The purpose of this release is to introduce the Invoicing functionality for Groups module and other additional improvements.
For detailed information about our Groups module, check out this knowledge base section.
What is the Groups feature?
Groups provide hoteliers the functionality to grow and manage their Group Business and contracted Corporate business from within Cloudbeds’ hospitality management system.
This is an extended feature - If you are interested in this module, reach out to our support team at support@cloudbeds.com
Check below all the details about the new features of this release:
New Group Invoice Feature
After this release, it is possible to generate an invoice for your Group!
- In the Group profile page, click on 'Actions'
- Under the dropdown menu, you have the following options:
Once the user clicks on 'Generate New Invoice', the system opens a slide-out that allows the user to select which folio they would like to use to generate the invoice.
You may choose a specific folio or all folios, then click 'Continue'.
The user will be automatically redirected to Documents tab where all the generated invoices within a specific group will be stored.
![[PROPS4-3153] [FE] Add documents tab to the Groups component - Digiarb - Google Chrome](https://media.screensteps.com/image_assets/assets/003/364/263/original/34464b77-970a-4d94-a078-54102d2c81dd.png)
On the documents tab, users can click on the PDF hyperlink to view the generated invoice. On the generated invoice, you can see:
- Group profile name
- Group code
- Group profile address, if it is available
- Both posted and pending transactions from the selected folio(s)
- Options to download or print the invoice
- Transactions will be displayed on the invoice in the exact way the user sees on group folio
- If you make an update to the Group Profile information (email address, phone number, etc), all previous invoices will not be updated. In such a case, you must generate a new invoice.
Once the user clicks on 'Email Invoice', the system opens a slide-out:
- Select which folio you would like to use > Choose specific folios or all folios:
- If a user selects only one folio - an invoice will be sent based on that specific folio, not for the whole Group profile
- If a user selects all folios, an invoice will be sent for the whole Group profile
- Specify the desired email(s), in which you would like the email to be sent
- Click 'Continue'
If there's a contact email address entered in the Group Profile, the field will be pre-filled. If needed, you can change the email or add multiple emails separated by a comma
After clicking 'Continue', the user will see the following confirmation message:
Once you confirm, the email will be sent and the invoice will be also stored under Documents tab automatically
Here's how the email looks like.
Email Invoice Customization
The text on the invoice is a default text for the emailed Group invoice. In order to customize the default text:
- Click on 'Email Templates'
- Click the drop-down arrow and then select 'Edit' to make changes to the Group Profile Invoice template
Check out the following articles to learn more about Email Templates and
Invoice Language and Translations
| Has Country Specified | Has Email Template Translation? | Email Template Language |
|---|---|---|
| YES - Example: Italy | YES | Italian |
| YES | NO | The email will be sent using the property system language (specified under the General System Settings) |
|
NO |
NO |
The email will be sent using the property system language (specified under the General System Settings) |
The system takes into account the settings configured by the user on the 'Invoicing' Tab.
Take a look at the following article to check further details about Invoice settings: Invoicing - How to manage and use
Since there's no separate settings page for Group's invoices, check below which fields will be applied to them:
| Field Name | Applied to Group Invoice? |
|---|---|
|
Would you like the invoice to be generated based on the country the guest is from? This field determines the invoice language |
YES
|
| Title, prefix, starting index number, suffix, tax ID number | YES |
| Show legal company name | YES |
| Show the room number column on the invoice | YES |
| Default due date | YES |
| Show tax/fee specifics on the invoice | YES |
| Would you like the invoices to be generated immediately when a new reservation is created, or generate them manually? |
NO
|
| Use Compact Invoices | NO |
If the user clicks on 'Generate' or 'Email Invoice', and if the invoicing page has not been set up yet, they will see the following warning message.
If this happens, click 'OK' to close the message and proceed to set up your invoicing page
The system pulls the contact information from the 'Group Profile' tab to generate the invoice:
- If there is a contact associated with the Group profile and this contact has a business email address and work phone number available, this information will also be displayed on the invoice
- The home phone number will never be displayed on the invoice
- If the contact has both personal and business email addresses, only the business email will be displayed on the invoice
-
If there is more than 1 contact on the Group profile:
- The system will take the business email from the first contact
- The system will always select the business address when possible. If business email is only available for the second contact, the system will take the details from the second contact.
Other Improvements
Now it is much easier for the users to navigate between 'Reservations' and 'Group Profiles'.
When a user opens a reservation that is part of a Group Profile, they can click on the new Group profile hyperlink on the header, which redirects the user to the reservations tab of the specific Group profile.
On the general activity logs, the user can see a log entry each time an invoice is generated / sent.
Under the 'Change Made' filter, you can search for 'Invoices'.
