Billing · Daily operations · 9 min read

Create and post a customer invoice

Raise invoices from the To invoice list, check the billing record, and post the invoice.

Before you begin

• You have billing.manage to create the invoices and document.invoice to post them.
• The sales orders are confirmed (or delivered, if the order invoices on delivered quantities) and have something left to bill.
• The customer has payment terms and, if your issue profile asks for it, a tax registration number.

Steps: create invoices

1. Open Billing > Customers > To invoice. The list shows each order line with something left to bill: Order, Partner, Date, Line, Basis, Ordered, Delivered, Invoiced, To bill and Value. The side selector offers Customers and Suppliers.
2. Tick the lines you want to bill.
3. Press Create invoices.
4. Read the preview. It shows how the orders will be grouped into invoices, the reason for each split, and any orders skipped, such as '<state> - nothing to bill.' or 'Fully billed.'
5. Press Submit.

Example: an order of 10 units has 6 delivered and none invoiced, with the delivered basis. The list shows Ordered 10, Delivered 6, Invoiced 0, To bill 6 and the value of 6 units. A confirmed order with one line of AED 1,000.00 and 5% VAT becomes a draft invoice of net 1,000.00, VAT 50.00, total 1,050.00. The due date comes from the customer's payment terms. The order keeps its own number.

How orders are grouped

Orders of the same customer and currency go on one invoice. The active grouping policy adds more keys. If the policy splits by customer PO, two orders with different POs become two invoices and the preview says "split by customer_po". If the policy allows at most 2 orders per invoice, three orders become two invoices. An AED order and a USD order are always split.

You can ask for up to 500 orders at once. Pressing Submit twice quickly creates the invoices once. The list is capped at 300 open orders.

Steps: check and post

1. Open the new draft invoice from Billing > Customers > Invoices. This is the billing record.
2. On the Billing tab, check Bill to, Payer and Date of supply. Press Edit to change them, then Save. The date of supply cannot be more than a year after the invoice date.
3. Look at the approval and issue card. A chip Needs approval means the invoice cannot be posted until a different person approves it. See Approve an invoice before posting.
4. If the card shows "Issue profile <CODE> · missing: ..." fix what is missing, for example the customer's TRN.
5. To change lines, press Open document. The invoice opens in Sales > Invoicing > Customer invoices.
6. Press Post.

What happens next

• The invoice is Posted and the chip reads Issued.
• The journal for a net of 1,000.00 and VAT 5% is: debit trade receivable 1,050.00, credit revenue 1,000.00, credit output VAT 50.00. An open item of 1,050.00 is created on the customer.
• A legal snapshot is frozen: customer name, TRN, address, your TRN, date of supply, totals and a checksum. Reprints keep these details even if the customer record changes.
• If you left the date of supply empty, it takes the invoice date.
• Instalments are written from the payment terms (Instalments and collections).
• Orders show the invoice in their Invoice status.
• A cash rounding set on the order appears as an untaxed rounding line, and a down payment already invoiced is deducted once.
• The printed document is titled "Tax invoice" with your seller TRN and VAT by rate.

Good to know

• Posting is refused if the issue profile is not met, with a message such as 'The issue profile <CODE> needs: Our tax registration number.' Nothing is posted.
• If your company requires a date of supply: 'Enter the date of supply: this company requires one on every invoice.'
• A posted invoice cannot be edited: 'Only an unposted document is changed. A posted invoice is corrected by a credit note.' See Credit notes and refunds.
• An order that was invoiced on the order itself cannot be billed again: '<SO number> was invoiced on the order itself, so there is nothing left to bill.'
• Choosing Suppliers on the side selector creates a draft vendor bill from a purchase order with a receipt.
• If two tabs change the same record, the second save fails with 'Somebody changed this record since you opened it. Reload and try again.'
• Posting twice by double-click produces one entry.