Create an Invoice

Create a customer invoice and choose whether it should stay open or be recorded as paid now.

When to use this

• You need to enter a new customer invoice.
• You need the invoice to stay in Draft, move to Open, or settle immediately.
• You need to review customer terms, due date, item details, and income accounts before saving.

Before you start

• A customer record exists, or you are ready to add one from the invoice drawer.
• The invoice amount can be built from one or more lines.
• Your company is ready to use invoices in receivables workflows.
• You know whether Receive to should use an Accounts Receivable control account or a cash, bank, or credit-card settlement account.
• If the invoice includes sales tax, an active liability account is available for the amount you will owe the tax agency.
• If the customer uses saved payment terms, review the filled due date before saving.

Steps

1. Open Invoices.
2. Select New.
3. Complete the invoice header:
   • Invoice #
   • Customer
   • Receive to
   • Default income account
   • Date
   • Payment Terms, if needed
   • Due Date
   • Status
   • Memo
   • Tax rate, if needed
   • Sales tax payable account, which appears when the tax rate is greater than zero
4. If company Invoice defaults are configured, review the starting payment terms, due date, and workflow status before you continue.
   • Default invoice payment terms can seed a new invoice when no customer or invoice value is already supplied.
   • New invoice workflow can start new invoices as Draft or Open, depending on company setup.
5. If the selected customer already has saved payment terms, review the Payment Terms value SPRK fills in for you.
6. Review the resulting Due Date before saving.
   • Common terms such as Due on receipt, Due upon receipt, EOM, x/y net N, and Net N can calculate due dates.
   • Treat unusual freeform terms as values to review manually.
   • If you need an exception for this invoice, replace the default due date before you save.
7. Choose Receive to carefully:
   • Use an Accounts Receivable control account when the customer will pay later.
   • Use a cash, bank, or credit-card settlement account only when the invoice is being recorded as paid immediately.
   • These are two different choices: open receivable or paid now.
8. Add one or more invoice lines.
9. Use Item Number / SKU or Description to pull matching item details into the line when available.
   • In companies set to Description only, supported item-entry helpers may show descriptions without item numbers.
10. Review quantity, unit price, line Income account, and extended amount on each line.
    • Default income account fills blank line income accounts when the drawer supports that fallback.
    • The line-level Income account is the posting source for that line.
11. If the invoice includes sales tax, review Sales tax payable account.
    • SPRK starts with the company default when one is configured.
    • You can choose another active liability account for this invoice.
    • The saved invoice keeps that selection even if the company default changes later.
12. If the customer or item does not exist yet, create it inline from the invoice drawer and continue without leaving the page.
13. Decide how the invoice should be saved:
    • Draft keeps the invoice unposted.
    • A taxed draft can be saved before a payable account is selected.
    • Open moves the invoice into an active receivables state when Receive to is an Accounts Receivable control account.
    • Choosing a settlement account in Receive to can route the invoice through the paid-now path instead of leaving an open receivable.
    • SPRK will not post a taxed Open or paid-now invoice until Sales tax payable account is selected.
14. If you choose Open, confirm Receive to, due date, lines, and any sales-tax account one more time before saving.
15. Save the invoice.
16. Review the invoice list to confirm the expected status, total, balance, terms, and due date.

What Happens When You Save

The invoice appears in the invoice list with the expected number, customer, totals, balance, payment timing, and status.

• Draft stores the invoice without posting.
• Open with an Accounts Receivable control account moves the invoice into the receivables workflow.
• A settlement account in Receive to routes the invoice through the paid-now path instead of leaving an open receivable.
• Line-level Income account values receive the invoice subtotal when the invoice posts.
• When the invoice has sales tax, SPRK credits that tax to the selected liability account instead of including it in revenue.

If something looks wrong

Related

• Create and open invoices
• Review and edit invoices
• Receive invoice payments
• Set up receivables defaults before invoicing
• Manage customers
• Manage items for invoicing