Set up recurring billing
Create schedules that generate invoices automatically for retainers, storage, and maintenance agreements.
For anything you bill on a clock — monthly maintenance agreements, lot storage, fleet retainers — set up a recurring schedule once and Meridian generates the invoice each cycle. No calendar reminders, no re-keying the same line items every month.
Included in Parts & Service and Enterprise
Recurring billing is part of the back-office pack. On a Shop or Mobile edition the screen opens but generating a bill is refused. See your edition and what's included.
Open Recurring Billing. In the sidebar, expand Accounting and click Recurring Billing. The cards show Active Schedules, Due Now, Due This Week, and the total Monthly Value of everything on autopilot. Below, schedules are split into a Due Now section and an Upcoming section.
Start a new schedule. Click New Schedule. Under Search Customer, type to find the customer, then give the schedule a Description — this is what the customer sees on the invoice, e.g. "Monthly maintenance fee".
Set the cadence. Pick the Interval — Monthly, Bi-Monthly, Quarterly, Semi-Annual, or Annual — or type a custom number of days. Then set the First / Next Run Date, the day the first invoice should generate.
Add the line items. In Line Items, click Add line for each charge. Pick the line type — Labor, Part, Fee, Sublet, or Supply — and set the Description, Qty, and Price, exactly as they should appear on each generated invoice. Leave Taxable checked where tax applies. Tick Send email to customer when invoice is generated if you want each invoice emailed automatically.
Save it. Click Create Schedule. It joins the list, and when its run date arrives it moves into the Due Now section and generates the invoice on schedule.
Generate one early when you need to. To bill ahead of the next run date, click Run on the schedule's row (its tooltip reads "Generate invoice now"). Meridian creates the invoice immediately and opens it, then rolls the schedule's next run date forward by one interval.
Stop a schedule. Open the schedule's menu and choose Deactivate. Future invoices stop generating, but every invoice it already produced stays on the customer's account and in your history.
What happens behind the scenes
When a schedule comes due — on its own or when you click Run — Meridian creates a finished, invoiced order for that customer using the line items you set, then advances the schedule's next run date by its interval. That invoice is real the moment it's generated: it lands on the customer's account, shows up in their balance, and flows into your AR aging and month-end statements like any other invoice. If you ticked the email option, the customer gets a copy automatically. Deactivating a schedule only stops future invoices; the ones it already created are untouched, so your history and receivables stay intact.
Troubleshooting
Check its Next Run Date — an invoice generates on or after that date, not before. A schedule you've deactivated won't run at all; reactivate it or create a new one. To bill immediately regardless, use Run on the row.
Automatic emailing only happens when Send email to customer when invoice is generated is checked on the schedule, and the customer needs an email address on their record. Open the schedule to confirm the box is ticked, or send the invoice manually from the order.
Use Deactivate, not delete. It stops all future runs while leaving every invoice the schedule already generated in place on the customer's account and in your reports.
Edit the schedule and fix its Line Items — quantity, price, or the lines themselves. Your changes apply to future runs. Invoices already generated are separate documents; correct those on the order itself.
Related
The daily QuickBooks Desktop export
Map your accounts once, then export a daily General Journal file and import it into QuickBooks Desktop without double-posting.
First-week setup checklist
Set up your shop in Meridian, in order: shop profile, locations, tax, labor rates, users, employees, parts basics — then go live.