This manual describes system features accessed via the Invoice History menu item under the IRB Assistant menu group for processing of “fee applied” submissions, including invoicing and payment tracking.

When a submission is processed by the IRB the Coordinator can indicate if the submission will be charged a review service fee (see screenshot below).

Optional property settings in the iRIS™ system make it possible to issue invoices and capture invoicing history while waiving invoice fees on a case-by-case basis; please see the Waive Fee Option section of this manual for more information.

Note: Submission Form Type, Invoice Type and Invoice Amount must be configured in the IRB Review Board Administration area in order for the review board to apply a review fee.

Invoice History

The Invoice History link of the IRB Assistant menu opens the Board Invoice History page.

This page is used for tracking and managing invoices associated with “fee applied” submissions.

Not Invoiced Tab

By default, the Board Invoice History page opens to the Not Invoiced Tab. An Invoice History Filters panel is provided at the top of the page.

The Display Submissions by dropdown allows for selection by number type (e.g., study/protocol number, IRB Number, etc.).

Text entry fields are provided to search by full or partial Study Number/Alias, Sponsor name, Department, IRB Number or Reference number.

The Principal Investigator (PI) field can be used to search by full or partial PI name and includes a button to toggle the search between Active or Inactive PIs. As shown below, the button is toggled to Active by default.

Click the Active button to toggle it to Inactive, as shown below.

Note that it is not possible to search by both Active and Inactive PIs simultaneously.

The Study Status dropdown provides a pick list to filter the search by study status. Click an item in the list to select it.

The Study Classification dropdown provides a pick list to filter the search by study classification. Click an item in the list to select it.

Select the Include studies that have not been assigned an IRB number checkbox to include those studies in the result set.

Calendar widgets are provided for searching by IRB Expiration Date range. Available date range options are as follows:

— to limit the search to studies whose IRB Expiration Date occurs on or after a specific date, click the left-hand calendar widget and select the desired start date; leave the right-hand date field blank

— to limit the search to studies whose IRB Expiration Date occurs on or before a specific date, click the right-hand calendar widget and select the desired end date; leave the left-hand date field blank

— to limit the search to studies whose IRB Expiration Date occurs between two specific dates, select the desired start date using the left-hand calendar widget and the end date using the right-hand calendar widget

Use the IRB Review Type and Review Level dropdown pick lists to limit results by the Review Level and / or IRB Review Type specified at the time the invoice was configured in the Setup Board Invoice Type List page (example shown below, this feature is accessed under Review Board Administration).

Click the Reset Find Options button to reset all fields in the Invoice History Filters section.

All IRB “apply fee for service” submissions are listed on this page. The Not Invoiced tab is loaded by default when the page opens. Incomplete and Complete tabs are also provided.

The Not Invoiced tab lists all “apply fee for service” submissions that have not yet been invoiced.

Click the applicable icon in the Open column for an invoice item to view its details on the Submission Invoice page (shown below).

Data fields and elements on this page include:

Projected Invoice Number — next available invoice number to be assigned; after the invoice number is assigned this label changes to Invoice Number

Journal ID — enter the unique Journal ID number

Journal Fiscal Year — enter the fiscal year of the journal in which this invoice was created

Study Status — color coded study status label, read-only field

Review Level — select the board review level (e.g., Process Administratively)

IRB Review Type — select the board review type (e.g., Full Committee Review)

Waive Fee? Reason for Waiving Fee? and Percentage Waived fields — optional, property-based fields; see the Waive Fee Option section of this manual, immediately following

Waive Invoice — select “Yes” to waive the invoice; this selection populates the Reason for Waiving Invoice? field, as shown below

Note that the Reason for Waiving Invoice list is configured under Review Board Administration > List Maintenance Setup > Setup Waive Invoice Reason link

Fee Assessed — enter the dollar amount of the review service fee

Amount Due – enter the dollar amount of the fee to be charged; note that this dollar amount can differ from the Fee Assessed dollar value

Amount Received — cumulative dollar amount of all payments received for this submission, read-only, automatically calculated by the system

Balance Due — remaining balance of fees due for the submission, read-only, automatically calculated by the system

Invoice Type — submission type associated with the fee; note that this list is configured under Review Board Administration > System Setup > Setup Invoice Type link

Invoice Template — invoice template to be used; note that this list is configured under Review Board Administration > System Setup > Setup Invoice Template link

Complete Date — date that the invoice is paid in full; note that in cases where multiple payments are received on the same submission this is the date the final payment is received

Complete — select “Yes” to move the invoice item to the Complete tab on the Board Invoice History screen

Comments – click the page icon to the left of the field label to open a text box for entry of any comments for this invoice

Invoice Documents — list of invoice documents associated with the submission

Invoice Payments — list of “fee for service” payments received on the submission

Verify and update the Amount Due and Invoice Type fields (if necessary) before creating the invoice document to ensure accuracy.

Click the Save Changes to Invoice button to save changes and enable system features used to create invoice documents and add payments for the submission.

Notice that a Create Invoice Document button populates above the Invoice Documents table (shown in example below) after the Save Changes to Invoice button is clicked.

Notice that an Add a New Payment button populates above the Invoice Payments table (shown in example below) after the Save Changes to Invoice button is clicked.

Click the Create Invoice Document button to generate an invoice against the submission. A pre-configured invoice template opens in Word Online within the browser, as shown below.

When changes to the invoice are complete click the Save Letter Changes button to close the text editor and return to the Submission Invoice page.

The invoice is added to the Invoice Documents table on the Submission Invoice page, as shown below.

To delete an invoice from the Invoice Documents table, click its corresponding icon in the Delete column.

To create a routing list for an invoice document and send it, click the icon in the Send column for the applicable invoice document. The Board Invoice Recipients page opens, as shown below.

All Key Study Personnel are added to the distribution list by default. To add a name to the distribution list, select the corresponding checkbox in the Send if checked column. To remove a name to the distribution list, deselect the corresponding checkbox in the Send if checked column.

If the study is associated to a sponsor, a Select Sponsor to Add Contact(s) dropdown pick list and Add Contact button are provided above the Sponsor section of the page, as shown below.  

Select the applicable sponsor from the pick list, then click the Add Contact button. The Find a Sponsor Contact popup window opens, providing a tool to search the system for the existing sponsor’s contacts. If records exist for sponsor contacts associated to the study, they are listed here and are selectable.

If no records exist for sponsor contacts associated to the study, click the Add a New Sponsor Contact to search the master list of existing business contact records for the institution. The Find a Sponsor Contact: Search Options popup window opens, as shown below.

Enter desired search criteria in the Last Name, First Name and/or Division filter fields and click the Find Sponsor Contact button. Results display beneath the search fields, as shown below.

Click the icon in the Select column (shown in screenshot above) for the applicable sponsor contact record in the result list to add that sponsor contact to distribution for the invoice document.

To add a new sponsor contact, click the Add a new Contact to the Master List button. The Sponsor Contact: Details popup opens for creation of the new contact record, as shown below.

Enter contact details and click the Save Sponsor Contact Info button. The contact record is added to the sponsor record and the Sponsor Contact: Details popup closes.

Note: If the study is not associated to a sponsor, it is not possible to add a sponsor contact.

To add other system users to distribution for the invoice document, click the Add additional recipients button. The Search User Directory page opens (shown below).

Enter desired search criteria in the Last Name, First Name or by Department fields and click the Find button to run the search. Results are listed in a table beneath the search form.

To add one user from the result list to distribution for the invoice document, click the icon in the Select User column for the applicable recipient. To add multiple users from the result list to distribution for the invoice document, select the Check for Multiple checkbox for each applicable recipient, then click the Save Selected User(s) button. The user(s) is/are added to the Additional Recipients list (see example screenshot below).

Back on the Board Invoice Recipients page, click the Send to selected recipients button at the upper right of the page (see screenshot below) to send the invoice document to everyone on the distribution list.

The invoice document is sent, the Board Invoice Recipients page closes and the Submission Invoice page displays.

Click the Add a New Payment button above the Invoice Payments section to enter a payment against an invoice.

The Invoice Payment Details popup opens for entry of payment details, as shown below.

Complete the popup as follows:

Amount Received – enter the amount received in dollars and cents

Date Received – click the calendar widget and navigate to the date received, then click the date to select it

Payment Type – click in the field to open the dropdown list, then click the desired list item to select it

Ref # – enter the applicable reference number

Date Posted – click the calendar widget and navigate to the date posted, then click the date to select it

Copy of the Payment – optionally, click the Upload button to upload a copy of the payment record in MS Word, RTF or PDF format

Click the Save Payment button to save the payment entry. The Amount Received is automatically deducted from the outstanding balance for the invoice.

The payment is added to the Invoice Payments table on the Submission Invoice page, as shown below.

To delete a payment from the Invoice Payments table, click its corresponding icon in the Delete column.

Click the icon in the Edit column to open the corresponding payment record for editing.

Click the icon in the View Payment Doc column to view a read-only version of the payment document supplied for the corresponding payment.

When the cumulative Amount Received for the invoice equals the Balance Due for the invoice, the invoice is closed. Enter the Complete Date and change the default selection of “No” for Complete to “Yes” to move the closed invoice to the Complete tab.

Waive Fee Option

It is possible to waive invoice fees and maintain a configurable list of reasons for doing so. These features are property based.

As shown below, six new properties have been added within the Fee tracking category under IRB Assistant > Review Board Administration > Board Configuration (red boxes in screenshot below).

The new properties are:

rb.show_rb_highest_review_level_on_invoice

rb.use_rb_invoicing_journal_fields_on_invoice

rb.use_rb_invoicing_review_level_on_invoice

rb.use_rb_invoicing_review_type

rb.use_rb_invoicing_review_type_on_invoice

rb.use_rb_invoicing_waive_fee

By default, “No” is selected for all of these properties. Invoicing must be enabled within the module by selecting “Yes” for the rb.use_rb_invoicing property in order for the new fields to function, as that property turns the entire invoicing feature off and on.

As demonstrated in the screenshot below, setting ALL SIX (6) properties to “Yes” adds a Waive Fee Y/N field, Reason for Waiving Fee field and auto-populating Percentage Waived field on the Submission Invoice page, and entries made there carry through to the submissions Pre-review Screening tab, below the Apply Fee for Service field.

Note that the Waive Fee and Reason for Waiving Fee fields remain active on the Pre-review Screening tab and can be updated there.

With the properties enabled, new fields populate on the Submission Invoice page as follows:

Waive Fee? — select “Yes” to waive the fee; this selection populates Reason for Waiving Fee? and Percentage Waived fields, as shown below

Reason for Waiving Fee? — click in the field to open a drop down pick list of reasons; click the desired item to select it, automatically populating the associated Percentage Waived? field

Note that the Reason for Waiving Fee? picklist is configured under Review Board Administration > List Maintenance Setup > Setup Waive Fee Reason link. When the list is configured a Percentage Waived is assigned to each Reason for Waiving Fee and is brought in to this page automatically when the associated reason is selected.

Incomplete Tab

Invoices with an outstanding balance due remaining are listed on the Incomplete tab.

Click the icon in the Open column to open the associated record in the Submission Invoice page (example shown below). This page is where new charges or payments can be applied to the invoice, and the invoice can be marked Complete when applicable.

Notice that this is the same page used when an invoice is initially created from the Not Invoiced tab of the Board Invoice History page. See the Invoice History > Not Invoiced Tab section of this manual for full details of the Submission Invoice page, including processing instructions for Invoice Documents and Invoice Payments.

Completed Tab

Recall that when the cumulative Amount Received for an invoice equals the Balance Due for the invoice, the invoice is closed and moves to the Completed tab.

Click the icon in the Open column to open the associated record in the Submission Invoice page. See the Invoice History > Not Invoiced Tab section of this manual for full details of Submission Invoice page fields and functionality.