Creating a monthly billing contract template which offsets a number of days

Overview

A billing contract template defines the cadence, dates and rules that drive how invoices are generated for a funder. When the template uses a monthly invoice generation frequency, you can apply an offset — a number of days before the chosen day of the month on which invoices should actually be generated. This gives finance teams lead time to review and send invoices ahead of the billing anchor date.

For example, with the anchor set to the 1st of the month and an offset of 14 days, invoices will generate on the 18th of the previous month for the period starting on the 1st.

What it is

The offset is a setting on the billing contract template that shifts the invoice generation date earlier than the configured day of the month, without changing the billing period itself. The billing period still starts and ends on the anchor dates — only the generation date moves.

Where it is

Found → Billing → Billing contract templates → Add (or edit) a template → Billing calendar step.

How to do it

1. Open Found and go to the billing module.

2. Navigate to billing contract templates.

3. Create a new template or open an existing draft.

4. Go to the Billing calendar step.

5. Under Invoice generation, set How often do you invoice? to Monthly.

6. Choose the day of the month the invoice anchors to in Which day of the month?.

7. Toggle Should invoices be offset? on.

8. Enter the number of days in the offset field. The label confirms the rule, e.g. "X days before the 1st of the month".

9. Pick the Start date — the date picker disables dates that don't match the offset-adjusted day of the month.

10. Complete the remaining template steps and save.

How it works

• The day of the month you choose is the anchor for the billing period.

• The offset tells Found to generate invoices that many days before the anchor.

• The first invoice's generation date is the start date you pick; Found internally rolls it forward by the offset to derive the billing anchor.

• For short months, the anchor day is clamped to the last valid day of that month (e.g. day 31 in February becomes 28 or 29).

• The summary on the template shows the cadence as "Monthly on the {day}, {offset} days before".

Rules

• Offset is only available when invoice generation is set to Monthly. It does not apply to weekly, daily, every 28 days, or in-advance (booking period) cadences.

• The offset value must be a whole number of 1 or more (toggle off if no offset is needed).

• The start date you select must align with the offset rule — non-matching dates are disabled in the date picker.

• A warning is shown if the chosen day of the month is 29, 30 or 31, because those days don't exist in every month and will be clamped.