Central control
Catch errors at draft. Fixing a charge here is the difference between a quick edit and a credit note next month.
Central & Volume Billing
The work happens everywhere. The billing stays in one place.
Central Billing is a configurable platform for businesses that invoice national-account customers for work carried out by a network of independent service providers. It validates, prices and approves every document before it reaches a customer or your ledger, then delivers it through Acume as an eInvoice or PDF.
Connects to Acume
eInvoice or PDF delivery
Configurable per contract
Full audit trail
01 – The problem
Where multi-party billing leaks.
When one job touches a customer, a service provider and your own ledger, the billing splits into several transactions that have to reconcile. Run that by hand, at volume, and the cost is rarely in any single step. It is in the chasing, the re-keying and the credits left sitting on provider accounts.
01
Quote chased by email
The provider quotes the customer and waits for a reply before any work can be approved.
02
PO captured by hand
The customer’s purchase order arrives by email and is keyed into a spreadsheet or the ERP.
03
Charges re-entered
Products and services are typed again to raise the customer invoice, with no line-level check.
04
Provider carries a credit
The provider is settled with a credit note that lingers on their account instead of being paid out.
05
Reconciled at month-end
Finance untangles sales, stock and provider settlements after the money has already moved.
Every charge is handled three times before anyone confirms it is correct. The cost is the handling, not the work. Observed in the field
02 – The workflow
Six controlled stages. No bypass.
Central Billing sits between job completion and financial impact. Every billing document moves through the same path and is validated, approved and audited before it leaves the system. Nothing reaches your customer or your ledger by accident.
01
Draft
02
Validate
03
Line items
04
Approval
05
Ready
06
Process
Structured approvals
Asset, customer and line-level validation, then sign-off, on every document. Approved is approved. It does not drift.
Live visibility
Real-time spend across documents, customers and assets, with a timestamped audit trail that is a by-product of the workflow.
03 – The transaction
One job, four transactions.
A central billing transaction moves from supply through to the end customer, with a buy-back in between. Each stage carries its own GL coding, financial allocation and ownership, so the money is correctly attributed at every step rather than reconstructed afterwards.
Stage 01 · Supply in
Stock acquired
Goods are purchased into stock against the supplier, logged to a stocked item code.
Stage 02 · Sale to provider
Supplied to provider
A wholesale invoice is raised to the service provider for the goods supplied.
Stage 03 · Buy-back
Bought back fitted
Once the work is done, the fitted goods are bought back from the provider through a reciprocal transaction.
Stage 04 · Invoice out
Invoiced to customer
The final central billing invoice is issued direct to the national-account customer.
Closing the loop
When the work is complete, Central Billing raises a purchase order back to the service provider so they invoice and get paid cleanly, rather than carrying a credit that sits on their account. The provider is settled the way they expect to be, and your payables stay clean. A dealer-credit model is also supported where that is the agreed arrangement.
04 – How it connects
One closed loop, end to end.
Master data flows from your systems into Acume and on to Central Billing. A job is raised, completed and billed. The customer is invoiced, the service provider is issued a purchase order, and that provider’s invoice returns through Acume to be matched and settled. Money in and money out, on one trail.
05 – Pricing
Pricing that follows the contract, not the SKU.
Three configurable layers drive every transaction: commission by product category, customer tier matrices, and the loaded price file that results. Renegotiate a contract without rebuilding your catalogue, and keep the historical record intact when terms change.
Step 01 · Source
Wholesale price source
- Item number, size and brand
- Description and product type
- Wholesale price per item
- Imported from your price feed
Step 02 · Calculation
Commission & tier rules
- Add category commission to wholesale
- Produce the provider credit value
- Add the customer tier markup
- Produce the customer invoice value
- Surface the margin on every line
Step 03 · Output
Loaded price file
- One price file per customer
- Drives invoicing and supplier payments
- Profit visibility per transaction
- Exception-based pricing controls
- Audit-ready price history
Worked exampleA single priced line, end to end
Wholesale
$506
+ Category commission
$556
Provider credit · T1 / T2
$590 / $556
Customer invoice · T1
$604.80
Rule
Invoice value always exceeds the credit, so margin is visible before send.
Tier markups are configured to suit your contracted rates. Service codes such as fitting, alignment, disposal and call-out are set up separately with GST handling and part numbers.
06 – Operating models
Run it from Head Office, or the field.
A job moves through seven stages: request, allocation, creation, entry, draft confirmation, invoice creation and provider payment. Central Billing supports two operating models, and the only thing that changes is where job allocation and creation sit. Head Office keeps financial control in both.
| Scenario 01 · Customer priced, Head Office managed | Request | Allocate | Create | Entry | Confirm | Invoice | Pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Customer | · | · | · | · | · | · | |
| Head Office | · | · | |||||
| Service provider | · | · | · | · | · | · |
Channel · Head Office managed call centreCapability · Quote, allocate and follow up centrally
| Scenario 02 · Customer unpriced, provider managed, HO confirmation | Request | Allocate | Create | Entry | Confirm | Invoice | Pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Customer | · | · | · | · | · | · | |
| Head Office | · | · | · | · | |||
| Service provider | · | · | · | · |
Channel · Customers contact providers directlyBenefit · Faster allocation locally, financial control retained
07 – The control layer
The control layer behind every invoice.
Customers, suppliers, products, services and user access are all governed centrally. Head Office sees everything. Each service provider sees only what it should.
Customers & suppliers
One source of truth for every customer and provider relationship. Control credit status, terms and which providers see which customers.
Products
Tiered pricing per provider, agreement and customer cohort. Retire a line without breaking past invoices or the audit trail.
Services
Service revenue tracked on its own ledger, separate from products, so margin and attach rates stay clear without spreadsheet work.
User access
Every provider user gets unique credentials through a logged, three-step activation. Administrators set the permission ceiling.
08 – Volume billing
Compile high-volume billing, deliver it clean.
The same engine assembles recurring and annuity billing at volume. Use Central Billing to aggregate and collect the source data, apply the contract logic, then feed it into Acume for delivery as an eInvoice across the Peppol network or as a PDF. One compilation step, one delivery channel, one audit trail.
Aggregate the source
Collect transactions, usage and charges across the period into a single structured set, ready for billing.
Check before send
Validate the billing file against the contract so what goes out is correct the first time. No MIA files.
Deliver through Acume
Send as a Peppol eInvoice or a PDF, with supplementary billing detail attached where the customer needs it.
09 – The outcomes
What changes when billing becomes a workflow.
70%
Less time on billing exceptions
Validation at draft means errors are resolved on the spot, not chased through credit notes, emails and reconciliations.
100%
Approval & audit coverage
Every document, every approver, every change. The audit trail is the workflow, not a separate month-end exercise.
1
Control point, not a patchwork
One workflow, one access model, one source of truth, in place of spreadsheets, email approvals and ad-hoc rules.
Connects to Acume & integrates with
Xero
MYOB
X2 Framework
Costar
Abel
and a growing list via API or SFTP
Next step
See it on your own billing.
A real conversation about how your central and volume billing runs today. We will walk your transaction flow with you and show Central Billing against your contracts, your providers and your delivery, and you decide from there.
Australia · Sales
Justin Deacon
0434 409 028
justind@streamlinebusiness.net
New Zealand · Sales
Shane Wills
+6421 276 0646
shane@acumelimited.com