Order billing
An order mixes fixed price, effort and flat rate, and proposes the invoice in one click.
Learn moreRecurring invoices: contracts that bill themselves.
Maintenance, licences and subscriptions are services that simply keep running. teamspace runs them as an ongoing contract that raises its own invoice every period and renews until someone cancels.
When contracts grow
Still a fresh order for every change to a contract?
- Every change gets its own quote and its own order.
- Sometimes two licences are added, sometimes some fall away, all in separate documents.
- Anyone who needs today's position has to piece it together from several orders.
- Contracts with different terms and discounts can hardly be brought together.
- A subscription invoice gets left behind because someone forgets to raise it.
teamspace runs recurring services as an ongoing contract that bills and renews itself.
The recurring contract
A recurring contract bills itself every period.
An order carries its contract data: it runs, pauses, renews or has been cancelled. From this comes a contract that raises its own invoice every period, monthly, quarterly or yearly.
Einmal eingerichtet, rechnet der Vertrag jede Periode von selbst ab und verlängert sich, bis jemand kündigt.
Included allowance
A maintenance flat rate brings its own included allowance.
Maintenance rarely sells as a pure hourly service. A flat rate includes a fixed number of service hours, and only the work beyond that is added to the invoice.
- A monthly flat rate covers four service hours, for example.
- Only what goes beyond the included allowance is billed by teamspace as additional work.
- The system counts the free time first, and bills the rest automatically.
That keeps maintenance predictable, without anyone reconciling hours against the allowance at the end of the month.
Change
Extra licences move into the ongoing contract.
When a customer orders two more licences, there is no need for a second contract. teamspace moves the service from the add-on order into the existing one.
- The additional line item is set passive and linked to the contract, so the reference stays traceable.
- The ongoing contract bills the additional service along at the usual rhythm.
- No order is left open just because one small additional line item keeps running.
Many individual changes become a single contract from which the current position can really be read.
“I save a lot of time writing invoices.”
Initial call
How are your contracts timed?
We look at your ongoing contracts: which services bill monthly, quarterly or yearly, and where teamspace raises the invoice for you.
Invoice run
The invoice run raises due invoices with no intervention.
Once the contract is set up, no one has to think about the invoice. An invoice run checks at a set rhythm which contracts are due, and creates the invoices.
- For each contract you set how far the run goes: not at all, as a draft only, checked, or finished and sent.
- At the highest level the due invoice goes out on its own, with the contact details from the CRM.
- Whatever stays open is taken over by the multi-stage dunning run.
Activate everything, and there is little left to do with the ongoing contracts at the end of the month.
Price change
A price change takes effect only from the next period.
Prices belong to the article, not to a side table. teamspace keeps one price list per customer, with tiers and volume discounts.
- An adjustment can be applied across many articles at once, not contract by contract.
- On request it takes effect only from the next period, so the ongoing billing stays stable.
- Tax rate and posting account belong to the article and are ready for the bookkeeping.
That keeps the price clean, from the price list all the way to the recurring invoice.
What remains
The contract keeps the beat.
Because every period comes from the same contract, teamspace answers the questions that a stack of separate orders leaves open.
- Cycle
Month, quarter, year
at the set rhythm
- Auto
Renewal
until someone cancels
- Free
Allowance included
rest billed automatically
- Filter
Due to bill now
shows the due contracts
Use cases
Where the contract reaches into the document.
An ongoing contract shares line items, prices and status with the rest of the document work.
Order management
Contract data, status and line items belong to the order, and the filter shows the recurring contracts.
Learn moreProduct management
A product bundles all document line items and shows who has been receiving which licence and since when.
Learn moreDunning
Open receivables climb through several stages, each with its own deadline and fee.
Learn moreE-invoicing
ZUGFeRD and XRechnung are created on dispatch, for the recurring invoice too.
Learn moreTravel expenses
Checked travel expenses land on the right order and on the customer invoice.
Learn more
Part of the invoicing software
The order is the billing hub.
An ongoing contract is an order that raises its own invoice again and again. Line items, flat rates and travel expenses gather on the order until it proposes the finished invoice. Quotes, dunning, e-invoicing and the DATEV booking data service run in the same system. The invoicing software overview shows how it all fits together.
To the invoicing softwareWhat it is about
What software for recurring invoices does.
Software for recurring invoices runs services that simply keep going as contracts with their own term: maintenance, software licences, managed services, rent and subscriptions. Instead of writing an invoice by hand for every period, the order runs as a recurring contract and raises its invoice at the set rhythm, monthly, quarterly or yearly.
The benefit shows in day-to-day work: the ongoing contract comes from the contract data and renews automatically until someone cancels. Order billing bills the single order alongside, with its mixed line items, and product management shows per customer which products they receive today.
We have been developing teamspace in Darmstadt since 1999. It runs in an ISO 27001 certified data centre in Frankfurt am Main, with data processing exclusively in the EU. The contracting party is 5 POINT AG, a German public limited company under German law.
Related modules
What the contract hangs on.
An ongoing contract draws from three modules and gives back to them.
Online time tracking
Hours logged on maintenance and service are the basis of every effort line item beyond the included allowance. Logging and billing run on the same employee.
- Project time and attendance
- Approval before billing
- Stopwatch, browser, web app
Project management
The project comes from the order, with budget, phases and team. Effort and flat rates flow back into the invoice.
- Project from the order
- Plan, actual and forecast
- Post-calculation on the order
CRM
Organisation and case record who holds which contract. The renewal becomes the sales opportunity.
- Contract view per customer
- Renewal as opportunity
- Full customer history
Initial call
We take your ongoing contracts apart once.
Show us a typical maintenance or licence contract. In a short conversation you will see how it bills and renews itself in teamspace.
Common questions about recurring invoices
How are recurring services billed?
Through time-based line items. The order runs as a recurring contract and raises its invoice at the set rhythm, monthly, quarterly or yearly. The contract data produces recurring contracts that renew automatically until someone cancels. More on order billing.
What happens when a customer orders two more licences?
You do not need a second contract. teamspace moves the service from the add-on order into the existing contract: the line item is set passive and linked to the target, so the reference stays traceable. The ongoing contract bills the additional service along at the usual rhythm.
Can a maintenance flat rate include free hours?
Yes. A flat rate includes an allowance, say four service hours a month. teamspace counts the free time first; only what goes beyond it is added to the invoice as additional work. That keeps maintenance predictable.
When does a price change take effect?
On request only from the next period, so the ongoing billing stays stable. Prices belong to the article, with tiers and volume discounts per customer. An adjustment can be applied across many articles at once, not contract by contract.
Does teamspace raise the invoices automatically?
Yes. An invoice run checks at a set rhythm which contracts are due. For each contract you choose how far the run goes: do not take part, draft only, checked, or created and sent automatically. At the highest level due invoices go out with no intervention, and whatever stays open is taken over by the dunning run.
How does this differ from order billing?
Order billing bills a single order with its mixed line items from fixed price, effort and flat rate. Recurring invoices run the ongoing contract, which bills and renews itself again and again over time. Both use the same document line items.
How do I keep track of what a customer receives?
Product management shows you the current position: a product bundles all document line items across all orders and shows per customer who has been receiving which licence, since when and at what price.
Can I see which contracts are due right now?
Yes. The order filter carries the categories Ongoing contracts, Recurring contracts and Due to bill now. So you can see at a glance which contracts have an invoice due, without searching through individual orders.