Scheduled Runs

A schedule generates documents on its own, on a repeat you set. Statements for every customer who owes you, on the first of every month, without anyone starting them.

Scheduled runs are part of the Advanced plan, alongside batch generation.

Before you start

Set your team's time zone under Team > Settings. A schedule starts at the hour you choose in the time zone your team works in, and it needs to know which one that is before the first run happens.

Setting one up

1. Go to Schedules in the sidebar and click New schedule
2. Give it a name you will recognize later — "Monthly statements" is a good one
3. Choose the document, the QuickBooks company, and the template
4. Choose who to generate for
5. Choose the statement settings
6. Choose when it repeats
7. Click Create schedule

You can also start from the customer list. Filter it the way you want, then click Schedule instead — the connection, template, and filters carry over.

Who to generate for

A schedule stores a description of who to generate for, not a list of customers. Tick Only customers with an open balance, and every run asks QuickBooks again on the day.

That is the point. Somebody who has paid up is simply left out of the next run, and a new customer who owes you is included, without you editing anything.

This is also why only documents chosen by customer — like statements — can be scheduled. A list of particular invoices would be the wrong list next month.

Statement dates

A schedule sets its statement date as a rule rather than a day:

Choose "the last day of the month before the run" and a schedule that runs on the first of every month always covers the month that just ended.

You can still set a fixed date if you want every run to cover the same period.

When it repeats

Choose Daily, Weekly, or Monthly, and how many days, weeks, or months apart. A monthly schedule can run:

• On a particular day of the month
• On the 1st and the 15th
• On the last day of the month
• On a particular weekday — the first Monday, the last Friday

The last day of the month does what it says in every month. February gets the 28th, or the 29th in a leap year.

Underneath the controls, the panel tells you what the schedule means and shows the next five times it will run. Check that line before you save — it is the run that will actually happen.

A run starts within a few minutes of the time you set. Schedules are spread out slightly so that everybody's month-end run does not arrive at once.

While it runs

Scheduled runs work exactly like a run you start yourself. They appear under Batch runs, they produce the same ZIP or merged PDF, and the same 100-document limit applies.

You are always emailed when a scheduled run finishes, however quick it was — nobody is watching the page at nine in the morning on the first. The email names the schedule and says when the download expires.

The bundled download is available for 7 days. The documents themselves stay in your Documents history for as long as you keep them.

When something goes wrong

A schedule stops itself if it cannot do its job, and says why on its page:

• Its QuickBooks connection is no longer available
• Its selection matched nobody
• Three runs in a row produced no documents at all
• The team's subscription no longer includes scheduled runs

A run where some documents failed and others succeeded is not a reason to stop — one unreadable record among ninety-nine is ordinary.

Once the problem is sorted, open the schedule and click Switch on.

Managing schedules

Open a schedule to see when it next runs, what it covers, and every run it has produced.

• Switch off stops it without deleting it. It will not run again until you switch it back on.
• Edit changes anything about it, including the repeat. The next run is worked out again as soon as you save.
• Delete removes it. The documents it already produced are unaffected.

A team can have up to 10 schedules.