erplain has a very flexible sales workflow. You can start the sales process by creating any of the following documents:
1. Estimate (or Quote)
2. Sales Order
3. Invoice
For more information about the Sales workflow, please refer to this article.
To create an invoice, go to the Menu 'Sales' > 'Invoices':
Then click on 'Create':
It is recommended to start by selecting the customer as erplain will display automatically the default values (address, price level, currency, location,...) from this customer:
If you need to create a new customer, click on the + button:
Document number
The document number will be automatically filled in. You can leave the default value or customize it: erplain will generate the next one using the same pattern. For example, if you enter "D00-ABC1", the next one will be "D00-ABC2".
Next: Fill in the information you need to create this transaction:
The External reference field is typically used for Purchase Order number but can be used for other purposes to identify this transaction.
Season is another way to categorize transactions, typically used to refer to time period.
Account representative can be used to track the sales of your sales team.
Generally used for B2C sales, check the option "Include taxes in unit price" if you want taxes to be included in the price of the product.
Adding products to the invoice:
Next: Add the products to the transaction:
You can find detailed instructions to add products in this article.
Notes - Terms and Conditions - Attached files
You can then add Notes for your customers, update the Terms & Conditions, add Internal notes for you and your team or attach files for later reference.
Click on Save when you are done creating the invoice.
Sales workflow and Inventory update
If you create an invoice directly or from an estimate and not from a sales order or shipping order, your on-hand and available inventory will be updated in one step as you save the invoice.
If you create the invoice from a sales order or from a shipping order, then your On-Hand inventory is updated from the shipping orders, and your Available inventory is updated from the sales order. In this case, the invoice doesn't update your inventory.
For more information about the Sales workflow and the inventory update, please refer to this article.
PDF and email
Once you saved the Estimate, you can generate a PDF document by clicking on PDF.
You can then send it by email directly from erplain by clicking on the Action button then 'Send by email':
You can create email templates to avoid retyping the same information each time. You can find more information on this page: Email templates.
You can change your PDF Settings from the Setting Menu > Company Settings > PDF Settings. More information in this article: PDF settings.
The status of the Invoice
The status of the Invoice can be "Unpaid", "Partially Paid", "Paid", "Cancelled" or "Draft". Once you create the Invoice, its status is "Unpaid". The status will be updated as you receive payments from your customer.
The Draft status can be enabled in the Settings > Company settings. If you select this option, your invoices will be created as Draft until you finalize them.
To finalize a draft invoice, simply open the invoice and click on "Create final invoice":
Manage payments
When you receive a payment, go to the Invoice, click on 'Add payment', enter the amount paid, the method of payment and Notes (optional). Once all the payments add up to the total of the invoice, the status will automatically be updated to "Paid", otherwise, the status will be "Partially paid".
You can create and manage your payment methods from the menu Settings > Payment methods. You can also add a payment method as you add the payment: simply start typing the name of the payment method and press enter or click on "Create + name":
Important: If the invoice has been created from a sales order or shipping order, and if the sales order has been completed manually, it will not be possible to add new payments. You can reactivate the sales orders if needed.
Product returns, Credit notes and Refunds
You can create Product returns directly from the Invoice and then create Credit Notes or Refunds from the Product returns. You can find more information about Returns, Credit notes and Refunds in this article.
Due dates
erplain calculates the invoice Due date based on the Terms of payment defined in the customer profile or based on your default Terms of payment (Menu settings > Company settings), if left blank in the customer profile.
If the invoice is created from a Sales order, the due date is calculated from the Shipping date of the Sales order.
If the invoice is created from a Shipping order, the due date is calculated from the Shipping date of the Shipping order.
Deposits
You can create deposits from an estimate or from a sales order. For more information about deposits, visit this page.
Duplicate
You can duplicate your invoice should you need to make the same invoice. Simply open any invoice, click on the Actions button and 'Duplicate':
Cancelling or Deleting an invoice
You can Cancel an invoice by clicking on Cancel:
You can Delete an invoice by selecting it and clicking on Delete:
Cancelling or deleting an invoice will reverse the inventory update generated by the invoice if the invoice wasn't created from a sales order or shipping order.