Before creating an invoice you need to
- Configure the taxes you collect.
- Create custom templates if you want to customize the look and feel of your invoices.
- Select the appropriate default template.
- Add late fees (if any) that you charge on delayed customer payments.
- Go to the 'Invoices' Tab.
- Click on the 'New Invoice' button on the right sidebar of the page (see image below).
Enter values for the following fields
Template The invoice template that you have set as default appears here. Click on the drop-down icon to select a different template. 
Select Customer Click on the drop-down icon in the 'Customer' field and select the customer to whom you want to send this invoice.
If the customer is not available in the list click on 'New Customer' below the 'Customer' field to add a customer. A 'New Customer' window pops up. Enter the details here and click on 'Save and Select' button to populate the customer name on the invoice form.
Invoice# The value of this field is based on invoice numbering scheme you have set under invoice preferences. If you have chosen to auto-generate the invoice number, you cannot edit this field and a string generated based on the values of the 'Invoice Prefix' and 'Next Number' appears here. But, if you have disabled auto-generation then this field is left blank and you need to enter an invoice number here. This field is mandatory. Enable Auto-Generation Change 'Invoice Auto-Generation' settings. P.O.# Enter the reference# of an associated document with the invoice, e.g. a project code or a purchase order number. Invoice Date By default, today's date will appear in this field. To enter invoices that have a date in past or in the future, click on this field and select the appropriate date from the calendar that pops up. Terms The default payment terms you have set for the customer appears here. Click on the drop-down icon to select a different payment term. Due Date The due date is determined by the payment terms associated with this invoice. To change this, click on this field and select the appropriate date from the calendar. Late Fee Click on the 'Late Fee' drop-down to associate a late fee if you charge for delayed payments. Change Late Fee Settings You can either manually enter a particular invoice number or let the system auto-generate the number for you. If you wish to enable auto-generation go to 'New Invoice' page under 'Invoice'. Click on 'Enable Auto-Generation' as shown in the above image and the invoice number image pops up.
- Click on the 'New Invoice' page under 'Invoices' tab
- Go to the Late Fee section, and from the drop-down list select the 'Configure Late Fee' as shown in the image below.
- You can add a new late fee here. Just click on the 'New Late Fee' link as shown in the image below.
- This pops up the 'late fee' settings page. Enter the text as per the description given below.
| Auto Generation | To generate numbers automatically, select the check box for 'Generate invoice numbers automatically'. To disable the auto-generation, just uncheck the box and save the settings.
Note: You will be not be able to disable the auto-generate function if recurring invoices are set by you in the 'General Preference' settings page. If you still want to disable, you can change the recurring invoice setting to 'save as draft and notify me'. Save it and then change the auto-generation settings from the new invoice page. |
| Prefix | The prefix refers to the text that is displayed before the invoice sequence number. By default, the prefix in Zoho Invoice is 'INV-'. You can change this to suit your invoice numbering requirements. |
| Next Number | This is the sequence number of the next invoice that would be created. |
A late fee is a charge levied by an organization against a client for non-payment of an invoice or a bill by it's due date. Zoho Invoice provides you the ability to automatically apply late fees to overdue customer payments. You can add the late fee settings from withing the new invoice page itself.
To add a new Late Fee
Enter the fields below to complete the first section
| Late Fee Name | Enter the name by which you would like to refer the late fee to. |
| Charge | As shown in the above image, you can charge a late fee as a percentage of the outstanding amount or a flat amount. |
| Frequency | Select the frequency at which you would like to calculate late fees. |
How to assign a late fee to invoices?
While creating or editing an invoice, select the appropriate late fee in the 'Late Fee' drop-down and save the invoice.
Item grid
You need to enter the list of items that are a part of the invoice in the line item grid shown in the image below. By default, Zoho Invoice provides you three lines in the line item grid. You can add or remove a line. There must be at least one item to complete an invoice.
To remove an item, hover your mouse over the item and click on the delete icon at the end of the line.
To add an item enter values for the fields below
| Item |
Select the item from this drop-down list you want to add to the invoice. If the desired item is not present, click on 'Add' in the list to create an item. If you want to add more than three items to the invoice, click on the 'Add another line' link. |
| Qty | Enter the quantity of the item if required. The default value is one. |
| Rate | The rate (price) of the item you have set when you created or modified the item appears here. Change this if required. |
| Discount |
Enter the percentage discount on this item you give to your customers. Note: This field will be shown only if you opted to use discount under 'Invoice preferences'. |
| Tax1 | By default, this is the 'Tax1' you selected when the item was added or modified. Click on the drop-down to select a different tax. |
| Tax2 | By default, this is the 'Tax2' you selected when the item was added or modified. Click on the drop-down to select a different tax. |
| Amount | This is the actual cost of the item, inclusive of all taxes and discounts that the customer has to pay for. |
Customer Notes and Terms & Conditions
| Customer Notes | The default Customer Notes message will appear for every new invoice created . If you wish to change the settings, you can click on the cog wheel as shown in the image above. Make the changes and save the setting which will be applied for all future invoices. If you wish to change it just once, you can manually enter the text in the field and save the invoice. |
| Terms and Conditions | The 'Terms and Conditions' refer to agreement between you and your customers. If you wish to change the settings, you can click on the cog wheel as shown in the image above. Make the changes and save the setting which will be applied for all future invoices. If you wish to change it just once, you can manually enter the text in the field and save the invoice |
Click on the 'Save' button to save the invoice. If the invoice is saved successfully, the 'Invoice Details Page' opens to display the message below on top of the page.
As shown in the image below, the sidebar displays the selected customer's billing and shipping address.
You can specify or edit the billing and shipping address here.
Recording a foreign currency invoice is similar to recording an invoice in your base or local currency.
Before you record a foreign currency invoice, ensure that
- The currency in which you want to record the invoice exists. Go to the currency list page to check this. Add the currency, if it is not present.
- Assign this currency to the customer for whom you want to raise the invoice. Click here for more on this.
Extra fields on a foreign currency invoice
Exchange Rate
Enter a suitable exchange rate here, as Zoho Invoice does not auto-populate the exchange rates yet.
The exchange rate is recorded as the number of base currency units that equal one customer (foreign) currency unit.
Say for example, your base currency is the US dollar (USD), the foreign currency is Japanese Yen (JPY) and the exchange rate is 0.0107423. In Zoho Invoice this is recorded as 1 JPY (one unit of foreign currency) = 0.0107423 units of USD (your base currency).
Recalculate item rates
Click on this link, if you have changed the exchange rate after adding a few line items and you want the item rates to reflect the modified exchange rate. When you click on this a confirmation window (see below image) pops up.
To view the list of invoices go to the 'Invoices' tab.
Navigation
If you have more than 25 invoices in the list a navigation bar as shown in the image below will appear at the bottom of page.
Filtered And Sort Views
| Filtered View |
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By default, Zoho Invoice lists all the invoices. The list of filters are shown as links with underlined blue text on right corner of 'Invoice list' section. The selected filter will not be underlined and appear as a normal text. For example, if you want to view all draft invoices click on the draft link. Once the draft invoices are listed, the draft link will no longer appear as underlined blue text as shown in the image below. 
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| Sort View |
By default, the list is sorted by the 'Created time' of the invoices. Click on the 'Sort-by' drop-down to select a different sort criteria.
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Bulk Actions
Under special circumstances you may need to perform an action on multiple records. For invoices, you can delete or convert to open multiple invoices at once.
| Convert to Open |
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To convert multiple invoices to open, select the desired invoices and click on the 'Convert to Open' button. To change the status of all invoices to open at once, select the header checkbox and click on the 'Convert To Open' button.
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| Delete |
You can also delete multiple invoices all at once. Use this judiciously as it is going to delete forever all the selected invoices. Ideally, you will use this under the following circumstances
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In all the above scenarios, operating on multiple invoices saves precious time.
The side bar of the 'Invoice list' page is designed to provide some useful links to speed up adding and finding data. You can see on the invoice list's sidebar links to add an item, add a customer, import and export invoices, view the data in Zoho Sheet, create an invoice from Zoho Projects and search invoices.
Use the search box on the sidebar of the 'Invoice List' page to locate an invoice. Depending on what you know about an Invoice, you can perform a simple or an advanced search.
Simple Search
If you know any word or number that might have been a part of invoice number, P.O.#, customer name or items on the invoice, just enter it in the search box on the sidebar and click on the search icon. The results of the search will be displayed as shown in the image below.
Advanced Search
Make use of Advanced search, if you require narrower search results or lack the information that is required to perform a simple search. Click on the 'advanced search' link below the search box.
Enter the value of following fields to add them to the search criteria. The more fields you enter the narrower your search becomes.
- Invoice#
- P.O.#
- Customer Name
- Invoice Date Range
- Status
Click on the "more fields" link and you can see that the search form expands and allows you to enter more information to narrow the search criteria further.
The expanded search form has the following fields
- Item Name
- Item Description
- Invoice total range
- Notes
Here is a search form that tries to locate all invoices that
- were created in the year 2009 .
- customers whose name contains john.
- invoice number contains 5.
- invoice amount is greater than $1000 and less than $10000.
- item name contains the word Zoho.
- Go to the 'Invoices' tab.
- Go to the invoice that you want to view.
- Click on the details link. See image below.
Adding Comments
To add comments to an invoice just click on the 'Add Comments' link shown in the above image.
Enter comments in the text area and click on the 'Save' button.
The sidebar provides useful information about the invoice and links for performing actions on that. Apart from 'clone', 'make recurring' and 'remind customer' the rest of actions are available from the list page itself.
You can find the invoice status and its balance on the top of the sidebar.
Remind Customer
This link is visible only if the invoice you are viewing is in open or overdue status. Click here to send a payment reminder to customer.
Make Recurring
Make this invoice invoice as recurring if you send this to your customer on a regular basis. To do this, click on 'Make recurring' link. This takes you to a 'New Recurring' invoice page where you need to give a name for the recurring invoice.
Click here for more on recurring invoices.
Draft
When you create an invoice, it will be in draft status. A draft status indicates that invoice is likely to undergo further modifications and its amount is yet to reflect in your sales figures.
Open
An open status for an invoice indicates that your customer is in receipt of the goods or services described on the invoice
and the invoice is either fully or partially unpaid.
Overdue
An invoice that has not been paid on time will be in overdue status.
Closed
A fully paid invoice will be in closed status.
Void
If you have intentionally voided an invoice, its status would be shown as void. Click here for more on void invoices.
To visually identify the status of an invoice, Zoho Invoice provides a different color for each status. See the image below -
- Go to the 'Invoices' tab.
- Go to the invoice that you want to edit.
- Click on edit link. See image below.
- This opens the 'Edit Invoice' page.
- Make changes as required and click on the 'Save' button.
To send an invoice to a customer, go to the 'Invoices' tab.
- Go to the invoice you want to send.
- Click on 'send' link shown in the image below. If you have sent the invoice at least once before, then you will see 'send again' link.
- Clicking on the 'send' or 'send again' link opens the 'Send invoice' page shown in the image below.
Change the e-mail message if required.
The 'To' address should be the e-mail address of the customer to whom you want to send the invoice. This will default to e-mail address of the first contact person of the customer. If no contact person e-mail address was provided, then this field will be left blank and you need to enter an e-mail address to send it across to your customer.
Attachments
You can attach an associated document like a purchase order, expense receipt, a project document, etc. to an invoice. To do this, click on the 'Add' link on top of the e-mail message box and browse your local folders to select the document you want to send with this invoice. The document size should not exceed 4 MB.
Deleting Vs Voiding
When you delete an invoice, the record will be removed leaving no trace of the invoice for any future reference, also your invoicing sequence will get disturbed.
On the other hand when you mark the invoice as void, it won't be removed from the system and will not be reflected in your sales figures. The invoicing sequence will undisturbed.
When to void an invoice?
- Void an invoice, if the sale described on the invoice has been cancelled and is no longer valid.
- The regulations you need to comply with require keeping a record of all invoices, even cancelled ones.
- Keep track of all invoices that you have raised. Voiding an invoice does not disturb your invoice numbering.
Voiding an invoice
- Go to the 'Invoices' tab.
- Go to the invoice that you want to void.
- Click on the 'more actions' drop-down shown in the below image.
- Click the void link. This voids the invoice.
You can clone or duplicate an existing invoice to create a new invoice if most of the data is the same.
To clone a new invoice.
- Go to the 'Invoices' tab.
- Go the invoice you want to clone or duplicate.
- Click on the 'details' link
- Click on the 'clone' link on the sidebar.
- This will open a 'New invoice' page. All the fields from the original invoice will be completed for you in the new invoice. You can make the changes as required and click on the 'Save' button.
- Go to the 'Invoices' tab.
- Go to the invoice you want to print.
- Click on the 'print' link shown in the below image.
- This will generate a PDF file that you can print.
- Go to the 'Invoices' tab.
- Go to the invoice you want to delete.
- Click on the 'more actions' drop-down shown in the below image.
- Click on the 'delete' link.
- A message box as shown below will appear asking for your confirmation.
- Click on the 'Ok' button if you are sure you want to delete the record.
You can create invoices for hours logged in Zoho Projects. To do this
- Go to the 'Invoices' tab.
- Click on 'New Invoice for project' on the side bar shown in the image below.
- A window pops up where you need to select the information of the project that you want to invoice. See image below.
Enter values for the following fields
Project Click on the drop-down icon to select the project for which you want to bill your client. Rate Enter the rate per hour that you charge your client for this project. Invoice Type If you and your client are fine with just displaying the cost of the entire project on the invoice, select the 'Projects' option. If you need to provide a break-up of the various tasks and their cost select the 'Task' option. Click on the 'Create Invoice' button. This opens the 'New Invoice' page with task details populated in the item grid section.
The 'description' field will be populated with the task details. The 'item' name is left blank as the tasks are not maintained in Zoho Invoice.
Click on 'Save' to complete the process.