Dear Efiol, dear Sherlockat,
It is true that the definition of "invoicing" and "billing" may vary from country to country or from region to region.
Efiol:
What you call "Boleta" in Chile we call it "Nota" (or "Nota de cobro") in Mexico. However, the term "Factura" is also used in Mexico. In Mexico, the taxes treatment for "Nota" ("Boleta") and "Factura" is the same as in Chile.
Sherlockat:
I have been working as a business consultant for large Mexican (telecom) companies and the definition of "invoicing" and "billing" changes a little bit from what you cited in your previous post. In Mexico, "Invoicing" may be used for creating and sending the invoices to the customer. You may even call "invoicing" to the full business process of creating and sending invoices. Also, you may call "invoicing" to the full functional area in charge of creating and sending invoices.
Then, "billing" (as we know it here) is the activity of registering charges in a sales IT system. Therefore, this activity may be part of a full invoicing process. Today, in large companies, all sales processes are embedded in IT systems. That is why sometimes it is difficult (or confusing) to distinguish between billing and invoicing.
In Mexican small and medium businesses (SMB), the definitions of billing and invoicing are not so different. Take a restaurant, for example: While you eat, you ask the waitress for your food items. Every time you ask for another item, the waitress bills you in a system or paper bill (or check or account). It is well understood that the final bill will contain all the food items that the waitress billed while your were dinning. Therefore, "billing" is the process of registering all charges and creating the final bill (or check). However, if at the end of your meal you needed a formal invoice to report your food expenses to your office or to deduct taxes then, you would ask the waitress for an invoice. Again, the process of creating that invoice (and delivering it to you) would be called "invoicing".
Concluding, the definitions of "invoicing" and "billing" may differ slightly of greatly from country to country or from region to region; they may even differ within companies of different size or industry. It is always necessary to check with the company you will be working (for) what are the correct definitions used by them.
Best regards,
Luis R. Villegas H.
Mexico.
