Create a service statement

This guide shows how to create a service statement per facility and month: generate it, review line items, send for approval and understand the flow with auto-approval and objection.

Service statements are created by kitchen users (roles Kitchen Admin or Kitchen Management) under Kitchen → Billing. Approval is done by the facility.

Overview

A service statement summarises the meals delivered to a facility for one month — it is the billing basis. It goes through the following statuses:

Status Meaning

Draft

generated, line items still editable

For approval

sent to the facility, awaiting approval

Approved

confirmed by the facility (or automatically) — ready for invoicing

Objected

facility has objected (with a reason)

Open billing and generate the statement

How to: Open Kitchen → Billing. Select the facility, set the month and click "Generate statement".

Result: A new statement in status Draft appears. It contains a line item (e.g. "Lunch <month>") with the counted quantity (orders + headcounts of the month) and the stored unit price; the total is calculated automatically.

Kitchen: billing / service statement
Figure 1. Billing per facility and month with statement line items

Only one statement can exist per facility and month. If one already exists, the app reports: "A statement already exists for this facility and month."

Review and edit line items

How to: On a statement in status Draft, click "Edit line items". Adjust item (description), quantity and unit (price) and save with "Save".

Result: The total updates live from quantity × unit price. Only drafts are editable; sent statements are locked.

Send for approval

How to: On the draft, click "Send for approval".

Result: The status changes to For approval. The statement now shows an auto-approval date — the point from which, without objection, it automatically counts as approved (lead time from the contract, default 7 days).

Approval, auto-approval or objection

How to: The facility approves the sent statement or objects with a reason.

Result:

Outcome Effect

Approved

status Approved; note "ready for invoicing"

Auto-approval

without objection until the auto-approval date, the statement automatically counts as approved

Objected

status Objected with a reason; the statement is corrected and sent again

An approved statement is the basis for invoicing (integration with the invoicing software to follow). Only drafts can be deleted.

Status transitions at a glance

From Allowed to

Draft

For approval

For approval

Approved · Objected

Objected

For approval (send again)

Approved

— (final state)

Lead-time analysis: in time or too late

Under Billing → Lead time you see, per facility, how many reported absence days in the month arrived in time (the deadline was still open, so the day is not billed) and how many arrived too late (the day was already chargeable).

The page writes nothing — it answers a question nobody else asks: how much food is produced that nobody eats?

A high "too late" share is rarely a billing problem. The day is billed correctly. It is a waste problem: the food was cooked, paid for and thrown away. With that figure in hand you can talk to a facility about it — about reporting earlier, or about a different deadline in the contract.

Here too only numbers per facility appear, no names. Which person was missing when stays with the facility.

Related

Why it works this way

Why a statement and not an invoice. The service statement records what was actually delivered — confirmed by both sides. Only then does billing build on it. This separation avoids the classic end-of-month argument: what is settled is the quantity, not the amount.

Why approval becomes automatic after seven days. Without a deadline every statement would simply sit there and your billing would depend on how quickly your customers respond. The deadline is fair to both sides: the facility has a week to object; after that the statement counts as accepted. Objection remains possible at any time and returns the statement to review.

Why issued invoices are immutable. An invoice changed after the fact would no longer be a record. Corrections therefore run via cancellation and re-issue — the only clean route for tax purposes, and traceable for both sides.