Automatically Generate Pre-Pay Invoices
Orders can be set up to automatically generate and send a pre-pay special invoice to your customers. When the customer pays the invoice, the payments will be moved into the customer's cash account. This workflow can be used to accept payment upon order completion, but then the payment can be applied to invoices as the items need to be recognized as revenue.
Setup
Prior to actually using the feature to automatically generate pre-pay invoices, there is some setup you'll want to review.
To turn on the 'Create Pre-Pay Invoice' setting on an order, you'll need the User Permission 'Set Orders to Create Pre-Pay Invoices'.
Template Settings
There are certain template settings that need to be in place to use the feature. You either need to set a default Special Invoice template, or you can associate an Invoice Template with your desired Contract Template, and make sure your Invoice Template has a value set in the 'Free Form Installment and Pre-Pay Special Invoice Template' setting.
Option 1: Go to Settings > Templates > Special Invoices. Use the ellipses icon on the desired special invoice template, and click Set as Default.
Option 2: Go to Settings > Templates > Contracts. Edit the desired contract template, and open the Settings popup. Choose your desired invoice template in the Invoice Template dropdown, and save your changes. Then, go to Settings > Templates > Invoices. Edit your invoice template, and open the Settings popup. Select the desired special invoice template in the 'Free Form Installment and Pre-Pay Special Invoice Template' field and save your changes.
These options can be used individually, or in combination with each other. Option 1 can be used to allow the Pre-Pay Invoice option on any contract template, or Option 2 can be used to restrict the feature to be used on specific contract templates. When used in combination, if you have a contract template set up with associated invoice templates, the system will use the associated special invoice template when the invoice is automatically generated. If the system cannot find an associated special invoice template for your selected contract template, it will use the system default special invoice template.
How to Use Pre-Pay Invoices
Once you've reviewed the required setup, you can set up your orders to create pre-pay invoices.
On the Billing and Notes step of creating an order, set the 'Create Pre-Pay Invoice' setting to Yes.
There are a few restrictions that can prevent you from turning on this setting. Pre-Pay Invoices cannot be used in combination with:
Installments
Line item-level pre-pay requirements
If you have either of these combinations, the system will prevent you from continuing to the Review and Send step of creating the order, until you remove one of the options (such as removing the installment schedule, for instance).
Finish creating your order, and go through the Order Approval process. Once your order is Finance Approved, a new special invoice will be automatically generated and sent to your client for the amount of the order.
This special invoice can be viewed on the customer's Billing tab, and the internal memo will display which order the invoice was created for.
Your customer can then pay the invoice like normal, through the client center or through the anonymous payment links.
In the Client Center, the Invoices page will display these paid invoices as an 'E-Deposit'.
Once paid, the payments can be tracked on the customer's Billing tab. The Payments table will display the original payment that was made, with reference to the order number in the payment memo.
If there was a credit card surcharge applied to the payment, that amount will remain on the original special invoice that was automatically created, and it will be marked as paid in full.
Any remaining amount (or the total amount if there was no surcharge) will be moved to the customer's cash account automatically. This can also be tracked on the customer's Billing tab. The order number will be referenced in the transaction note.
Tip
If there was no surcharge applied to the payment, the automatically generated special invoice will be marked as deleted once the payments are moved into the customer's cash account.
When viewing the Edit Order popup, you will see the pre-pay information, including that it is a pre-paid order, the pre-paid amount (which will be the total order amount), and how much has been applied.
When you are ready, after the customer has paid the special invoice, you can create invoices for the order like normal, either through the quick action on the Orders tab, or by using the Create Invoices search page.
When the invoice is created, the payments will be automatically applied to the invoice from the customer's cash account, using the payment records associated with the order.
New 1/9/2025