Introduction Understanding how Qargo manages order grouping and invoicing is essential for efficient operations. This article explains the key factors that influence how orders are grouped into trips and invoices, including the role of customer references and the 'order invoice group' field.
New Feature: Orders can now be automatically assigned to invoicing groups based on customer configuration
Configuration Options:
Field-based grouping (e.g., by postal code)
Time-based grouping (daily, weekly, monthly)
Optional conditional filters
Process: Groups are assigned when "Ready to invoice" task is completed
Flexibility: Manual assignment remains available and won't be overwritten
Customer References: While customer references can be reused across orders, they do not directly influence invoice grouping. Always check the 'order invoice group' field for proper grouping.
Note: Customer changes require manual intervention to recalculate the appropriate group
Order Invoice Group is separate to Charge Invoice group. For more details on how charges are grouped click HERE.
Setup Invoice group
It is now possible to have invoicing groups automatically assigned to orders. This can be done by configuring custom invoicing groups on a customer. The 'order invoice group' field is the primary determinant for how orders are grouped on an invoice. Orders with the same value in this field are automatically combined into a single invoice, while those with different values or no value are invoiced separately.
Invoicing preferences on the customer page should be set to Custom order grouping:
Grouping
This is the configuration that defines the grouping.
Field-based grouping: this can be used to define which field orders receive the same invoicing group
Eg: If group by = last delivery postal code, then all orders with the same last delivery postal code will receive the same invoicing group
Time-based grouping: this can be used to group orders on invoices by defining a time interval.
Eg: Grouping on a weekly basis, with date type 'first pickup date', all orders with the first pickup date in the same week will be put on the same invoice.
Date type: the date of the order that should be used for the time-based grouping
Time interval: time interval by which orders should be grouped
Conditions
Specify conditions for when custom order invoice grouping should be used.
Eg: Orders with the first collection in Belgium should be invoiced together, this should be added in the conditions:
Rules can be moved by using a drag & drop function to reorder them.
Invoicing group calculation and creating invoices
The automatic invoicing group gets determined and assigned to the order when the Ready to invoice task is completed. Even if orders share the same customer reference, they will not be grouped into one invoice unless they also share the same 'order invoice group' value. This ensures flexibility and accuracy in managing invoices.
However, creating and posting the actual invoice remains a manual process that the user controls, ensuring flexibility and accuracy.
Example of an automatically calculated invoicing group
Configuration:
‼️ For multiple rules, a 'first-match-wins' logic is applied. If all conditions in Rule 1 are met, that will be applied. If not, it will process the rules until all conditions are met.
Create invoice
When creating invoices, under invoicing preferences choose Consolidate per preference. When this is done, the orders with the same automatically assigned invoicing groups will be put on one invoice.
This step ensures that grouped orders are manually confirmed and invoiced, maintaining user control over the process.
Eg: Using the Time-based grouping, if the time interval is set to 'weekly', with the date being the Pick Up date, the system will calculate based on the Monday of that week, to group the invoices.
💡 Pro Tip: If you want to use invoicing groups but don’t want the automatic behaviour, it is also possible to manually assign an invoicing group to an order. If some orders have the 'order invoice group' field set while others do not, the system will generate separate invoices. This distinction is crucial for understanding why invoices may not align with customer references alone.
From the order detail page click on the Add consignment/info button
Or enable the Invoicing group column on the order list editing it in place.
When an invoicing group was added manually, this will not be overwritten by the automatically calculated invoicing group.
Manually setting the invoicing group from the order detail page
Visualisation of the invoicing group on the order detail page
Manually setting the invoicing group from the order list:
On subcontractors, the UI for invoice preference Custom order grouping has changed to be consistent with how it is displayed on customers.
kThe changes done here are only visual changes, no functional changes were done to the subcontractors.
If the customer on the order changes after the automatic invoicing group has been assigned, the system will not automatically redetermine the correct invoicing group.
To solve this:
After changing the customer
delete the current invoicing group
Revert the Ready to invoice task
Re-trigger the Ready to invoice task
This will then determine the new automatic invoicing group based on the new customer.
Below an example to clarify:
The following custom invoice grouping is configured:
The following 5 orders are created for the customer with the custom invoice grouping above:
Or-3123 and Or-3124 will be grouped together on the same invoice (invoicing group Belgium_2025-05-12_3089) because they both have:
the first pickup date falls within the same week
collection in Belgium
the same delivery postal code
Or-3131 will not be grouped on the same invoicing group as the first two because the first pickup date falls in a different week (20/05 → since the chosen time interval is weekly, this one will be put on an invoice group for Monday 19/05). The invoicing group created is Belgium_2025-05-19_3089
Or-3125 will not receive the custom invoice group Belgium because the collection is in the Netherlands. No invoicing group is assigned automatically when putting the order on Ready to invoice.
Or-3135 will not be grouped on the same invoicing group as the first two because the delivery location has a different delivery postal code (NL-6222 instead of NL-3089). The invoicing group created is Belgium_2025-05-12_6222
