Most invoices in PortaPro are made for you: rate-card customers get a cycle
invoice every billing period (see Cycle Close & Invoicing).
This article is about the invoices you make by hand: a one-off pumping, a
catch-up charge, an invoice for a job you just booked, or an invoice from an
accepted quote.
Where to start an invoice
| Starting point | What opens |
|---|---|
| Financials → Invoices → New Invoice | The invoice wizard, blank. |
| A customer's Financial tab → Add Invoice | The invoice wizard with that customer already picked. |
| The New Job wizard, right after the job is created → Create Invoice | The invoice wizard filled from that job (From Job). |
| An accepted one-time quote → Create Invoice | No wizard. PortaPro creates a Draft invoice straight from the quote. |
A parent account (one that groups divisions) can't be picked as the
customer. Invoice the division instead; each division bills to its own
address.
The five steps
The wizard is a panel on the right of the screen (full screen on a phone).
The steps along the top are Details, Review, Preview,
Recipients and Send. Next moves forward, Back moves back, and
you can click a step to jump to it.
1. Details
Invoice Information
next number when the invoice is saved. You can't type one.
earlier work. Date filters and exports use this date.
one, otherwise your company default (Settings → Finance → Invoices →
Default payment term), otherwise Net 30. Changing the term moves the
due date and fills the terms text to match.
Custom due date as the term to choose the date yourself. If a custom
date is on or before the invoice date, an amber note says it is due
immediately; that's allowed.
blank invoice and show a Default applied tag. Pre-Saved Notes and
the note/term picker insert saved text. Both print on the invoice PDF.
or their service address when they have no separate billing address),
A site address (pick one of their sites) or Custom address.
Service period covered by this invoice
Every invoice made from scratch or from a job needs a service period, a
start and end date. The wizard fills it in for you:
recent billing cycle that has already ended, not the one you're in now.
If you set an end date that hasn't come yet for an arrears customer, an
amber line reads This period hasn't ended yet with a reminder that the
customer bills in arrears. You can still save it.
The hint under the dates says where the period came from: your company's
default cycle, the customer's own cycle settings, or Custom period once
you change a date. Changing the dates doesn't change any prices.
To bill a past cycle for a rate-card customer, use Bill an earlier
period… (the customer's Sites → Rate Card tab, ⋯ menu) instead of
typing dates here. It offers the last six closed cycles and shows which
already have an invoice.
Line items
<site name> on a card, or Add to multiple sites to add the same item
to several sites at once. Use the search box and Expand all /
Collapse all to find sites on a big account.
Equipment or Add-ons) and Services.
says which: Site rate (the site's rate card), Customer rate,
Catalog rate or No rate set. Edit the price and the tag changes to
Custom.
Surcharges, discount and fees
Value take a discount off the subtotal.
Fees, Tax (with the rate, and the city when the rate was looked up from
the address) and the Total.
You can't go past Details until there is a customer, at least one line, a
due date, a service period, and a total above $0.
2. Review
A read-only summary: customer, due date, terms, every line and the totals.
If your company uses the Cash Discount Program with card processing built
into the price, a green panel shows the listed (card) total and the cash
price. The exact figures are worked out when the invoice saves. See
3. Preview
The real customer PDF, with your logo, colors and the number the invoice is
about to get. Click Refresh preview after changes. What prints is covered
in Invoice Statuses, the Detail View and the PDF.
4. Recipients
Checking or unchecking someone here applies to this invoice only. To change
who gets this customer's invoices every time (cycle invoices included), use
Manage default recipients. See Billing Recipients.
the customer and texting set up for your company).
5. Send
A last check of the amount, recipients and channels, then two buttons:
sent. Any account credit the customer has on file is applied to it when it
is sent.
anything. It reads Not Sent in the list until you send, print and mail,
or mark it mailed. Because it is Open, it counts toward what the customer
owes and can turn Overdue.
If the send fails, the error shows on this step. The invoice has already been
saved as a numbered draft, so pressing Send Invoice again retries the same
invoice instead of making a second one.
Creating an invoice from a job
Create Invoice appears on the New Job wizard right after you create a job
(Job Created Successfully!). The wizard opens marked From Job with:
weighed) comes across as one charge at the exact total, with the
measurement written in the line's note;
auto-applied and an Undo.
Lines that came from the job can't be added to or edited here. If the job
already has an invoice, an amber warning says This job has already been
invoiced and lists it. You can still continue (for example when a deposit
invoice came first), but check you aren't billing the same work twice.
Creating an invoice from a quote
On an accepted one-time quote, Create Invoice turns the quote into a
Draft invoice right away, with the quote's lines, discount, fees, notes
and tax. Open it from Financials → Invoices to review and send it. Things to
know:
first. See Quote Options.
you get that invoice back instead of a second one.
once you activate them; see From Quote to Service Plan.
Saving and resuming a draft
Save Draft at the bottom of the wizard saves where you are and closes the
wizard. The draft is named after the customer and has no invoice number
yet.
Closing the wizard any other way (the X, Cancel, or Escape) asks whether
to Save as Draft or Discard. Clicking outside the panel does nothing,
so you can't lose work by accident.
To pick a draft back up:
list under Unissued drafts, marked Not yet issued. Click one to
resume.
Drafts, next to Rate Card Drafts and Other Draft Invoices (draft
invoices that already have a number). Each has Resume, Send (opens
the wizard on the Send step) and a delete button.
When you resume a wizard draft, the exit choice reads Delete Draft
instead of Discard, and deleting removes the draft for good.
A draft saves the customer, dates, payment term, notes, terms, discount,
fees, lines, surcharges and recipients. It doesn't keep the service period or
the Bill To choice: those go back to the defaults when you resume, so check
them before you send.
Once a wizard draft is saved or sent as a real invoice, it disappears from
the drafts list.
Changing an invoice after it's created
the wizard as Continue Draft, with all five steps.
Revising an Issued Invoice.