8 14005033 Contract Lines 

Table 9 14005034 Contract Header Comments 

Form 10 333 Sales & Receivables Menu 

Form 11 21 Customer Card 

Form 12 14005072 Contract Documents Setup 

Form 13 14005073 Contract Master Header 

Form 14 14005074 Contract Master Lines 

P:\Click here for Manuals\Recurring Sales Documents Instructions.doc 10/13/09 2

Form 15 14005075 Contract Comment Line 

Form 16 14005076 Contract List 

Form 17 14005078 Contract Check Credit New 

Form 18 14005079 Contract Documents Expired New 

Report 19 14005070 Recurring Documents 

(Processing) 

Report 20 14005071 Contract Docs by Customer New 

Report 21 14005072 Contract by Expiration Date New 

Report 22 14005073 Contract Docs by Type and Freq New 

Report 23 14005074 Contract Docs Sales History New 

Codeunit 24 80 Sales-Post 

Codeunit 25 14005032 Contract Doc. Release New 

Codeunit 26 14005033 Recurring Documents CU New 

Instructions for integrating Recurring Documents into your Database— 

Before starting, you will need to determine a couple of things about your database. 

• Determine if any of the above listed objects has been modified in the database in which 

you are going to add Recurring Documents Documents. This is easily accomplished by 

starting an import of the RecurringDocs_310b_ALL_090302.fob file. 

Always answer the import warning so that you view the import worksheet. 

If none of the objects listed above have been modified in the target database you can 

import the object file. When you start the import, you will get a different message than the 

one shown above that states that no conflicts were found, select yes to import the objects 

immediately or select no to open the Import Worksheet. It is recommended that you 

select no so the Import Worksheet will open in all cases. 

Even when there are no conflicts you will need to import the .FOB file in two(2) 

passes. 

1. Once the Worksheet is open, go to the Action column and select SKIP on all the 

“base” Navision objects, and make sure the Higher numbered objects 

(14004000+) have the “Create” or “Replace” action and then select OK. 

2. Next do the File, Import process again on the same .FOB file. This time use the 

“Replace All” Button to flag ALL the objects with the Replace action. This will 

guarantee that all of the objects in the .fob actually get imported. 

Please read the Tips and Warnings informational document at the end of these instructions 

before you continue. 

If there are conflicting objects the Import Worksheet will indicate which objects are in conflict. If 

you have any conflicting objects make a list of these objects. These are the objects you will 

need to hand integrate the Recurring Documents Documents changes into. Instructions for 


hand integration of individual objects can be found later in this document. Also see Change 

Log. 

If none of the objects listed above has been modified in the target database you can import the 

entire object file. Please make sure you do a replace all. Once the Worksheet is open, select 

“Replace All” and select OK. This will guarantee that all of the objects in the .fob actually get 

imported. 

If some, but not all, of the above listed objects have been modified in your database you can 

import the ones that have NOT been modified by using the Import Worksheet to indicate which 

objects to replace and which objects to skip. Choosing replace next to an object in the Import 

Worksheet will cause that object in your database to be replaced by the import object of the 

same number. Choosing skip will prevent the object in your database from being replaced. 

Select “replace” for all objects NOT on your conflicting objects list and select “skip” for all 

objects ON your conflicting objects list. Using the merge option is not recommended as a 

means of dealing with modified objects. Using this option could make your task much 

harder. 

If none of the objects listed above had been previously modified and you were able to import 

IN FULL without using the skip choice on any object, you can by-pass the following hand 

integration instructions and move right on to the FINAL SETUP section near the end of this 

document. If, however, you DID have objects that had conflicts and could NOT be imported 

use the following instructions to hand integrate the Recurring Documents Documents changes 

into these objects. 


SETUP: 

1. Go the Sales & Receivables Setup. Choose the Recurring Documents Choice. 

Use the screen below as suggestions for you setup. 

RM-ORDER stands for a new number series setup for the Recurring Order Masters. 

RMO-10000 last number used. 

RM-INVOICE stands for a new number series setup for the Recurring Invoice Masters 

RMI-10000 last number used. 

We have chosen to show that the Recurring Orders can have a different number series as 

regular Sales Orders by using a new number series code RS-Order. You can of course have 

recurring orders and invoices have the same number series as standard sales orders and invoice. 

Default Status is used for when Recurring Orders and Invoices are created. The Master 

Recurring documents must be “Released” before they are ready to be used in the Make 

document or create multiple recurring documents process. Use this Default Status for Copied 

Orders and Invoices to automatically set the status on the recurring created document. 

We have also put this Default status on the Recurring Masters so you can change it per specific 

document. The create recurring process will use the Default status on the Recurring Master 

Header when the process is running. 


RECURRIG SALES DOCUMETS 

ISTRUCTIOS 

Recurring Sales Documents are held in a Recurring Header and Recurring Lines Table. 

Recurring Documents are very similar to Quotes except that they have a Recurring Billing 

Frequency. There can only be ONE billing frequency code per document. If A customer has 

multiple repetitive billings from your company, and these bills recur at different frequencies, 

(One bill recurs monthly, another bill recurs quarterly) then each bill would be entered 

separately. 

Setting Up Recurring Documents: 

1. Go to Sales and Receivables Setup menu and find Recurring Documents Setup. (v3.7) 

V4.0+ 

Recurring Master entry area 

Recurring Setup area 


2. This will open the Recurring Documents Setup Form. From here you will enter a 

Numbering Series for each type of Document. Each field is tied to the No Series table. 

3. The first two fields are for the Master Recurring Documents. These fields will number the 

Recurring Master or template documents that you will be creating for the actual documents. 

Click on the lookup. This works just like the rest of the numbering throughout Navision. 

Create a new number series or choose one from the list. 

4. Once you have filled in the Master Numbers, you will need to complete the actual recurring 

numbers. These numbers will be used when an actual document has been created from the 

template. The number fields are identical to the Sales & Receivable numbers but will be 

used for Recurring Documents. You can use the same number series as Open Orders and 

Open Invoices or you can use a new number series to differentiate the Recurring Orders and 

Recurring Invoices from the Manually entered ones. 

5. When the Recurring templates are copied, what status will the Open Orders and Open 

Invoices be? The Default Status for Copied Documents will be first set here. As seen above 

the copied Open Orders will have a status of Open and the copied Invoices will be in the 

status of Released. 

This Default status for copied documents is available to change on the Recurring Master 

document’s header. When you change the default status on the Recurring master header it 

will only effect that one recurring master. 

6. Recurring Documents complies with Navision Attain’s Advanced Dimension structure. 

Recurring Header and Lines will have dimensions in the same way the Sales header and 

lines do. You are allowed to change the dimensions on both header and lines therefore you 

may want the edited recurring dimensions to copy to the open orders and invoices vs. 

recreating the dimensions as the open order and open invoices are copied. If you check the 

boxes in the setup area, this will mean you will use the dimension that exist on the recurring 

documents vs. recreating the dimensions when the recurring copy process occurs. 


7. You have completed the Setup for Recurring Documents so close the form. 

Create A Master Document: 

1. Open the Sales & Receivables Menu 

2. Click on the Recurring Documents menu button. Click on the appropriate document type 

and the form will open. 

3. Press F3 to insert a new document. The master template is almost identical to the Sales 

Order Document so most of the fields and functions will work the same. 

4. You are now on the No. field, press enter or enter a Manual No. If you enter a manual 

number, you must have the number series set to allow for manual numbers. If you leave the 

number blank and hit enter the No. field will be populated with the appropriate Master No. 

based on the Document Type. 

5. You now have a Master Document. Next, choose a customer you will be selling to. The rest 

of the customer information will be filled in automatically. 

6. Now it is time to fill in the Recurring Frequency. Select one choice from the option field, 

Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly. This field will preset the Recurring Date Calculation 


field. The Recurring Date Calculation Field is actually the field that will determine how 

often the document will be created. Weekly will insert a 1W in the Recurring Date 

Calculation field. Monthly = 1M, etc. 

7. The Recurring Date calculation field can be edited with a more complex formula. I.e. You 

selected Monthly and the default was 1M; However, if you want to make sure the next 

posting date always falls on the 10 th day of the following month, so you will edit the 

Recurring date formula to CM+10. If you do not need special date formulasw then no 

editing is needed. 

8. Recurring Documents can have a Contract No.. The Contract No. is just a way to associate 

one or more recurring documents together in order to analysis revenue and costs related to 

Contract business. 

9. Recurring Documents can have Start and End dates. Recurring documents will not be 

copied before their start date and they will not be copied after the end date. There is a report 

that will print a list of recurring contract documents based on the end date so you can 

anticipate the end of recurring revenue or service. The End date is also referenced when 

viewing the “expired” recurring documents from the Recurring Documents setup form or 

from the Periodic Activities menu. 

10. The “Posting Date” on a Recurring Contract Document is very important. This is the date 

that determines when the next recurring document will be created. If the Posting Date on a 

Recurring Contract document is after the WORKDATE when the “Make Document” or the 

“Create Recurring Documents” processes are run, then the recurring document will be 

copied. During the create process the “next” Posting Date is determined by using the 

Recurring Date Formula field on the document. For example if the Create recurring 

document is run when the WORKDATE is 01/05/02 and the Posting date on a document is 

01/01/02 and the Recurring Date Formula is 1M, the document will be copied and the new 

Posting date on the Recurring Master will be 1Month from 01/01/02 which will be 02/01/02. 

11. Fill out the rest of the header as if you were filling out a Navision Open Sales Document. 

12. Once you have completed the header, you will need to fill out the lines. This is a copy of the 

Navision Sales Lines. Some of the same line functionality is available with recurring lines. 

You will be able to insert Extended Text and Explode an item with a Bill of Materials, but 

you will not be able to reserve items or post transactions from this screen. The Recurring 

Documents is a template to assist the automatic creation of actual Sales Documents based on 

a frequency code. 

13. One Time Lines field – mark this field if you want the line to be on the document only once. 

If you mark the checkbox after the document has been created this line will be deleted from 

the Master Document. This feature will also work with the extended text and the bill of 

materials. Mark the line before you insert text or explode the BOM and all lines that are 

associated with the starting line will also be marked. 


14. Once you have filled in all lines for the master document, you are ready to create recurring 

documents. Recurring Master documents have a status of open or released just like other 

transactional documents. Recurring documents must be “released” before they can be 

copied to and order or invoice. 

15. You may also access Recurring Documents Recurring documents from the Customer Card. 

Drop down the Sales button on the Customer card and see two choices, Recurring Orders 

and Recurring Invoices. You can enter recurring documents from this location too. The 

advantage here is that the Customer is already selected. F3 enter on the recurring header will 

enter the next recurring master document no. and the customer no. and customer 

information. 

Creating (Generating) Recurring Documents: 

The Recurring document’s "Posting Date" is what determines the NEXT time this particular 

document is DUE to be copied to the Open documents area. 

The Document Date is typically the same as the Posting Date on a repetitive order. The Due 

Date, based on the Payment Terms is calculated from the Document Date. Shipment Date is 

also the same as the Posting Date. If these dates need to be different for some reason, you may 

need to edit the Recurring process “Create Recurring Documents” pertaining to the way the 

Master Recurring Document dates change when the actual recurring documents are created. 

1. Open the Sales & Receivables Menu. 

2. There are two ways to access the create multiple recurring documents process. Either from 

the S&R Periodic Activity Menu or from the S&R Setup menu then Recurring Documents 

Setup and then the Periodic Activity Button. Either way will get you to the same place. 

3. Select Create Recurring Documents and a request Form will open that will allow you to set 

the criteria for which documents will be created. 


4. Type in the appropriate criteria or run the report without filters. You have now created the 

recurring documents. Look at the Open Sales Orders or Open Invoices areas to see the 

documents that have been made. The least amount of filters will find more recurring 

documents. 

5. You may also do a “Make Document” when you are on a Recurring Master document 

header. Find the button “Make Document” at the bottom of the Master document. This 

works just like the Create multiple recurring documents but automatically sets the single 

document no. as a filter on the process. 

6. Recurring Documents must have a released status to be picked up by the Make Document or 

Create recurring document process. The Release feature is just like the Release Status on 

Sales Headers. The Release status protects the master document from being accidentally 

edited and or the Open status alerts you to when the master document is now completed 

fully. 

How Does the Process Work? 

When you click on the “Make Documents” button or the “Create Recurring Documents” a 

processing only type report is run based on user criteria. The report will look at the Master 

Documents Posting Date to see if the document needs to be created. If the Posting Date is 

before or on the system’s Workdate a document will be made. The copied document is given a 

recurring number according to the setup and the master document is updated to the next posting 

date. The next posting date is calculated based on the Recurring Date Formula. Example: A 

Posting Date is 01/01/02. The Recurring Date Formula is 1M. When the report is run and the 

document is created, the Posting Date on the Recurring Master will be updated to 02/01/02. The 

newly created order or invoice will have a status of open or released, based on the value set on 

the recurring master header in the field “Copied document default status.” 


After the Document has been created the process will delete all one time lines form the master 

document. This includes all BOM lines and Extended Text lines that were exploded from a 

“One Time Line”. 

How are Recurring Documents different from the Recurring Sales Journal? 

The Recurring Sales Journal only records a summarization of a bill. Recurring journal entries 

are better known as repetitive "charges". Examples would be monthly charges for continued 

service....cable TV, Internet, Support agreement, security monitoring etc. Most of the time 

the amount is a fixed charge that only varies when the customers adds or subtracts services 

being provided. Initial "start-up" invoices usually itemize the services, and then the repetitive 

charge description is usually very simple like "for monthly service fee." 

The recurring journal will not calculate the tax for you. Tax entries are entered on a separate 

line from the charges and you would have to hand calculate them. Recurring journal lines also 

do not interact with inventory or resources. The only way to notify the customer of the recurring 

charges is to send a statement. 

Recurring Sales Documents in contrast generally require a picking list, work order, or invoice 

format specifying the product or service to be delivered "monthly", "weekly", etc. We need the 

line item detail. Examples of Recurring Documents are rental businesses that involve 

maintaining the rental items.... plants, regular delivery of products...fuel, food, and regular 

delivery of service such a janitorial services. To determine which recurring method fits best, 

listen to how much detail does the client need to keep each period. Who needs to see the 

detail, and how long do they want to keep the detail. Will they want to track the product or 

service usage historically? If the items that you are billing have different tax rates, or you 

need to departmentalize the revenue, you will probably need to use the Recurring Documents 

rather than the recurring journal. 

If clients want to see USAGE of Products (Items) and or Services (Resources) then the best 

option is the Recurring Sales Documents. 

Reports: 

Recurring Sales Documents comes with four (4) standard reports. 

RecurringDocs Eval by Customer (#14005071) – This reports prints Recurring Order 

and Recurring Invoice detail by customer and gives an estimated monthly revenue 

evaluation. 

Recurring Docs by End Date(#14005072) - Print all recurring documents sorted by the 

end date or specify a end date range and find out whos recurring contracts are about to 

expire. 


RecurringDocs by Type and Freq (#14005073) – Get a recurring document list by type 

and frequency. 

Recurring Docs Sales History (#14005074) - This report will let you know the revenue 

collected by recurring document number. Specify a Sell-to customer number and date 

range and find our the recurring revenue for that customer for a period of time. 

Place these reports on the Sales & Receivables reports menu. 


Delete Expired Recurring Sales Documents: 

You will find this option on the Recurring Sales Setup screen. Go to Sales & Receivable Setup 

and take the Recurring Setup choice. On the Recurring setup form there is a Recurring Periodic 

Activities Button. There are two menu choices. One creates the recurring orders or invoices 

and the other choice takes you to a screen that views the recurring documents that have expired. 

Expiration occurs when the “End date” on a recurring master is older then the system’s 

Workdate. You can delete one at a time or mark several and delete them together. 

Posting to a Deferred Revenue Account: 

Recurring Sales Documents does not specifically hold functionality that involves posting 

to a deferred revenue. However, The following is a suggestion on how to handle posting to a 

deferred revenue account, if you have a client that requests this type of functionality, by using a 

little clever handling of Customer Posting Groups. 

First you need to post an invoice for the full contract amount (what ever is the deferred revenue 

term), i.e. if it is an annual contact (monthly amount x 12). This invoice is just entered totally 

separately and not part of the Recurring Sales Document functionality. I.e. just post a standard 

sales invoice. However, you must consider that the full amount would Debit the Accounts 

Receivables like you want it to, but what account will hold the Credit? The line Type would be 

Account (G/L) and the account you want the Credit to go to, would go in the No. field. I might 

guess that this account to be credited would be called "Deferred Revenue". 

Next we set up a Customer Posting Group that would hold the "Deferred Revenue" account no. 

instead of the Accounts Receivable account no.. The Recurring Sales Documents header would 

have to have this "Deferred Revenue" Posting Group instead of the Customer's standard posting 

group. The "lite" modification solution is that the entry person would change the Customer 

Posting Group field on the Recurring Document Header to the Customer Posting Group that 

contains the Deferred Revenue account. (Normally the Customer Posting Group field on the 

Document Headers are non-editable, however their is not a problem to allow this on a Recurring 

Sales Document.) Now when the Recurring Sales Document posts the Deferred Revenue 

account would be debited (reducing the amount that was originally credited by each monthly 

amount) and crediting the actual sales account(s). The Accounts Receivables account gets 

reduced, normally, as the payments are posted. 

If you wish a modification be made, then I would suggest that the Recurring Documents Setup 

contain the question.... Deferred Revenue Posting Group . Plus adding code that gets the entry 

made in this new field when the Recurring headers are created. This modification would be 

considered minor and can be quickly quoted. 


Recurring Sales Documents – Improvement 37.01 

Allows Declining Balance Entry on Recurring Documents 

See new Tab on the Recurring Documents Header: (Balance) 

Enter the Balance to Decline with Tax (Contract Amount) and the Number of Payments and the system will 

calculate the “Recurring Balance Payment”. 

Enter the lines and indicate on the line, which lines apply to the declining balance by checking the “Include in 

Declining Balance” field. The total of the lines Amount Including Tax will add up into the Header field called 

“Lines Declining Amount.” 

The system will compare the “Recurring Balance Payment” to the “Lines Declining Amount” when you Release the 

Document. If the two amounts do not match then you will not be able to Release the Document. 


See below after Document is released: 

The two fields must match: 


See Balance Tab is automatically updated when the recurring documents are posted. 

Credit Memos can be posted to a Recurring Document. 


Be sure to indicate that the line is included in Declining Balance reporting, and the Recurring Doc. No. is entered 

on the Credit Memo Lines. 

When the declining balance posted less any credits posted is equal to or greater then the total Balance entered on the 

Recurring Document Header then the system will automatically enter an Expiration Date. Notice the check box 

next to the Expiration Date on the Balance Tab indicates that the expiration Date was automatically enter by an 

internal coded functionality. 

If you have manually entered an Expiration Date then the System will respect that date and will not change it; 

however, if the Balance posted equals the total Balance, before the manually entered Expiration date, then the 

system will continue to allow you to create recurring documents. We would recommend that you do not enter an 

Expiration Date when using Declining Balance functionality. You can always use the Contract “End Date” if you 

want to “manually” prevent further posting based on a date, regardless of the Declining balance. 

Responsibility Centers: (RecurD4.00.02) 

Recurring Documents have the same filtering parameters as Sales Documents. If a user is set up 

with a Responsibility Center in User Setup then Navision will filter the Recurring Documents by 

that Responsibility Center just like is filters the Sales Orders. 

If you want the ability to have one person enter Recurring Documents for all responsibility 

Centers then that user will not have a Responsibility Center specified in the User Setup table. 

Also the person that runs the Create Sales Orders from Recurring Documents will need to be a 

user that does not have a Responsibility Center specified in the User Setup Table. The nature of 


creating documents when the user does not have a Responsibility Center specified is to create 

the sales document with a "blank" responsibility center. 

The code on the Sales Header and on the Create Recurring Documents processing report to carry 

the Responsibility Center entered on the Recurring Doc. over to the Sales Document as long as 

the user has an undefined responsibility center. 


Support on this product: 

Your local Navision Solution Center will provide support. Please contact them with any 

questions or comments. 

Thank you for following the procedures. We certainly hope you will find great benefit in the 

functionality that this add-on product provides. On behalf of Navision Software, all Navision 

Solution Centers (NSCs) and Navision Service Providers (NSPs) we thank you for your 

business. Do not hesitate to contact your NSC if you are considering modifications or are in 

need of new software functionality. There may just be another add-on product that will work 

for you. Ask your NSC about getting a complete list of add-ons available. 

Abbreviated list of Add-on products: 

Business Snapshot Plus 

Calendar Views 

Recurring Sales Documents 

Defaults Setup 

Fast Find 

Field and Control Security 

Line Comments 

Pop-up Notes 

Posted Line Lookup 

Direct Purchasing 

Reports Pack (36 Reports)

Recurring Sales Documents - Cost Control Software

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?