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Operations Menu - Invoice

To raise an Invoice from a Sales Order, select 'Invoice' from the Operations menu. For the function to have any effect, all changes to the Sales Order must first have been saved (use the [Save] button). Usually at least one approved Delivery must first have been created from the Order: the exceptions to this are described later on this page.

A new record is created in the Invoice register (in the Sales Ledger). It is opened in a new window, entitled 'Invoice: Inspect'. This means that it has been created and saved and is being opened for amendment and approval.

The Invoice takes its information from the Order, and, as a default, assumes that all delivered Items are to be invoiced. If you have made and approved a part Delivery, the Invoice will default to the Quantity of that Delivery. If you have made and approved two part Deliveries, the Invoice will be for the aggregate Quantity of both Deliveries. If you have made two part Deliveries, only one of which is approved, the Invoice will be for the Quantity on the approved Delivery only.

If the Order contains an Item that requires Serial Numbers, it can be entered using a single Order row with the correct Quantity. When the Delivery is created, it will contain the appropriate number of rows each with a Quantity of one. The Invoice can mirror the Order (i.e. with a single row for the Serial Numbered Item with the Quantity from the Order) or it can mirror the Delivery (i.e. with a number of rows each with a Quantity of one). If you wish to use the latter option, check the Invoice Based on Delivery box in the Order Settings setting. This will be useful if you need to have the Serial Numbers printed on Invoices as well as on Delivery Notes.

Usually, at least one Delivery must be issued before an Invoice can be raised, so an Item cannot be invoiced until it has been delivered. There are two exceptions to this:

  1. if the Automatic delivery for Service and Plain Items box in the Stock Settings setting is checked. In this case, Deliveries are not created for Service and Plain Items so they can be invoiced immediately. If you are using this feature, take care not to create premature Invoices accidentally for services such as delivery and labour from Orders that also include Stocked Items. Stocked Items must still be delivered before they can be invoiced.

    If this option is in use, when a Plain or Service Item is included in a Sales Order, the Del 1 and Del 2 Quantities will be changed to the Order Quantity when the Order is saved. Therefore Plain and Service Items will never be included on Deliveries created from the Order. This also means that the Order Quantity for such Items cannot be reduced once the Order has been saved.

  2. if the Invoice Before Delivery box on the 'Del Terms' card of the Order or the Invoices Before Delivery box in the Stock Settings setting is checked. In this case, an Invoice for the whole Order can be raised before a Delivery is created. If you have determined that cost accounting transactions are to be created at the point of delivery, stock transactions in the Nominal Ledger will still be raised when the Delivery is approved (i.e. use of the Invoices before Delivery check box does not affect cost accounting in any way).
You can change the Quantity of one or more rows on the Invoice screen as appropriate, but not to a Quantity that is greater than that delivered. You can also remove entire rows, by clicking on the row number to the left and pressing the Backspace key, or add new rows. If you need to invoice a greater Quantity than was delivered, this must be done by adding a new row to the Invoice. Ensure that the Update Stock box on the 'Delivery' card of the Invoice is checked so that stock levels are updated accordingly and, if appropriate, to cause cost accounting transactions to be created in the Nominal Ledger for the extra quantity. The Update Stock box will only apply to Invoice rows that are not related to the Order.

Two check boxes in the Account Usage S/L setting, Update Base Cur. when Invoicing and Update Foreign Cur. when Invoicing, control the Base and Exchange Rates on the 'Currency' card of the Invoice. If these options are not used, the rates will be copied from the Order. If they are used, the latest Base and Exchange Rates will be used. In the latter case, the prices in Currency of the Items in the Invoice will not be changed. This means the Customer will still be charged the agreed price, but the value of the Invoice in the home Currency (and therefore in the Nominal Ledger) will be different to that of the Order. If you want to update the pricing in the Invoice to reflect new Base and Exchange Rates (i.e. to change the price charged to the Customer but to maintain the original value in the home Currency and in the Nominal Ledger), save the Invoice and then select 'Update Currency Price List Items' from the Operations menu.

If the Customer has been assigned a Default Item record ('Pricing' card of the Customer record), all Items in that record will be added to the Invoice automatically (they will not be shown in the Order or the Delivery). Note that these Items will not have a Quantity, so be sure to enter one before printing or approving the Invoice.

To print an Invoice, click the Printer icon. If the Invoice has not been approved, the printed Invoice will be marked as a test print, so that it cannot be confused with the final version of the Invoice.

When the Invoice is complete, click the OK check box. This signifies that the Invoice has been approved. Associated transactions in the Nominal Ledger (including cost accounting transactions if you are using this option) will now be raised and you will no longer be able to modify the Invoice. If you are raising part Invoices from an Order, you will be able to raise further Invoices even if the previous one has not been approved.

Please click here for a full description of the Invoice screen, including detailed information about approving and printing printing Invoices and Nominal Ledger Transactions.

To close the screen and return to the Order, click the close box. You will be asked if you want to save any changes. The Invoiced field of the Order (visible on flip D) will be updated automatically. However, if you reduced the quantity in an Invoice row, or removed an Invoice row altogether, this change will not be fed back to the Invoiced field on flip D of the Order. In this situation, run the 'Recalculate Orders' Maintenance function for the Order in question, and choose the Invoiced Qty option to reset the Invoiced figure.

If the 'Invoice' function is run from the Operations menu of the 'Orders: Browse' window, it will only create an Invoice for the first highlighted Order. If you need to create Invoices in batches, use the 'Group Invoicing' Maintenance function. You can also create an Invoice by dragging an Order from the 'Orders: Browse' window to the 'Invoices: Browse' window. In this case, the new Invoice will not be opened automatically for checking and approval.

If the function does not create an Invoice, the probable causes are:

  1. There are no Items on the Order awaiting invoicing.

  2. The Order has a Project Number quoted on the 'Del Terms' card. If this is the case, the Invoice must be raised from the Job Costing module, using the 'Create Project Invoices' Maintenance function.

  3. There is no valid record in the Number Series - Invoices setting (in the Sales Ledger). This might be a fault in the setting itself, or it might be because the default Invoice Number on the 'Ser Nos' card of the current user's Person record or in the Number Series Defaults setting (in the System module) is not in a valid Number Series. This problem will usually occur at the beginning of a new year. If a change is made to the 'Ser Nos' card of the Person record, you will need to quit Hansa and restart for it to take effect.
If you create an Invoice by mistake using this function, you can delete it using this procedure:
  1. Set the value of the Invoice to zero. Do this by removing every row from the Invoice or by changing all quantities to zero.

  2. Delete the Invoice using the 'Delete' command on the Record menu.

  3. Run the 'Recalculate Orders' Maintenance function for the Order in question, and choose the Invoiced Qty option to reset the Invoiced figure in the Order (flip D).
If you want to prevent the raising of an Invoice from a delivered Order, use the 'Set Order to Invoiced' Operations menu function.