Invoices: create, send, get paid, and deposit the money

Before your first invoice

• Items. Lists → Items & Services. Create a service item for each thing you sell by the hour or by the job, with its usual rate and the income account it posts to. Inventory items are only for stock you count.
• Sales tax. Lists → Sales Tax Rates, if you charge it. See Sales tax.
• Branding. Company → Branding for your logo, and Company → Form Templates to adjust the layout and the footer text (payment terms, bank details).
• Payment instructions. Company → Company Settings → "How to pay us". This text prints on every invoice.

Create an invoice

1. Customers → Create Invoice. Pick the customer. Terms and the due date fill from the customer record; change them on this invoice if you need to.
2. Add lines: pick an item, enter quantity and rate, or type a description and amount for a one-off. Tax applies per line, so a taxable and a non-taxable line can sit on the same invoice.
3. For a job, pick the customer:job so the amount shows on the job profitability report. For a department, pick a class.
4. Save. The invoice number is assigned in sequence. AcboBooks posts the accounting entry at the same moment: accounts receivable goes up, income (and sales tax payable) goes up. You never post anything by hand for a normal invoice.

Need to bill many customers the same thing, such as a monthly fee? Customers → Batch Invoices creates one invoice per selected customer from one set of lines.

Send it

Open the invoice from Customers → Invoices and click PDF. Save it and attach it to an email, or print it. The PDF uses your branding and the selected form template. Trial copies carry a small "trial" mark in the corner; licensed copies do not.

Record the payment

1. Customers → Receive Payment. Pick the customer; their open invoices list.
2. Enter the amount received and the date it arrived. Tick the invoice(s) it pays. A partial payment is fine; the balance stays open.
3. Choose where it goes: Undeposited Funds if you will bank it together with other receipts (cheques, cash), or straight to the bank account if it arrived by transfer on its own.

If a customer pays early and you allow a discount, enter it on this screen and pick the discount account; the invoice closes in full.

Deposit the money

Banking → Make Deposit lists everything sitting in Undeposited Funds. Tick the receipts that went to the bank together, so the deposit total matches the single line on your bank statement. That match is what makes reconciliation quick.

The two habits that make Undeposited Funds pile up: recording a payment there and never making the deposit, or making the deposit by typing a new deposit line instead of ticking the receipts. If the account balance keeps growing, open Make Deposit and clear it.

Estimates and progress billing

Customers → Create Estimate looks like an invoice but posts nothing. When the customer accepts, open it from Customers → Estimates and click Convert to invoice. For larger jobs, use Progress invoice to bill a percentage or selected lines; the estimate tracks how much has been billed so far, and you can bill the rest later.

Credits, refunds and corrections

• Wrong amount, not yet paid. Open the invoice from Customers → Invoices and edit it. The change is logged.
• Customer disputes part of a paid invoice. Customers → Credit Memos. A credit memo reduces what they owe; apply it to an open invoice with Apply credit, or leave it to apply to the next one.
• Refund by bank. Create the credit memo, then Banking → Write Checks to the customer for the amount, posted to accounts receivable, and apply it to the credit memo.
• Void, don't delete. Voiding keeps the invoice number in sequence with a zero amount, which auditors prefer. Deleting is for true mistakes such as a duplicate.

Sold something and got paid on the spot? Use Customers → Sales Receipts instead of an invoice; it records the sale and the money in one step.

Chasing what's overdue

Reports → A/R Aging shows who owes what and how old it is. Reports → Customer Statement prints a statement for one customer, listing invoices and payments for the period. If you charge interest on late payment, Customers → Finance Charges calculates and posts it for everything past due in one step.