Create, send and track invoices

A business portfolio in AceMoney Studio can issue invoices. You pick the customer from your Payees, add lines, save a draft and send the invoice as a PDF. When the money arrives, Mark paid… posts it as a deposit in the account you choose and links it to the invoice. AceMoney sends no e-mail itself and puts no payment link in an invoice: the PDF goes out through your computer’s share sheet or mail program.

Invoices belong to a portfolio that is set up as a business; see Set up your business.

Before you begin

Under More details in Business details, the Invoice defaults are Invoice number prefix, Next invoice number, Payment terms (days), Invoice currency (a code such as USD) and Text at the foot of an invoice. Every new invoice starts from them. If you leave the currency empty, invoices use the currency most of the portfolio’s open accounts are in, then the document’s base currency.
Add your customer as a payee with the address you want on the invoice: on the Payees page choose Details and fill in Street, City, State / Province, ZIP / Postal code, Country and Email. See Payees, tags and banks.

Open the Invoices page

When the open portfolio is a business, Invoices appears in the navigation rail, after Mileage. Other portfolios do not show it.

The page lists the invoices, newest issue date first: number and customer, Issued … · Due …, the total with its currency code, and the status. The chips All, Draft, Sent, Paid and Void narrow the list. A sent invoice past its due date and not paid in full shows Overdue in red; a part-paid one also shows Balance …. With no invoices the page says No invoices yet.

Create an invoice

On the Invoices page, select New invoice.
Choose the Customer. Type to search; only active payees are offered.
Check the Invoice number (see How numbering works), the Issue date and the Due date.
Under Lines, fill in Description, Qty and Unit price; Amount is worked out. Add a line adds more, and Remove this line deletes one (one line always stays).
Set Tax (%) if you charge tax. Subtotal, Tax and Total update as you type.
Edit Payment terms and Notes if needed; both print on the invoice.
Select Preview PDF to look at the page, then Save draft.

A new invoice starts from your defaults: Payment terms such as “Net 30”, Notes from Text at the foot of an invoice, and Tax (%) at 0. The Due date follows the terms: “Net 30” or “Net 15 days” give that many days after the issue date, “Due on receipt” (also “On receipt”, “Immediately”, “Due now”) the same day, and any other wording 30 days. You can then pick another due date by hand.

Save draft refuses an incomplete invoice with a red list of what is wrong, for example Choose a customer., Add at least one line., Every quantity must be above zero. or The due date can’t be before the issue date. An invoice holds at most 28 lines, a description at most 80 characters and the notes at most 500 (This invoice is too large to sync. Shorten the descriptions or the notes.). A unit price may be negative for a discount line, as long as The total can’t be negative. Preview PDF shows the invoice as it stands, so a draft carries the DRAFT mark; it sends and saves nothing.

How numbering works

The number is the Invoice number prefix followed by the Next invoice number, padded with zeros to at least four digits: INV-0007. Saving a new invoice moves the counter on.

Gaps are allowed. Type any number you like (up to 40 characters). If it starts with your prefix and ends in digits, the counter moves past it.
A number is used once per portfolio. Capitals and spaces around it do not count, so inv-0007 is INV-0007. Saving gives Another invoice already has this number. A void invoice keeps its number.
Two computers can still clash before they sync; see Two invoices with the same number.

Select a row, or its menu, to act on an invoice:

Status	Menu
Draft	Edit, Send…, Save PDF…, Print…, Duplicate, Mark paid…, Void
Sent	View, Send…, Save PDF…, Print…, Duplicate, Mark paid…, Back to draft…, Void
Paid or Void	View, Save PDF…, Print…, Duplicate

Only a draft can be edited. A sent invoice opens read-only with This invoice has been sent, so it can’t be changed. Duplicate it to make a corrected one.; paid and void invoices say they can’t be changed either. To change a sent invoice, use Back to draft or Duplicate.

Duplicate opens the editor on a new draft copied from the invoice, with a new number and today as the issue date. Nothing exists until you select Save draft.

Send an invoice

On the invoice’s row, open the menu and choose Send….
AceMoney builds the PDF and hands it to your computer’s share sheet or mail program as Invoice INV-0007.pdf, with the subject Invoice INV-0007. Send it from there.
When the share sheet or mail program closes, AceMoney asks Did you send it? and a draft becomes Sent only if you choose Yes, mark as sent; a message then says Invoice INV-0007 marked as sent.

The PDF that goes out has no DRAFT mark. If you dismiss the share sheet, the invoice stays a draft and nothing is asked. If sharing fails you see Couldn’t share the invoice. Try Save PDF instead. Send… on a sent invoice shares it again and changes nothing. If a draft is incomplete, Send… opens the editor instead.

A share sheet cannot say whether the message really went out, so the question is always asked. On a computer whose system cannot say at all it reads This device could not tell whether INV-0007 was sent. Mark it as sent only if it really went out. On a phone it reads The share sheet does not say whether INV-0007 went out. Mark it as sent only if you sent it. Choose Yes, mark as sent or No, keep as draft; answering No, or closing the question, leaves the invoice as it was.

Take a sent invoice back to draft

If an invoice was marked sent by mistake, or has to change, open its menu and choose Back to draft…. The question reads Make INV-0007 a draft again? with Use this if it was not really sent or has to change. Your customer may already have a copy. You can then edit it and send it again. Select Make draft; a message says INV-0007 is a draft again. It then drops out of Due to me. If money has been recorded you see Money has been recorded for this invoice, so it cannot go back to draft. Delete the deposit first. Paid and void invoices cannot go back to draft.

On a computer, Save PDF… asks where to put the file and Print… opens your computer’s print window; neither changes the status, and a saved draft keeps its DRAFT mark. On a phone, Save PDF… on a draft opens the share sheet, as Send… does: the file has no DRAFT mark, and afterwards you are asked Did you send it? as above.

The PDF

The page shows your business name and address, the title Invoice, the customer under Bill to with the address from Payees, and Invoice no., Date and Due. The table has Description, Qty, Unit price and Amount, then Subtotal, the tax with its rate (for example “Tax (8.25%)”) and Total. Once money has been received it adds Paid and Balance owed. Payment terms and Notes print at the bottom.

A draft carries the mark DRAFT and a void invoice VOID.
The page is US Letter for US and Canadian dollars and A4 for any other currency, in the saved file and in the print window alike.
Dates and amounts use your own Date format and Number format; the words use the language of the app.
From your business details only the name and address are printed; the tax ID is not.

Record a payment with Mark paid

On the invoice’s row, open the menu and choose Mark paid…. The dialog is titled Mark invoice INV-0007 paid.
Account to credit: only your open accounts in the invoice’s currency are offered. An account with no currency of its own counts as being in the document’s default currency.
Income category: choose the category. Without one, Choose an income category. appears.
Amount received starts as the balance still owed; lower it for a part payment, but not above it. Date received starts as today.
Select Record payment. A message says Payment recorded.

The money becomes an ordinary deposit in that account, with the customer as payee, your category and the invoice number in its comment; you can see it in the register. The whole amount goes to the one income category: tax charged on the invoice is not split off as money owed.

An empty, zero or non-numeric amount gives Enter an amount above zero. An amount above what is still owed is refused: That is more than the … still owed. Record the amount owed; add anything extra as a separate deposit. With no account in the invoice’s currency the dialog says You have no account in … to credit. and Record payment stays off. An invoice that cannot be paid says why: A void invoice can’t be marked paid., This invoice has nothing to pay. or This invoice is already paid in full.

How the status follows the deposits

The status is worked out from the deposits linked to the invoice:

A part payment leaves the invoice Sent, with Balance … on its row.
Once the deposits add up to the total, it is Paid.
Delete a linked deposit, or lower its amount, and it goes back to Sent and into Due to me again. A deposit arriving from another computer moves it the same way.
A draft paid in full becomes Paid; a part payment on a draft leaves it a draft.

Void an invoice

On the invoice’s row, open the menu and choose Void.
The question reads Void invoice INV-0007? with A void invoice stays on file with its number, but it can’t be sent or paid. Select Void invoice.

If money was received you see Money was received for this invoice. Delete the deposit first, then void it. A void invoice stays under Void with its number; Save PDF…, Print… and Duplicate still work. There is no way to un-void it.

See what customers owe on Home

The Due to me card on Home adds up what is still owed on the open business portfolio’s sent invoices, one line per currency, for example 450.00 CAD owed on 2 invoices, and under it in red 1 is overdue (or 2 are overdue). With nothing owed it says Nothing is waiting to be paid. Drafts, paid and void invoices are not counted, and a part-paid invoice counts for what is left. An invoice is overdue the day after its due date. Select the card’s title to open Invoices.

The card is hidden by default. To show it, choose Customize Home on Home, tick Due to me and choose Close. It is listed there only for a business portfolio, and Reset to default hides it again. See Home.

Invoices and sync

Invoices are part of your document, so with AceMoney Cloud they sync between your computers like transactions, end-to-end encrypted. The deposit from Mark paid… syncs too, so another computer shows the same status and amount received. See Sync between your devices.

Two invoices with the same number

If two computers issued the same number before they synced, the Invoices page warns in red: Some invoices share a number: …. Two computers can do this if both issue an invoice before they sync. Sending is blocked for them until one is renumbered (a draft can be edited) or voided. Both rows say Same number as another invoice, and Send… refuses with … is also the number of another invoice. Renumber or void one of them before sending. Save PDF… and Print… still work. Renumber a draft in the editor. If both are sent and no money is recorded on one, use Back to draft… and renumber it, or void it and issue a new invoice.

Common questions

Can AceMoney e-mail the invoice for me?

No. Send… only hands the PDF to your share sheet or mail program; you address and send the message yourself. The invoice has no payment link.

Can I change an invoice after sending it?

Not in place. While no money is recorded, choose Back to draft…, edit it and send it again. Otherwise Duplicate it, fix the copy and void the first one. Your customer may already hold the first copy.

Can I record more than the balance?

No. Mark paid… refuses an amount above what is still owed. Record the amount owed, and add anything extra as a separate deposit in the register.

Troubleshooting

There is no Invoices page. The open portfolio is not set up as a business. See Set up your business.

The customer is missing from the list. Only active payees are offered. A row shows (customer removed) when its payee was deleted.

Preview PDF is greyed out. The portfolio has no business details yet.

An invoice was marked sent but I did not send it. Choose Back to draft… on its row. It works while no money is recorded for the invoice. AceMoney marks a draft sent only when you answer Yes, mark as sent to Did you send it?

Record payment is greyed out. You have no open account in the invoice’s currency.

An invoice went back to Sent after I deleted a payment. That is expected: the status follows the deposits.

The Due to me card is not on Home. It is hidden by default; see See what customers owe on Home.