Sales invoices
The bill for each propane delivery or sale, from its draft to posting, sending and getting paid.
A sales invoice is the bill you send a customer. In AimRack every propane delivery ticket is a line on a sales invoice: the gallons delivered at the customer's price per gallon, with any delivery fees on lines beside it. This page is where an invoice is checked, completed, posted and sent, and where you see how much of it has been paid.
Where sales invoices come from
An invoice is created in one of four ways. It always opens as Draft, fully editable.
- From a delivery. Recording a delivery on the deliveries board writes a draft invoice for that customer with one line, "Propane — " followed by the ticket number: the gallons delivered at the price per gallon, in the unit GL (gallons).
- From a sales order. On the order, New Invoice raises an invoice for what the order still has to bill (sales orders).
- From a shipment. On a posted shipment, New Invoice bills what actually went out (shipments).
- By hand. On Sales Invoices, choose Add Sales Invoice and pick the customer.
What the statuses mean
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Draft, Pending | Not posted yet. Everything can still be changed. |
| Submitted | Posted and waiting for payment. The invoice is locked. |
| Partially Paid | Payments or credits cover part of the balance. |
| Paid | Payments or credits cover the whole balance. |
| Overdue | Posted, not fully paid, and past its due date. |
| Credit Note Issued | A credit memo has been applied to it. |
| Voided | Reversed. It stays on file but counts for nothing. |
Partially Paid, Paid and Overdue are worked out from the payments applied and the due date. Nobody sets them by hand, with one exception described below for companies that do not keep their books in AimRack.
How to check and post an invoice when a delivery has been recorded
- Open Sales Invoices and open the draft, or open it from the delivery.
- In the properties panel, check the Invoice Customer, Invoice Customer Location and Invoice Customer Contact (who receives the bill), the Payment Term (for example Net 15 for a household, Net 30 for a business), Date Issued, Date Due and Currency. Add the customer's purchase order number in Customer PO if they gave you one.
- Check the lines. The propane line shows gallons and price per gallon. Add any other charges with New Sales Invoice Line: choose the line type, the item, the quantity and the unit price. The demonstration company, for example, bills a hazardous materials fee of $6.50 per delivery, a fuel surcharge of $0.07 per gallon, and a small-delivery fee of $24 when fewer than 125 gallons are delivered.
- Under Tax & Additional Costs, set the Tax Percent and any Add-On Cost, taxable or not. Use Add Shipping only when you charge for shipping a packaged item.
- Choose Post. In the dialog, choose Send Via: Email sends the invoice to the invoice contact (add anyone else in CC), and None posts it without sending.
Posting locks the invoice and moves it to Submitted. With accounting turned on, posting also writes the general ledger entries: the amount owed against sales, with tax and shipping on their own accounts.
How to take a payment when you are looking at the invoice
When a posted invoice still has a balance, the header shows Payment. Choose it and a new payment opens with the customer and this invoice already filled in; check the amount and the bank account and post it. The payments guide explains discounts, write-offs and payments that cover several invoices.
How to mark an invoice paid when you do not keep your books in AimRack
When accounting is turned off (Settings, Accounting), a posted invoice shows Mark as Paid, which records it as paid today, and Mark as Unpaid, which undoes that. Only an invoice in Submitted can be marked paid. With accounting turned on these actions are not offered: an invoice is settled only by a payment or a credit, so the invoices and the ledger always agree.
How to correct an invoice when something on it is wrong
- Still a draft: change it directly, or choose Delete Sales Invoice. Only draft invoices can be deleted.
- Already posted: a posted invoice cannot be edited. Choose Void, which reverses its postings and keeps it on file as Voided, then raise a new invoice. The void asks for its Reversal date, the day the reversal counts in the books: it starts at the invoice's own date and cannot be earlier. If that month is already locked or closed, the dialog stays open, says why, and offers the first open day as one choice; choose it (or another open day) and void again. Nothing is voided until you confirm the day. When only part of the charge was wrong, issue a credit memo for the difference instead.
Use Preview to see the invoice as the customer will, and PDF to download it.
Where this fits
The delivery ticket written on the deliveries board is the invoice's first line. The posted invoice shows up in the customer's balance under Accounts and in the Receivables aging on Invoicing. A payment or a credit memo settles it. With accounting on, its entries land in the ledger described in Accounting.