Who pays the invoice? How to handle "Clients" who aren't the "Client" when it comes to paying the invoice

Use the "Bill To:" feature

Overview

One of JGID's most powerful features is the ability to separate who manages the work, where the work is performed, who you communicate with, and who receives the invoice.

While these are often the same for small businesses, they are frequently different in industries such as facilities management, strata, construction and maintenance.

Understanding these relationships allows you to structure your CRM correctly from the beginning.

Client

The Client in JGID is the organisation you have a business relationship with.

This is often the company that manages the work, such as:

Facility Management company
Strata Management company
Property Management company
Principal Contractor

The Client provides the portfolio view of all the Locations they manage and the complete history of your relationship with that organisation.

Contact

A Contact is the individual person you communicate with.

Examples include:

Building Manager
Property Manager
Accounts Officer
Site Supervisor
Project Manager

A Contact can be linked to multiple Clients and multiple Locations.

Contacts are used for communication and record keeping—they do not determine where the invoice is sent.

Location

The Location is the physical place where the work is performed.

This may be:

A building
A shopping centre
A school
A hospital
An apartment complex
An industrial site

Every Quote, Job and Invoice is linked to a Location, allowing JGID to build a permanent history of that site.

Bill To

The Bill To field determines who receives the invoice.

In many cases this will be the same as the Client.

However, it can also be a completely different organisation.

For example:

Client: ABC Facility Management
Location: 100 George Street
Bill To: George Street Owners Corporation for Strata Plan 3456

Although ABC Facility Management manages the building, the Owners Corporation is responsible for paying the invoice.

Using the Bill To feature allows JGID to keep your CRM organised around the organisations that manage your work while ensuring invoices are issued to the correct billing entity.

When synchronising with Xero, the Bill To organisation becomes the customer created or matched in Xero.

Why This Matters

Separating these four records provides far greater flexibility than treating them as the same entity.

It allows you to:

Manage portfolios of Locations under a single Client.
Keep a complete history of every Location.
Communicate with the correct people.
Send invoices to the correct organisation.
Maintain accurate accounting records without compromising your CRM structure.

This is one of the key features that makes JGID well suited to businesses managing large property portfolios and recurring maintenance contracts.

Best Practice

Create Clients for the organisations you work with.
Create one Location for each physical site.
Link Contacts to the appropriate Clients and Locations.
Use the Bill To field whenever the invoice recipient differs from the managing Client.
Keep your CRM organised around relationships, not accounting requirements.

Understanding the CRM
Understanding Clients
Understanding Contacts
Understanding Locations
Understanding Xero Synchronisation