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Working with Invoices

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Introduction

Once the sales stage reaches to final stage you may start working on payment procedure. In this regard Invoice plays a vital role, which is very important for both Sales and Accounting purposes. Invoice is a bill issued by the vendor to the customers along with the goods/services shipment. It usually contains, reference number of Purchase Order, Date, Billing Address, Shipping Address, Terms of Payment, Line Items (products/services) with quantities and prices, and others. In a typical organization, invoicing completes the sales process and begins the accounting process where account receivable is managed by Accounts/Finance teams.

In the Zoho CRM system you can create invoices directly from the Potentials, Accounts, Quotes, or Sales Orders.

Invoices module contains the following components:

  • Invoices List View
  • Page Navigation
  • Quick Create Invoices
  • Invoice Reports
  • Alphabetical Search
  • Custom Views

You can perform the following operations in Invoices module:

Navigating Invoices

(Access Privilege: Read permission)

You can navigate invoices available in the Invoices List.

Zoho CRM - Page Navigation

To navigate invoices

  1. Click the Invoices tab.
  2. In the Invoices Home page, under the Invoices List section, click the Previous or Next link to access the list of invoices.

Searching Invoices

(Access Privilege: Read permission)

You can search the Invoices alphabetically or filling the required information in Search box.

To search invoices

  1. Click the Invoices tab.
  2. In the Invoices Home page, under the Invoice Search section, do one of the following:
    • Specify the search criteria in Search box and click the Go button. Or
    • Select one of the alphabetical search links.
  3. In the Invoices List page, list of invoices are displayed as per search criteria.

Creating Invoices

(Access Privilege: Read/Write permission)

In Zoho CRM, you can create invoices by entering data into invoice detail form.

Note: Some of the standard fields listed below may not be visible/editable depending on your organization business process and field-level security settings. In case your organization added/modified fields please contact your System Administrator for more details about usage of the other fields.

In the Invoice: Edit form, you need to specify the invoice-related information. The following table provides descriptions of the various fields in the form.

List of Standard Invoice-related Fields

Field Name Description Data Type

Subject*

Specify the name of the invoice. This field is mandatory.

Text box, alphanumeric (50)

Sales Order

Select the reference Sales order (if any).

Lookup

Customer No

Specify the customer identification number (if any).

Text box, alphanumeric (50)

Invoice Date

Specify the date on which the invoice is created.

Date

Due Date

Specify the invoice due date as per your payment terms.

Date

Sales Commission

Specify the commission to the sales person upon closing the deal.

Numeric (float)

Account Name *

Specify the account name to which the invoice has to be created.

Lookup

Status

Specify the status of the invoice.

Check box

Account Name *

Specify the account name to which the invoice has to be created.

Lookup

Assigned To*

Select the Zoho CRM user name to whom the invoice handling duty is assigned.

Lookup

Billing Address *

Specify the billing address of the account or contact to which the invoice has to be sent. If you have selected the account or contact the billing address is automatically filled up.

Text box, alphanumeric (256)

Shipping Address *

Specify the shipping address of the account or contact to which the shipment has to be sent. If you have already selected the account or contact the shipping address is automatically filled up.

Text box, alphanumeric (256)

Product Details

Specify the line items of the invoice.

  

Product*

Select the product name.

Lookup

Quantity

Specify the number of units.

Numeric (Integer)

Unit Price

Displays the unit price of the product.

Currency

List Price*

Select the product list price from Price Book or specify the product price

Lookup and Numeric (Integer)

Total

Displays the amount of the selected products.

Currency

Terms & Conditions

Specify the terms and conditions that are associated with invoice.

Text area (32 KB)

Description

Specify any other details about invoice.

Text area (32 KB)

To create invoices

  1. Click the New Invoice link. Note: The New Invoice link is present under
  2. In the Invoice:page, specify the invoice details.

    Note: Subject, Account Name, Billing Address, Shipping Address, and Line Items are mandatory fields. Refer to the List of Standard Invoice-related Fields section for more details.


  3. Click Save. An invoice will be created with a permanent Invoice ID, which can be used future reference.

Associating Invoices with Other Records

(Access Privilege: Read/Write permission)

You can associate invoice with the other records such as, activities, attachments and notes.

  • Activities: To add tasks related to invoices.
  • Attachments & Notes: To add the files and notes to invoices.

To associate Invoices with other Records

  1. Click the Invoices tab.
  2. In the Invoices Home page, under the Invoice List section, select the required invoice.
  3. In the Invoice: <Invoice Name> page, do the following:
    • Edit the Invoice details.
    • Create tasks.
    • Add files and notes.
  4. You can close the invoice page once all the required information is updated for the invoice.

Printing Invoice

(Access Privilege: Read permission)

You can view a printable form and print the invoice details using browser's Print function.

To print invoice details

  1. Click the Invoices tab.
  2. In the Invoices: Home page under the Invoices List section, select the required invoice.
  3. In the Invoice: <Invoice Name> page click the Print Preview button.
  4. In the Invoice: <Invoice Name> page, click the Print Page button. You can print the document using the Web browser print function.
  5. Save the invoice file (PDF) locally and send to your customer separately.

Viewing Invoice Reports

(Access Privilege: Read/Write permission)

You can directly access some of the standard reports pertaining to Invoices from the Invoice Reports section. In addition to reports you can access one of the dashboards in Invoices module.

By default, the following reports are displayed under Invoices module:

  • Invoices by Accounts
  • Invoices by Status

To view Invoice report

  1. Click the Invoices tab.
  2. In the Invoices: Home page under the Invoices Reports section, click the required Report link.
  3. The Report is displayed in Reports page, which can be further customized as per your requirements.

For more details about reports customization refer to Working with Reports.

Deleting Invoices

(Access Privilege: Read/Write/Delete permission)

Rarely, you may need to remove the unnecessary invoices, which are not tracked further. This will help you manage your invoices in a better way. You can delete invoices either individually or in bulk.

Warning: The deleted invoices are temporarily stored in Recycle Bin. If required you can restore the deleted invoices again. But if you delete invoices from Recycle Bin, you cannot restore again.

To delete invoices individually

  1. Click the Invoices tab.
  2. In the Invoices: Home page, select the invoice to be deleted.
  3. In the Invoice: <Invoice Name> page, click Delete.
  4. In the Confirmation dialog, click OK to delete the invoice permanently.

To delete invoices in bulk

  1. Click the Invoices tab.
  2. In the Invoices: Home page, go to the Invoices List section and select the invoices to be deleted using the Select check box.
  3. Click the Delete button.
  4. In the Confirmation dialog, click OK to delete the selected invoices permanently.

Customizing Invoices

(Access Privilege: Customize ZohoCRM.com permission)

Customization of the invoices module includes, renaming the tab name, modifying the pick list values in standard fields, adding new custom fields, modifying invoices page layout, and show/hide the related list views according to your Accounting management process requirements.
For more details, refer Customizing Zoho CRM


53 Comments
dennisgdaniels, 454 - days ago  

Not much of a wiki if users can't edit the pages...

Gopal, 441 - days ago  

Now, registered Zoho CRM wiki users can edit the content. Guests can only post comments.

Thanks,
Gopal

oldmarketgreensheet@gmail.com, 357 - days ago  

On the invoice page is are several discount labels. Is there any way to not show this. I don't want to give my customers any ideas.
Thanks in advance.

Adam, 357 - days ago  

oldmarketgreensheet@gmail.com,

You may be able to edit and remove the discount labels from Setup --> Templates --> Inventory Templates and edit the template to remove the discount labels.

Regards,
Adam.

Guest, 336 - days ago  

Hi,
is there a way to have advance invoice and normal invoice? Each must have its own numbering. For example 200801, 200802 .. for invoice and 300801, 300802, ... for advance invoice.
Some kind of a conditional field in template??
thanks
mirek

Zoho CRM, 335 - days ago  

mirek,

Really a good feature to have. We will analyze and try to include your requested feature in our future updates.

Thanks,
Adam.

Sergio, 335 - days ago  

Is there a way to shorten the Invoice Number? I would like the ability to edit this field.


Thanks

Zoho CRM, 334 - days ago  

Sergio,

Currently we do not have the provision to edit the Auto Numbering of the Invoice No field, we will try to provide the feature in our future updates.

Thanks,
Adam.

fkette, 323 - days ago  

I would like to adjust invoice to local language. How can I rename labels in invoice?

I would like to do the same with quotes and orders

Zoho CRM, 322 - days ago  

Fkette,

You can change the settings from Setup --> Personal Settings --> Account Information. Click on Edit and change the Language to your language to have the look and feel in your language.

Thanks,
Adam.

Guest, 313 - days ago  

I want to use my own invoice numbering system with invoices having sequential numbering e.g. 100000, 100001, 100002 etc. How can I do this

Zoho CRM, 305 - days ago  

Hi,

You may goto Setup --> Invoice Settings --> Edit Page Layout and move the Invoice number to Available Fields List. Now, click on the Fields List under the Invoice settings and click on New Custom Field button and create a new field with Auto Number field type. You may provide your convenient sequence.

Thanks,
Adam.

Zoho CRM, 305 - days ago  

Fkette,

Currently Zoho CRM supports English, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Vietnamese. If you want to change the whole CRM to any one of the above mentioned language, you may goto Setup --> Personal Settings --> Account Information and change the Language to the desired one.

If you want to change the labels from the Templates, you may copy the original template of Invoices, Quotes and Orders and provide the labels names in any one of the languages that is mentioned above with a new template. You may access the templates from Setup --> Templates.

Thanks,
Adam.

Guest, 289 - days ago  

I read the following in the manual:
"In the Invoices Home page, under the Invoices List section, click the Start, Previous, Next, or End link to access the list of invoices."

But I do not see Start, Previous, Next or End link. Where do I look for it? Or am i Missing something.

thanks
Simhesvara dasa

Gopal, 287 - days ago  

Dear Simhesvara Dasa,

Thank you for your feedback.

Currently we have the Previous (<--) and Next (-->) buttons below the Invoices List View. Please refer to the "Navigating Invoices" section.

Thanks,
Gopal

sinma, 274 - days ago  

Is there a way to reset all invoice to default setting? I'm a newbie and I realized I've messed up the layout. I'm planning to re-do everything.

Sinma, 274 - days ago  

I can't help but realize invoice PDF format looks weird with text that not aligned and messed up. Is this a bug or something else?

Zoho CRM, 273 - days ago  

Hi Sinma,

Currently the resetting to default settings is not available and we have plans to implement that option in our future releases. You may delete the custom created fields from Setup --> Invoice Settings --> Fields List to bring the original settings.

Thanks,
Adam.

Zoho CRM, 273 - days ago  

Hi Sinma,

You may send the PDF file to support@zohocrm.com so that we can check and provide you a solution at the earliest.

Thanks,
Adam.

reubmeg, 267 - days ago  

Is there any way to change the print template, or create a new one? I've used the info above to set up my own invoice numbering, but how can I get the new number to show on the printed invoice?


Thanks

Zoho CRM, 266 - days ago  

Hi reubmeg,

You may bring the invoice numbering by editing the template from Setup --> Templates --> Inventory Template and edit the Invoice template that you have created and bring the Invoice number so that you can print the Invoice number from the Invoices tab.

Thanks,
Adam.

Guest, 258 - days ago  

Can I save an invoice to a Word or PDF file so I can email it? If so, how?

Zoho CRM, 257 - days ago  

Hi,

Yes. You will be able to export the Invoice as a pdf file from Invoices tab by opening the particular Invoice.

Thanks,
Adam.

mcfong, 212 - days ago  

Hi

Some clients required us to add Delivery Order with the Invoice? How can we achieve this? There is no DO in Zoho now, so I at the moment create it with normal doc app ie, manually.

Normally the DO will show all information of the invoice except for prices and certain key instructions, plus sales commission info.

Some sales process are as follow:
Quote - PO - Estimate or Invoice DO - Sales report/receipt.

Just an input for you guys.

amar_try, 210 - days ago  

Hi Mcfong,

Thanks for your valuable input. Our technical team will analyze and will keep posted the update regarding DO.

Thanks,
Adam.

billybush@gmail.com, 177 - days ago  

Is there any plan to have synchronization with accounting software like quickbooks? It would be extremely handy to be able to sync invoices into quickbooks instead of recreating the information.

olivermaxwell, 156 - days ago  

Hi,

You say at the top of the page "In the Zoho CRM system you can create invoices directly from the Potentials, Accounts, Quotes, or Sales Orders."

However there is no function to create invocies from Potentials, and no way to link potentials and invoices.

Is it a bug, or am I missing something?

Oliver

amar_try, 155 - days ago  

Hi billybush@gmail.com,

We have plans to bring the synchronization between Quickbooks with this Zoho CRM. Once we are ready with the tool, we will keep posted the update.

Thanks,
Adam.

amar_try, 155 - days ago  

Hi olivermaxwell,

You will be able to create a Look Up for the Invoices in the Potential and you can map the invoice with the Potential. While creating the lookup field, you will be able to mention the related fields list name, which will displayed below the record description. To create the lookup, goto Setup --> Potential Settings --> Fields List and click on "New Custom Field".

Thanks,
Adam.

tqijess, 152 - days ago  

Why can't I choose the "list price" as an option in invoice reports. I need sales reports that show line items grouped by time period (day, week, month, etc.) and the actual sales dollars tied to each of the individual products on the invoice. The unit price is basically useless, as it is a fixed price and does not take into account that a sales price is not always the same for each customer. I sell on eBay and do a lot of auction sales. The price is never the same.

amar_try, 149 - days ago  

Hi tqijess,

The List Price look up will not be reflected in Reports tab. We have plans to bring the option in the Reports in our future updates. Once the feature is done, you will be able to take reports based on the look up value provided.

Thanks,
Adam.

seanbin, 131 - days ago  

Can we import our invoices? I didn't find the link like "import the invoices".


Thanks

amar_try, 131 - days ago  

Hi

Currently importing of Invoices in Zoho CRM is not available. We will be implementing it in our future updates. Zoho Invoices is integrated with Zoho CRM. You will be able to sync the contacts from Zoho Invoice and send the invoices to them.

Here is the link to know more about the integration:

http://blogs.zoho.com/general/zoho-invoice-integrates-with-zoho-crm/

Thanks,
Adam.

Guest, 117 - days ago  

Can you have the invoice and sales information feed into Quickbooks accounting software?

amar_try, 117 - days ago  

Hi Guest,

We have plans to bring QuickBooks plugin with Zoho CRM. Once its done, we will keep posted the update.

Thanks,
Adam.

Guest, 114 - days ago  

Any idea on the timeline for the Quickbooks export plugin?

amar_try, 114 - days ago  

Hi Guest,

We have tight schedule for the next 6 months so we will be planning for the plugin only after that. The release date will be decided only after analyzing the features so we can't commit a exact time frame for the release.

Thanks,
Adam.

artmicke, 112 - days ago  

Is there any way that I can get a report (or see) which of my sales orders that has NOT been invoiced? I am starting to get a lot of sales order, and if I could get a view where only sales orders without attached invoice were shown, that woud save a great deal of time.


So, how can I do that?

amar_try, 112 - days ago  

Hi artmicke,

You will be able to generate it with the help of a new report from Reports tab. Goto Reports --> Create a new report by selecting the Sales Order from the drop-down box and select the Invoice in the below box and Continue to customize the report. In the Columns tab, select the columns that you need with the Invoice created time and run the report to see which Sales Orders have no value in the invoice created time.

Thanks,
Adam.

artmicke, 112 - days ago  

Thanks a million, Adam! Perfect! Now I got it!

harrya@printaudit.co.za, 110 - days ago  

We are a services company and sign contracts on a 36 month basis. We need to know the potentials with the recurring invoicing every month. Can you explain how we can set up a potential to be invoiced every month over their contract period and still remain in our monthly potentials so they don't slip through the cracks.
By the way we think Zoho is brilliant.

amar_try, 107 - days ago  

Hi harrya@printaudit.co.za,

You may either use Zoho Invoice (http://invoice.zoho.com) for the recurring invoices for your customer which is integrated with Zoho CRM or you can use the Tasks/Events with reminder for every month where you will get the email notification to send the invoices with the help of your sales persons.

Thanks,
Adam.

rbelden, 91 - days ago  

When printing (or viewing) an invoice, it does not show my company name or my name. It should show this at the top I would think like any invoice typically does.

Also, it does not print the client's company or contact name either, just the address. It does show Account Name below, but this is not really the way an invoice should look. It should have the Company Name and Contact Name. This makes it easier to read and also if anyone wants to put it into a window envelope, it should have the Contact person, Company Name, and Address for the Bill To and Ship To info. Take a look and you will see what I mean. It would not look professional to send out an invoice with the current format. Please fix this in the template so that it is more usable for everyone.

Thanks in advance. Great CRM in general. I have just been playing with it for about 30 minutes and I like it alot, other than this minor issue.

dsilsby@netutils, 91 - days ago  

Hi,


We Would like the ability to enter free text values into our invoices, rather than have to add from a 'Product' list with fixed values. Is this possible within ZOHO CRM?


Have been using ZOHO CRM for 4 months now and love the somplicity for the Sales force automation etc.

amar_try, 91 - days ago  

Hi dsilsby@netutils,

Entering the product list in a text based box is currently not available. We will try providing the option in our future updates.

Thanks,
Adam.

amar_try, 91 - days ago  

Hi rbelden,

The Zoho CRM template is fully customizable for your needs. As you are facing some issue, you may take a screenshot of the issue and send it to support (at) zohocrm (dot) com also with the invoice template's HTML.

Thanks,
Adam.

Rikkert, 79 - days ago  

Is there a way to upload my company logo to include with the invoices?

Txs.

Rikkert

sprakash, 79 - days ago  

Dear Rikkert,

You can import the company in the invoices by adding the image of the logo in the invoice template by using the following HTML code:

<imgsrc = "Image path">, where image path is the web location of the image.

Regards,
Parker

ln_rikkert, 76 - days ago  

txs,


Is there a way to name the pdf invoice according to the new custom invoice number field (ourown invioce numbering)? Same question applies to quotes.


Rikkert

sprakash, 75 - days ago  

Dear Rikkert,

Since it is a default value, you cannot change that. Instead you can create a new custom field for invoice number and hide the existing field.

Regards,
Parker

grigoris, 61 - days ago  

Hello,

When creating an invoice, I would like to have the option of choosing between currencies (USD or EUR). I tried to figure out if I can, but didn't find anything. Could you pls let me know if there is such a possibility?

Thanks in advance!
Gregory

amar_try, 60 - days ago  

Hi Gregory,

Setting Multi-currency in inventory modules is currently not available. We will consider your request and try to implement it asap.

Thanks,
Adam.

Cleonilson, 40 - days ago  

Hi,


First, there are some help, support or forum in portuguese language? it would help even more!


Second, is it possible to create a calculate field at invoices or other stuff? how?


And finaly, how edit section "Product details" at sales orders?


Thanks!

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