Orders vs Invoices
It's important to note that an order and an invoice are two different things. An order is an overview of the entire set of products or services ordered by the client. Whereas, an invoice is a document used to request a specific payment from your client. You can have one or more invoices based the payment schedule you’ve set up for their order.
You can learn more about the differences here:
Creating an Order
There are two ways to create an order: send your clients a quote which when booked turns into an open order, or manually create an order directly.
You may find that the first time you get your clients booked, you do it by sending them a quote. However, if your clients come back for additional products and services, you can simply create a new order on the same job so that they don't have to go through the quote process again.
Start by going to the Quotes & Orders tab on the job and clicking New Order in the Orders box.
Select a Recipient
This will be one of the contacts you have listed on the job.
Name the Order
You can add any description you’d like as well.
Set a Payment Schedule
Give the order a payment schedule. This will determine the number of invoices generated as well as the due dates.
Specify Sales Tax
Set what sales tax group to use for the order. Classify certain items as non-taxable by unchecking ‘Taxable’ on the product itself.Learn more about setting up tax rates and tax groups here.
Add Products
You can manually add products or use any of the products that you created in your initial setup.
Save & Book
Once you’re done building the order you can save and book it.Your invoices will be created and you will then have an option to ‘Email Direct Link’, ‘Open Direct Link’, ‘Print Invoice’, or manually ‘Record Payment’:If you need to change any of the due dates for your invoices, or add more invoices to spread out payments, click on the blue Edit Invoices button. When emailing a direct link, you’ll use an ‘Invoicing’ email template. Learn more about those here.
How Invoices are Created
Invoices are created based on the rules of your payment schedule. You can read more about that here.
If you have a payment schedule that requires everything due immediately, saving & booking your order will create ONE invoice with a due date of today.
If your payment schedule asks for 50% retainer and the balance due on the job date, two invoices are created: one invoice with a due date of today and a second invoice due on the job date.
Viewing Orders and Invoices
Once the order is booked and the invoices are created based on your payment schedule, you can access them on the Quotes & Orders tab of the job.
When you click on the Order, you're presented with what we call the Order Viewer.
On the right you'll have several options for what you can do with an order including emailing the link, viewing the PDF, revising the order and more.
Below that you'll have a box that includes the line items that are in your order as well as an Invoices box and Payments box that show the individual invoices and payments associated with that order.
Order Actions
All of the actions you can take with an order appear in the buttons menu at the top right of the order viewer.
If you're emailing the link or sending the PDF of an order, you're giving the client the most detailed information about what they purchased from you. The order printout includes all product descriptions and options, as well as the payment schedule of invoices associated with that order.
Invoice Actions
Invoices cut right to the chase of what your client owes you and when it's due. Again, they're created using the payment rules you set up in your payment schedule.
The actions menu next to each individual invoice will allow you to email a direct link, open it in client access, view the PDF and record a payment towards it.
To learn about how to send either an order or an invoice to your client click here: