In a collective invoice, several customer orders are settled in a single invoice. A collective invoice should be used if you receive orders from a single customer on a permanent basis and then want to invoice them together at regular intervals.
Why should a collective invoice be created?
Instead of sending several individual invoices to the customer, a collective invoice can e.g. B. to summarize different deliveries to the same customer in one invoice. Creating a collective invoice saves time in processing and also causes fewer postings for the bank and customer account than if each individual invoice had to be posted.
An example of a collective invoice
In one week, the customer orders a wide variety of products several times. All ordered and delivered products are summarized in the collective invoice and then billed to the customer. Even the electricity bill from the provider, from which you get electricity around the clock, is a collective bill, because the consumption is calculated in the bill for a certain period of time.
What must a collective invoice contain?
The following information must at least be included on the collective invoice:
- The sum of the fees
- The sum of sales tax
- The billing cycle
- The individual bills – because this results in the remaining mandatory information for the bills
Does the performance or delivery date have to be on the collective invoice?
The answer here is “yes” – according to the VAT Act, the service or delivery date must be on the collective invoice – or on every invoice. Otherwise the customer risks his input tax deduction. If you want to send several individual invoices to customers, a collective invoice can e.g. B. In order to receive a wide variety of deliveries to d
Delivery or service date: what is it?
There are regulations as to which point in time is considered the delivery or service date:
The delivery date for goods
In the case of the delivery of goods, the time of handover is the delivery date. If goods are sent via a third party, for example a shipping service, then the shipping date is decisive in this case.
The performance date for services
If you work as a service provider, it is advisable to arrange an acceptance date with the customer. This date is then also the point in time when the service is provided.
A tip: As a rule, services extend over a longer period of time and as a service provider you often have to pay in advance. To get around this, it is best if the agreement of partial acceptance, a deposit or partial invoice is created.
The general rule is that the delivery or service date does not have to be specified exactly to the day. It is quite sufficient if the invoice includes details of the exact month, such as “Deliveries in July 2020”, and then encloses the corresponding delivery notes with the collective invoice.
But watch out, because sometimes it is worthwhile to choose the date wisely, because depending on the time window in which the delivery falls, the sales tax to be paid to the tax office for a company with “debit taxation” may be due sooner or later.
The service date must be correctly stated on the invoice.
According to ezhoushan, the customer must always be able to clearly see the time of delivery or service from the collective invoice . Even if the delivery date corresponds to the invoice date, in this case it is okay to have a blanket notice in place of the delivery date, such as “service date corresponds to invoice date”.
You also have the option of referring to the delivery notes or a corresponding list. However, a clear description must be used here in the case of the delivery note, then with the delivery note number.
There are four ways to indicate the delivery date on the collective invoice:
- Specification of a delivery note or a performance date
- A general note: the service date corresponds to the invoice date
- Reference to the delivery note containing the date of delivery
- Reference to the delivery note date of the delivery note that does not contain the delivery date: The delivery note date corresponds to the delivery date.
From a legal point of view, whether the service date or the delivery date is written is not important, but in most cases the delivery date relates to the actual delivery of the goods.
