Introduction

Sales invoices are created by selecting products and prices from the system. 

The invoicing process is linked to the following processes:

• Sales Order Process: These can be entered directly or can be based on recorded Sales Orders that are now ready for invoicing. Even if you use Sales Ordering, you may not want to issue a Sales Order in all cases, such as for extras, transport, or on-the-spot services. 
• Inventory Management: Sales Item Invoicing is integrated with the Inventory Management system, either fully in the context of quantities management, or partially in the context of non-stock goods and services. Note: If Inventory Control is turned on for the products (i.e. 'Update on Hand' is ticked), the system will automatically update inventory balances.

Batch Sales Invoices

You can also create Sales Invoices as Sales Batch Invoices‍, without a preceding Sales Order. Batch Invoices do not use the Inventory Management tables and consist of single line entries only, whereas Sales Item Invoicing can have multiple lines, one for each Product. 

Prerequisites

Make sure the following are complete:

• Customer Master Record.
• Inventory Master Record (Stock and/or Non-Stock).
• Code tables including General Ledger Codes, Taxes, and Currencies.

Keyboard Shortcuts

• TAB: Advances to the next cell in the grid
• TAB + SHIFT: Goes back to the previous cell in the grid
• ENTER: Advances to the next cell in the grid
• F6: Use to make a copy of the current line and insert a new line with the same details. This is a useful function if you are creating payment records with similar details, such as recording several Receipts to the same General Ledger account but with different cheque references. 
• F8: Use to delete the current line. If this does not work, try FN+F8.

Creating a New Sales Item Invoice

To create a new Sales Item Invoice either:

• Go to Sales > Item Invoices > New Item Invoice:
  
  
   
• Go to Sales > Customers > Actions and select Create > Item Invoice:
  
  

See:

Sales Overview (3.0) - AIQ Academy

Sales Item Invoices / Credit notes (3.2) - AIQ Academy

 

How does Sales Order Entry Work?‍ 

How does Sales Batch Invoicing Work?‍ 

How do I Maintain Customer Master Records?‍ 

How do I Maintain Product and Service Type Items?‍ 

  How do I Use the Recurring Sales Invoice Feature? ‍ 

Creating a Sales Item Invoice

Invoice Details Tab

Complete the header details:

• Invoice No: You must enable Autonumbering if you have integrated with third-party sales systems, or plan to. To do this, go to Setup > Company Details & Settings. Under the Settings tab, tick Auto Order Numbering. 

Alternatively, enter an invoice number here. The system will check for duplicate Invoice Numbers for this Customer and will warn you if it has found any. You will still be able to save the invoice, but you will not be able to post it until you change the Invoice Number. 

• Customer: Select the customer from the dropdown. This adds their details to the Invoice header. If you have the correct permissions, you can also add a new customer by clicking + Add New Account. 
• Invoice Date: This defaults to today’s date, but you can override it using the calendar. 
• Save as Recurring Invoice: Tick this box if you wish to save this invoice as a recurring invoice. This is useful if you invoice the same customer at regular intervals. This lets you base each new invoice on the first invoice generated or on the last invoice. When you save the invoice, you will then need to create it as a Recurring Sales Invoices.‍ 
• Order No., Order Date: These are not mandatory. If you create an Invoice from a Sales Order, the Order No. will be added automatically. Alternatively, enter an Order No. and Order Date. Alternatively, you can enter an order number for reference purposes if the sales order has originated elsewhere (e.g. PO reference from a customer).
• Expected Delivery Date: If this invoice does not relate to a specific order already entered on the system you can record the expected delivery date to the customer here. It defaults to today’s date but can be overwritten.
• External Ref: This is not mandatory. However, it can be beneficial to help identify the Invoice. If entered, it will appear on the printed Customer Invoice (for example, JUL 20 Licence). 
• Use Acc Vat Code: Check this box if you want to use the Customer’s Tax Code for this invoice regardless of the tax code of the product. This would normally be checked if, for example, the customer was to be charged at 0% or was exempt. If left unchecked, the Item Vat Code will be applied.
• BI Code: If the customer has a default BI Code in their Master Record, this will appear on all lines. However, you can override it at the header or line level. 
• On Hold Status: You can create invoices for customers Not On Hold or Deliveries On Hold but not for Orders and Deliveries On Hold.
• Sales Area: This is the sales area that will be associated with this invoice from a sales analysis perspective. This is useful to enable you to track sales by area within the dashboard functions in the system.
• Sales Rep: This is the Sales Representative associated with the Customer. You can either use the Sales Rep defaulted here or change it. This setting is used to track the sales against each sales rep in reports.
• Billing Address: This is the Billing Address that will be printed on the sales invoice. It is defaulted to the Billing Address associated with the customer record, but you can change it from here for this specific invoice. 

Line navigation tips

These shortcuts speed up the Invoice entry process:

• The enter, tab, and down cursor keys allow you to move between fields and select from dropdowns.
•  F6 copies the line above.
•  F8 deletes the current line. 

To temporarily hide the header:

• Click Display Lines Only, Display. Then click Display All to restore.
   

Complete the Invoice Line details:

• Item: Select the Item from the dropdown or by typing the Item name. This will retrieve its Description and default General Ledger Posting Code. You can override these if required. 
• BI Code: Select the relevant code. If the BI Code came from the Invoice Header, you have the option to change it at line-level.
• Qty, Unit Price: Enter the Quantity and Unit Price of the Item.
   
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  The Unit Price comes from the Item Master Record as well as the Price List linked to this Customer Account. 

• VAT: This comes from either the Item VAT Code or the Customer Account VAT Code if you select Use Acc VAT Code. 
• Disc. Amount: If there is a Discount Percentage on the Customer Master Record, then this will apply automatically. If not, you can enter a fixed amount in the field and the system will calculate the percentage. This will cause the Net, VAT amount and Line total to be recalculated.
  
  
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  The system recalculates the Net Amount based on the Discount entered. Only Net of Discount is posted against nominal ledger accounts. 

  
   
• Description: This comes from the Item defaults, but you can edit it here if necessary.
• Line Note: This will appear on the Invoice for the Customer.
• Exchange Rate: If the Customer is a Foreign Currency Customer, the current Exchange Rate from the Currency table will appear. It will be used when posting the invoice to calculate the base currency value of the invoice. You can override it here if necessary.  
• Status: The status is generated automatically. It is set to ’New’ for a new invoice that has not been processed, and ‘Processed’ when the invoice has been saved but not yet posted to the ledger. The status ‘Posted’ means that the customer account and general ledger have been updated with the values for this invoice. Note that payments can only be made against posted invoices.

Additional Details Tab 

• Delivery Address: This comes from the Customer Master Record, but you can override it. 
• Ship Via: This comes from the Customer Master Record, but you can override it.
• For Collection: This will appear on the printed Invoice. 
• Discount:  This comes from the Customer Master Record and applies to the Invoice as a whole. However, you can change it here.  This is entered in decimal format, .i.e. 0.1 for 10%, or 0.125 for 12.5%. You will be asked to confirm that it applies to all Lines on the Invoice. This will cause the Net, Tax, and Line Total will be recalculated. You can also apply a discount at line level.
• Payment Method:  You can change the default here.
• Forecasted Payment Date: This date is automatically calculated based on this customer's payment history. This is useful if you are using Cashflow Forecasting as you can estimate when to expect a receipt from the customer. You can adjust the date here if needed, and this will then be used by Cashflow Forecasting to predict when this invoice will be paid.
• Printed Note: Add text to appear on the header of the PDF invoice for the customer. 

Notes Tab

Here you can add internal Notes specific to this Customer Invoice. These notes will not appear on the printed invoice and are only visible to system users. 

Saving, Posting, and Printing Invoices at entry

Clicking Save creates a draft or Pro-Forma invoice.
 

Only posted invoices will have accounting entries posted against the debtor and the GL ledger accounts. There are four options when you click Save: 

• Save Invoice: This will process but not post the Invoice to the ledger.
• Save and Print Invoice: This will save and print a Pro-forma Invoice.
• Post Invoice: This will post the Invoice to the ledger, meaning you cannot delete it and can only edit certain fields.
• Post and Print Invoice: This posts and prints a copy of the posted Invoice. 

Managing Sales Invoices

Viewing Invoices in the grid

To view item invoices, go to Sales > Item Invoices.
 

When you enter a Customer Invoice, it becomes available to view in the grid. By default, only open invoices appear. You can clear this filter by clicking Clear or selecting a different one from the list. 
 

These invoices are not yet posted and so you can still edit or cancel them. Unposted Invoices do not update the Customer Account in the Accounts Receivables Ledger or General Ledger. However, the Invoice does update the Inventory Management System with Quantities and Costs. This means that if you delete Lines from the Invoice now, these Quantities will be reversed.

Posting Invoices from the grid

Go to Sales > Item Invoices. 

To post the saved Invoice you can either:

• Under the Post column, select the relevant Invoice/s. Click Post Selected. 
• Open the Invoice by clicking its Number. Click Save > Post Invoice.
   

The Invoice will now disappear from this grid and will appear in the Customer Account grid which you can access by clicking the Balance in the Total column.
 

Emailing Invoices from the grid

For the relevant Invoice, click the email icon, complete the message in the screen and click Send Message.

Printing Invoices from the grid

For the relevant Invoice, select the required format from the Print dropdown.

Duplicate, Auto Credit, Mark as Disputed, or Cancel an Invoice

1. Go to Sales > Item Invoices and find the relevant Invoice.
2. From the Actions dropdown, or in the Invoice, select one of the following:

• Duplicate: For edits that you cannot make, for example, if the Invoice has already been posted, you can instead duplicate the Invoice. Click Duplicate. Add a new External Ref. and then modify it, including adding new Invoice Lines, as you require. Click Save. The old Invoice will remain in the system as it was, and you can then Auto-Credit it (see below).
• Auto Credit: While you cannot delete an Invoice, you can effectively nullify it by clicking Auto-Credit. This creates and allocates an exact replica Credit Note to the Invoice. It will default to today's date and effectively reverse all the invoice details, GL codes, BI codes, line items, and amounts. 
• Mark as Disputed: For example, if the Customer does not agree with the Credit Note contents.
• Cancel Note 

Editing a Sales Invoice

Go to Sales > Item Invoices and click the Invoice Number to open the Sales Item Invoice screen. 

Invoices with a status of Posted will have all fields greyed out so you cannot make edits. However, if you click on the Edit Details you can update the:

• Line Description.
• Address.
• Delivery Address. 

You can edit Invoices that have a status of Processed. You can:

• Delete or add Lines.
• Change Quantities, Prices, Vat Rates, GL Codes, and BI Codes.
• Add Line Notes and Order Notes.