# Billing troubleshooting and FAQ

> The billing behavior that surprises people most, including invoice vs ledger quirks, with the reason for each and what to do about it.

Source: https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing/billing-troubleshooting
Section: Billing and payments. For: Owners, Admins, Dispatchers, Instructors, Students, Renters.

The billing questions that reach us most often, and the reason behind each one. If a flight
produced no invoice at all, start with
[Why a flight was not invoiced](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing/why-a-flight-was-not-invoiced) instead.

![Billing](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing-invoice-list.png)

## Save changes on Settings, Billing is refused

You get "You are not authorized to make this request" and nothing is saved.

The **organization owner** is the only person who can change billing settings. Every other
Settings tab is open to admins, and this one still renders for an admin too, which is why
it catches people out. Being an admin is not enough for:

- Billing enabled (saves as soon as it is flipped)
- How members pay
- Default instructor rate, service fee, overnight minimum, and grounding (**Save changes**
  on Rates and fees)

The same applies to connecting Stripe and to the whole QuickBooks Online page. Ask the
owner to make the change, or have them sign in.

## An invoice is for the wrong amount

Work down this list. The answer is usually in the first three.

| Check                                                                                                                                          | Where                                                                               |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Which meter the aircraft bills. Bill by Hobbs time on charges Hobbs in minus Hobbs out; off charges tach instead.                              | Aircraft, edit the aircraft                                                         |
| The aircraft's hourly rate, and whether it is wet or dry                                                                                       | Aircraft, edit the aircraft                                                         |
| The instruction rate. A booking with a rating uses that rating's rate; anything else falls back to the organization's default instructor rate. | `Settings → Instruction rates` (web console) and `Settings → Billing` (web console) |
| Your service fee, which is a percentage you add                                                                                                | `Settings → Billing` (web console)                                                  |
| An overnight minimum, which is a floor and can raise a bill well above the hours flown                                                         | `Settings → Billing` (web console)                                                  |
| A rate override typed onto that one booking                                                                                                    | The reservation, **Override payment**                                               |
| A membership tier rate for that tail                                                                                                           | `Settings → Memberships` (web console), inside the plan                             |

> **Careful:** The service fee is charged **per bill**, not per flight. A booking split three ways
> produces three bills, and each of them carries the fee. The same percentage on a bigger
> base collects more than you may have intended. This is the same in both billing modes: a
> flight charged to an account ledger carries the fee exactly as an invoice does.

> **Careful:** If your cost-splitting rule for that booking type is Each pays in full, the charge is
> **multiplied**, not divided. Four students in a two-hour ground session produce four
> two-hour charges. It is the right rule when you are selling seats and the wrong one
> everywhere else. See
> [Split a booking's cost between several people](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing/set-up-cost-splitting).

## The total on a split booking looks too small

The invoice summary at the end of a close-out on a split booking shows **one payer's
share**, labelled "(one of N shares for this booking)". It is not the flight's total bill.

Everyone else on the booking received their own invoice for their own share. To see them
all, open `Billing` (web console) and look for the other invoices raised at the
same time. There is no single screen that adds a split booking back up.

## Somebody on a split booking was never invoiced

A share worth less than 50 cents is skipped, and no invoice is raised for that person. That
is Stripe's floor: it will not accept an invoice below 50 cents. The booking still counts
as billed.

It only shows up on a cheap booking divided many ways, such as a short ground session split
between a large class. If somebody needs to be charged for it, raise a
[manual invoice](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing/create-a-manual-invoice).

## Everybody's sign-off disappeared

Adding a payment override to a booking clears every review confirmation already collected,
so a close-out sitting at "1 of 2 confirmed" drops back to none and each pilot has to enter
their PIN again. Once everybody has confirmed, the override is refused rather than applied.

This is on purpose: the pilots confirmed a set of numbers, and the numbers changed. Do the
override before you ask people to sign off, not after.

## A guest invoice shows no customer name

On the Billing table the Customer column is a dash for a guest invoice, and the detail panel
header reads "No customer". The guest's name and email are recorded on the booking, not on
the invoice row.

Identify a guest invoice by the linked flight shown in the detail panel. See
[Bill a discovery or guest flight](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing/bill-a-discovery-or-guest-flight).

## The Bill button did not bill the flight

The Bill button on a row in the Unbilled reservations list starts a **manual invoice** for
that member, prefilled with the reservation's title as the memo. It is not the flight's
invoice: it has no line items, no hours and no link back to the booking, so the reservation
stays in the unbilled list afterwards and the amount never appears as revenue against that
aircraft.

To bill the flight itself, finish its close-out. If the close-out is already complete and
the invoice failed, the recovery action is **Create invoice** on the reservation, on either
surface. Full walkthrough in
[Why a flight was not invoiced](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing/why-a-flight-was-not-invoiced).

## The Tax collected report shows no tax

The report lists every invoice line in the period. Until your school has a rate and has chosen
which kinds of line it applies to, every line is under **No tax**, as a non-taxable sale.
Flight bills from close-out are never taxed. See
[Charge sales tax on an invoice](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing/charge-sales-tax).

If you used to type tax as its own line on a manual invoice, those old lines show as
non-taxable sales and are counted in revenue. Back them out of gross and non-taxable sales by
hand for those periods (search the Line column), and stop typing tax as a line once a rate is
set up, or the customer is charged tax twice.

## Membership dues are mixed into flight revenue

Dues and join fees are raised as ordinary invoices, deliberately, so that they pay through
the same link, appear on the same Billing list, and can be marked paid the same way. The
consequence is that they also land in the Revenue, Payments received and Items sold reports
alongside flight income, with no separate treatment.

Use the **Memberships and dues** report in the Financial section for the membership
questions: who is on what tier, the annualized run rate, what is outstanding, and which
periods failed.

## A member sees two different outstanding balances

The Outstanding balance card on a member's Home page counts invoices the school has voided.
The Outstanding card on their Invoices page does not.

The Invoices page is the figure they actually owe. Tell members to trust that one.

On Account ledger, trust the balance on Billing under You (or People → Ledger). That is
the running account, not an unpaid-invoice total.

## There is no Stripe invoice after a member flight

If **How members pay** is Account ledger, that is expected. Look for **Charged to account
ledger** on the booking, or a Flight row on the member's ledger. Guests still get a Stripe
invoice. See
[Charge a flight to the account ledger](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing/charge-a-flight-to-the-account-ledger).

## Auto-refill paused or never charged

Auto-refill needs Account ledger, a **default** saved card, and the member to leave it on.
Three failed charges pause it and email the member; the card is not deleted. They turn it
back on from Payment methods or Billing under You. See
[Manage a member's account ledger](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing/manage-a-member-account-ledger#auto-refill).

## Nothing bills in the demo

In the public demo, closing out a flight produces a realistic-looking paid invoice without
any money moving, so revenue reports and balances have something in them to look at.
Anything that would touch real money is refused, each with its own message:

| What you try                                       | What the demo says                                          |
| -------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- |
| Creating an invoice, marking one paid, voiding one | "Creating and settling invoices is turned off in the demo." |
| Sending a payment reminder                         | "Payment reminders are turned off in the demo."             |
| Billing membership dues                            | "Billing membership dues is turned off in the demo."        |

None of this applies to your own organization.

## Things AerScheduler cannot do

Worth knowing before you plan a process around one of them.

|                                                       |                                                                                                                                                          |
| ----------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Refund a card payment on a Stripe invoice             | Refunds are done in your own Stripe dashboard, and are not read back here. The invoice stays Paid.                                                       |
| Refund prepaid ledger credit via Stripe alone         | Use **Refund** on the member's ledger (owners and admins). That reverses prepaid balance in AerScheduler.                                                |
| Issue a Stripe credit note                            | Invoice mode has no credit-note workflow. Account ledger holds prepaid credit as a balance instead.                                                      |
| Edit an invoice after it is raised                    | The only actions are mark paid and void. Ledger rows are never edited in place either; post a reversing row.                                             |
| Tax flight bills from close-out                       | Sales tax applies to invoices raised with New invoice. See [Charge sales tax on an invoice](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing/charge-sales-tax). |
| Bill fuel on a dry rate                               | There is no fuel line. Invoice fuel separately (or post a desk charge on the ledger).                                                                    |
| Set a rate for one instructor                         | Rates are per rating, plus the organization default. Every instructor on a rating bills the same figure.                                                 |
| Exempt one aircraft from the overnight minimum        | There is nowhere to set a per-aircraft figure, so the organization's applies to every tail.                                                              |
| Let a member join, change tier or cancel a membership | Every membership change is an admin action.                                                                                                              |
| Put guests on the account ledger                      | Guests always get a pay-this-visit invoice.                                                                                                              |
| Sync ledger top-ups to QuickBooks                     | QuickBooks syncs paid Stripe invoices as Sales Receipts. Ledger balance activity is not that sync.                                                       |
| Invoice a guest from the web console                  | Turn on Guest recipient in Billing → New invoice and enter a name and email.                                                                             |

## Related

- [How billing works](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing/how-billing-works): Invoice each booking or Account ledger, start to finish.
- [Manage a member's account ledger](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing/manage-a-member-account-ledger): Auto-refill, late fees, statements, and desk tools.
- [Who can do what in billing](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing/who-can-do-what-in-billing): Including the two places an admin is not enough.