Create an invoice

Start a new invoice, choose the customer, set when payment is due, add the lines, then save it as a draft.

In the sidebar, open Sales & Billing, then Invoices. The page address is /invoices. A new invoice opens at /invoices/new.

Before you start

• The customer needs an account in Nova. You can create one from inside the invoice if your role can create accounts.
• Your role needs permission to create invoices. If you do not see New invoice, ask your admin.
• If the work was quoted first, do not start from scratch. See Convert a quote to an invoice.

Steps

1. Press New invoice at the top of the Invoices list. A blank invoice opens.
2. Under Customer account, type the customer's name in Search accounts and pick them from the list. If your organization has more than one branch, Invoice branch shows which branch the invoice belongs to. It follows your current branch, or the work order when you bill one; press Change to pick another.
3. Check Invoice date. Nova uses today unless you change it.
4. Under Terms, choose when payment is due. Due on receipt means the customer pays as soon as they get the invoice. The other choices give them a set number of days. Choose Custom to type your own Due date.
5. Press Add line and type what you are billing: a description, the quantity and the price. Repeat for every line.
6. To group lines into a package, open a line's menu and choose Add sub-item. That line becomes a Package and the new line sits under it.
7. Press Save. Nova saves the invoice as a draft and gives it an invoice number, which stays with it and is fixed once it leaves draft.

Note: The arrow next to Save offers Save and close, Close and new and Save and send. Save and send saves first and then opens the send screen; nothing goes out until you press Send invoice there.

In Review and send, Secure link only is selected by default. Open More options and choose Secure link and PDF to attach the invoice by email or text. Text attachments use MMS; the secure link stays available because PDF support varies by carrier. From names the sender: a phone line's name and number for a text, or the email sender. Point at the sender, focus it with the keyboard or tap it on a phone to open its card, with the number or address, the line's branch and where customer replies land. For your usual sender the card says where it is decided ("From all customer messages" or "Set for Invoices"): Change for all customer messages opens that setting in Customer Messages, and the link below it sets a different sender for invoices only. When more than one sender is available, Change opens Send this text from or Send this email from: pick one and press Use this sender. That changes the sender for this message only.

What you see

• Supporting attachments can be added after saving, including on a paid or closed invoice. Open Attachments, add files or web links, then press Save attachments. The invoice itself and its amounts stay as recorded.

• The status chip reads Draft until the invoice is sent or a payment is collected on it. Either one takes it out of draft by itself; there is no separate step in between. It then reads Unpaid, then Partially paid or Paid as payments come in. An unpaid invoice can still be edited.

• Due date follows Terms. Change the terms and the due date moves with them.

• The total updates as you add or change lines.

Sending it

The send screen works the same way as for a quote, described in Send a quote, with two differences: the channel list is labelled for invoices, and the button reads Send invoice. The email includes a secure link where the customer can read the invoice and, when card payments are set up, pay by card.

If something looks different

• New invoice is missing: your role cannot create invoices. Ask your admin.
• Customer account is already filled in and cannot be changed: you started the invoice from the customer's own account page.
• Due date will not accept a date: pick Custom under Terms first. With any other choice the date is worked out for you.
• Send invoice is greyed out: the invoice needs a customer and at least one line before it can be sent.
• The customer paid on the spot: press Collect payment. The draft leaves draft with the payment, without being sent. See Record a payment.

Start a new invoice

When you reopen a saved document to edit it, Account and Settings start collapsed so the document stays in view. Press either heading to inspect or change those details.