Creating a weekly billing contract template

Overview

A billing contract template in Found defines the rules used to generate invoices for a resident's stay — how often invoices are produced, when they are issued, what payment methods are accepted, and how the invoice itself is structured. A weekly template tells Found to bill in seven-day cycles rather than monthly, daily, or per booking.

Templates live at workspace level and can be reused across many subscriptions, so you set the rules once and apply them to every funder or organisation that pays on a weekly cadence (for example, a local authority that settles every Monday for the previous week).

This article walks a new business user through what a weekly template is, where to find it in Found, and how to build one.

What it is

A weekly billing contract template is a saved set of invoicing rules where the billing period type is set to Weekly. When you subscribe a funder to this template, Found will:

• Generate one invoice for every week of care.

• Use the invoice generation, issue date, due date and payment method rules you defined on the template.

• Apply your billing rules (such as how units are billed after a resident leaves) consistently for every subscriber.

Templates are reusable — one weekly template can serve many bookings.

Where it is

In Found, navigate to:

Operations → Billing contract templates

You will see tabs for:

• Individual — templates used for private payers (residents and their families).

• Organisation — templates used for organisational funders (e.g. local authorities, NHS).

• Custom — additional templates (available with Found Pro).

To start a new one, select Add template in the top right and choose either Individual or Organisation.

How to do it

The Add template sheet is a step-by-step wizard. To create a weekly template:

1. Details — give the template a name and (for organisation templates) link it to the funding organisation it applies to.

2. Contract — confirm the contract type and basic configuration.

3. Billing calendar — this is the step that makes the template weekly:

   • Set Billing period to Weekly.

   • Set the billing period start date — this anchors which day of the week each cycle begins.

   • Set the billing period value (e.g. every 1 week).

   • Choose your invoice generation rhythm. For weekly templates this is typically weekly as well; tick Same as billing frequency if you want it to match exactly.

   • Choose the contribution unit (how rates are expressed — for example, per week).

4. Invoice setup — set the invoice structure (individual or shared), the issue date and due date rules, accepted payment methods, and any invoice ID options. If Direct Debit is one of the payment methods, set the DD collection date rules.

5. Billing rules — define what should happen in edge cases: how many units to bill after a resident dies or moves out, whether offsite days are discounted, and which closure or cancellation reasons trigger credits.

6. Document — set the layout and branding for the generated invoice document.

7. Invoice delivery — set how invoices reach the funder (e.g. email).

When you save, the template appears in the Individual or Organisation tab and is available to subscribe bookings to.

How it works

Once a booking's funder is subscribed to the weekly template:

• Found pre-computes a row for every weekly billing period across the lifetime of the contract.

• A scheduled job moves through these periods and generates a draft invoice for each one when it falls due.

• The draft is a live projection of the current rate, any adjustments and any extras — it only becomes a saved invoice when finance issues it.

• Issued invoices are immutable. Any later changes (a backdated rate, a shortened stay, a discount applied retroactively) are recorded as adjustments and roll into the next weekly invoice.