HansaWorld - Integrated ERP and CRM

Introduction to the Invoice Register

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 send 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 can cause a Nominal Ledger Transaction to be created, thus generating the turnover and debtor figures in your monthly and yearly management reports. If required, the Nominal Ledger Transaction can also include a cost accounting element, helping to maintain a stock valuation in the Nominal Ledger. This creation process is automatic, requiring no intervention or work from you.

The following 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 can also look after the Nominal Ledger implications for you (debiting the Cash Account rather than the Debtor Account).
A Deposit is a payment made in advance of the goods being delivered or the work being carried out. Invoices for deposits (sometimes described as "Down Payment Invoices') can be entered in manner described in point (1) above. Where the payment is received before an Invoice has been raised, this should be recorded in the Receipt register as a Prepayment Receipt. These can be allocated to the Invoice when it is generated at a later date. Alternatively, they can be entered as Cash Notes as described in point (2) above.
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 can look after these Nominal Ledger implications automatically.

If you would like FirstOffice to look after the Nominal Ledger implications of all these types of Invoice as described, switch on the Invoice option in the Sub Systems setting in the Nominal Ledger.

You can enter records to the Invoice register using the following methods:

You can enter them directly to the Invoice register. This method is suitable for all the types of sales transaction mentioned above.
You can create them remotely from the Sales Order register. This method can only be used for standard Invoices; Down Payment Invoices can be created remotely from Receipts.

Before you start entering Invoices, you must define the current financial (accounting) year, using the Fiscal Years setting in the System module. You should also have defined a journal number series for Invoices using the Number Series - Invoices setting.

To open the Invoice register, first ensure you are in the Sales Ledger module, then click the [Invoices] button in the Master Control panel. 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" (or "K" in the case of some older Credit Notes) in the Total column, after the amount, while Interest Invoices are marked with an "I".

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 in the top right-hand corner. FirstOffice will search for the first record matching the keyword in the same column as the selected sorting order.

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

Enter Invoices
Inspect and approve Invoices
Print the Invoices

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 Codes etc.

To enter a new Invoice, click [New] in the Button Bar or use the Ctrl-N (Windows and Linux) or ⌘-N (Macintosh) keyboard shortcut. Alternatively, highlight 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 containing a duplicate of the highlighted Invoice. In the case of the duplicate, the Invoice and Transaction Dates of the new Invoice will be the current date, not the date of the original one, and the Due Date will be recalculated accordingly.

!	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 five 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 five 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. If you have the Dual Base Currency or the Currencies, Languages and Advanced Pricing Value Packs, there will be six cards. A new 'Currency' card containing the Currency and Exchange Rate will be inserted between the 'Items' and 'Delivery' cards. This extra card is described here.

It is likely that you will create many Invoices remotely from the Sales Orders screen, using the 'Create Invoice' function on the Operations menu. You will find that most of the fields in the new Invoices will contain information carried over from the corresponding Sales Order. You can also create an Invoice by dragging an Order from the 'Orders: Browse' window to the 'Invoices: Browse' window.

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.

In multi-user systems, FirstOffice will assign the next available Invoice Number to the Invoice when you save it for the first time. 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 - Header

No.: Paste Special Select from another Number Series; When you create a new Invoice, FirstOffice will enter the next unused number from the number sequence specified in the Number Series Defaults setting or from the first record in the Number Series - Invoices setting. You may change this number, but not to one that has already been used. If you are working in a multi-user environment, the Invoice Number is assigned when you first save the Invoice.
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.; If there is a Prepayment in the Customer's name that has not yet been allocated to an Invoice, a warning will appear when you enter the Customer Number. Prepayments are described here.
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.
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.
Pay Terms: Paste Special Payment Terms setting, Sales/Purchase Ledger; Default taken from Customer (Sales Pay Terms); Payment Terms entered here will determine the Due Date (below), in addition simply to ensuring that the correct Payment Terms appear on Invoices. Payment Terms records entered using the Sales Ledger setting can enable a system of early settlement discounts to be established.; 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, Sales Support module; 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.
Salesman: Paste Special Person register, System module; Default taken from Customer or current user; The Salesman responsible for the sale should be registered here: there are many reports in the Sales Ledger that can be broken down by Salesman. It is also possible to assign commission on Items sold using the Bonus field in each Person record. You can change the Salesman after you have approved the Invoice.
Trans. Date: The Transaction Date for the Nominal Ledger Transaction. If you are not using the Allow Trans. Date Changing option in the Transaction Settings setting in the Nominal Ledger, this must be the same as the Invoice Date and cannot be changed independently.
Object: Paste Special Object register, Nominal Ledger; Default taken from Customer (Sales Objects); You can assign up to 20 Objects, separated by commas, to this Invoice and all transactions generated from it. You might define separate Objects to represent different departments, cost centres or product types. This provides a flexible method of analysis that can be used in Nominal Ledger reports.; In any Nominal Ledger Transactions generated from this Invoice, any Objects specified here will be assigned to the credit posting to the Sales Account(s, the debit posting to the Cost Account (if you are using cost accounting), and the debit posting to the Debtor Account (if you are using the Objects on Debtor Account option in the Account Usage S/L setting).
Service Del. Date: Paste Special Choose date; The date the Items on the Invoice were delivered.; If the Invoice was created from an Order, the date of the latest approved Delivery will appear here. If you entered the Invoice directly to the Invoice register without reference to a Sales Order, the Invoice Date will be placed here when you save the Invoice for the first time. In both cases, 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. This grid is divided into four horizontal flips. When you click on a flip tab (marked A-D), the two or three right-hand columns of the grid are replaced.

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.

Flip A

Item

Paste Special Item register

With the cursor in this field, enter the Item Number or Bar Code for each Item ordered. 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.

In the case of Invoices created from Orders, the Quantity will default to that delivered. You can reduce this if necessary. If you need to invoice a greater Quantity than was delivered, you must do so by adding a new row to the Invoice. Ensure that the Update Stock box on the 'Delivery' card 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. This box will only apply to Invoice rows that are not related to the Order.

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.

Any rows of text that you have entered on the 'Texts' card of the Item record will be moved into the Description field, using the next rows if necessary.

Unit Price

The Unit Price of the Item 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 Base 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 on the 'Debtors' card of the Account Usage S/L setting that Base Prices include VAT.

In multi-user systems, you can prevent certain users from changing any Unit Price in an Invoice using Access Groups (by denying access to the 'Change Unit Prices' Action).

%

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

In the Round Off setting in the System module, you can determine whether the discount is to be applied to the Unit Price before it has been multiplied by the Quantity or to the Sum. In certain circumstances (where there is a very small unit price and a large quantity) this choice can cause the calculated discount to vary due to the rounding system used within FirstOffice. Please refer here for details and an example.

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 on the 'Debtors' card of the Account Usage S/L setting that Base Prices include VAT.

Flip B

A/C: Paste Special Account register, Nominal Ledger/System module; The Nominal Ledger Sales Account for this Item, which will be credited with the Sum in the Nominal Ledger Transaction generated by this Invoice. A default is offered, taken from the record in the Price register for the Item/Price List combination. If there is no such record, or it has no Sales Account specified, the default will be taken from the Item record, the Item Group or from the 'VAT' card of the Account Usage S/L setting. You can change this default in a particular Invoice row if necessary.
V-Cd: Paste Special VAT Codes setting, Nominal Ledger; 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 Sales VAT Code field in the Customer record. If that field is empty, the default is taken from the Item, the Item Group or from the 'VAT' card of the Account Usage S/L setting. You can change this default in a particular Invoice row if necessary.; If you have checked the VAT Code Control option on the 'Debtors' card of the Account Usage S/L setting, the VAT Code specified here must be the same as that specified for the Sales Account in the Account register. If the VAT Codes don't match, you will not be able to save the Invoice.

Flip C

Cost: Default taken from Item (Cost Price + Extra Cost); The unit Cost Price is used in Gross Profit and Margin calculations. You can change this figure if necessary.; When you create Invoices from Orders, the Cost Price of each Item on the Invoice (and therefore its gross profit) can be taken from the Order or from the sum of the Cost Price and the Extra Cost from the Item record. If you wish to use the latter alternative, switch on the Update GP at Invoicing check box in the Cost Accounting setting in the Stock module. This can be more accurate if you are routinely updating Items' Cost Prices from Goods Receipts since these are likely to occur after the entry of the Sales Order.
GP: The Gross Profit for the Invoice row is calculated by subtracting the Cost Price (multiplied by the Quantity) from the Sum. The figure is therefore absolute, not a percentage.
FIFO: The average FIFO unit cost of the Items on this row. This figure is brought in automatically when the Invoice is approved, but is only shown for Stocked Items in Invoices that have not been generated from a Sales Order. For Invoices that have been generated from a Sales Order, FIFO values are shown in the appropriate Delivery record.

Flip D

Object: Paste Special Object register, Nominal Ledger; You can assign up to 20 Objects, separated by commas to this Item and all transactions generated from it. You might define separate Objects to represent different departments, cost centres or product types. This provides a flexible method of analysis that can be used in Nominal Ledger reports.; In the Nominal Ledger Transaction generated from this Invoice, any Objects specified here will be assigned to the credit posting to the Sales Account and, if you are using cost accounting, the debit posting to the Cost Account. This assignment will merge these Objects with those of the parent Invoice (shown on the 'Terms' card).
P. Factor: Default taken from Item; The Price Factor is the quantity of the Item that can be bought by the Unit Price. For example, if the Unit Price of an Item refers to a box of 24 units, its Price Factor will be 24. The Price Factor will be brought in to the Invoice from the Item record automatically. When you enter a Quantity, FirstOffice will recalculate the Sum using the formula Sum = (Quantity/Price Factor) * Unit Price.

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 transaction will also be created in the Nominal Ledger. If the Invoice was entered directly (rather than created from a Sales Order), stock levels of any Stocked Items on the Invoice will be adjusted. Because of these consequences, once this box has been checked and the Invoice saved, you will no longer be able to make changes to the Invoice. Exceptions to this rule are the Reminder Level and Last Reminder Date fields on the 'Delivery' card and the Salesman field on the 'Terms' card.; You can use Access Groups to control who can approve Invoices and Credit Notes. To do this, deny access to the 'OKing Invoices' and 'OKing Credit Notes' Actions respectively.; References in these web pages to approved Invoices are to Invoices whose OK check box has been switched on.
Freight: The Freight setting allows a fixed amount for Freight to be added automatically to each Invoice. If you are using this setting, the appropriate amount will be placed in this field when you enter a Customer Number. You can change the figure if necessary. The VAT Code and the Sales Account for the freight charge will be taken from the Item specified in the Freight setting.; If you are not using the Freight setting, enter a freight amount if applicable. In this case, VAT will not be charged and the amount will be posted to the appropriate Sales Account for the Zone of the Customer, set on the 'VAT' card of the Account Usage S/L setting.
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 System module.; 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 System module. 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 - Delivery Card

Del. Terms: Paste Special Delivery Terms setting, Sales Support module; Default taken from Customer (Sales Del. Terms); Specify the Delivery Terms for this Invoice here. You will tend to use this field for international Customers: examples might be Cost, Insurance, Freight or Free On Board.
Del. Mode: Paste Special Delivery Modes setting, Sales Support module; Default taken from Customer (Sales Del. Mode); Enter the mode of shipping used for this Invoice. Examples might be Post or Courier, or might specify the name of the courier that you used to ship the goods on the Invoice.; If you have the Currencies, Languages and Advanced Pricing Value Pack, please click here for details about printing the Invoice document using different Forms depending on the Delivery Mode.
Order No.: In cases of Invoices created from Sales Orders using the automatic invoicing function, FirstOffice will enter the Order Number in this field.
Update Stock: Default taken from Account Usage S/L setting, Sales Ledger; Use this option if you need stock levels for the Items on the Invoice to be reduced when the Invoice is approved. This only affects Items that are Stocked Items. No check of the availability of stock will be made, unless you are using the Do Not Allow Over Delivery option in the Stock Settings setting in the Stock module.; Switching this option on will also cause cost accounting postings (for use when maintaining stock values in the Nominal Ledger) to be included in the Nominal Ledger Transaction generated when the Invoice is approved.; Both effects of this check box will only occur in those cases where Deliveries are made at the invoicing stage, from Invoices without related Sales Orders.; In the case of Invoices created from Orders, if you need to invoice a greater Quantity than was delivered, you must do so by adding a new row to the Invoice. Ensure that this Update Stock box 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. In this situation, this box will only apply to Invoice rows that are not related to the Order.; Note that when you raise a Credit Note, this check box will be switched off by default, whatever the status of the Invoices Update Stock option in the Account Usage S/L setting. If you are using cost accounting (maintaining stock valuations in the Nominal Ledger), it should be left turned off because otherwise the stock value will be updated with an incorrect FIFO amount. For details about updating stock from Credit Notes, please refer to the Credit Notes and Stock page.
Cust. Ord. No.: Record the Customer's Purchase Order Number here. Where an Invoice has been created from an Order, the Customer's Order Number will be brought in automatically.
Rem. Level: This Reminder Level indicates how many Reminder documents have been printed for this Invoice. You can update this field yourself, or it can be updated automatically whenever a Reminder or a customer statement is printed.; You can print Reminders using the Reminder document. A separate Reminder will be printed for each overdue Invoice, and it will contain one of three messages of increasing severity (defined in the Reminder Texts setting). When you next print a Reminder for this Invoice, the message it contains will be chosen depending on this Reminder Level. For example, if the Reminder Level of the Invoice is 2, the message will be taken from the Reminder 2 field in the Reminder Texts setting, and so on. If the Reminder Level of an Invoice is greater than 3, a Reminder document will be printed, but it will not contain a message.; You can change this field after you have approved the Invoice.
Last Rem. Date: The last date a reminder or statement was printed for this Invoice is recorded here. You can change this field even after approving the Invoice.
Interest: Default taken from Interest setting, Sales Ledger; If payment for this Invoice is late, you can use the 'Create Interest Invoices' Maintenance function to charge interest. The figure in this field is the annual rate that this function will use to calculate the interest on this Invoice, if you have specified in the Interest setting that interest is to be calculated using the interest rate applicable at the Invoice Date. This figure will be brought in from the Interest setting but you can change it for this Invoice if necessary. Interest Invoices will not be created if the Interest check box on the 'Company' card of the Customer screen is switched off.
Comment: Default taken from Customer; Record here any comment about this Invoice: the comment can be printed on the Invoice document. The default is taken from the Order Comment field of the Customer record.

Please click here for details about the Language field added to this card by the Currencies, Languages and Advanced Pricing Value Pack, and here for details about the Location field added by the Stock Locations Value Pack.

Entering an Invoice - Inv. Address Card

Invoice to Address: Default taken from Customer; The Customer's address, as entered on the 'Contact' card of 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 changes should be made in the Customer register before entering Invoices.
VAT Reg.: Default taken from Customer; The Customer's VAT registration number. It is important that this field contains a value if the Customer is in the "Within EU" Zone as this information is then required for EU VAT reporting purposes.
Phone, Fax: Default taken from Customer; The Customer's telephone and fax numbers, as entered on the 'Contact' card of the Customer record.

Entering an Invoice - Del. Address Card

Delivery Address: Default taken from Customer; Enter the Delivery Address here, if different from the Invoice Address or the usual Delivery Address shown on the 'Delivery' card of the Customer record.

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, Base Price, Sales Account number 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 it 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, if so defined in the Sub Systems setting in the Nominal Ledger, 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 three 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.
Use the 'OK Invoices' Maintenance function to approve a range of Invoices.

!	After approving an Invoice, only the Salesman, Last Reminder Date, Reminder Level and Comment fields may be altered.

You can use Access Groups to control who can approve Invoices and Credit Notes. To do this, deny access to the 'OKing Invoices' and 'OKing Credit Notes' Actions respectively.

Nominal Ledger Transactions from Invoices

When you approve and save an Invoice, a Nominal Ledger Transaction will be generated automatically if you have so determined in the Sub Systems setting in the Nominal Ledger. Please click 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, if so defined in the Sub Systems setting in the Nominal Ledger, 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 may have been offered as defaults from the Account Usage S/L setting, Items or Item Groups, or Customers or Customer Categories, must exist in the Account register in the System module. Number Series for the current period must also exist. 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 Account register 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. If you are not using the No Test Printout option in the Configuration setting in the System module, the Invoice will be printed with the text "Test Printout" diagonally across the page as a watermark. 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. Double-click 'Invoices' in the resulting list.

The 'Specify 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. If you are not using the No Test Printout option, any Invoices previously printed will have the word "Copy" printed diagonally across the page as a watermark.

Original

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 "Copy" watermark, irrespective of whether you are using the No Test Printout option.
Use the Invoice Type check boxes to limit your selection to specific kinds of Invoice, as described in step 7 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.

Invoices can also be printed automatically on approval. This is controlled using the Auto Actions setting in the System module.

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 Form register in the System module, 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 Form register can be found here.
Select the Sales Ledger using the [Select Module] button in the Master Control panel or the Ctrl-0 (Windows and Linux) or ⌘-0 (Macintosh) keyboard shortcut.
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 7 below.
Repeat the previous six steps in turn for the Cash Note, Credit Note and Interest Invoice 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.

Interest Invoice

If the Invoice was created using the 'Create Interest Invoices' Maintenance function, the Interest Invoice document is always used instead of the Invoice document.
In each of the three cases described above, if the document does not have an associated Form (steps 4-6 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.

Printing Invoices - Printing Delivery Notes if you are not using Sales Orders

If you are not using the Sales Order register in the Sales Support module, you can use the 'Define Document' screen described here to print Delivery Notes together with Invoices. Stock levels for the Items sold will be adjusted when the Invoice is approved, providing they are Stocked Items and providing the Update Stock check box on the 'Delivery' card of the Invoice is switched on. Follow this procedure:

Using the Form register in the System module, check that you have a Form named "INVOICE" and one named "DELIVERY_NOTE". Re-design them to your requirements if necessary (full details of how to do this are here). Use the 'Properties' function on the Operations menu to assign a Document Type of "Invoice" (for the former) and "Delivery Note".
Select the Sales Ledger module using the [Select Module] button in the Master Control panel and click the [Documents] button, also in the Master Control panel. Highlight 'Invoices' in the 'Documents' list window.
Select 'Define Document' from the Operations menu.
Use the Sequence column to determine the order in which the Forms will be printed. If, for example, you need a Delivery Note to be printed first, on the first line enter "1" as the Sequence Number and "DELIVERY_NOTE" as the Form (you can use 'Paste Special' from the Form field to ensure the spelling is correct). On the second line, enter "2" as the Sequence Number and "INVOICE" as the Form.
Click [Save] to save the Invoice definition. From now on, whenever the Invoice document is printed, the Invoice itself will be preceded by a Delivery Note. This feature can be repeated for virtually all documents in FirstOffice.

Credit Notes

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

Click the [Invoices] button 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].

Note: if the Invoice to be credited is an Interest Invoice, you must click [New]. You cannot duplicate Interest Invoices in order to credit them.
The 'Invoice: New' window is opened as described here. 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, if so defined in the Sub Systems setting in the Nominal Ledger, for Nominal Ledger Transactions to be created.

You can use Access Groups to control who can approve Credit Notes: they need not be the same members of staff as those who can approve Invoices. To do this, deny access to the 'OKing Credit Notes' Action.

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 duplicating the original Invoice, and enter a "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 - 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.

Credit Notes - Credit Notes and Stock

If you are using a FIFO stock system and/or cost accounting (maintaining stock values in the Nominal Ledger), two complications can arise from the issuing of a Credit Note:

some Credit Notes will involve the return of goods to stock, whereas others may not; and
FIFO becomes impossible to calculate, as it is difficult to establish the actual cost of the goods being returned. For example, if you buy three Items costing 10.00, 11.00 and 12.00, and sell two of them, their FIFO costs will be 10.00 and 11.00 respectively. If one is returned, without intervention the system has no way of knowing whether it is the 10.00 Item or the 11.00 Item.

For these reasons, it is recommended that you follow these steps when issuing Credit Notes:

The original Invoice should first be credited, using the process described here. When the Payment Terms field is changed to "CN", the Update Stock check box on the 'Delivery' card is switched off. This should not be switched on again as doing so will mean that the Nominal Ledger stock valuation will become inaccurate: the wrong FIFO value (that of the next stock item, 12.00 in the example above) will be used. Instead, approve the Credit Note (to update the Sales Ledger and the Debtor, VAT and Sales Accounts in the Nominal Ledger).
Receive the Item(s) back into stock using the Goods Receipt register in the Stock module. This will correctly update stock levels and, if you have so determined in the Sub Systems setting, the Nominal Ledger stock valuation.

Because the system cannot obtain a FIFO valuation, it is recommended that you set the cost prices manually in the Goods Receipt: you may first need to find out the true value of the returned goods from flip C of the original Invoice (in the case where there is no related Sales Order) or from the original Delivery record using a report such as the Stock Out Journal or Item History.

Operations Menu

The Operations menus for Invoices are shown above. The first illustration shows the Operations menu for the 'Invoices: Browse' window: highlight one or more Invoices (hold down the Shift key while clicking) in the list before selecting the function. The second illustration shows the Operations menu for the 'Invoice: New' and 'Invoice: Inspect' windows.

Please click here for details about the 'Update Currency Price List Items' function added to this menu by the Currencies, Languages and Advanced Pricing Value Pack, and here for details about the 'Recalculate Discount' function added by the same Value Pack.

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, if so defined in the Sub Systems setting in the Nominal Ledger, 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.

You can use Access Groups to control who can approve Invoices and Credit Notes. To do this, deny access to the 'OKing Invoices' and 'OKing Credit Notes' Actions respectively.

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 - Item Status

This function provides instant feedback for the Item shown in the Invoice row containing the cursor or highlighted in the 'Paste Special' window listing Items. Information displayed in a new window includes the quantity in stock, the quantity on order and the quantity shippable.

Please click here for full details.

Operations Menu - Print Proforma Invoice

Use this function to print a Proforma version of the Invoice on screen. This might be necessary on occasions where it is necessary to get payment in advance. A Proforma Invoice differs from a normal Invoice in that the Invoice Number is preceded by the word "Proforma" and in that, even for Invoices that have not been approved, the words "Test Printout" will not appear.

The Form used by this function is determined as follows:

Using the Form register in the System module, design the proforma and name it "PROFORMA_INVOICE". A sample proforma is supplied with FirstOffice: this can be modified to suit your requirements. Full instructions for using the Form register can be found here.
Select the Sales Ledger module using the [Select Module] button in the Master Control panel.
Select 'Documents' from the File menu or click [Documents] in the Master Control panel. The 'Documents' list window is opened: highlight 'Proforma Invoices'.
Select 'Define Document' from the Operations menu.
In the subsequent window, enter "PROFORMA_INVOICE" in the Form field of the first line (you can use 'Paste Special' to ensure the spelling is correct).
Click [Save] to save the Proforma Invoice Form definition. From now on, the proforma invoice form that you have designed will be used, from the 'Documents' function and from the Operations menu function.

Operations Menu - Connect to Prepayment

Please refer to the On Account Receipts and Prepayments page for a full description of this function.

Operations Menu - Open NL Transaction

When you approve and save an Invoice, if so defined in the Sub Systems setting in the Nominal Ledger, 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.

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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.

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After approving an Invoice, only the Salesman, Last Reminder Date, Reminder Level and Comment fields may be altered.