HansaWorld - Integrated ERP and CRM

Introduction

The Invoice register is a record of your company's sales. Each time you make a sale, you should enter an Invoice, print it and sent it to the Customer. You will therefore use the Invoice register for a number of tasks:

The printed Invoice sent to the Customer acts as a demand for payment;
Unpaid Invoices in the register provide the basis for your debt chasing reports; and
Each Invoice causes a Nominal Ledger Transaction to be created, thus generating the turnover and debtor figures in your monthly and yearly management reports. This creation process is automatic, requiring no intervention or work from you.

Four types of sales transaction can be recorded in the Invoice register:

Standard Invoices, or demands for payment, are issued where the goods have been delivered or work carried out before payment has been received. Payments against such Invoices should be recorded in the Receipt register.
The Cash Note is issued when you receive payment at the same time as carrying out the work. When a Cash Note is entered to the Invoice register, FirstOffice will treat it as having being paid, so there is no need to enter a separate payment record in the Receipt register. FirstOffice will also look after the Nominal Ledger implications for you (debiting the Cash Account rather than the Debtor Account).
A Deposit is the receipt of money before an Invoice has been raised. Deposits are treated as Cash Notes in FirstOffice.
Credit Notes are used to correct mistakes in Invoices, or to cancel Invoices that have been raised in error. They are, in effect, negative Invoices that reduce your turnover and debtor figures. Again, FirstOffice looks after these Nominal Ledger implications automatically.

The use of the Invoice register, including each of these types of sales transaction, is now described in detail. Before you start entering Invoices, however, you must ensure that you have defined the current financial (accounting) year, using the Fiscal Years setting.

To open the Invoice register, click the [Invoices] button in the Master Control panel, or use the Ctrl-1 (Windows and Linux) or ⌘-1 (Macintosh) keyboard shortcuts.

The 'Invoices: Browse' window is opened, showing Invoices already entered.

Invoices are numbered consecutively and the Invoice Number is usually generated by the system. The Invoice Number is followed by a check mark (if the Invoice is approved), by the Customer Number and Name and the total amount of the Invoice. Credit Notes have the letter "C" in the value column, after the amount.

As in all browse windows you can change the sort order by clicking on the column headings. To reverse any sort, simply click once again on the column heading. You can also scroll the list with the scroll bars. Finally, you can search for a record by entering a keyword in the field at the bottom left corner. FirstOffice will search for the first record matching the keyword in the same column as the selected sorting order.

There are four things you can do in the Invoice register:

Entering an Invoice

FirstOffice provides several shortcuts to simplify your work with entering Invoices. You can for example bring a date into a date field using the 'Paste Special' function. You can also use this function to simplify the entering of Item Numbers, Customer Numbers, Payment Terms etc.

To enter a new Invoice, first open the 'Invoices: Browse' window as described here. Then click [New] in the Button Bar or use the Ctrl-N (Windows) or ⌘-N (Macintosh) keyboard shortcut. Alternatively, select an Invoice similar to the one you want to enter and click [Duplicate] on the Button Bar.

The 'Invoice: New' window is opened, empty if you clicked [New] or with a copy of the copied Invoice. In the case of the copy, the Invoice and Transaction Dates of the new Invoice will be the current date, not the date of the copied Invoice, and the Due Date will be recalculated accordingly. Complete the Invoice record as described below, then save it using the [Save] button and close the window by clicking the close box. Then, close the browse window using the close box again.

!	You are not bound by the values suggested by FirstOffice. For most fields you can change the pre-set values into something that suits you better. Such changes are valid only for the Invoice in question.

Since the amount of information stored about each Invoice will not fit on a single screen, the Invoice window has been divided into three cards. At the top of each is the header. This contains the Invoice Number, the Customer Number and Name. At the bottom of the screen is the footer, which contains various totals. There are three named buttons ('tabs') in the header.

By clicking the tabs you can navigate between cards. The header is always visible, as a reminder of the Customer whose Invoice you are working with.

Entering an Invoice - Header

No.: The Invoice Number of a new Invoice is provided automatically by FirstOffice following on from the Number of the last Invoice entered.; When you start using FirstOffice, the Invoice Number sequence will start at 1 and continue consecutively. If you want the sequence to start from another number, change the Number of the first Invoice: FirstOffice will then continue the sequence from there. You can then change the Number of any subsequent Invoice if you want to use another number sequence. Note that you must change the Invoice Number before you save the Invoice: it cannot be changed afterwards.
Customer: Paste Special Customers in Customer register; Enter the Customer Number or use the 'Paste Special' function. When you press Return, the Customer's name, address and other information will be entered into the appropriate fields.
Name: The Customer Name is entered after you have entered the Customer Number.

Entering an Invoice - Terms Card

Invoice Date: Paste Special Choose date; The current date according to the computer's clock is entered as a default. If you are not using the Allow Trans. Date Changing option in the Transaction Settings setting, this must be the same as the Invoice Date and cannot be changed independently.
Our Ref.: Use this field if you need to identify the Invoice by means other than the Invoice Number. A default will be taken from the Our Ref field of the Person record of the current user.
Payment Terms: Paste Special Payment Terms setting; Default taken from Customer (Sales Pay Terms); Payment Terms entered here will be used to calculate the Due Date (below), in addition simply to ensuring that the correct Payment Terms appear on the printed Invoice document.; Specifying Payment Terms for each Invoice provides the basis for the debt-chasing reports provided in FirstOffice.; Payment Terms are also the means by which Cash Notes and Credit Notes are distinguished from ordinary Invoices. Using 'Paste Special', select a Payment Term record of the "Cash" or "Credit Note" type respectively. When the record is then approved and saved, the appropriate Nominal Ledger Transaction will be created. In the case of Cash Notes, this will debit the Cash Account (as specified in the Payment Term record or in the Account Usage S/L setting) rather than the Debtor Account, while in the case of Credit Notes, the Transaction will be a reversal of the original Invoice Transaction.; Cash Notes are immediately treated as paid and so will not appear in your debtor reports. There is no need to enter a payment against them. If you need to reverse a Cash Note, use a negative Cash Note, not a Credit Note.; When you select a Payment Term of the "Credit Note" type, a crediting message will be entered in the first row of the grid area. Enter the number of the Invoice to be credited, using 'Paste Special' if necessary to bring up a list of open (unpaid) Invoices.; If an Invoice has a "Cash" or "Credit Note" Payment Term, the Invoice will not use the standard Invoice document when printed. Instead, the Cash Note or Credit Note (respectively) document will be used. Please refer to the Printing Invoices page for more details.
Attn.: Paste Special Contact Person register; Default taken from Customer; Record here the person for whose attention the Invoice is to be marked.
Due Date: Paste Special Choose date; This is calculated by FirstOffice using the Invoice Date and the Payment Terms. It is the date on which the Invoice becomes due for payment.
Trans. Date: The Transaction Date for the Nominal Ledger Transaction. This is always the same as the Invoice Date and cannot be changed independently.
Service Del. Date: Paste Special Choose date; The date the Items on the Invoice were delivered. The Invoice Date will be placed here when you save the Invoice for the first time. You can change the date if necessary. If you created the Invoice by duplicating a previous one, this date will not be changed to the current date (as will happen with the Invoice Date).
Official Ser. No.: In some countries it is a legal requirement to allocate an official serial number to each Invoice. This number may be supplied pre-printed on Invoice stationery.

Entering an Invoice - Items Card

Use the grid on the 'Items' card to list the invoiced Items. To add rows to an Invoice, click in any field in the first blank row and enter appropriate text. To remove a row, click on the row number on the left of the row and press the Backspace key. To insert a row, click on the row number where the insertion is to be made and press Return.

You can also bring Items into an Invoice by opening the 'Items: Browse' window, selecting a range of Items by clicking while holding down the Shift key, and then dragging them to the Item field in the first empty Invoice row. You can also copy a list of Item Numbers from a spreadsheet or word processor and paste them in the Item field in the first empty row.

Item

Paste Special Item register

With the cursor in this field, enter the Item Number for each Item sold. Pricing, descriptive and other information will be brought in from the Item record. If you leave this field blank, you can enter any text in the Description field, perhaps using the row for additional comments to be printed on Invoice documentation.

Qty.

Enter the number of units sold. Press Return to calculate the Sum, and the cursor will move to the Item field on the next row.

You must specify a Quantity before a Sum can be calculated for the Invoice row.

Description

Default taken from Item

This field shows the name of the Item, brought in from the Item register. If you want to add an extra description, you can do so: there is room for up to 100 characters of text. You can also use the next line if necessary.

Unit Price

The Unit Price according to the valid Price List for the Customer is brought in. If the Customer has no Price List specified, or the Item is not on the Price List in question, the Price from the Item record is brought in. This figure will include VAT if the Price List specified is one that is Inclusive of VAT or if you have specified in the Account Usage S/L setting that Prices include VAT.

%

Discount percentage. It can be changed to an adhoc rate if necessary.

Sum

The total for the row: Quantity multiplied by Unit Price less Discount. Changing this figure will cause the Discount Percentage to be recalculated. This figure will include VAT if the Price List specified is one that is Inclusive of VAT or if you have specified in the Account Usage S/L setting that Prices include VAT.

V-Cd

Paste Special VAT Codes setting

The VAT Code entered here determines the rate at which VAT will be charged on this Item and the Output VAT Account to be credited. A default is offered, taken from the Item record. If none is specified, the default is taken from the Account Usage S/L setting. You can change this default in a particular Invoice row if necessary.

Footer

The Invoice Footer contains various running totals as described below. Whenever an Invoice row is added or changed, these totals are updated.

OK: Checking this box approves the Invoice and causes it to be entered in the Sales Ledger. A corresponding Nominal Ledger Transaction will also be created in the Transaction register. Because of this consequence, once this box has been checked and the Invoice saved, you will no longer be able to make changes to the Invoice.; References in these web pages to approved Invoices are to Invoices whose OK check box has been switched on.
VAT: The VAT total for the Invoice.; This figure is rounded up or down according to rounding rules set in the Round Off setting. In the Nominal Ledger Transaction resulting from this Invoice, any amounts lost or gained in this rounding process are posted to the Round Off Account specified in the Account Usage S/L setting.
Sub-Total: The total for the Invoice, excluding VAT.
TOTAL: The total for the Invoice, including VAT.; This figure is rounded up or down according to rounding rules set in the Round Off setting. In the Nominal Ledger Transaction resulting from this Invoice, any amounts lost or gained in this rounding process are posted to the Round Off Account specified in the Account Usage S/L setting.

Entering an Invoice - Address Card

Address: Default taken from Customer; The Customer's address, as entered in the Customer record. If you need to change something for this Invoice only, you can do so. Permanent changes should be made in the Customer register.
VAT Zone: Default taken from Customer; These radio buttons show the Zone for this Customer, brought in from the Customer record. The Account Usage S/L setting allows different defaults for the Sales Account and the VAT Account to be set up for each Zone. The setting cannot be changed for this Invoice: any change should be made in the Customer register before entering Invoices.

When all Items have been entered, you may want to check the Invoice. Click the [Save] button to save it and then click the Printer icon in the Button Bar to print a sample Invoice document. If you want to print to screen, click the Preview icon.

You will still be able to make changes until you approve the Invoice by clicking the OK check box. When this is done and the Invoice saved once again, it will be entered to the Sales Ledger, a Nominal Ledger Transaction for the Invoice will be created and it will no longer be modifiable.

Entering an Invoice - Examples

We shall now show how to use the various fields on the Invoice screen with the help of a few examples.

Open the Invoice register using the button in the Master Control panel. The 'Invoice: New' window is shown, with Invoice Number and Date entered. The cursor is already in the Customer Number field. Press Ctrl-Return (Windows and Linux) or ⌘-Return (Macintosh) to activate the 'Paste Special' feature. This brings up the 'Paste Customer' window.

Select a Customer from the list by double-clicking on its name (or by using the cursor keys and pressing Return). Press Return again and Customer information such as Name and Address is placed in the appropriate fields on the Invoice screen.

Press Return again to move the insertion point to the Item field, the top left-hand field in the Invoice rows grid. Again, you can use 'Paste Special' to select an Item. Select an Item by double-clicking. Press Return to bring information such as the Item Name, Price and VAT Code.

Then, enter the Quantity sold and press Return. The Amount, Tax, Sum and Totals are calculated automatically, and the insertion point moves to the next line. Repeat this procedure for each Item on the Invoice.

If the Invoice needs altering, edit the fields in the normal way. As the Invoice has not been saved, you can also cancel the Invoice entirely by clicking [Cancel] or the close box. In that case you will be asked to confirm the cancellation:

If the Invoice had been saved, but not approved, you would still be able to cancel it completely, using 'Delete' on the Record menu.

When you have added all the Items, you may want to check the Invoice. Click the [Save] button to save it and then click the Printer icon in the Button Bar to print a sample copy. If you want to print to screen, click the Preview icon.

Until you have approved the Invoice by checking the OK box and saving, you can still change it.

Inspecting and Approving Invoices

Before you send an Invoice to a Customer, you should check and approve it, to ensure that the Customer is charged for the correct things. Approving an Invoice causes it to be inserted into your Sales Ledger.

When you approve and save an Invoice, a transaction will be created and automatically transferred to the Nominal Ledger. This transaction will be assigned a journal number that is the same as the Invoice Number.

The Sales Ledger is organised so that incoming payments can only be registered against approved Invoices. There are two ways to approve an Invoice:

With the Invoice on screen, click the OK check box and then [Save].
Select an Invoice by clicking on it in the 'Invoices: Browse' window, and select 'OK' on the Operations menu. By holding down the Shift key you can highlight a batch of Invoices to approve at a single stroke using this method.

!	After approving an Invoice, you will no longer be able to change it.

Nominal Ledger Transactions from Invoices

When you approve and save an Invoice, a Nominal Ledger Transaction will be generated automatically. Please refer here for full details of this Transaction.

Once the Transaction has been generated, you can look at it straight away using the 'Open NL Transaction' function on the Operations menu.

Error Messages

When you approve Invoices, Transactions are automatically generated and put in your Nominal Ledger journal.

An error message will appear if an Account or other setting is incorrect. All Account numbers used by the Invoice, which will have been offered as defaults from the Account Usage S/L setting, Items or Customers, must exist in the Accounts setting. The VAT Codes used must be defined.

While the Invoice is still on screen, you can correct the error, by adding the missing Account(s) to the Accounts setting or by changing the Account used in the Invoice.

The program cannot post transactions to non-existent Accounts, to prevent accounting errors.

Printing Invoices

There are several occasions when you may want to print an Invoice: to view a test print-out to check the Invoice before you finally approve it; to produce a copy for your own files, or to send the original Invoice to the Customer.

To do a test print-out, save the Invoice and then click on the Printer icon in the Button Bar before you approve the Invoice. The Invoice will then be printed with the text "Test Printout" diagonally printed across the page. This is to avoid the test being confused with the final version. As you have not yet approved the Invoice by checking the OK box, you can go back and correct any errors you may find in the printout. This is also true for Credit Notes.

If you want to print a range of final Invoices, follow the instructions below:

Select 'Documents' from the File menu or click the [Documents] button in the Master Control panel. Then, double-click 'Invoices' in the 'Documents' list.
Invoices' window is shown.
Enter the Invoice Number for a single Invoice, or the highest and lowest Invoice Numbers of a range of Invoices separated by a colon (:). Use the Status options to specify which Invoices are to be printed:

Unprinted Only

This option ignores any Invoices in the range that have already been printed.

All

Prints all Invoices in the range. Any Invoices previously printed will have the word "Copy" printed diagonally across the page.

Original Print

This option also prints all Invoices in range. However, any Invoices previously printed will be printed again as though they were original copies, without the word "Copy".
Use the Invoice Type check boxes to limit your selection to specific kinds of Invoice, as described in step 6 below.
Press [Run] in the Button Bar to start the printing, or cancel by closing the window.

You can also print a single Invoice by clicking on the Printer icon when that Invoice is shown on the screen. If you want to print to screen, click the Preview icon.

If you specified in the Invoice Form that several copies are to be printed, perhaps on different printers, these copies will only be printed the first time you print an Invoice after approving it. If you print the Invoice again, or print it before you have approved it, only one copy will be printed. If you need to print all copies again, you must print the Invoice using the 'Documents' function on the File menu, and you should choose the Original option.

Whichever method is used, the Form used is determined as follows:

Using the Forms setting, design the invoice form and name it "INVOICE". Use the 'Properties' function on the Operations menu to assign a Document Type of "Invoice". A sample Invoice Form is supplied with FirstOffice: this can be modified to suit your requirements. Full instructions for using the Forms setting can be found here.
Click [Documents] in the Master Control panel or select 'Documents' from the File menu. The 'Documents' list window is opened: highlight 'Invoices'.
Select 'Define Document' from the Operations menu.
In the subsequent window, enter "INVOICE" in the Form field of the first row (you can use 'Paste Special' to ensure the spelling is correct).
Click [Save] to save the Invoice Form definition. From now on, the invoice form that you have designed will be used from the 'Documents' function and from the Printer icon, except as described in step 6 below.
Repeat the previous six steps in turn for the Cash Note and Credit Note documents. These will be used from the 'Documents' function and the Printer and Preview icons instead of the standard Invoice document in the following circumstances:

Cash Note

If the Invoice has Payment Terms of the "Cash" type, the Cash Note document is always used instead of the Invoice document.

Credit Note

If the Invoice has Payment Terms of the "Credit Note" type, the Credit Note document is always used instead of the Invoice document.
In each of the two cases described above, if the document does not have an associated Form (steps 3-5 above), FirstOffice will give the warning "Can't find document". If you get this warning, check the type of the Invoice before looking to see which document is missing its Form.

Cash Notes

A Cash Note is an Invoice that is to be treated as being paid. It differs from a normal Invoice in that it does not affect your Debtor Account or appear on any of your debt-chasing reports: instead, a debit posting for the Invoice value is made directly to your Cash Account.

To enter a Cash Note, follow the usual procedure described here for entering Invoices, with just one exception: change the Payment Terms (using the 'Paste Special' function if necessary) to refer to a Payment Term record of "Cash" type. You can register such a Payment Term against Customers that are always issued with Cash Notes (in the Customer register), so that you don't have to make this change every time.

Click the OK check box when you are sure the Cash Note is correct. As with ordinary Invoices, you must approve Cash Notes by checking the OK check box and saving, for them to be entered into the Sales Ledger and for Nominal Ledger Transactions to be created.

Credit Notes

If you want to credit an Invoice that you have issued, you should do as follows:

Click [Invoices] in the Master Control panel. The 'Invoices: Browse' window is opened, showing all registered Invoices.
Click [New] or enter the appropriate keyboard command. Alternatively, find the Invoice to be credited in the list, highlight it and click [Duplicate].

The 'Invoice: New' window is opened as described above. Enter the Invoice in the normal way, but change the Payment Terms to "CN" (Credit). In the first row of the specification area, a crediting message is entered. Enter the number of the Invoice to be credited, using 'Paste Special' if necessary to bring up a list of open (unpaid) Invoices.

Note: this assumes a Payment Term record with a Code of "CN" and of type "Credit Note" has been entered using the Payment Terms setting.
On the remaining lines you can enter the items to credit, and by what amount.

Click the OK check box when you are sure the Credit Note is correct. As with ordinary Invoices, you must approve Credit Notes using the OK check box to be entered into the Sales Ledger and for Nominal Ledger Transactions to be created.

Credit Notes - Crediting Part of an Invoice

Quite often you will need to credit only a part of an Invoice, rather than the whole Invoice. In most accounting systems, it would be necessary first to remove the entire original Invoice, and then to re-enter the Items that will be invoiced.

Since most systems lack the option of copying an Invoice, part crediting can sometimes take a very long time. FirstOffice offers a very simple and intuitive way to do this.

To credit part of an Invoice, start by copying the original Invoice, and enter "CN" in the Payment Terms field. Then proceed as follows:

Simply remove all the rows you do not want to credit. Click on the row number to the left to highlight the whole row, and press the backspace key. You will then be left with the rows to credit.
In the case of individual rows requiring a partial credit, simply alter the Quantity field to show the number to be credited.
Click the OK check box when you are sure the Credit Note is correct and [Save] to save it.

Credit Notes - and Cash Notes

If you need to reverse a Cash Note, you cannot follow the standard crediting procedure described here. A Credit Note will credit the Debtor Account, while reversing a Cash Note should credit the Cash Account. Instead you should enter a new Cash Note (i.e. with a cash Payment Term) with a negative value.

Operations Menu

The Operations menus for Invoices are shown above. The first illustration shows the Operations menu for the 'Invoices: Browse' window: highlight an Invoice in the list before selecting the function. You can also apply the function to a group of Invoices: highlight the first Invoice in the group and then click on the last while holding down the Shift key. Then select the function. The second illustration shows the Operations menu for the 'Invoice: New' and 'Invoice: Inspect' windows.

Operations Menu - OK

This command is available on the Operations menu only from the 'Invoices: Browse' window. It allows you to approve an Invoice and is therefore the equivalent of checking the OK box in an Invoice record. You can also select several Invoices (hold down the Shift key to select a range of Invoices in the list) and approve them all at once. Remember that this action causes Transactions to be created for each Invoice in the selection and that therefore once it has been carried out you will no longer be able to modify those Invoices.

Operations Menu - Invoice Status

This command creates a quick report, only available through this menu. This report summarises all aspects of the Invoice, including Items and payment history. In the illustration below, the Invoice in question has a Credit Note against it.

In the Invoice History section, you can click on a transaction number (Invoice Number or Credit Note Number in the example above) to view that Invoice, Credit Note or Receipt. You can also click on the Customer Number to open the Customer record.

Operations Menu - Open NL Transaction

When you approve and save an Invoice, a Nominal Ledger Transaction will be created. This function allows you to view that Transaction.

On selecting the function, the Transaction will be opened in a new window.

!

You are not bound by the values suggested by FirstOffice. For most fields you can change the pre-set values into something that suits you better. Such changes are valid only for the Invoice in question.

!

After approving an Invoice, you will no longer be able to change it.