Invoicing and finance
The month invoices itself
Completed journeys become invoices without anyone retyping them. Passengers, councils, the NHS, schools and block-booking organisations are billed from the same run of work, and volunteer mileage is worked out at the same time.
Billing without the back office
Nothing gets billed twice, nothing gets missed
The journey is already in the system: who travelled, how far, on whose contract and at what rate. Invoicing reads that rather than asking somebody to build it again in a spreadsheet at the end of the month. Costs are visible in advance too, so a passenger knows what a journey will cost before they take it.
Automatic invoicing
Invoices built from journeys already done
Every completed journey carries its distance, its passenger and its funding source. Invoicing turns that into a document without anyone re-entering it, so the month closes in an afternoon rather than a week.
Invoice
Built from the run, not from memory
Each line traces back to a journey somebody actually completed.
Batch run
One run, every payer
Passengers, contracts and organisations invoiced from the same pass.
Check
Unbilled journeys
The gap between what you delivered and what you charged for closes on its own.
Every kind of payer
Passengers, councils, the NHS and schools
Community transport rarely bills one type of customer. Fares from passengers, commissioned work for a local authority, patient transport for the NHS, SEND contracts for schools and block bookings from other organisations all run through the same system at their own rates.
Statement
Margaret Whitfield
A clear statement of journeys taken and what each one cost.
Contract billing
Billed to the right funder
Each journey knows which contract paid for it, so the invoice goes to the right place at the right rate.
Organisation
One account, many journeys
Block bookings collect onto a single invoice instead of scattering.
Sending and chasing
Out the door, and followed up
Invoices email themselves to the payer or print for the ones who still want paper. What is outstanding is visible without building a report, so chasing is a short list rather than a hunt through a spreadsheet.
Delivery
However that payer wants it
Email and print run from the same batch.
Outstanding
What is still owed
One list, ordered by how long it has been waiting.
Quote
Told in advance
Transparency before the journey, not an argument after it.
Online payments
Coming soonLet people pay the way they already pay
Landing with Vanguard. An invoice can carry a pay-now link through a provider you already hold an account with, and your BACS details for the people who would rather do it from their own bank. Whatever route the money takes, the invoice is marked off in the same ledger.
Payment
Through your own provider
Square or PayPal, connected to your account and your bank.
Reconcile
Marked off in seconds
Search by invoice number, passenger, driver or contract, then mark it paid.
Reminders
Overdue, without the phone call
You set the schedule once and the follow-up happens on its own.
Volunteer mileage
Paying drivers back without the paperwork
Volunteer mileage is money going out rather than coming in, and it is usually the slowest job of the month. Road XS works claims out from the journeys drivers actually did, and a driver can add the miles a diversion or a closed road cost them, so nobody is out of pocket and nobody is reconstructing a month of trips from memory.
Mileage claim
Kate H., March
Built from the journeys on the system, not from a notebook.
Reimbursement
Weeks, not months
Getting drivers their money back on time is a retention question, not an admin one.
Audit
The working is kept
Every figure traces back to a journey with a date, a driver and a distance.
Still deciding
The things people ask us first
If yours is not here, just ask. You will get a straight answer from someone who knows the software.
From journeys that have already been completed. The distance, the passenger, the funding source and the rate are on the journey record, so the invoice is produced from real work rather than typed up afterwards.
Yes. Passenger fares, local authority contracts, NHS billing, school and SEND transport and block bookings from other organisations all run through the same invoicing, each at its own rate and to its own payer.
Yes. A batch run produces every invoice for the period in one pass, so you review a list rather than build documents one by one. Invoices then email to the payer or print for anyone who prefers paper.
Costs are worked out from the journey, so they can be shown before the trip happens rather than arriving as a surprise afterwards. Passengers can also be sent a statement of what they have travelled and what it came to.
Online payments go through a provider you already have an account with, currently Square or PayPal, and settle into your own bank. Each one is recorded against the invoice with its transaction ID. Anything paid by BACS, cash or cheque you mark off by hand, which takes a search and a click. Online payments arrive with Vanguard.
It sits in the outstanding list with how long it has been waiting. You choose when reminders go out and how many, so the chasing happens without anyone having to remember to do it.
Not out of the box today, but the Vanguard rebuild makes these connections far easier to build, so a direct integration with QuickBooks, Sage, Xero or anything else with a decent API can be added on request. In the meantime invoice data exports to CSV and imports into your accounting software.
No. Automated invoicing is optional and the rest of the platform works normally without it. Some services run every penny through Road XS, others plan journeys here and bill elsewhere.
Mileage claims are built from the journeys drivers actually completed, at your scheme rate, so volunteers are not filling in forms and the office is not rebuilding a month of trips from memory.