You can create invoices documenting customer purchases of company products and services from the Customer Invoice screen.
From this screen, you can create a new one-time or recurring invoice, or you can edit, delete, or void an existing invoice, print invoices, or email invoices to customers.
You can also click the Credit Memo button to enter credit memos for your customers, or review, edit, void, or delete existing credit memos, or the Estimate button to create estimates, open existing estimates for review or editing, print or email estimates to customers, or convert existing estimates to invoices.
Note: To streamline the invoicing process, you can create invoice templates for common or standard orders using the Invoice Templates screen, and apply them from the Customer Invoice screen. In addition, you can set up a merchant account to enable customers to pay emailed invoices online by credit card. When the system processes online credit card payments, it automatically records all journal entries.
You can only edit invoices that have not been paid. If an invoice has been partially paid, you can only reprint it or generate a credit memo, and if it has been paid in full, you can only reprint it.
In addition, using the buttons available on the Customer Invoice screen, you can access the Invoice List to review all existing invoices and credit memos, print an invoice, or email an invoice to a customer.
The available fields on the Customer Invoice screen reflect the selections you made in the Invoice Specification, Sales Tax Specifications, and Finance Charges Setup panels on the Sales Preferences screen.
To create, edit, void, or delete a customer invoice:
1. Select Invoice from the Sales menu to access the Customer Invoice screen.
2. Enter any part of a customer name in the Bill To field and select the customer from the drop-down list to create a new invoice for the customer.
If your entry does not match a defined customer, you are prompted to add the customer (name and address only) on the fly to create a customer record. Click OK in the prompt to open the Add Customer dialog, enter the customer's name and address in the dialog, and click Save.
Alternatively, you can click the Recent Invoices button to select a previously-created invoice to review or edit, or click List to open the Invoice List to view a list of all existing invoices from which to select an invoice to open.
The invoice fields appear on screen, with the customer name and address displayed at the top of the screen.
3. (Optional) Click the Delete or Void buttons to delete or void an existing invoice.
Deleting an invoice purges it from the system without writing a transaction entry. Voiding an invoice creates a reversing entry. You can only delete or void invoices that have not yet had a credit or payment applied.
4. (Optional) Use the Select Estimate drop-down list, if available, to select an existing estimate created for this customer and convert it into an invoice.
Note: The Estimates menu appears only if an estimate has been generated for the selected customer. You can also convert an estimate to an invoice from the Customer Estimate screen.
The estimate details are retrieved and populated in the invoice format to be edited or saved as a new invoice.
5. Verify or change the information in the fields in the Date panel.
The Date panel provides the following fields.
§ Date: By default, the Date field displays the current system date for new invoices, but you can change this date if necessary. For existing invoices, the Date field displays the date the invoice was created.
§ Invoice #: By default, the Invoice # is automatically incremented from the last invoice you entered, but this number can be changed.
Note: If you change the assigned invoice number, subsequent invoices are incremented from your changed number. For example, if you change the entry in the Invoice # field from 002 to 010, the next invoice you generate is automatically assigned Invoice # 011.
§ Terms: By default, the Terms field reflects the payment terms you set on the Sales Preferences screen, but you can specify different terms using the drop-down list. This field appears only if you enabled the Terms option in the Sales Preferences screen.
§ Due Date: By default, the due date is computed based on the invoice date and the terms you specified, but you can change the date, if necessary. If the Terms option is not enabled, the Due Date defaults to the current date.
6. (Optional) Use the available options to select a department (or fund, for non-profit organizations) to which this invoice is related from the drop-down list in the Select Department field, select an existing invoice template to apply from the drop-down list in the Select Template field, or click the New Product link to add a new product record on the fly.
If you click the New Product link, the Add Product dialog appears. Enter the Product or Service Code and a Description, identify a Default Quantity and Unit Price for the item, indicate whether the product or service is Taxable and the Revenue Account to credit when the product or service is sold, and click Save to add the product or service.
7. Use the fields in the Invoice Details panel to specify the items to be listed on the invoice.
The available fields in the table change, depending on the type of item being invoiced:
a. Select the type of item purchased from the drop-down list in the Item column of the Invoice Details panel.
You can select Product/Service to create an invoice for a previously-defined product or service, Expense to bill a customer for expenses, Other to invoice miscellaneous charges or amounts, or Comment from the drop-down list.
Your selection enables specific fields in the Invoice Details panel for different Item types.
b. Use the drop-down list in the Product/Service field to specify the product or service being purchased, if applicable.
This field is only enabled if you select Product/Service in the Item column.
The remaining fields in the table are populated with the default information you previously entered for the product or service you selected.
c. Enter or modify a description for the line item in the Description column.
You can enter a description for an Expense, Comment, or Other item type, or modify the default description for a product or service. This field has a 100 character limit.
d. Enter or modify the quantity and price per unit in the Quantity and Unit Price fields.
For products and services, the Quantity column reflects the default quantity set for the product or service in the Set Up Products screen. For Expenses or Other, the quantity defaults to 1.
The entry in the Amount field is automatically calculated from the entries in the Quantity and Unit Price fields.
e. Specify the amount of any discount to apply to the line item in the Discount field, and, select either % or $ from the drop-down list in the Discount Type field to specify whether to apply the discount by percentage or by specific dollar amount.
f. Use the drop-down lists in the Account and Department fields to verify or change the default account and department (or fund for non-profit organizations) entered for a product or service, or to select an account when billing a customer for expenses.
If you selected Other in the Item column, the Account column automatically reflects your primary revenue account.
You can click the X at the end of each line to delete a line item, if necessary.
The Amount and Taxable columns are automatically calculated, and are read-only. The Quantity In Hand column is adjusted for inventory items based on your selected inventory method (LIFO or FIFO).
As you enter line items, the Subtotal field automatically calculates the subtotal of all items you enter.
8. Use the fields in the Miscellaneous Information panel to specify additional information for the invoice.
The fields in this panel vary, depending on the settings you enabled in the Sales Preferences screen.
§ Select an employee or vendor name from the drop-down list in the Sales Representative field to identify a sales representative.
§ Verify the default shipping method identified in the Ship Via field or select an alternative method from the drop-down list.
§ Enter the number of a purchase order related to this invoice in the PO Number field.
§ Select or clear the checkbox in the Credit field, if available, to apply a pending customer credit to the invoice or to specify that an existing credit should not be applied.
Note: You can set an option to apply credit to customer invoices by default in the Invoice Specification section of the Sales Preferences screen.
9. Specify whether to create this invoice as a recurring invoice, charging the customer for a set amount on a recurring basis.
Recurring invoices are automatically generated for the customer at set intervals, and must only be printed or emailed to the customer.
To create a recurring invoice:
a. Click Make This Invoice Recurring.
The Recurring dialog appears.
b. Select the Is Recurring checkbox to enable the fields in this dialog and enter a description or name for this recurring invoice in the Description/Name field.
These entries are required.
c. Specify the following:
Interval: Length of time, in months, between recurrences of this invoice. Required field.
Invoice Day: The day of the month on which the recurring invoice is due. Required field.
Days in Advance: The number of days before the due date to generate the invoice.
Start Date: The date the recurring invoice starts. This date cannot be earlier than the original invoice date. Required field.
End Date: The date, if known, that the recurring invoice stops. If no end date is entered, the invoice recurs indefinitely.
d. Click OK.
The Recurring dialog closes and the invoice is scheduled as recurring. You can view a list of recurring invoices on the Invoice List screen.
Note Recurring invoices for products or services reflect the unit price specified on the Set Up Products screen on each invoice. If you change the price on the Setup screen, subsequent recurring invoices reflect the new price. If no unit price was specified when the product was set up, recurring invoices reflect the price you entered when you created the invoice.
10. Use the Notes field to enter free-form information to print on the invoice.
This field has a 300 character limit.
11. Verify that the Subtotal field in the Totals panel reflects the sum of all line items entered on the invoice, and that all discounts applied on the invoice are reflected in the Discount field.
12. Enter the cost of shipping in the Freight field and, if appropriate, the sales tax rate for the customer's location in the Tax Rate (%) field in the Totals panel.
The tax for all items identified as taxable appears in the Tax field, and the Total and Due fields are automatically calculated.
Note: Tax is calculated on freight if the Tax Freight option is enabled on the Sales Preferences screen.
The Total field is computed as Subtotal - Discount + Freight + Sales Tax - Credits (applied to the total, if specified). Finance charges, if applicable and enabled, are added to the amount in the Due field.
13. Click Save to save the invoice, and click Print to generate a PDF of the invoice for printing in a separate window, or click Email to email the invoice to the customer.
Note: If the client has set up a merchant account, emailed invoices include a link to an online Payments screen that enables the client's customers to pay invoices by credit card.
14. Click Add to create another invoice, or click the Receive Payment link to apply a customer payment to this invoice.
The Invoice Payment dialog appears.
You can use this dialog to specify the type of payment being made in the Receipt Type field, enter the date of the payment in the Payment Date field, use the Reference/Check Number field to note a reference or check number for the payment, and select the account into which the payment is made using the Cash Account drop-down list, then click OK to record the payment.