Invoice a customer and record a payment

An invoice tells the customer what they owe and by when. Once you record what they pay, the CRM works out the rest: part paid, paid or overdue, and how much is still due.

Make an invoice

Pick whichever fits:

• From an accepted estimate: open it and click Make the invoice. See Make and send an estimate.
• From a deal: open the deal and, on the right, click Products, then Make invoice. A window lists the deal's products: what has not been invoiced yet is ticked, at the quantity still to bill. Or click Invoices there and then New invoice to type the lines yourself.
• On its own: open Invoices in the left menu and click New invoice.

When the client adds more services

A deal can have as many invoices as you need. Add the new services to the deal's Products, then click Make invoice: only what is not on an invoice yet comes ticked, so the services already billed are not billed again. A line already invoiced shows where, for example "Invoiced on INV-0012".

To bill a service a second time on purpose, such as a second visit, tick its line anyway. A note says it was already billed there; it does not stop you. For a service billed on a regular schedule, such as a monthly retainer, use Repeat this deal on the deal instead: each month (or week, quarter or year) a fresh copy of the deal is made, with the same products, to invoice on its own.

The form is the same as an estimate's, with a Due date instead of Valid until. Click Save invoice when you are done. A new invoice starts as a Draft.

Issue it

A draft is not yet owed. Issuing it tells the CRM the customer now owes the money. Any of these issues the invoice:

• Click Issue on its row in the Invoices list.
• Open it and click Email, then send the email. The PDF goes attached, with a link to view it online.
• Open it and click Issue & copy link, then paste the link into any message.

If the products on it keep count of stock, issuing takes the quantities off the shelf.

The Payment box on the right shows the Total, what has been Received and what is Due, with the due date.

Record money you have received

1. Open the invoice and click Receive payment. You can also click Receive payment on its row in the list.
2. Choose Money already received.
3. Check the Amount. It starts as the full amount still owed; lower it for a part payment.
4. Choose How it was paid: Bank transfer, UPI, Cash, Card, Cheque or Other.
5. Set the date in Received on, and add a Reference such as a UTR or cheque number if you have one.
6. Optionally attach a Receipt (photo or PDF).
7. Click Record payment, or Record part payment when the amount is less than what is owed.

The invoice moves to Partly paid or Paid on its own. When the due date passes with money still owed, it moves to Overdue.

Payments on a deal

Open a deal and, on the right above the activity feed, click Payments. It lists every payment for that deal, with what has been Received and what is Waiting.

Click Receive payment there to record money against one of the deal's invoices, or as an advance before any invoice exists: choose No invoice yet — an advance on the deal under Towards invoice. When the invoice is made later, use Apply to invoice… next to the advance to count it against that invoice.

Use an advance as credit

Money the deal received and has not put on any invoice, a recorded advance or a received client payment, is credit. To pay an invoice from it, open the invoice and click Use credit. The button only shows when the deal has credit, with the total. The window lists each credit with an amount that starts at what the invoice still needs: click Use.

If an advance is bigger than the invoice, only what the invoice needs is used. For example, a ₹60,000 advance on a ₹10,000 invoice pays the invoice and leaves ₹50,000 as credit on the deal for the next invoice. The CRM shows the used part as a payment of its own on the invoice, received the same day the same way, so the deal's received total does not change.

Apply to invoice… on the deal's Payments tab does the same, and says how much stays as credit.

A payment recorded by mistake can be taken out with Remove. You are asked why, and the reason stays in the history.

Client payments from your own modules

If your workspace records money in one of its own modules, such as Client payments, and the module is set so that These payments pay the deal's invoices, each such record on a deal finds an invoice by itself: the deal's oldest issued invoice that has room for its whole amount. A payment bigger than any invoice has left, such as an advance for work not invoiced yet, stays on the deal on its own and counts as money received there.

To choose the invoice yourself, open the record and pick it under Towards invoice. An invoice that has less left to pay than the record's amount is refused, with a message saying how much it has left. See Create your own module.

Cancel or delete an invoice

• Cancel: open the invoice and click Cancel. This is for an issued invoice that has had no money received. A cancelled invoice can no longer be changed, and any stock it took is put back.
• Delete: the bin icon removes the invoice for good. You cannot delete an invoice that has money received against it.

To ask the customer to pay online instead, see Take payment online with a payment link.