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Syndik8

Send the bill

Send the bill

Section titled “Send the bill”

A syndicate bills once a month by default, on the last day of the month, and you can send the bill early whenever you like. This page covers choosing when charges fall due, and sending the bill yourself.

How a charge gets to Direct Debit

Section titled “How a charge gets to Direct Debit”

Three things happen in order, and each has its own control:

  1. A booking is finalised. Finalising turns the flying into a charge. The pilot can do it, it happens automatically 24 hours after the booking ends, and an admin can always do it. These routes sit side by side; see enable auto-finalisation.
  2. The charge falls due. A member can pay by card from the moment the charge appears. It becomes due either on the monthly bill day or, if you prefer, the moment it is finalised. Due is what Direct Debit collects, and members without Direct Debit get a “now due” notice and weekly reminders.
  3. Direct Debit collects it a set number of working days after it fell due. See collect by Direct Debit.

Before you start

Section titled “Before you start”
  • You need an admin role in the syndicate (a treasurer needs the admin role).
  • The settings are on Member billing and the action is on Bill members. Open the Admin tab: Member billing is under Money, and Bill members is under Actions.

Choose when charges fall due

Section titled “Choose when charges fall due”

Under When charges become due on Member billing, pick one:

  • On a set day each month (the default for a new syndicate). One bill a month. Charges build up through the month and fall due together on the bill day. A day picker appears under it; a new syndicate starts on day 31, which means the last day of every month. A day past the end of a short month bills on that month’s last day.
  • As soon as a booking is finalised. Each charge falls due the moment it is finalised, so Direct Debit may collect several times a month. The day picker is hidden and the scheduled bill day is cleared, so no “bill coming up” notice is sent for a bill that will never go out.

The change saves immediately and only affects charges created from that point on. Nothing already on the ledger is touched, so charges that were waiting for this month’s bill when you switch to As soon as a booking is finalised stay waiting until a bill is sent. If anything is waiting when you switch, Syndik8 asks Send the bill first? and says how much in charges is waiting (or that credits are):

  • Send the bill and switch opens the usual bill preview. Confirm it and the bill goes out, then the setting changes. Back out of the preview and nothing changes.
  • Just switch changes the setting and leaves those charges waiting. Bill members keeps the Send the bill now button enabled until you send them.

Closing the question without choosing changes nothing. Cash calls are unaffected either way: each member’s share reaches their balance, already due, on the call’s own due date (see issue a cash call).

If you pick On a set day each month on a syndicate with no day stored, Syndik8 sets the bill day to 31 for you.

The automatic monthly bill

Section titled “The automatic monthly bill”

With On a set day each month, Syndik8 sends the bill for you from 9am on the bill day, in your syndicate owner’s timezone. There is no separate switch: having a bill day is what makes billing automatic.

  • If the day you pick has already passed this month, the first bill goes out next month. Choosing a day never triggers an immediate bill. To bill sooner, use Send the bill now below.
  • A day or two before the run, if any bookings are still unfinalised, you get a heads-up so you can resolve them in time. Tapping it opens Unfinalised bookings, where you can finalise them.
  • At the run, everyone who is ready is billed. Anything still unfinalised is skipped, rolls forward to the next run, and you’re told how many couldn’t be billed. One stuck booking never holds up the whole syndicate’s billing.
  • If a run is missed on its day (say, during maintenance), it catches up at the next opportunity rather than skipping the month.

The monthly bill works best with Finalise automatically switched on, so flown bookings turn into charges before the run. If it is off, Member billing says: “Bookings nobody has finalised aren’t billed until an admin finalises them.”

Send the bill now

Section titled “Send the bill now”

Send the bill now is always on Bill members, but it is enabled only when something is waiting to be billed. A line under it says how much (“£400.00 waiting to be billed.”). When nothing is waiting the button is greyed out and the line says so: “Nothing waiting to be billed. Next automatic bill: …” on a syndicate that bills on a set day, or “Charges are due as soon as bookings are finalised.” where charges fall due as soon as they’re finalised. Charges from before you switched to that mode count as waiting, so the button is enabled for them.

  1. On Bill members, tap Send the bill now.
  2. Review the preview: how many charges are about to fall due; how many members will be collected by Direct Debit, with the total and how many working days from now that collection falls; how many are held up behind an unresolved Direct Debit collection of their own, with the total; how many members will be left to pay another way, with the total; and, if any bookings from before now are still awaiting finalisation, a count of those too.
  3. Tap Send bill to confirm. You see Bill sent.

Once confirmed:

  • Every charge that was still waiting for the bill and still owed falls due. One a member has already paid off by card is left as it is.
  • Any member with an active Direct Debit mandate and a due balance is picked up by the nightly Direct Debit run once the working-day delay has passed. There is no second button: the charges fell due, so Direct Debit takes them.
  • A member whose previous Direct Debit collection has not resolved yet is counted separately. Only one collection per member can be outstanding at a time, so nothing further is taken from them until that one clears, after which their balance goes out on the next run like anyone else’s.
  • Everyone else with a due balance is told straight away with a “Balance now due” notification, even if they had a reminder earlier in the week. It names what this bill made due and what they now owe in total, for example “£240.00 has become due; you now owe £340.00 in total.” While the balance stays unpaid a “Balance still due” reminder follows at most once a week. Collecting is left for you to follow up directly (a card payment, a bank transfer, or however your syndicate settles up). Recording an outside payment only applies when the member actually owes something: a balance that nets to zero (or to credit) needs nothing recorded.

Sending the bill again is always safe. A charge that’s already due is left alone, and nothing is collected twice.

Give Direct Debit members time to pay by card

Section titled “Give Direct Debit members time to pay by card”

How many working days Direct Debit waits after a charge falls due is Working days before Direct Debit collects, under Direct Debit on Member billing. It is counted from the day the charge fell due, and the collection request goes to the payment provider that morning. The minimum is one working day and the default is three, so for a bill sent on a Friday the collection is made the following Wednesday morning. The money leaves each member’s account a few working days after that, on a day the payment provider sets. See collect by Direct Debit.

Members can pay by card at any point, so a member who pays inside the delay has nothing left to collect.

Unfinalised bookings

Section titled “Unfinalised bookings”

If the preview warns about unfinalised bookings, sending the bill still goes ahead. It’s a warning, not a blocker. Finalising a booking can need judgement (a shortfall waiver, a custom charge, a tacho-continuity conflict), so sending the bill never does it for you. Finalise those bookings yourself, before or after, using finalise a booking or finalise multiple bookings at once.

If it goes wrong

Section titled “If it goes wrong”
  • The screen isn’t there. You’re not an admin on this syndicate. Member billing and Bill members are admin-only.
  • The preview says nothing is waiting for the bill. Every charge is already due (common when charges fall due as soon as they are finalised, or if you’ve already sent this month’s bill) and nobody is left owing anything. Confirming is disabled in that case. If members still owe money, the preview instead says “No charges will be marked as due” alongside who still owes, and confirming is allowed; it changes nothing on the ledger.
  • A member I expected to be collected shows up in the “pay another way” list instead. They have no active Direct Debit mandate, or they are no longer an active member: someone who has left still holding a live mandate is never debited. Who pays by Direct Debit, further down Bill members, lists every active member and whether they are set up; tap a member to prompt them. See collect by Direct Debit.

See also

Section titled “See also”