One of the account setup steps is to build up the billing structure. You can have one or several billing entities - depending on your contract - and it is essential to populate the correct information for you to process invoices smoothly. For each billing entity, you also can create Cost Centers or Project Codes.
In this article:
- Adding a billing entity
- Linking a billing entity to a group
- Changing a billing entity
- Billing entities and invoices
1. Adding a Billing Entity
Regardless of the payment method you choose, it is mandatory to create at least one billing entity in your account. You can add billing information for the first order during the checkout process or you can pre-load billing entities onto your account.
To add a new billing entity, select Billing from the menu on the left side of the page, then click on Billing Entities and then click on Add billing entity.
When users start an order, they will be able to select a pre-saved billing entity from a list. The visibility over billing entities is defined at group level. This helps admins control expenses and ensure that the correct billing information is used - more on this below.
For billing entities used for invoicing, please ensure that correct information required by your finance organization is included to avoid delays in order processing. The mandatory information depends on the country for which you wish to have local billing. Currently, Gelato offers billing entities in 50+ countries and in 30+ currencies.
Important information to include
- Legal entity: Should include the full and complete legal entity name (e.g. ‘Gelato AS’ rather than ‘Gelato’)
- VAT number: Should match the country of the legal entity and t is needed in order to provide you with the accurate VAT information in case you have an internal process to follow for managing your tax payments. This is mandatory in the EU, while optional in most other countries.
- Organisation number: In some countries (e.g. Norway), this is a government registration number required for operation. It may or may not be different than the VAT number. This field is optional.
- Billing address: Should be the mailing address, which may be different from the delivery address. This should be the address that is registered to the legal entity that we are billing.
- Invoice recipient: The contact name should be the person receiving the invoice (e.g. John Smith), preferably not a generic department.
- Invoice recipient email: The contact email should be the main invoice mailbox of the department responsible for paying the invoices, preferably not a personal email (e.g. invoice@gelato.com rather than jonh.smith@gelato.com)
Note: Billing entity information for China and Russia must be entered in the local language. For China, bank information should also be included. For Brazil, the Federal tax ID or a State tax ID are mandatory fields.
Should you wish to upload several billing entities at the same time, you can use the Bulk billing import functionality through an Excel spreadsheet that you can download, fill in and re-upload to Gelato.
2. Linking a Billing Entity to a Group
Each new billing entity added in the system should be connected to a Group - if the group has Invoice as one active payment method - otherwise users will not see it in the checkout flow.
- Go to Team > Groups
- Find the group(s) for which this billing entity is relevant
- Search for it in the Billing entity field, add it and then click on Save group
- All the users from that group will now be able to select that billing entity during checkout
Note: You can link multiple billing entities to a group. In that case, the users of that group will be able to choose one of these billing entities during the checkout. Also, remember that if a user belongs to several groups, he/she will be able to use all the billing entities linked to all the groups he/she belongs to.
3. Changing a Billing Entity
To change the information of a billing entity, select Billing from the menu on the left side of the page, then click on Billing Entities and click on Edit next to any billing entity to change the details.
Note: You will need to have the permission Manage billing entities enabled in order to edit billing entities
4. Billing Entities and Invoices
If your account is set to pay on invoice, the invoice will be emailed to the email address included in the billing entity (unless agreed otherwise). Please ensure that your billing entity information includes the full legal name of the paying business entity (e.g. Gelato AS, Gelato Inc.) and the contact details of the associated finance department to ensure the invoice is processed smoothly.
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