Statements
Overview
Statements are the top-level billing artifact in Colabmacs.
They consolidate project-level Invoices at the Team level for a billing period.
In the billing flow:
Charge
↓
Invoice
↓
Statement
↓
PaymentStatements are typically the billing object used for distribution, export, notification, and final settlement review.
Statements are intended to be billable artifacts, not just reporting summaries.
What a Statement Represents
A statement brings together:
- one team
- one billing period
- one or more invoices
- any statement-level adjustments
This gives finance staff and team contacts a consolidated view of what is owed across the team's included projects.
How Statements Are Generated
Statements are generated from Invoices, not directly from charges.
Key behavior:
- only invoices not already attached to a statement are added automatically
- overlapping statement periods do not duplicate invoices
- existing statements may be regenerated and updated
Statements can be generated:
- from team-scoped billing operations
- as part of combined invoice-and-statement workflows
- through scheduled due billing when automatic generation is enabled
Statement Rules and Adjustments
Statement rules operate on statement totals after invoices have already been consolidated.
Typical uses include:
- capping statement totals
- scaling statement totals
- targeting by team or other higher-level billing context
This makes statements the correct place for team-level billing corrections rather than project-level pricing behavior.
Paid State and Locking
Statements can be marked as Paid.
When that happens:
- the statement becomes read-only
- underlying invoices are locked
- underlying charges are locked
This makes statements the main settlement boundary in the standard billing workflow.
Payments may also reduce statement outstanding balances before or alongside formal paid-state workflows.
Statement Updates and Export Invalidation
Until a statement is paid and locked, it may still change when underlying invoice totals change.
That means:
- charge corrections can flow into invoices
- invoice changes can flow into statements
- statement regeneration invalidates any current cached statement export
The statement remains the live billing source of truth until settlement, while exports remain point-in-time snapshots.
Exports and Notifications
Statements support the main finance-facing export workflow.
Statement export behavior includes:
- generation of a statement export file
- inclusion of related invoice export detail
- packaging into export batches
- optional notification to team owners or billing contacts
This makes statements the most common artifact for external billing distribution.
For more detail on export behavior, see Exports.
When to Use the Statement View
Use Statements when you need to:
- review team-level billing
- confirm invoice consolidation
- generate or review billing exports
- send billing notifications
- review outstanding balances before settlement
The Billing Admin → Statements tab is the primary frontend working list for statement operations.