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Sales invoices

Create a sales invoice

A sales invoice is the demand for payment you send a customer for goods or services you have supplied. This guide covers building a new invoice and saving it as a draft. Issuing it…

Create a sales invoice

A sales invoice is the demand for payment you send a customer for goods or services you have supplied. This guide covers building a new invoice and saving it as a draft. Issuing it (which records the sale in your accounts) is a separate step covered in Approve and issue an invoice.

Before you begin

  • You need at least one customer. If you have none yet, add one first from Contacts → Customers.
  • Your organisation should have its functional currency and a Chart of Accounts in place — these are created automatically for a new organisation.
  • You can build and save a draft at any time. You only need your Accounting Settings configured when you come to issue the invoice.

Steps

  1. Go to Sales → Invoices and select New Invoice.
  2. In the Invoice Details card, complete the header:
    • Customer — choose who the invoice is for. The invoice currency is set from the customer's preferred currency; when you pick a different customer, the currency updates to match.
    • Invoice Number — pre-filled with the next number in your sequence. You can change it, but each number must be unique.
    • Invoice Date — defaults to today.
    • Due Date — calculated as the invoice date plus the customer's payment terms (set on the customer record), or 30 days ahead when the customer has none. It follows invoice-date and customer changes until you type a date yourself — after that, your date sticks. Issued invoices keep their due date and terms regardless of later customer changes.
    • If the customer has a credit limit and this invoice would exceed it, you will see a warning, be asked to confirm, or be blocked — per your organisation's Credit control setting. The same check runs again at issue.
    • Invoice Currency — defaults from the customer (see above). You can change it until you add your first line.
    • Purchase Order Ref. — optional; the customer's own reference for this order.
  3. Add your lines. First check the Amounts are selector in the Line Items card header: Tax exclusive (the default — prices are net and VAT is added on top) or Tax inclusive (prices are gross and the VAT is extracted out of them, so the invoice total equals what you typed). The choice is saved with the draft. Then select Add Line Item to open the line editor, and either:
    • Choose a Product to fill in the description, unit price and tax rate automatically, or
    • Leave the product blank and type a free-text Description. Set the Quantity, Unit Price and, if you wish, a line Discount %. Under Tax Configuration choose System Tax Rate (one of your saved tax rates), Custom Rate %, or Custom Amount — see Add a custom tax rate to a line. Select Add line (or Add & add another to keep going).
    • To add a delivery or carriage charge, use Add Shipping.
  4. (Optional) In the Notes & Terms card, add a Comment, payment Terms, Payment Instructions (pre-filled from your organisation default — this is how the customer should pay you) and a Shipping Note.
  5. (Optional) In the Totals card, add an invoice-level discount — see Apply a discount.
  6. Select Save Draft.

[Screenshot required: Create Invoice page showing the Invoice Details card and Line Items table]

What happens next

You will see Invoice created successfully and land on the invoice's details page with the status Draft. Nothing has been recorded in your accounts yet, and the customer cannot see the invoice. When you are ready, issue the invoice to finalise it, record the sale and make it sendable.

Important notes

  • Currency and lines. You can change the invoice currency freely until you add a line. After that the currency is locked — see Edit a draft invoice.
  • Invoice numbering. Numbers in the standard INV- format increase automatically. If you use a custom format, Sales Scribe cannot always guess the next one, so check for duplicates.
  • Payment instructions and notes appear on the PDF and email but have no effect on your accounts.

Troubleshooting

  • "Please correct the following errors" — a customer, invoice number and both dates are required, and you need at least one line before you can issue. Fill the highlighted fields and save again.
  • "This invoice number is already in use" — choose a different number.
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