XBert Type: Standard
Accounting Software: Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks Online
Country Restriction: Australia only
Risk Type: Financial Reporting Risk
Business Function: Sales
Overview
The "Unusual Monthly Invoicing" XBert spots months where the total you invoiced a particular customer is much higher or lower than your usual pattern for that customer. Catching these stand-out months early helps you find invoicing mistakes, missed invoices or duplicate invoices before they affect your figures.
What it does
For each customer, XBert adds up your invoicing month by month and compares each month against the customer's own normal range. If a recent month sits well outside that range by a meaningful amount, XBert raises an alert so you can review that month's invoices.
How it works
XBert looks at the last twelve completed months of invoicing for each customer and works out what a typical month looks like. It then checks whether any recent month stands out as unusually high or low. To keep alerts meaningful, XBert is deliberately careful about what it flags:
It only raises an alert for a month within the last three completed months.
It ignores $0 and negative (credit-heavy) months, because reversal or credit months are not genuinely unusual invoicing.
It skips customers you only ever invoice very small amounts, where a swing is not worth your attention.
A flagged month must differ from the customer's normal level by a material amount: at least $200 and at least 15% of their average. Small, trivial movements (such as a rent rising slightly with annual indexation) will not trigger an alert.
If a customer's monthly totals are almost identical month after month, the spread is too tight to judge fairly, so no alert is raised.
Example/Use Case
Higher than usual: Priya normally invoices Bob's Burgers between $1,000 and $2,000 each month. This month the total comes to $5,000. It may be a genuine increase in work, or it may be a mistake such as an invoice entered with the wrong amount or a duplicated invoice. XBert flags the month so Priya can check before it skews her sales reporting.
Lower than usual: Tom invoices Harbour Cafe $2,000 to $3,000 every month. Last month the total comes to just $200. It could mean an invoice is missing a zero, was forgotten, or the cafe has quietly scaled back. Reviewing the flagged month shows Tom whether an invoice was missed.
Accounting software
This XBert runs on the major accounting platforms XBert supports in Australia: Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks Online.
Which countries it supports
Australia only.
Processes
This alert sits under your Sales (accounts receivable) work. To resolve it:
Open the sales records for the customer XBert has flagged.
Review all invoices for that customer in the month XBert noted.
If you find an error, correct it by editing or reissuing the invoice, or by raising a credit note.
If an invoice was missed, raise it so the customer's total for the month is right.
If an invoice was raised incorrectly and should not be paid, void it and let the customer know.
If the invoicing is genuine and correct, no change is needed. Once you have reviewed it, mark the XBert as resolved.