Creating a fixed monthly billing contract template

Overview

A billing contract template in Found is a reusable template that defines how care fees are invoiced for a stay. Each template sets the cadence (how often invoices are generated), the invoice structure, payment methods, ID format, and the rules that govern what happens at closure or cancellation.

Once a template exists, finance can subscribe a funder on a booking to it, and Found pre-computes every billing period over the contract's lifetime and bills against them automatically.

The fixed monthly billing period is one of five recurring cadences (the others being weekly, calendar monthly, every 28 days, and daily). It charges the same amount every full month regardless of whether the month has 28, 30, or 31 days. The amount is calculated as daily rate × 365 ÷ 12, so the annual total matches the daily rate. Partial months (for example, when a stay starts or ends mid-month) are pro-rated using the actual number of days in that month.

Use fixed monthly when a funder wants predictable, level monthly billing that doesn't fluctuate with calendar month length.

Where to find it

Navigate to Operations → Billing contract templates in the main side navigation. This is also accessible from a contact or organisation record under their Billing contract templates tab when the template is being set up for a single payer.

How to create one

1. From Operations → Billing contract templates, click Add billing contract template. Choose whether the template is for an individual or an organisation.

2. Locations step — select the care homes the template applies to.

3. Billing calendar step — this is where the cadence is set.

   • Set Billing period to Fixed monthly.

   • Choose the day of month the billing period starts on (for example, the 1st).

   • Set the billing period start date — this must fall on the chosen day of month.

   • Configure invoice generation (in advance, monthly, weekly, daily, or every 28 days) along with the generation start date, day of month, and optional offset.

   • Found shows a confirmation banner explaining the fixed monthly calculation: "Each month will be charged at a fixed amount: daily rate × 365 ÷ 12. Partial months use actual days."

4. Invoice setup step — choose the invoice structure (individual or shared), issue date type, due date type, payment methods (BACS, direct debit, etc.), service user identification method, and invoice ID format.

5. Billing rules step — set the rules that govern edge cases: invoice units after death, invoice units after move-out, offsite discount behaviour, and the closure and cancellation reasons that trigger credit notes.

6. Review the summary and save. Found will generate the template and make it available for new subscriptions.

Rules

• A fixed monthly template must use a recurring invoice generation type — booking period in-advance generation is reserved for one-off respite billing.

• The billing period start date must fall on the chosen day of month.

• A day of month between 1 and 31 must be selected. If a month is shorter than the chosen day (for example, the 31st in February), the period end is clamped to the last day of that month.

• The template lives at workspace level and can be reused across many subscriptions and locations.

• Templates can be archived but not deleted once subscriptions exist against them.