Invoices and client billing

Click on E-Commerce and choose Invoices. The Invoices table shows all invoices across all payment forms. A row represents one client and one purchase invoice. To find a client/invoice, you can search by invoice number, client name, client email or client mobile phone number. You can sort the Balance column to see who has not paid their invoices (account receivables).

If you like, you may instead open a Payment form and look at the Respondents table. It displays clients and invoices too but limited to the context of that payment form (i.e. class or event).

# Draft invoices

Activity Messenger also tracks draft invoices. Those are created by payment forms that have not been completed. You can filter to show draft invoices created by administrators or clients.

# Invoice

Click on a row to open the Client billing dialog. You are present with the client, form answers, purchased items, the invoice, payment(s) and messages relating to this purchase.

The Client billing dialog allows you to perform the following actions:

  • Modify the client name, email and mobile phone number
  • Consult and modify form answers
  • Download the invoice PDF
  • Cancel one or many invoice items and refund the client
  • Make a payment if there is a balance
  • Resend the invoice PDF by email
  • Send an email or text message to the client
  • Add another invoice item (custom or class registration)

 

# Creating a new invoice

Invoices are generally created by filling a payment form. From answers, the system will automatically create a draft invoice. After the client (or the admin) goes throug the payment page, the invoice gets finalized.

You, as an administrator, can also create invoices from scratch by clicking on the (+) invoice button. You can choose an existing client or create a new one. The new invoice will be finalized. You can then add invoice items to build your invoice. When ready, you can send it to the client so they can pay online.

# Adding new invoice items

Invoices can be added to even if they were paid. This will increase the total amount due and create a balance outstanding. The client can pay the balance online or you can take a payment offline.

You can add a custom invoice item with a specific amount, quantity, sales taxes and ledger code. This is useful to charge an extra fee or to add an extra purchase. Until they are paid, customer invoice items can be modified or removed.

You can register someone to a class directly from the invoice. No need to pass through a payment form. Useful to manage private lessons and drop-ins.

# Admin payment (offline)

The administrator can always take a payment offline. For example by cheque, by cash or a balance transfer from another platform. The administrator can also take a credit card payment by phone.

Click on the "Make a payment" button, and choose a payment method. You can also add a comment and send the receipt to the client by email.

# Client payment (online)

Any invoice with an outstanding balance can be sent to the client by email or by SMS for them to pay online with a credit card. In Canada, you can also allow the client to pay via an Interac e-Transfer payment.

Click on "Send a link to pay online" to open a New message window. The invoice PDF will be added as an attachment to the email. The client will receive a link that leads to a page to pay online.

# Cancel and refund

You can cancel and refund part of an invoice by clicking on the "Cancel and refund" button. A popup will allow you to select one or multiple invoice items to cancel and refund. Cancelled items will be fully refunded to the method of payment used.

If the client paid by credit card (Stripe), the refund will be applied directly to the credit card on file used to make the purchase.

Toggle the "Cancellation fee" checkbox to charge the customer a fee. If the client paid by credit card via Stripe, charging a cancellation fee will perform a partial refund on their credit card.

By default a cancellation confirmation email will be sent to the client. You can toggle of that checkbox if prefer not to send an email. In either case you can send the cancellation receipt by email afterwards.

A cancellation creates an additional invoice attached to the original one. It will include the cancellation fee and the refund receipt.

# Partial or full refunds without cancelling purchases

You can refund items without having to cancel purchases. Click on the "Refund" button. A popup will allow you to select on or multiple invoice items to refund. You may refund a partial amount or the full amount.

If the client paid by credit card (Stripe), the refund will be applied directly to the credit card on file used to make the purchase.

Refunds without cancellation will split an invoice item in two. Activity Messenger will then cancel and refund the second invoice item. The original invoice item amount will be reduced however it will not be cancelled. Activity Messenger will also refund sales taxes.

Refunds without cancellation is useful to offer a discount after a purchase is paid.

 

# Archiving invoices

Activity Messenger does not allow you to archive invoices. The exception is for invoices that have no impact on your finances. Specifically, you can archive cancelled invoices and those without outstanding or paid invoice items. You can always archive draft invoices too.

To archive an invoice, open it and click on the Archive button located at the bottom left of the popup. Once archived it will be removed from the list of invoices.

If you need to, you can click on the filter and show archived invoices.