Creating Invoices

You can create invoices in Zoho ERP to record amounts receivable from your customers for goods sold or services provided. This helps you track due dates, monitor unpaid invoices, and ensure your receivables and financial reports remain accurate.

Set Your Transaction Preferences

When you access the Invoices module for the first time, Zoho ERP prompts you to configure your transaction preferences. These settings define how discounts, additional charges, rounding, taxes, and salesperson tracking work for all invoices you create.

You can update these preferences later from Settings, but configuring them upfront ensures your invoices follow your business rules from the start.

In addition to these settings, Zoho ERP provides Invoice preferences that let you further control invoice behavior, numbering, fields, and automation. Together, these preferences help you tailor the invoicing experience to match your business processes.

Create an Invoice Manually

You can create an invoice to record goods sold or services provided to your customers.

To create an invoice:

• Log in to your Zoho ERP organization.

• Go to the Sales module in left side bar.

• Hover over Invoices in the top modular bar and select Invoices from the dropdown.

• Click + New in the top right corner.

• In the New Invoice page, fill in the following fields:

  • Customer Name: Select the customer for the invoice.

  • Invoice#: The default transaction series will be used. Choose a different one from the dropdown, if needed. Click the Settings icon in the right of the field to enable or disable the option to auto-generate invoice numbers.

  • Order Number: Enter the order number if necessary.

  • Invoice Date: Choose the date for creating the invoice.

  • Terms: Choose the payment terms for which the invoice is due.

  • Due Date: Pick the payment due date.

  • Accounts Receivables: Select the receivables account used to track your invoices.

  • Salesperson: Select the salesperson responsible for this invoice, if applicable.

  • Select Price List: Choose the price list for the items in the invoice.

• Item Table: Select and add items to the table. Then, fill in the following columns:

• Quantity: Enter the quantity for each item.

• Rate: The rate will be auto-filled based on the item’s rate you set. Modify it if needed. Click Apply Price List under this field to select a price list for the item.

• Tax: Auto-filled based on the item or customer’s tax status.

• Discount: Enter a Percentage (%) or Amount for discounts.

• Bulk Actions: Click this option to perform bulk actions in the Item Table. Select Bulk Update Line Items from the dropdown to update the Reporting Tags or Account of each item in the table or select Show Additional Information to show the project and account for each line item in the table.

• Click + Add New Row to add additional rows for items.

• Click Add Items in Bulk to add multiple items at once.

• Shipping Charges: Add shipping costs for your items if required. Click Apply Tax on Shipping Charge to select a tax on shipping.

• Adjustment: Enter adjustments if needed. Use a Negative (-) sign to reduce the amount.

• TDS / TCS: You can choose whether to apply Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) or Tax Collected at Source (TCS) to the invoice, based on applicable tax regulations and your business requirements.

• Customer Notes: Add notes to display them in the invoice.

• Terms and Conditions: Add your business terms and conditions for the invoice.

• Attach File(s) to Invoice: Click Upload File to attach a file to the invoice.

• I have received the payment: Check this if you’ve received the payment when you’re creating this invoice. Then, select the Payment Method and Deposit Account from the table below. If the customer used multiple payment methods, click + Add Split Payment to split the payment. The invoice will be saved as Paid.

• Click Save as Draft to save the invoice as a draft, or Save and Send to send it to the customer.

• You can also schedule an invoice during the creation process. Here’s how:

• Click the dropdown next to the Save and Send and select Save and Send Later.

• In the Schedule Mail page, select the schedule date under When would you like to send the email?.

• Verify other details and click Schedule.

Now, if you haven’t recorded the payment directly, you can record it later for the created invoice once the customer pays the amount.

Create Invoices From Other Sources

Create an Invoice From a Quote

Once a customer accepts a quote, you can convert the quote into an invoice to request payment. Converting a quote helps you avoid re-entering details and ensures continuity between your sales.

To learn more about creating quotes, refer to the Quotes module.

Here’s how you can convert a quote into an invoice:

• Log in to your Zoho ERP organization.

• Go to the Sales module in left side bar.

• Hover over Invoices in the top modular bar and select Quotes from the dropdown.

• Select the quote you want to convert to an invoice.

• In the Details page, click Convert and select Convert to Invoice in the dropdown.

• You’ll now be redirected to the New Invoice page. Fill in the following fields:

  • Customer Name: Verify and update, if needed.

  • Invoice#: This will be auto-populated, but you can enter it manually if needed.

  • Invoice Date: Select the creation date of the invoice.

  • Review and update other necessary details.

  • Click Save as Draft to save it as a draft, or Save and Send to save and send it to the customer.

Now, after converting the quote into an invoice and saving it as a draft or sending it to the customer, the quote will be marked as Invoiced.

Create an Invoice From a Sales Order

Once you’ve created a sales order and sent the items to your customers, you might want to create an invoice for the same. You can directly convert a sales order into an invoice. Here’s how:

• Log in to your Zoho ERP organization.

• Go to Sales module in left side bar.

• Hover over Invoices in the top modular bar and select Sales Order from the dropdown.

• Select the sales order which you want to invoice.

• Click Convert to Invoice in the top right side of the page.

• In the New Invoice page, the details will be auto-populated. You can make the required changes and click Save and Send to send the invoice to your customers.

After a sales order is invoiced, it will be converted to the Closed status.

Create an Invoice From a Project

You can create an Invoice and send it to your customers for partial or full completion of a project.

You can create an invoice for a project from the Project details page.

Here’s how:

• Log in to your Zoho ERP organization.

• Go to Time Tracking in the left side bar and select Projects.

• Select the project for which you want to raise an invoice.

• Click New Transaction from the top right corner of the page.

• Click Create Invoice.

• In the Bill up to field, enter the date up to which you wish to bill your customer.

• Select the method in which you like the data on invoice to be sorted from How to sort data on invoice dropdown.

• Click Add.

• Make the necessary changes to your invoice.

• Click Save and Send.

Similarly, you can associate other sales transactions such as Sales Orders and Credit Notes to a project.

Create an Invoice From Shopping Carts

You can easily generate invoices directly from your customers’ shopping carts to simplify checkout and speed up billing. This ensures accurate invoicing while reducing manual effort.

Create an Invoice From Your Website

You can automatically convert customer purchases made on your website into invoices without manual intervention. This helps you streamline billing, reduce errors, and ensure faster order-to-invoice processing.

Create Invoices in Bulk

Import Invoices

If you have existing invoices stored locally or you’re migrating to Zoho ERP from another accounting system, you can easily import them.

To import invoices into Zoho ERP:

• Log in to your Zoho ERP organization.

• Go to the Sales module in left side bar.

• Hover over Invoices in the top modular bar and select Invoices from the dropdown.

• Click the More icon in the top right corner and select Import Invoices from the dropdown.

• In the Import - Select File page, click Choose File and select the file you want to import.

• After you select the file, under the Configure tab, fill in the following fields:

  • Character Encoding: The default is UTF-8 (Unicode). Ensure you select the correct encoding based on your file.

  • File Delimiter: The default is Comma (,). Modify the delimiter based on your file.

  • Auto-generate Invoice Numbers: Check this to automatically generate invoice numbers based on your Zoho ERP settings. Invoice numbers in the import file will be ignored.

  • Link Invoices to its corresponding Sales Orders: Check this option to link invoices to corresponding sales orders. If selected, map the sales order field with the appropriate column containing the Sales Order Number on the next page.

  • Map the customers’ addresses in the import file to their customer record in Zoho ERP: Check this to map customers in the import file to existing customer records in Zoho ERP. If a customer exists, their address will be updated; otherwise, a new customer will be created in Zoho ERP.

• Click Next >.

  • In the Map Fields tab:

  • Default Data Format: The default Date format will be Select format at field level, and the Decimal format will be 1234567.89. Click Edit to customize the format if needed.

  • Map the necessary fields based on your preferences.

  • Click Save these selections for use during future imports to reuse the mapped fields for future imports.

  • Click Next >.

  • Then, in the Preview tab, review the fields you mapped and click Import.

Now, the file containing the invoices will be imported into Zoho ERP.