Billing is the one finance process that customers see every month, and they notice every mistake. Most billing errors don’t come from the billing system. They come from what fed it: a contract change that never reached finance, usage data pulled before the period closed, a discount that should have expired, a customer whose tax status changed. This free billing run checklist gives billing teams, finance managers and controllers a monthly cycle for raising customer invoices. It cuts off contract and usage data, applies new, changed and cancelled contracts, checks pricing, proration and tax, reviews every draft before it goes out, routes credit notes and re-bills through an approval, and finishes by posting the run, reconciling it to the ledger and deferred revenue, and handing it to collections. A usage phase appears only when you bill for consumption, and the credit note phase appears only when a correction is needed.
Three finance processes deal with invoices, and they are easy to confuse. The billing run raises invoices to your customers. Invoice approval is the reverse: checking and authorising the invoices your suppliers send you. Collections starts once your invoices are out, and makes sure they are paid. This checklist covers only the first. It ends where collections begins, with a clean list of invoices sent and any disputes already known.
Keeping them separate matters because the risks differ. In billing the danger is under-billing, over-billing and invoices customers can’t pay because a PO number or tax detail is wrong. Those errors are cheapest to fix before the invoice is sent.
| Process | Direction | Main risk | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Billing run (this checklist) | Invoices you raise to customers | Missed, wrong or late invoices | Billing or revenue operations |
| Invoice approval | Invoices suppliers send to you | Paying for something not received or not agreed | Accounts payable |
| Collections | Payment of invoices you raised | Overdue debt and bad debts | Credit control |
Seven phases run from cut-off to hand-off. Phase 3 appears only when the run includes usage-based charges, and Phase 5 only when a credit note or re-bill is needed.
Changes that arrive after the cut-off go into next month’s run. Agree that rule with sales and customer success once, and hold to it.
Shown only when the run includes usage, metered or consumption-based charges.
Shown only when a correction is needed. A sent invoice is never edited or deleted; it is credited and reissued.
The calendar assumes invoices are dated on the first working day of the month. Move it to suit your billing date, but keep the gaps: the cut-off has to come before the data is extracted, and the review before anything is sent.
The contract list is frozen. New, changed and cancelled contracts received before the cut-off are applied; anything later waits a month.
Usage is extracted once the period has closed, reconciled and rated. Draft invoices are generated and the run total is compared with the expected figure.
Tax, contents and the largest invoices are checked, the run is approved and invoices go out through each customer’s channel.
Bounces and portal rejections are resolved, and approved credit notes and re-bills are issued.
The run is posted and reconciled, deferred revenue is updated for the month-end close, and collections receives the list of invoices sent.
Tax on invoices depends on where you and your customers are. In the UK, a VAT invoice normally has to be issued within 30 days of the tax point and show, among other things, your VAT number, the rate and the amount of VAT. In the US, a seller can owe sales tax in a state without a physical presence there once its sales pass that state’s economic nexus threshold, following the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, and whether software and services are taxable varies by state. Keep exemption certificates on file for customers you don’t charge.
E-invoicing is becoming mandatory. Belgium has required structured e-invoices between Belgian VAT-registered businesses since 1 January 2026. France’s reform began on 1 September 2026, when all businesses had to be able to receive e-invoices and large and mid-sized ones to issue them. Germany has required businesses to accept e-invoices since 2025 and is phasing in the obligation to issue them. The UK plans to require e-invoices for all VAT invoices between businesses from April 2029, and from 1 July 2030 the EU’s VAT in the Digital Age package requires them for cross-border business sales within the EU.
Billing is not revenue. Under ASC 606, IFRS 15 and, for periods beginning on or after 1 January 2026, the revised Section 23 of FRS 102, revenue is recognised when performance obligations are satisfied, not when an invoice is raised. Annual upfront billing creates deferred revenue; work delivered before it is billed creates a contract asset or accrued income. That is why Phase 7 updates both.
A monthly schedule creates the checklist three working days before the billing date, with the cut-off, draft review, send and reconciliation tasks already assigned and dated. A missed cut-off shows as overdue before any invoice is late.
The run is released only when the finance reviewer answers Approved, and credit notes and re-bills go to the same reviewer for a separate approval before they are issued. The reason and the approver are recorded against them.
Answer the scope questions and the usage phase, the e-invoicing task and the credit note phase appear only when needed. Contract lists, usage reconciliations and the ledger reconciliation are attached to their tasks, ready for the month-end close and the auditors.
Billing ends where collections begins. The Accounts Receivable & Collections Checklist picks up every invoice this run sends, and the Invoice Approval Workflow Checklist covers the other direction: the supplier invoices you pay.
The billing run feeds the rest of the month. Its deferred revenue and receivables postings go into the Month-End Close Checklist, and UK businesses carry the VAT it charges into the VAT Return Checklist.
A billing run is the regular cycle in which a business raises invoices to its customers, usually monthly. It covers cutting off contract and usage data, applying changes since the last run, generating and reviewing draft invoices, sending them, and posting the result to the ledger. Subscription and service businesses run it on a fixed date so customers are invoiced consistently.
Billing raises the invoice. Accounts receivable makes sure it is paid: applying cash, chasing overdue invoices and handling disputes. They share data but not tasks, so CheckFlow keeps them as separate templates. The Accounts Receivable & Collections Checklist starts where this one ends.
Yes. A credit note reduces revenue and receivables, so it is an obvious route for errors and for fraud. Every credit note and re-bill should have a recorded reason and be approved by someone other than the person who requested it, and a sent invoice should be credited and reissued rather than edited or deleted.
The tax on each invoice, the legal entity, PO number, payment terms and bank details, an unbroken number sequence, and a reconciliation of the run total to last month’s billing plus contract changes. Review the largest invoices and every new or changed contract line by line. Correcting a draft costs minutes; correcting a sent invoice costs a credit note and usually a late payment.
Two or three working days before the invoice date is common. That leaves time to apply contract changes, extract usage once the period has closed and review the drafts. Whatever you choose, publish it to sales and customer success and keep to it: a change that arrives after the cut-off goes into next month’s run or is billed separately with approval, not squeezed into a run that has already been reviewed.
Yes. Recurring subscriptions are handled through the contract changes phase, including proration, renewals and cancellations. If you bill for consumption, answer Yes to the usage question and a separate phase covers extracting, reconciling and rating usage before the invoices are generated.
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