How to create an invoice?

To create a new invoice go to Sales ➝ Invoices ➝ Create Invoice ➝ fill fields ➝ click “Preview” or “Activate and Send”:

You can also find the ‘Create new Invoice’ feature in the Quick Toolbox:

View or edit an invoice

You can view an invoice by clicking on its name on the grid (Sales ➝ Invoices).
This will show you how the invoice will be seen by your clients and how it will look if printed.

To edit an invoice click on the pencil icon on the invoice preview or open the ‘Edit’ link from the row end menu on the grid.

All invoices apart from those marked as ‘paid’ or ‘void’ or ‘canceled’ can be edited.

Invoice data – description

When you open an invoice page – you will see the following data and customization:
– Invoice title – this can just be an internal note on the invoice and will only be displayed on the invoice grid.

Or, it can be used as text under the invoice name on invoice preview.
To include it in the invoice preview go to Settings ➝ Preferences ➝ Invoices & Estimates ➝ check the checkbox “Show invoice/estimate title in preview” (more here).

– Client contact – here you can choose contacts of your client who will receive this invoice. If you will not choose anyone – only the primary contact will receive the invoice.

– Client address – you can change the billing address of your client by overwriting it.

Note: If on the client page -> address the checkbox ‘same as billing address’ is checked

 then for the Delivery Note and Packing Slip  we print the client’s address as on the Invoice preview:

– Payment terms – this is the term allowed for paying the invoice. After this period the invoice becomes overdue.

Note: You can change the Payment Terms by adding the new one as described in this video:

– More options:
language – this is the language of the invoice
currency – the currency the invoice amount will be displayed in

– Invoice items – this is the body of the invoice. You can choose tasks and items that need to be paid.

– Payment options – you can choose available online payment methods. To activate go to, Settings ➝ Payment Integration.
– Notes:
‘internal note’ – these will on be visible on the update estimate page.
‘client note’, ‘terms and conditions’ – these will be displayed on the estimate preview.

Create products through invoice

When you create an invoice you can choose its items from an existing product list or create new products.

You can also create a temporary product (related only to this invoice) or new point on the product list.

To create a temporary item – enter its data manually to the related fields

If you would like to save this item to the existing products list – open the row end menu and click ‘Save Product’.

I want to re-use an invoice for a new client. Can I duplicate/copy invoices?

Yes. You don’t need to manually duplicate your existing invoice.
Simply choose the required invoice and click ‘Clone Invoice’ on the row end menu.

Invoice Numbering

Every invoice has to have a Number, which should be unique. By default, invoice numbers have the format “IV-nnnn” (first invoice – IV-0001, second invoice – IV-0002, third invoice – IV-0003 etc.).
However, you can customize this default format in Settings -> Number Groups -> Edit Invoice Number.

Find out more about Number Groups here.
This number format will be used for all the next invoices, but if you have assigned a specific prefix to your client,

then the invoices created for this client will have numbers with this prefix (for example if the prefix is “CHIP” – then the invoice numbering for this client will start from “CHIP-0001”). When you’ll create a new prefix, the numbering will start with that prefix, followed by “0001”:

Also, you can have a specific prefix on the Projects:

If you will generate an invoice based on this project’s tasks (read more here), the invoice number format will include the project-specific prefix, as you can see below:

To wrap up, the Invoice Numbering formats priority is:
1. Project Prefix: if an invoice is generated through this project;
2. Client Prefix: if an invoice is created for the client with a specific prefix or if the invoice is generated through the project (assigned to this client) without prefix;
3. Default number: if no prefixes were set for Clients/Projects.

Pro-Forma Invoice Numbering

By default, Invoices and Pro Forma Invoices (invoices saved as Draft invoices) use the same numbering.
If you want to separate it, switch this option in Settings -> Preferences:

Then you can set the number format for Pro Forma Invoices in Settings -> Number Groups:

Therefore, on the Create Invoice page you will see the Pro Forma Invoice number by default:

But if you activate and send this invoice (by clicking on the ‘Activate and Send’ button) – then the invoice will change the number and it will be the Invoice sequence number.
Also, the Pro Forma Invoice will change the number into an Invoice number, if you activate this invoice and send it to the client (or just mark it as Activated) – because in this case, you converted your draft Pro Forma Invoice into an actual Invoice.

VOID Invoice Number

In zistemo the invoice number is unique, BUT we allow to re-use the invoice number.

If you delete an invoice, zistemo generates “a new invoice number”. Zistemo does put “VOID” in-front of the invoice number. So the old number, will be re-usable.

E.G.:
Create Invoice with number 2020-0010
Delete invoice. New number will be VOID-2020-0010
Create a new invoice. New number will be 2020-0010
[so the number 2020-0010 will be “re-used”]

To re-use an invoice number – you better copy it or remember it safely. You have to delete/void the original invoice. After that you can use the number to a new invoice.

Invoice Number sorting

If you sort the invoice grid by invoice number, it could be that there’re will be an odd numbering.

This could happen if you don’t use enough leading zeros on your number. Internally the invoice number is a text field (because we allow also letters) and the sorting for text fields works from left to right. That means, “RE-2021-1” comes after “RE-2021-10”, but “RE-2021-01” before. So, in an ascending order it would look like below:

RE-2021-1
RE-2021-10
RE-2021-01

So, either make sure to use enough leading zeros (e.g. 001 will work for correct order until 999) or take into account that the invoice number sorting on the invoice grid is odd.