Invoice

🔍 What is an Invoice?

An Invoice is the final, official billing document that you issue to a client after delivering products or completing services. It is a legally enforceable record requiring the client to make payment.

Once you create an Invoice:

• It gets a unique Invoice Number (cannot be changed).
• It becomes part of your accounting and tax records.
• It is used to calculate GST and revenue.
• The company details (name, address, GSTIN, state, logo) are saved with the invoice at the moment of creation, so the printed copy remains accurate even if you later edit your company profile.

🎯 Purpose of Invoice (With Real-World Example)

Invoices serve these main purposes:

• Recording Revenue: Recognize income earned from clients.
• Tax Filings (GST): Form the basis for GST returns and compliance.
• Tracking Payments: Monitor what has been billed, paid, or remains outstanding.

✅ Real-World Scenario

Your company finishes a web development project. You prepare an Invoice listing:

• Design charges
• Development charges
• Maintenance fees
• Applicable GST

You share this Invoice with your client. Once payment is received, you mark it as settled. The Invoice remains in records for audit and tax filing.

🧾 How to Create an Invoice

📍 Screen: Billing → Invoice → click Add (top-right). The Add Invoice aside opens on the right — that aside is the screen where you fill in the fields below.

🔀 Choose Invoice Type

At the very top of the form you will see an Invoice Type toggle with two options:

• Client Invoice — bill a client directly without linking to any project. Use this for ad-hoc sales, one-off services, or when you simply do not track work as projects. You only have to pick the Client.
• Project Invoice — bill against a specific project. The system auto-fills client information from the chosen project. Use this when you want the invoice value to roll up into the project’s profitability and statement.

You can switch the toggle freely until you save. Pricing, tax, and GST flow are identical in both modes — only the project linkage differs.

🔹 Header Fields

🔁 Recurrence (optional, only on new invoices)

If the same invoice needs to be raised on a schedule (monthly maintenance, weekly retainers, etc.), you can convert this invoice into a recurring template at creation time.

Once saved as recurring, the system handles invoice generation automatically. See the Recurring Invoice Guide for the full life-cycle of a recurring template.

📦 Billing Items

Use Add Billing Item to insert line items that you want to bill.

➡️ You can add multiple items or remove any row as needed.

📍 GST behaviour (CGST + SGST vs IGST)

• If the client’s state matches your company’s state (intra-state sale) → only CGST and SGST are editable; IGST is locked.
• If they are different states (inter-state sale) → only IGST is editable; CGST and SGST are locked.
• The state comparison happens automatically the moment you pick the Client (or Project’s client). Make sure your client’s State is correctly set on their profile, and your company’s State is set under Settings → Primary Settings → Company Details.

📊 Summary Section

📎 Other Fields

🔄 Auto-Creation via Proforma Invoice

Invoices can also be automatically generated by finalizing a Proforma Invoice.

How this works:

• When you Finalize a Proforma Invoice (refer to Proforma Invoice Documentation), the system converts it directly into an Invoice.
• The billing items, amounts, taxes, project / client linkage, and any attached documents are copied over.
• A new unique Invoice Number is assigned.
• This method avoids manual data entry and ensures accuracy.

📂 Tabs Inside an Invoice

📍 Screen: Open any invoice from Billing → Invoice. Across the top of the aside panel you will see four tabs — each tab is a separate screen within the same invoice, click a tab to switch the view.

• Details — the form / view of the invoice fields.
• Attachments — files uploaded against this invoice.
• Logs — change history of every edit made to this invoice.
• Invoice View — the printable, branded layout exactly as the client will see it.

⚙️ Action Buttons in Invoice View

📍 Screen: The Share, Send Email, and Print buttons appear at the top-right of the aside header — visible only when you are on the Details or Invoice View tab.

💰 Payment Status & Outstanding

Each invoice carries a Status chip in the header:

• Unpaid — no payment has been received yet.
• Partial — some payment received, but the invoice is not fully settled.
• Paid — fully settled.
• Overpaid — the client has actually paid more cash than the invoice value. (Applying a Credit Note against the invoice on its own does not flip the status to Overpaid — only real excess cash does.)
• Cancelled — a separate red badge appears next to the status chip; the invoice is excluded from outstanding and revenue calculations.

If a Credit Note applied to this invoice is worth more than the remaining balance, the excess stays as a cash balance on the Credit Note — you can apply it to another invoice or refund it. It does not create a negative outstanding on this invoice.

📌 Key Points

• Invoice is Final: No separate finalization step is required.
• Unique Number: System auto-generates a unique Invoice Number that stays sequential per company.
• Accounting Impact: Once created, the Invoice updates accounting records — Client / Project Statement, GST Information, Reports → PnL Report.
• GST Entry: GST is entered as a percentage; the rupee amount is calculated for you. CGST + SGST applies for same-state clients; IGST applies for inter-state clients.
• Cancel Instead of Delete: Once created, an invoice cannot be permanently deleted; you can edit it or cancel it.
• Invoices Without a Project: Pick the Client Invoice mode from the Invoice Type toggle if you do not want to attach the invoice to a project.

💡 Tips

• Always check Invoice Date and Due Date before saving.
• Use Catalog items with HSN, Price, and Tax pre-set to speed up billing and reduce typos.
• Keep your client’s State on file so the CGST + SGST vs IGST split happens automatically.
• Attach reference documents to avoid disputes with clients.
• For the schedule-based version, see the Recurring Invoice Guide.
• For similar processes, see the Proforma Invoice Guide.