Introduction
Both tasks start on the invoice list: from the main menu, open Financials, then click the Invoices tile. The screen is headed Invoice. Across the top of the list sit the New, Sync and Delete invoices buttons on the left, and Reset filters, Export and CSV Export on the right. Below them is one row per invoice, newest first, with its Status, Invoice number, Invoice date and amounts. Click a row to open that invoice.
An invoice here is either Draft (prepared, not yet issued to the customer) or Send (issued, with its number). Only drafts can be deleted. An issued invoice is corrected with a credit note instead.
You would be here because:
- You made a draft invoice by mistake, or for the wrong customer, and want it gone.
- A batch of invoicing left drafts you do not intend to issue, and you are clearing them out.
- Your bookkeeper asks for every invoice line of last month in a file they can open in a spreadsheet.
- You want a quick list of what is on your screen, filtered, for a colleague.
- The same invoice number shows up twice on the list.
Words this screen uses
| The screen says | What it means |
|---|---|
| Draft | An invoice that is prepared but not yet issued; it can still be changed or deleted |
| Send | An invoice that has been issued; it can no longer be deleted with the normal buttons |
| Sync ID | A hidden column; filled in once the invoice has been sent to your accounting software |
| CSV Export | A download of issued invoices, one row per invoice line, as a comma-separated values (CSV) file |
| Export | A download of the list exactly as you see it, as an Excel file |
Every way to delete or export an invoice
| Route | What happens | Covered here |
|---|---|---|
| Delete at the top of an open draft invoice | That one draft is deleted | Yes |
| Tick drafts on the list, then Delete invoices | Every ticked draft is deleted; issued invoices are skipped | Yes |
| The hidden bin column on the list or on a customer's Invoices tab | Removes a duplicate-numbered invoice | Yes, in Q&A |
| A credit note on an issued invoice | Cancels the invoice | No, see the page on credit notes (credit-notes.md) |
| CSV Export | Issued invoices in a date range, line by line | Yes |
| Export | The list as shown on screen | Yes |
Use this page for drafts you do not want and for getting invoice figures out of the app. To undo an invoice that has already been issued, use a credit note.
How to use
Configuration
Deleting and exporting have no settings of their own.
Before you start: the Financials screen, the invoice list, the invoice screen, Delete, Delete invoices and CSV Export are open only to a company administrator account. Other accounts cannot open them. If you need an invoice deleted or an export made, ask a colleague with a company administrator account, or see Add an employee and set their permissions.
Using the invoice list
From the main menu, open Financials, then click the Invoices tile. You can also reach a customer's own invoices from the customer record, on the Invoices tab, and click a row there to open the invoice.
To delete one draft invoice:
- Click the invoice's row. The invoice screen opens, headed Invoice.
- Check the invoice is the one you mean: the customer, the lines and the total.
- Click Delete, in red at the top right. It is only there while the invoice is a Draft.
The invoice is deleted at once. There is no confirmation question and no way to get it back, so check step 2 before you click. You return to the list.
To delete several drafts at once:
- On the list, filter the Status column to Draft, so you only see drafts.
- Tick the box at the start of each row you want to delete. Delete invoices appears in red in the button row as soon as one row is ticked.
- Click Delete invoices.
The ticked drafts are deleted at once, with no confirmation question. Any issued (Send) invoice you ticked is left alone, and the app does not tell you it skipped it. That is why step 1 filters to drafts first.
To export issued invoices for your bookkeeper:
- Click CSV Export, on the right above the list. A small window headed Export opens.
- Fill in From: the first day you want.
- Fill in To: the day after the last day you want. For all of April, enter 1 April and 1 May.
- Click Export. The file downloads to your computer. Cancel closes the window without a file.
To download the list as it looks on screen:
- Set the filters and the columns the way you want them.
- Click Export, on the right above the list, next to Reset filters.
The rows the list is showing are downloaded as an Excel file, with a column heading on each column. The file gets a technical-looking name; rename it after downloading.
Key details
What the CSV file contains. Skim this once; you will come back to it when a figure looks odd.
| Included | Left out |
|---|---|
| Issued (Send) invoices and credit notes of your company | Drafts |
| Invoices dated from the start of From up to the start of To | Invoices issued during the To day itself |
| Invoices linked to a booking and a customer | Invoices with no booking, such as most invoices raised by hand |
| One row for every line on each invoice | A separate total row per invoice |
Each row carries:
- the booking number, branch, pickup location, customer number and invoice name
- the invoice number, invoice date and due date
- the line's description, quantity, unit price, discount and subtotal
- the VAT (value-added tax) rate, VAT amount and total
- the vehicle class and vehicle, and the year and month of both the invoice and the booking's end Columns are separated by a semicolon, and amounts use a full stop as the decimal sign.
A worked example. In April your team issued two invoices and left one draft:
- Invoice 412 for a booking, with three lines: rental €250.00, insurance €40.00 and a delivery fee €35.00, each plus 21% VAT. Total €393.25.
- A hand-raised invoice for a lost key, €60.50 including VAT, not linked to a booking.
- A draft for next week's booking.
With From 1 April and To 1 May, the file has a heading row and three rows, all for invoice 412: one for the rental (subtotal 250, VAT 52.5, total 302.5), one for the insurance and one for the delivery fee. The key invoice and the draft are not in it. Had you entered To 30 April, any invoice issued during 30 April would also be missing.
What deleting does not touch. Deleting a draft does not delete the booking or its charges, so the booking can be invoiced again: see invoicing a booking. A draft has no invoice number yet, so deleting it leaves no gap in your numbering; see invoice numbers and dates.
What to do next: once drafts are cleared, issue the ones you keep from the invoice screen, as described in sending an invoice. Send the CSV file to your bookkeeper; if your invoices go to your accounting software automatically, check there first, as described in accounting sync.
Q&A
Why did the invoice number disappear from my accounts after I used the bin on a duplicate row? The list and each customer's Invoices tab have a hidden column with no heading that shows a bin on every row. You switch it on with the column-chooser at the far right of the list's heading row. Clicking the bin deletes that invoice at once, with no question, if another invoice has the same number or if the invoice has already been sent to your accounting software. In every other case it shows Can't delete invoice as its not a duplicate or its synced to financial accounting. It also deletes one stored PDF with that invoice number, which can be the copy of the invoice you kept. Use the bin only on a row whose number really appears twice and whose Sync ID is empty. Afterwards, open the invoice you kept and produce its PDF again, as described in sending an invoice. If an invoice already in your accounting software was deleted this way, ask RentVisie support.
Why does Delete show "This booking has been synced to bookkeeping and thus cannot be removed."? The draft has already been sent to your accounting software, so its Sync ID is filled in. The app will not delete it. Remove it in your accounting software first, or ask RentVisie support; see accounting sync.
Why is there no Delete button on an invoice? The invoice is issued (Send). Issued invoices cannot be deleted; credit them instead, as described in credit notes.
Why did Delete invoices leave some of the ticked invoices on the list? Those were issued invoices. Delete invoices only deletes drafts and skips the rest without saying so.
Why is a hand-raised invoice missing from the CSV file? The CSV file only includes invoices linked to a booking. Use Export on the list instead: filter the list to the dates you need and download it.
Why is the last day of the month missing from the CSV file? To counts from the very start of that day. Enter the day after the last day you want.
Why does the CSV file contain only the heading row? Either From or To was left empty, or no invoice was issued in that range. Fill in both dates and try again.
Why do amounts look wrong when I open the CSV file in Excel? The amounts use a full stop as the decimal sign and the columns are separated by semicolons. A Dutch Excel can read 302.5 as text or as a large number. Open the file through Excel's text import (Data, then From Text/CSV) and set the decimal sign to a full stop.
Why do the booking details look wrong on a combined invoice? For an invoice that covers several bookings, the CSV file shows the first booking's number, location and vehicle on every line. Check the invoice itself for the other bookings.
Related pages:
- Credit notes — to cancel or correct an invoice that is already issued.
- Invoice numbers and dates — when a number is given and what a gap means.
- Accounting sync — when invoices should reach your accounting software without an export.
- Tax and compliance exports — for exports meant for the tax authorities.