Invoices

Knowledge Base Invoices
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Overview

The Invoice module is the main way to bill your customers and keep track of your sales.

What it Does

  • Allows you to create invoices for your customers
  • Lets you add items from inventory or manually created items
  • Calculates invoices totals using the tax rate of your choice
  • Lets you email the customer a PDF of the invoice with a custom message
  • Allows you to make refunds on invoices that are already paid
  • Links you to the related ticket if the invoices was converted from a ticket
  • Syncs to your accounting integration if enabled

What it Doesn't Do

  • Train you to become a cage fighter

Table of Contents

Invoice Screen

More fun Invoice things

Related articles

 

Getting Started

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONZU3MLMONE&t=4376s

To access your invoices, in the list of tabs at the top, click the Invoices button. This will bring you to a list of all the invoices.

Here are several things you can do on this screen.

  1. Enter an invoice name or number to search for it. Click the sliders icon to reveal and set advanced search filters. Below is a quick summary of each of the filters:
    • Emailed: Shows invoices that have/have not been emailed to the customer
    • Recurring: Shows invoices that were/were not generated using a recurring invoice schedule
    • Took Payment: Shows invoices that have/have not had payment applied
    • Synced: Shows invoices that have/have not synced to your accounting platform
  2. Add a new invoice.
  3. When you check one or more boxes by an invoice (such as the first one shown in the list), Bulk Actions appears. Click to open the below dialog to mass print, email, or quick pay the selected invoices.
  4. Opens a dropdown menu with the following modules.
    • View Payments
    • Customer Purchases
    • Recurring Invoices
  5. Click any of the three colored buttons to filter by open, overdue, or paid invoices.
  6. Click a colored column header to sort the invoices by that column. Click again to reverse the sort order.
  7. Click the invoice number or customer name to open the invoice.
  8. Hover over the icon to reveal a magnifying glass icon, then click it to see a Quickview of the invoice.

Invoice Quickview

The Invoice Quickview allows you to click on the magnifying glass icon next to the listed Invoice to view a quick pop-up modal that displays some handy information and links.

You can use the Quickview to see all of the line items on the Invoice as well as the Invoice totals and payments. The status of the Invoice as well as the sync to QB/Xero will be displayed at the top, and below that are a few action buttons that allow you to perform some basic actions on the Invoice.

Creating an Invoice

There are a number of ways to create an invoice in Syncro.

From the main Invoices page, you can click New Invoice like so:

Next to the Search all the things field, you can click + > New Invoice:

On a specific customer's detail page, in the upper right you can click New > Invoice:

You can also create an invoice for a customer directly from a ticket or an estimate. The invoice will not only link to the specific ticket or estimate, but any line item charges will carry over to the invoice as well.

On a ticket at the top, click Make Invoice:

Invoice Screen

Once you add or open an invoice, it will bring you to the Invoice screen. We cover each screen section below.

Invoice Number and Status, Edit, Actions, and PDF buttons

Invoice number and status

At the top-left of an invoice, the invoice number and invoice status are indicated. Invoice statuses will indicate whether an invoice is paid or unpaid. If a payment integration is enabled through Xero or QuickBooks, you'll also see an icon indicating that the invoice has already synced to your accounting application.

If an invoice is not paid, there will be an additional button to Take Payment.

Edit

At the top-right of an invoice, click Edit to manage:

  • The creation date
  • The invoice number
  • Whether or not the invoice is taxable
  • The date the invoice was paid
  • The related ticket
  • Tech Notes
  • Payment information

Actions

The invoice actions option at the top-right of an invoice provides various ways to further manage your invoice, specifically:

  • Quick Payment - only shows when the invoice is not yet paid. Lets you quickly mark the invoice as paid without choosing a payment method.
  • Refund - only shows once the invoice is paid. To begin a partial or full refund of the invoice.
  • Email - to send an option custom invoice message to the customer's email and / or invoice or payment receipt PDFs.
  • Snail Mail - to mail a physical copy of an invoice if you have purchased "stamp" credits for your account. New accounts are eligible to buy stamp credits 30 days after purchasing Syncro.
  • Add Attachment
  • Make Recurring - for creating a recurring schedule for this particular customer's invoice, allowing you to determine the recurring invoice's template name and frequency, among other options.
  • Re-Sync to QuickBooks
  • Clone - to create a duplicate instance of this invoice which can be associated with a new customer or the original customer.
  • Delete - only shows when the invoice is not yet paid. To delete the invoice.

PDF button

Click and then select Invoice or Packing Slip to preview, print or download the PDF version of either of those.

 

Bill to Customer, Invoice Details

Bill to Customer

This section includes all of the contact information for the customer the invoice is associated with. Clicking Change Customer in the upper-right of this section allows you to associate the invoice with a different customer. To the right of Change Customer, the up-arrow button allows you to condense or expand this section.

Invoice Details

This section provides various details about the invoice, many of which can be modified in the invoice 'Edit' options detailed above. The Tax Rate option in this section allows you to choose which tax rate to apply to this invoice if you have more than one configured. The up-down arrow button in the upper-right of this section allows you to minimize or expand this field.

Invoice Name

Click the Name field to type a name for the invoice.

There is a column on the main Invoice tab that will list Invoice names. Hover over the name to see a tooltip with the entire name.

There is an accompanying tag that can be inserted to the Invoice Template so that the name is visible on your Invoice PDFs.

Tag: {{invoice_name}}

The Invoice Name can also be optionally enabled in the Customer Portal. To enable that, head to Admin > Customer Preferences > Additional Preferences > Show Invoice Name in Customer Portal > Save.

 

Line Items

In the 'Line Items' section you can add item charges to the invoice by scanning a barcode in the "Add an Item" field or manually searching for the item in this field. Typing the first few letters of the inventory item will begin to populate results from your inventory that you can quickly choose from.

Alternatively, you can click Add Manual Item to create a new item directly from the invoice. This will open up the following fields:

Editing Line Items

There are various ways to edit a line item from an invoice.

Clicking the 'DESCRIPTION', 'QTY', 'RATE' or 'TAX' fields will allow you to make edits directly to those fields. Changes made to the line item will only affect the item in the invoice, not in your actual inventory.

In addition to the edit options above, the three icons to the right of each line item provides some additional functionality:

  • The hamburger button will allow you to re-arrange the order of the line items of an invoice.
  • The down-arrow button will expand further edits that can be made to the line item, including adjusting the item cost and applying manual discounts. You can see those additional fields in the above screenshot.
  • The red X button deletes the line item on the invoice.

Product and Service Upsells

Product and Service Upsells allow you to quickly see other products or product categories related to the item that was added to an invoice. Upsells provide you opportunities to sell similar items to your customers or can remind your technicians to add additional items to an invoice that may be forgotten.

Upsells are defined in the actual product or service. Check out this article for more information.

Invoice Message

You can type a message in to this text box and include it on your Invoice Template. You need to add a tag to your Invoice Template: {{invoice_message}}

 

Invoice Payments, Emails, Attachments, Terms and Conditions, Signature and Change History

Applied Payments

This section shows all payments that have been applied to the invoice. Clicking the payment date hyperlink will open the corresponding payment page. The PDF icon will pull up a PDF of the payment receipt, allowing you to print the receipt or download to your local computer.

Emails

The Emails section will list all emails sent to the customer from this Invoice page.

Attachments

This section allows you to attach any relevant documents, links or images to the invoice.

Terms and Conditions

This section allow you to display your terms and conditions for the customer to accept and sign for.

Your invoice terms and conditions can be modified at Admin > PDF / Email Templates > Invoice Template > Invoice Disclaimer.

Signature

Google Chrome updated its Touch Events API, so you will need to update the link on the icon to add --touch-events to the link.

Google Chrome shortcut > Properties > Shortcut tab > Target: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --touch-events

This allows Google Chrome to use the touch-events within the browser.

Change History

This section is only visible for global admins. Click View History (Admin only) to list modifications made to the invoice since its creation. When applicable, the email address of the user that made the modification will be displayed.

Third-Party Billing

There are times when a ticket is being worked on for one customer, but another customer is going to pay the bill. This is where third party billing comes into play.

When you create a ticket, it is attached to a customer. That customer will then receive all updates and communication as work is being done on the ticket. Once that ticket is complete and the work is ready for payment, an invoice is then created from the ticket so that the two are linked together.

By default, the invoice will be created for the same customer as was listed on the ticket. However, in the Bill to Customer area, clicking Change Customer will allow you to modify this.

You will be prompted to select the new customer that will be billed for the invoice. Enter the customer's name and click Change Customer to save the change.

Once the new billing customer has been selected, a new section will be added to the invoice to show the original customer that belongs to the ticket allowing for easy access to information all from the same page.

If you change the customer on the Invoice, but want to revert it back to the original customer, simply click Change Customer again, search for the original Customer and click Change Customer to save it.

Note: If you change the customer on an invoice that is not linked to a ticket, it will only update the Bill to Customer part; it will not add the Ticket Customer (Job) part below it.

Invoice Settings

To get here, head to Admin > Invoices - Preferences.

Enable the Deposits feature: For more information on Deposits, refer to this article.

Save Invoices to Dropbox: This will put a copy of Invoice PDF files in your dropbox account.

Enable electronic signatures on Payment screen: Allows you to receive signatures electronically with a touch screen display, or Topaz signature Pad.

Enable Topaz Signature Pad: For more information on this, refer to our Topaz signature Pad article.

Enable Upsell Opportunities: Turns on the Upsell modal on Invoices for line items.

Last Invoice Number: Changing this will allow you to reset your Invoice numeric ordering.

Invoice Terms: You can add multiple Terms to apply to new Invoices you create. Review this in more depth in our Invoice Terms article.

Advanced Settings

Enable multiple tax rates: Turn on multiple tax rates for dual taxation. See our multiple tax rates article to learn more.

Prevent Payment if serial numbers aren't selected: Turns off the ability to sell a serialized item unless a serial number is chosen.

Disable Quick Payments button: Removes the Quick Payment option in Invoices and POS.

Enable Invoice Admin Payment Verification: This enables a column of checkboxes on the Invoices listing screen where you can track "Paid" invoices manually. This is typically used if you have a bookkeeper that verifies actual deposit of funds in the bank for payments taken by your techs.

You can check the boxes but not uncheck them. If you make a mistake, open the invoice, click Edit, uncheck the Paid box, then click Update Invoice.

When this setting is enabled, it also adds a Paid column to the Invoices Export report.

If you want non-Global Admins to be able to check the boxes in the Paid column, go to Admin > Security Groups, edit a group, enable the Payments - Verify setting, and Update Group.

Do not include the Ticket details on the Invoice PDF: Removes all Ticket comments from the Invoice PDF, shortening the Invoice length and keeping the comments internal.

Disable Manual Line Items (for Estimates & Invoices): Prevents adding ad-hoc items so that staff can only select from existing inventory items.

Retry failed payments for Recurring Invoices: Enables the application to automatically attempt to bill your customers again after a failed payment was made on a Recurring Invoice. The application will try approximately every 3 business days to retry the payment up to 3 times.

Automatically email paid Invoice PDF to Customer after Portal Payment: A invoice PDF would be emailed to the primary email address on the customer account after payment is made.

Disable all Payments via the Customer Portal: Turn off all payments from the Customer Portal

Disable Portal Payments for this Customer Custom Field: Select a Customer Custom Field that will have all Customer Portal Payments disabled.

BCC All Invoices and Estimates Here: Enter a email address that will have all invoices blind copied and sent to.

Vat/Tax Registration Number: Enabling this will put your VAT Registration Number on your printed receipts after Refreshing your Templates.

Non-Tax Reason Codes List: If you need to list the reason a product isn't being taxed.

Viewing Ticket Charges that are attached to invoices

When you have a ticket that has one or more line items attached to one or more invoices, you can click the Add/View Charges button in the ticket, then hover over the green check mark. The hover-over will display the invoice number and you can click the check mark to be taken to the invoice.

Invoice PDF Templates

To edit the Invoice templates, head to Admin > Invoices - Templates (or Admin > PDF/Email Templates > Invoice Template).

Next click the tab of the template you wish to edit, and then click the yellow Edit button.

 

Per Customer Invoices (Multiple Invoice Templates)

You can create multiple Invoice Templates, then assign them to specific Customers. To do this, head to Admin > Invoices - Templates, then click the Invoice Templates tab at the top of the editor.

Next you will be brought to a new listing that will show the existing primary invoice you already have by default. From this section, you can do several things.

  1. Click a template name to change it.
  2. Hover over the Default column and click the checkmark to make that template the new default. The default template will be used for all customers who do not have an assigned invoice template.
  3. Add a new template.
  4. Preview, Edit, Clone or Delete the template.

Then you can select a default invoice template for a Customer.

  1. Start by going to the Customers tab and opening up the Customer.
  2. In the upper right click Edit.
  3. Once the Customer detail screen opens, in the lower right click the Default Invoice Template dropdown and select the desired template.
  4. When finished, at the top click Save Changes.

The system will automatically use the Template you have selected as a default for any invoices you create for that customer.

 

Changing the Template on a Invoice

Once an invoice has been created, you can override the default template. To do this, head to the Invoice and in the upper right Invoice Details section, click the Invoice Template field to make your selection. Changing this field will change the invoice that is emailed, sent as snail mail, or viewed on the customer portal.

Open Invoice Reminders

Open Invoice Reminders allows you to send automated reminders for open invoices based on the invoice aging. To set these up, head to Admin > Invoices - Open Invoice Reminders.

Then, in the upper right click New Open Invoice Reminder. Here, you can set up a powerful new Invoice Reminder.

  1. Give it a Name.
  2. Set the Schedule mode, After N Days or For Every n Day of Month.
    1. After n Days: Will just send one time per invoice per 'reminder', when the invoice is that old. You could create one of these messages for 30 days, one for 60, and one for 90 for example, with different messages. If you are setting this up when you already have people 90+ days past due, they will get duplicates - but once this is setup that shouldn't happen with invoices going forward.
    2. Every n Day of Month: Will send that same reminder message every month while the invoice is overdue (past N days). So, you could just have it send a reminder every 1st of the month to "every invoice that is more than 30 days" overdue. It doesn't allow you to change the messaging like the other type of reminder, but it does give you a different way of sending them.
  3. For overdue invoices, decide which ones you want to notify customers about by filling in Overdue N Days. For example, entering 15 will notify customers with invoices that are overdue by 15 days or more.
  4. You can set a CC email so you can copy yourself to see how the system is working
  5. The Email message can accept HTML formatting, but keep it pretty simple - this will be inside your fancy HTML email wrapper template, and it will have the invoice attached automatically as a PDF.
  6. Once you have finished setting it up, click Create Open invoice reminder.

Open invoice reminders are scheduled to run daily at 8:00 am Pacific time. The subject line of your Open Invoice Reminder email will adopt the following format:

  • [Business Name Here] - Open Invoice Reminder inv# XXXXXX

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