Invoices

An invoice is a financial document that details the sale of goods or services, including the amount due, payment terms, and taxes, serving as a record for sales, payments, and tax purposes.

How Invoices Work

In Zoho Books, start by creating an invoice for the customer. You can save it as a draft to send later or send it right away via email. If the invoice goes past its due date, its status will change to Overdue. When the customer makes a payment, the status will update to Paid, or you can manually record the payment if it’s made through other payment methods. The recorded invoices will reflect in various sales reports. You can also edit invoices, send them via email, share them as a link, print them, download them, set them as recurring, create credit notes, clone them, view their journal entries, or delete them.

Types of Invoices in Zoho Books

• Regular Invoice: A regular invoice is a one-time invoice used to record the sale of goods or services to a customer, specifying the payment details and amount due.
• Recurring Invoice: This invoice is created for a recurring time period. You can set the frequency for the recurrence, such as Weekly, Monthly, or for a specific time period. Learn how recurring invoices work.
• Retainer Invoice: This invoice is used to collect advance payments from your customer. It is usually issued before the actual work or delivery begins. Learn how retainer invoices work.

Create an Invoice

To create an invoice:

• Log in to your Zoho Books organization.
• Go to Sales on the left sidebar, and select Invoices.
• 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.
  • 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 Project 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. 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.
  • 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.

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

Import Invoices

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

To import invoices into Zoho Books:

• Go to Sales on the left sidebar, and select Invoices.
• 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 Books 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 Books: Check this to map customers in the import file to existing customer records in Zoho Books. If a customer exists, their address will be updated; otherwise, a new customer will be created in Zoho Books.
• 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 Books.

Next >
Record Payment for Invoice