What is the Invoice Creator?

The Invoice Creator has three different panes.

The top-right corner pane is where you will find the all the Active/Pending Projects And On-Hold Media Orders. Use the search field to search for specific projects. From here you can create part invoices or pre-payment invoices.
The top-left corner pane is where you will find all Closed Projects And Done Media Orders that are ready for invoicing. Use the search field to find specific projects.
At the bottom of the screen the New Invoices created from any of the top panes are listed.

ACTIVE/PENDING PROJECTS PANE

At the top of the pane there is a Search Field. Use this to search among Active Projects and On Hold Media Orders.
It is possible to open any Project by double clicking on it. But if you make any changes to that Project, for example changing the Status to Closed or time-reporting some Booking, after clicking OK on the Edit Project window you will need to hit the Search button again to update the displayed information.

The columns displayed in the pane are:

Division (if licensed) : Division of the Project/Media Order
Name: Name of the Project/Media Order
#: Project or Media Order number, and next to it a (P) if it is a Project or an (M) if it is a Media Order, to help distinguish what the the source is
Client: Client name of the Project/Media Order
Status: Displays the status of the Project allowing to see whether it is ready to be invoiced.

Missing Time Report: The Project contains Bookings that have not been time-reported yet.
Future Bookings: The Project contains Bookings which will take place in the future.
Ready For Close: All Bookings have been time-reported, Project is ready to be closed.
On Hold: The option Hold Invoice has been ticked in the Edit Project or Media Order window, to prevent the Project / Media order from being invoiced.
Can Be Part Invoiced: Useful when working with long-term Projects as it allows creating Part Invoices for still active in-progress Projects. ‘Yes’ means that the Project contains items which are ready to be invoiced, for example jobs that are done and time-reported, or any Extras which may have been used.

Can Be Part Invoiced: Here you can see if the Project can be part invoiced. See more details in the article How to invoice Active Projects? Create Prepayment or Part Invoice
Note: Sort the information by clicking on the title of one of the columns. Click on the Open As Spreadsheet icon to export the list to an Excel sheet. See more details in the Open As Spreadsheet manual.
By clicking on the drop-down menu icon at the top-left corner of this pane, the following options appear:

Part Invoice: Click on a line to highlight it in yellow and select this option to create a Part Invoice for the selected Project. Note: This option is only available if the selected Project shows Yes under Can Be Part Invoiced.

Create Prepayment Invoice: Click on a line to highlight it in yellow and select "Create Prepayment Invoice" for the selected Project. Enter the amount that should be invoiced in a single invoice line, this will later be deducted from the Project's total when closing the Project and creating the final Invoice.

Create Prepayment Invoice %: Click on a line to highlight it in yellow and select "Create Prepayment Invoice % for the selected Project. The amount will be calculated based on the chosen percentage of the Project's total in the Projects Final/Invoice view.

Show Only Ready To Invoice Or Part Invoices: Choose this option to only display Projects with status: Ready For Close and Can Be Part Invoiced.

Display: Allows to display additional columns by choosing among Project Custom Field (if Custom Fields have been setup).

CLOSED PROJECTS PANE

This pane lists all Closed Projects and Done Media Orders. Use the Search field to find a specific Project or Media Order. The 4 columns displayed:

Division (if licensed): Division of the Project/Media Order
Name: Name of the Project/Media Order
#: Project/Media Order number
Client: Client name of the Project/Media Order.

Note: Sort the information by clicking on the title of one of the columns. Click on the Open As Spreadsheet icon to export the list to an Excel sheet. See more details in the Open As Spreadsheet manual.

By clicking on the drop-down menu icon at the top left corner of this pane, the following options appear:

Create Invoices (Selection: x): Available when one or more lines are selected.
Set Due Days (30): This setting shows the default value that was configured in Server Setup > Financial tab > Due Dates. Click on this option to override that default value for new invoices created either through this left pane or through the right pane. This value can still be manually changed on each individual invoice.

This will not affect invoices for Clients whose Due Date has been modified in their Client Details window > Payment Terms.

Invoice Media Orders Through Project If Linked: If enabled, Done Media Orders that are attached to a Project will not be available for invoicing on this pane. If the Project is still Active, then the Media Order will be available for invoicing when selecting the part-invoice option on the right pane, else it will be invoiced when the whole Project is invoiced. But if this setting is disabled, Media Orders that are attached to a Project will appear in this pane allowing to invoice them separately.
Use Time Report Note For Bookings Instead Of The Booking Note: This setting allows choosing whether to show the Time Report Note or the Booking Note in the Invoice Editor column "From: Note". The Invoice Print Designer offers both notes and more (Time Report Note, Booking Note, Booking Invoice Note, Day Note) regardless of this setting (in From Details > From Class Booking).
Use Invoice Note From Project / Media Order For Invoice: When enabled, the Invoice Note field value from the Project/Media Order will populate the Note field of the new Invoice that is being created. When disabled, the Project Note field value will populate the Note field of the new Invoice. This setting is enabled by default since it is useful to for example add internal info on how the Project is to be invoiced into the Invoice Note, and this way the invoice note information gets through to the new Invoice. The general Project Note should be used for general information about the Project. In the Invoice Print Designer it is still possible to define which Note to display.

Add Media Order Source Names To Element Note: If ticked the Media Order Source Title will be displayed in the Note field of the Media Order line in the Invoice. It is useful when exporting invoice information.

Sort Items By Their Reported Date: This is a legacy setting that would sort Extras (Services, Materials and Expenses) in the Invoice Editor window and in the Invoice Print Designer according to their reported date. Nowadays there are many ways of changing the order of the invoice lines, so this setting is not useful anymore. See article Invoice Editor
Calculate Tax Amount Before Discount: By default, this setting is disabled because taxes are calculated after discounts. If enabled, the tax will be calculated before discount. This calculation is not displayed at line level, but added to the Total With Tax field, see the simple example below.

In this example, the calculation goes like this:
900,00 (line total) = 1,000.00 - 10% discount
+
250.00 (tax amount) = 25% (tax) of 1,000.00 (line total before discount)
=
1,150.00
If the setting is disabled (default), the calculation goes like this: 900,00 (line total) = 1,000.00 - 10% discount + 225.00 (tax amount) = 25% (tax) of 900.00 (line total after discount) = 1,125.00
Note: This setting can also be enabled/disabled on specific Invoices within the Invoice Editor window, by clicking on the settings icon next to Tax

Use Media Order Completed Date Instead Of Creation Date: If enabled, the Invoice will show the date when the Media Order was completed, instead of its creation date.
Show Confirm Dialogues: Enables the confirm dialogues like 'Confirm Creating New Invoices' message if a new invoice is created. It is highly recommended that this option is enabled.
Division Invoice Creation Mode: This setting will control how to create invoices when using the Divisions module (licensed), either one Invoice per Project and based on the Project's Division, or one Invoice for each used Object's Division. Refer to the Divisions manual for more details.
Force Address From Contact Custom: This setting is to pull the Invoice Address information from a Contact Custom Fields (e.g. Invoice Address), instead of from the standard Address field in the Contact Details window, which in many cases would be used as the company's physical address. If you configure this option, the Invoice Creator will no longer populate the Address from the standard field, therefore you need to make sure to always fill in the Invoice Address custom field, even if it is the same as the Address field.

NEW INVOICES PANE

The New Invoices pane will display all invoices that have been created, ie both from the top left pane and the top right pane. Use the Search field in combination with the Created By filter and the Division filter (if Divisions module is licensed) to find your invoices.
By clicking on the drop-down menu icon in the top left corner of this pane, the following options appear:
New Un-Referenced Invoice: Use this option to create an Invoice that is not linked to any Project or Media Order. As the Invoice Editor opens fill in all details, such as the Client, the Job Name and the lines to invoice.

New Un-Referenced Credit Note: Similar to Un-Referenced Invoice, but in this case it also mean that the Credit Note will not be linked to an existing Invoice
NOTE: This option can be disabled in the Server Setup> Financial tab > Disable Un-Referenced Invoices/Credit Notes.

Merge (Selection: x): Use this option to merge two or more Invoices into a single one. Multi-select the Invoices in the New Invoices pane and choose this option. The Invoices will be merged by moving all lines from the selected Invoices into the first invoice created. If ReNumber Invoices After Number X is enabled (see below), a dialog will ask if you wish to renumber them.

Re-Number Invoices After Number: X: This option is used to renumber all New Invoices in case there is a gap in the invoice numbering (e.g. if an invoice has been deleted from the New Invoices pane). This option is by default disabled in Server Setup > Financial tab > Allow Invoice Re-Numbering (Ripple), and therefore not displayed in the Invoice Creator. The reason is that the Invoice Creator is usually used to create a Pro Forma Invoice, so the numbering is not an issue in the Invoice Creator, as the invoice will get its number when moved to the Invoice Manager where it becomes a legal invoice. But if the setting Assign Invoice Number When Creating is set to YES, in Server Setup > Financial tab, the invoice will get its number already in the Invoice Creator and then it might need to be re-numbered in order to remove any number gaps created.

Remove: Click here to delete the selected Invoice. It will only remove the Invoice, and not the Source (Project Bookings/Media Orders) details. If the Invoice was created on a Closed Project or a Done Media Order (from the top left pane), a dialog will ask if the Project's status should be back to Closed or the Media Order's status should be back to Done (these are the Statuses previous to Invoiced Status). Make sure to click OK on this dialog if you need the Project/Media Order to be available again on the top left pane for re-invoicing.

Print: Select Invoice(s) in the 'New Invoice' window and choose this option to 'Print' the (Selection: x). It will choose the Print Design that is set by default in the Invoice Editor window.

Financial Report On Selection: It opens the Financial Reports Designer to create a Financial Report on the selected invoices - if the corresponding User Permission is enabled. Usually Financial Reports will be generated from the Invoice Manager.

Move To Manager: Choose to move New Invoices to Invoice Manager, once they have been revised and ready. If your workflow has been established to treat New Invoices as Pro Formas, then by moving them to the Invoice Manager, they become a legal invoice and are ready to be printed and sent to the client. If the Invoice belongs to a Project/Media Order, a link to the Invoice can also be found at the bottom of the Projects/ Media Order window (the option Show Invoices/Credit Notes needs to be enabled through the Eye icon > Invoicing in the Project window).

Change Creation Date: Choose this option to change the creation date of the selected Invoices in the 'New Invoices' window. A new Creation Date can be chosen from the ‘Calendar’. The Creation Date in combination with the Payment Terms of the Invoice will trigger the Due Date.

Edit Field: It allows modifying Invoice Custom Fields on single or multiple Invoices, without having to open the Invoice Editor window.

Edit View: To modify the columns viewed in the New Invoices Pane. When you select it the Edit View window opens and there it is possible to select which columns to show or hide. The available columns are:

Credit: Shows Yes in green when it is a Credit Note, and No in red if it is an Invoice.
Division (if licensed) : The Invoice Division. See the Divisions manual for more details.
Internal (if Divisions is licensed): Shows if the Invoice is an Internal invoice for another Division. See the Divisions manual for more details.
Pro Forma: The Pro Forma Number - if this option is enabled in Server Setup > Financial tab.
Number: The Invoice Number.
Job: The Source Name - usually the original Project/Media Order name, if the name was not changed in the Invoice.
Source Number: The original Project/Media Order number.
Client: Client name to whom this Invoice has been sent.
Client Number: The Client Number.
Created: Creation date of the Invoice.
Created By: The User who created the Invoice.
Payment Terms: The Payment Term selected in the Due field in the Invoice.
Total: This column shows the total amount of the Invoice or Credit Note excluding tax - always in the Primary Currency.
Tax (Value): Shows the tax value.
Total With Tax: Shows the total amount of the Invoice or Credit Note including tax - always in the Primary Currency.

Currency: The Currency selected in the Invoice. Note that the Total column will still display the Invoice Total in the Server Primary Currency, regardless of the Currency selected in the Invoice. This is so the Total field at the bottom of the New Invoices pane can calculate the Total of all Invoices displayed as a result of a search in the Primary Currency.

Template: Shows the default Print Design Template selected for the Invoice. See details in Checking and printing an Invoice chapter.
Custom Fields: Any Invoice Custom Fields will be available to display as columns.

Specials:

Extract Discounts Into Credit Note: This option allows extracting discounts from an Invoice into a Credit Note and setting the initial discounted lines in the Invoice to 0% discount. This way no discount is given in an Invoice but the Client is granted a Credit Note against the Invoice for the discounted amount. E.g. if you have a 50% Discount on 4 hrs Editing with a Sell Rate of 500.00, totalling 2,000, this will be extracted as 4 hrs Editing with a Sell Rate of 250 instead, resulting in a total of 1,000.
Create Internal Invoice From Used Objects Division: Refer to the Divisions manual for details about this option.
Run Script: To export Invoice data in the selected format. The output file is usually saved in the farmerswife Client\system\tmp_files folder. Apart from the standard scripts any customized scripts will be available here after they've been added to the farmerswife Server\lib\scripts\invoice_module (subject to paid custom financial integration, please contact sales@farmerswife.com for further information)

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