Raise an invoice by hand

Introduction

Most invoices come straight from a booking. A manual invoice is one you build yourself, line by line, for something that has no booking behind it. You start it from the Manual Invoice tile, and it opens on a screen headed Invoice. Across the top sit the Back link and a row of small buttons (Delete, Attachments, PDF). Below that, the left column holds the customer, branch and the two dates, and the right column shows the invoice's status and type. Under those is the table of invoice lines with its Add button, then two note boxes, and at the bottom the Save and next and Save buttons.

You would be here because:

• A customer bought something at the desk that is not part of a rental, such as a set of snow chains.
• You need to charge a cleaning or handling fee after the booking was already invoiced and closed.
• A business customer asks for one invoice for a service you do not run through bookings.
• You are checking a manual invoice you started yesterday and saved as a draft.

Terms used on this screen

Every way to make an invoice

Use this page when there is no booking to invoice from. If there is a booking, invoice from the booking instead, so that the booking's balance and payments line up.

How to use

Configuration

A manual invoice can only contain things that are on your list of Invoice items. If what you want to bill is not on it, add it there first.

1. From the main menu, open Financials, then click the Invoice items tile. The screen shows a table with Description, Code and Category, and a filter above each column.
2. Click New RV invoice item. A small window opens.
3. Fill in the fields below and press Save. Press Cancel to close without saving.

For Base and Mileage the window says Please link an asset group. and shows an Asset group box: pick the vehicle class. For Manual the box is optional. For Insurance, MileagePackage and Optional an Option box appears instead, and for HandlingFee a Fine handling fee option box. For a plain desk sale, choose Manual.

To change an item, click the pencil icon at the end of its row. To remove one, click the other icon at the end of the row, or tick several rows and use the red button that then appears above the table. Both delete straight away, without asking. Invoices that already used the item keep their lines.

The catalogue does not refresh itself. The list was filled when your company was set up. There is no button on this screen to fill it again from your price lists, so a new vehicle class, extra or insurance does not appear here on its own. Add it with New RV invoice item, or ask RentVisie support to refill the list.

Before you start: manual invoices and the Invoice items list need a company administrator account. The Financials menu, and every screen on this page, is only open to that account. You also need at least one Invoice items entry for what you want to bill, and the customer must exist, or you create them on the way.

Using the manual invoice screen

From the main menu, open Financials, then click the Manual Invoice tile (the raised hand icon). A new, empty invoice opens. Invoice date is today, Due date is fourteen days from today, and Invoice status reads Draft.

1. Choose the customer. Pick them in Customer; type part of the name to search. If they are new, click New customer above the box; the customer form opens, and after you save it the customer is already filled in on the invoice. Edit customer opens the chosen customer's form, for example to correct their billing address.
2. Choose the branch in Branch. Its details go on the invoice.
3. Check the dates. Change Invoice date or Due date if needed. They can only be changed while the invoice is a draft.
4. Add a line. Click Add above the lines table. The Invoice item screen opens with your list; filter by Category, Description or Code, and click the item. You come back to the invoice with a new line: quantity 1, the item's price, and its VAT rate. The invoice total updates.
5. Change the quantity or price. Click the pencil icon at the end of the line. Change Quantity or Unit price; Subtotal and Total amount follow. You can also change Description. Tax rate cannot be changed here; it comes from the item. Press Save. To remove a line, click the bin icon at the end of the line; it goes at once.
6. Add notes. Invoice notes is printed on the invoice under Notes. Notes is for your own team and does not appear on the invoice.
7. Attach documents, if any. Click Attachments at the top. On the Attachments screen click New, give it a Name, choose the file, and press Save. Use Remove under an attachment to take it off again. Click Back to return.
8. Save or issue.

1. On the Send invoice screen, choose a Template, check To, Reply to, Subject and the Body of the email, and in Attachments pick the files to send — only the files you pick go with the email. Then:

When it worked, the invoice screen shows Invoice status as Send, and the customer, branch, dates and lines are locked. The finished invoice is listed under Financials, tile Invoices. For templates, PDFs and the email itself, see Send an invoice.

Key details

What the app checks before it goes further.

Process (don't send) skips the email fields entirely.

The due date is always fourteen days, fixed when you start. It is set the moment you click the tile, from that day. It does not follow the customer's payment terms, and it does not move when you change Invoice date or when you issue the invoice days later. Change Due date by hand while the invoice is still a draft. Invoices from a booking work differently, as described in Invoice numbers and dates.

Worked example. On 29 September you start a manual invoice. Due date reads 13 October. Your list has Interior cleaning, code CLEAN, Base price €50.00, is tax Yes, Tax percentage 21. You add it and change Quantity to 2: Subtotal €100.00, VAT €21.00, Total amount €121.00. You also add Snow chains, €40.00 at 21%: €48.40. The invoice total is €169.40. You press Save and come back on 2 October to press Save and next and Send. The invoice is dated 29 September and due 13 October, unless you change both dates before sending. The customer's usual thirty days play no part.

The number is given when you issue, not when you save. A draft has no invoice number, so drafts you delete leave no gap. Send and Process (don't send) both give the next number.

A negative total makes it a credit. If the lines add up to less than zero, Invoice type changes from Debit to Credit by itself. To correct an invoice you already issued, use Credit instead; see Credit an invoice.

Attachments go out as PDF files. Each one is sent with its Name plus ".pdf", so attach PDF files only. They go out only with Send; Process (don't send) emails nothing.

What to do next: once issued, email or print it from the invoice, as in Send an invoice, and record the money when it comes in, as in Record a payment.

Q&A

I pressed Process (don't send) by mistake. Can I go back to a draft? No. The invoice has its number and is issued. If it is wrong, credit it with Credit at the top of the invoice; see Credit an invoice. If it is only the email that is missing, send it from the invoice as described in Send an invoice.

Why did Delete remove the invoice without asking? Delete has no confirmation. It only shows while the invoice is a draft, and a draft has no number, so nothing is lost from your numbering. Re-create the invoice from the Manual Invoice tile.

Why is a manual invoice due in fourteen days when the customer has thirty? The fourteen days are fixed for every manual invoice. Change Due date before you issue it.

Why does a draft I send today still show the day I started it? Both were set on the day you started the invoice. Change Invoice date and Due date before pressing Send.

The item I want to bill is not in the list when I press Add. The list only holds what was added to Invoice items. Go to Financials, Invoice items, and add it with New RV invoice item, then press Add on the invoice again.

An extra or insurance we sell does not appear under Invoice items. The list is not refreshed from your price lists. Add the item by hand with New RV invoice item.

Why can I not change the VAT on a line? Tax rate comes from the item in Invoice items. Change the item's Tax percentage there, remove the line with the bin icon, and add it again. See VAT and rounding for the rates.

Save says Please populate invoice lines, but I added a line. The lines add up to exactly zero, for example a line with a price of €0.00. Change the price with the pencil icon.

The customer never received the email. Check the To address on the Send invoice screen and the customer's email on their record, and see Send an invoice for resending.

I switched on Manual invoice email in the company settings, and nothing changed here. That setting is about invoices made from bookings, not about this screen. See Invoice a booking.

Delete gives "This booking has been synced to bookkeeping and thus cannot be removed." The invoice has already gone to your accounting package. Credit it instead; see Credit an invoice and Accounting sync.

I cannot find Financials or the Manual Invoice tile. Your account is not a company administrator account. Ask whoever administers your company.

Related pages:

• Invoice a booking — when there is a booking to invoice from.
• Invoice numbers and dates — how numbers are given and how due dates normally work.
• Delete or export invoices — removing a draft or exporting a list.
• Set a customer's payment and invoicing terms — the customer's own payment terms, which manual invoices do not use.