Customer Invoice
The document that tells a customer what it owes and puts that amount on its account. It is raised either from sales (goods issued against a sales order, a shipment, a billing proposal) or as a free-text invoice where each line names the account it credits. Save with Posting Status Posted is the posting.
What it is for
The transaction journal picked first decides what kind of invoice this is.
- Free text. Each line names an account, a quantity, a unit and a price. Use it for services, rent, recharges and anything not shipped from stock. With Required Item In Free Text Invoice on Account Receivable Setting, lines can also name an item or a service.
- From sales. Lines come from what was delivered: a sales order's issued goods, an outbound shipment (for a foreign customer), or a billing proposal of fleet, service, towing or real estate, or a real estate sales agreement. Quantities and units come from the source and cannot be changed; the price can be changed only if Is Price Can Enable is ticked on Account Receivable Setting. A line can never be invoiced for more than is left on its source.
- Service order. On a service order journal, Copy From › Service Order pulls the confirmed lines of a service order and its charges.
Invoices for goods issued against a sales order can also be raised by themselves when the goods are issued, if the sales settings say so (see Sales and Distribution Setting).
The one rule people get wrong: an invoice saved as Posted can no longer be edited or deleted, only reversed. Save as Park to keep it open, and post it later by editing it or with Batch Posting.
Every field in plain words
General
| Field | What it means | What to put |
|---|---|---|
| Invoice | The invoice number | Given on Create from the journal's number range |
| Transaction Journal | The kind of invoice and its numbering | Required. Only journals valid on the posting date are offered. Locked after Create |
| Posting Date | The date the invoice posts on | Required. Fills Invoice Date and Exchange Date, and the Financial Year and Period. A journal that refuses back-dating makes it read-only on edit |
| Posting Status | Posted or Park | Required. Defaults from the journal. Only Posted and Park are accepted |
| Copy From | Copy lines from another document | Shown on service order invoices |
| Reference | The customer's reference, such as its order number | Optional, printed |
| Journal, Journal Indicator, Financial Year, Financial Period | Filled from the journal and the posting date | Read-only |
| Stop Collection | This invoice is not offered for clearing on collections | Tick to hold the invoice back from collections |
| Notes | Free text about the invoice | Optional |
Basic Data
| Field | What it means | What to put |
|---|---|---|
| Customer | Who is billed | Required. Picking it fills name, group, tax zone, posting profile, currency, payment term and method, sales structure and addresses from Customer In Legal Entity. Locked after Create |
| Customer Tax Zone | The tax zone of the sale | Changing it asks whether to update every line's tax zone |
| Posting Profile | Decides the customer's receivable account | Optional; the customer's or the company's default otherwise |
| Currency, Exchange Date, Exchange Rate | The invoice currency and its rate | Starts in the company's currency at rate 1. Another currency fetches the rate for the exchange date. Locked after Create. A foreign customer's rate cannot be typed |
| Payment Term, Payment Method | When and how the customer pays | Required |
| Customer Invoice No | Hidden as delivered | |
| Invoice Date | The date printed on the invoice | Fills Baseline Date |
| Baseline Date | The date the payment term counts from | Due Date is worked out from it |
| Due Date | Baseline Date plus the days of the payment term's first line | Read-only |
| Tax Exempt Number, Party Bank | Stored only | |
| Sale Order, Outbound Shipment, Billing Proposal, Sales Agreement | The source of a sales invoice | Shown by the journal's kind. An outbound shipment is mandatory for a foreign customer |
Administration
Sales Organization, Sales Group, Distribution Channel, Sales Region, Sales Area, Sales Territory, Responsibility Central and Sales Responsible: filled from the customer and changeable. They feed the sales analysis lists. Sales Region is also a financial dimension of the posting.
Address
Delivery To, Delivery Address Name, Person, and the Invoice Address Name and Person, picked from the customer's addresses and contacts. The address, email and mobile fill in by themselves. When the invoice goes to the tax authority's digital invoicing, the invoice address is mandatory.
Terms & Conditions, Header, Footer
Free text printed on the invoice.
Invoice Lines
| Column | What it means | What to put |
|---|---|---|
| Account | The account the line credits (free text) | Required on free-text lines |
| Sales, Sales No, Name | The item or service of the line | Shown on sales invoices, and on free text when the setting asks for items |
| Service Object | The object served | Optional |
| Unit, Quantity | How many of what | Required. Quantity more than 0 |
| Price | The unit price | More than 0, except free-of-charge lines |
| Gross Amount | Quantity times price | Calculated |
| Discount %, Discount Amount, Net Price, Net Amount | Line discount | Shown when the sales settings switch line discounts on |
| Tax Zone, Tax Group | Which taxes apply to the line | Tax Zone is locked to the header's unless the Taxzone switch of Account Receivable Setting is on |
| Line Text | Free text |
Hidden columns (HS Code, authority unit and SRO details for digital invoicing, landed and retail prices, sequence) appear when their settings switch them on.
Cost elements, header discount, schedule
| Toolbar | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Cost Elements (header) | Charges on the whole invoice: cost element, debit and credit account, allocation base and value, currency, tax zone and group, tax lines. On a sales invoice, the sales order's header charges are brought in on Create |
| Header Discount | Discount categories with a percentage or amount, taken off the whole invoice |
| Tax lines | The tax worked out for a line |
| Payment schedule | The invoice's instalments from its payment term: schedule date, due, amount, cleared, remaining |
Totals
Gross Amount, Header Discount, Line Discount Amount, Total Discount Amount, Net Amount, Tax Amount, Cost Elements, Free of Cost Amount, Receivable Amount, Rounding Difference and Net Receivable Amount, in the invoice currency and in the company's currency. The receivable is rounded by the currency's rounding rule; the difference posts to the currency's rounding account.
How to configure it
- Make one transaction journal per kind of invoice: free text, from sales orders, from each kind of billing proposal. The journal also sets the default posting status, number ranges and whether back-dating is allowed (see Transaction Journal).
- Switch line columns on Account Receivable Setting.
- Fields can be made mandatory or defaulted per company on its Default Parameters tab.
Digital invoicing to the tax authority
When the company is set up for the tax authority's digital invoicing (FBR in Pakistan), the journal allows it, the invoice is in the company's currency and its posting date is on or after the integration start date, the invoice is sent to the authority's portal when it is saved as Posted (or when its approval completes). Unless the journal keeps the transaction date, the posting date is moved to today when it is sent. A parked invoice of this kind takes its number from the journal's unposted number range. Such an invoice needs an invoice address and an HS Code on every line, and cannot carry a cost element billed to the customer. Invoices can also be sent in a batch with Invoice Released.
Scenarios
- A consultancy bills a monthly retainer. Free-text journal, one line on the fee income account, quantity 1, the fee as price.
- A distributor invoices what was delivered this week. Sales journal, pick the sales order; the lines come from the goods issued and not yet invoiced.
- An exporter. The customer is a foreign customer; pick the outbound shipment. The currency and rate fields are locked.
- Freight charged on top. Add a cost element on the header or the line; it raises the receivable when its debit layer is the customer.
- The invoice is drafted by one person and checked by another. Save as Park. The checker opens it, changes Posting Status to Posted and saves, or posts many at once with Batch Posting.
What posts
| Document | When | Debit | Credit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer Invoice | Save | The customer's receivable account (from the posting profile), for the Net Receivable Amount | Each line's account for its net amount; the tax accounts of the tax codes for the tax; the cost elements' accounts; the currency's rounding account for any rounding difference |
The voucher carries the invoice's posting status, so a parked invoice's voucher stays parked until the invoice is posted. The exact lines are laid out by the posting keys of this screen on Process Post Key in General ledger. Undoing a posting is Reverse on the toolbar. See What posts in receivables.
What it is connected to
- Customer In Legal Entity supplies the defaults.
- Payment Term makes the due date and the schedule.
- Collection clears the invoice; Customer Settlement nets it against memos and advances.
- Customer Invoice Memo credits it back.
- Invoice Released, Batch Posting.
- Billing proposals invoiced here: project billing proposals are invoiced by hand (Billing Proposal in project accounting); service, fleet and towing proposals come from service billing proposal, fleet billing proposal and towing billing proposal, and a confirmed service order from Service Order Confirmation; real estate from the real estate Billing Proposal.
- Order to cash - the whole sales process this invoice is a step of.
- Break Auto Invoice On, on Sales and Distribution Setting - where an invoice made from several orders starts a new invoice.
If something looks wrong
- "Exchange rate cannot be zero or negative". No rate exists for that currency on the exchange date. Enter it in the currency rates of General ledger (Currency Conversion).
- "Posting Status Should be Posted or Park". Pick one of the two.
- "Payment Term cannot be Empty" / "Payment Method cannot be Empty". Fill both; set them on the customer to have them filled in.
- "Invoice Lines cannot be empty". Add at least one line.
- "Invoice Lines - Line ID: ... - Sale Quantity cannot be zero". Every line needs a quantity.
- "Invoice Lines - Line ID: ... - Sales unit cannot be empty". Pick the unit.
- "Invoice Lines - Line ID: ... - Gross Price cannot be less than zero". The price must be more than zero.
- "Rounding Difference Account is not configured in Currency ...". Give the currency a rounding account.
- "Posted Transactions cannot be changed." The invoice is posted. Reverse it and raise a new one, or issue a Customer Invoice Memo.
- "Posted invoice cannot be deleted". Reverse it instead.
- "Invoice: ... cannot be deleted. Following Collections have been raised against it" / "... cannot be reversed. Following Collections have been raised against it". Reverse those collections first.
- "Invoice: ... cannot be reversed. Following Return Orders have been raised against it". Deal with the return orders first.
- "Only Posted Vouchers can be reversed". A parked invoice is deleted, not reversed.
- "Reverse Date ... cannot be less than Posting Date ..." / "Reverse Date cannot be smaller then Collection Reverse date ...". Pick a later reverse date.
- "Invoice Lines - Line ID: ... - Item ... is already invoiced for Sales Order ...". The order line is fully invoiced.
- "Invoice Lines - Line ID: ... - Sales Quantity ... cannot exceed Balance Quantity ...". Less is left to invoice than you typed.
- "Invoice has been stopped for Sales Order: ...". Invoicing is stopped on that sales order.
- "Cannot Create Smaller than DC Posting Date". The posting date is before the delivery's posting date.
- "... Transaction are Reversed". A delivery on the invoice has been reversed. Remove its lines.
- "Invoice Address is Mandatory for Authority Portal" / "Line ID: ... HS Code is Rquired for Authority Portal". Fill the invoice address and the HS Code (turn on Allow Edit FBR Information to see the column).
- "Invoice cannot be posted to FBR because cost elements have been applied to the customer." Remove the charges billed to the customer, or park the invoice.
- "Un Posted Number Range is not configured in Journal". Give the journal an unposted number range, or post instead of parking.
- "This Invoice ... is already Submitted to the Authority Portal". It has been sent; it cannot be sent again.
- "Line ID: ... - Sales Tax is Duplicating". The tax setup gives the line the same tax twice. Check the tax group.
- "Payment Term ... is not defined correctly. Schedule is not calculated". The payment term has a fixed-amount line. See Payment Term.
- "Header Cost Element - Cost Element ... Exchange Rate cannot be 0". No rate for the charge's currency on that date.
- "Journal Cannot be Empty." / "Financial Year not found." Pick a journal; open the financial year for the posting date.
- The invoice does not show on a collection. It is parked, Stop Collection is ticked, or it is fully cleared.