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Invoices and payments
Records, then Invoices. An invoice is issued from an order, carries lines and tax, and is paid either through a hosted payment link or by a payment you record by hand.
Invoices issue themselves
Moving an order to Dispatched issues its invoice and emails it. You do not raise invoices by hand in the normal flow, which is the point: nothing ships un-invoiced and nothing gets invoiced twice.
The statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | Created, not sent |
| Sent | With the customer |
| Reminded | A reminder has gone out |
| Overdue | Past its due date, unpaid |
| Paid | Settled |
| Void | Cancelled |
The invoice screen
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Download PDF | The branded invoice, using your invoice template |
| Email to customer | Sends or resends it |
| Record manual payment | For a bank transfer or cash: amount, reference or receipt, date received |
| Refund payment | Refunds a recorded payment, in full or part |
Card payments through the Stripe link record themselves. A manual payment is for the money that arrives outside Stripe, and recording it is what keeps your aging honest.
Chasing payment
Three levels, in order of escalation:
- Automatic reminders. The invoice reminder email goes out when an invoice is due, with a pay link. No list to keep.
- Bulk reminder on the invoice list, for a deliberate sweep of everything outstanding.
- A phone call, for anything in the 60-plus bucket on the dashboard's cash flow panel. At that age, another email is not the problem.
Refunds and credits
| Situation | Do this |
|---|---|
| Overpayment, or a payment taken twice | Refund payment on the invoice |
| Goods coming back | Raise a return, which handles refund or credit and stock writeback |
| Invoice raised in error | Void it, rather than deleting it |
Deleting financial records is not a repair. Void and re-issue leaves a trail your accountant can follow.
Getting it into your accounts
With Xero or QuickBooks connected, invoices and payments push automatically when an invoice is paid. Match your customers' accounting IDs on their customer records so the sync lands against the right contact rather than creating duplicates.
What customers see
Portal customers see their own invoices, download the PDF and pay from a hosted link.
That view, plus automatic reminders, is what removes most invoice-chasing phone calls. It only works if the portal is set up and your customers know it exists.