An invoice is a document that you send to your client after the purchase of goods or services from you, both as a means of recording the sale and requesting payment from them.
Without any integration required, merchants can issue invoices from the dashboard by simply filling out the standard form which includes the Customer details and the Product/Service information.
In this article you will get to learn:
- Display Invoices
- Search Invoices:
- Create an invoice
- "Cancel" or "Edit" an invoice
- View Invoice options
- Customize your invoice
- What is the Predefined Invoice Product?
- How to set up a Predefined Customer?
- Send invoice via SMS, Email, or WhatsApp:
- Video Tutorial
Display Invoices
You can view your invoices by accessing your Dashboard > go to the "Invoice" tab where all of the previously created invoices will be listed.
Invoice status
In the table below, you can check the difference between each invoice status and what each status refers to:
| Pending | Invoice has been initiated and waiting for the customer to make an action "Pay" or "Cancel". |
| Paid | Invoice was shared with the customer, and it was paid successfully. |
| Cancelled | The invoice has been cancelled by the customer |
| Overdue | An invoice that has exceeded the expiry date, but the customer can still pay. |
| Expired | Upon the expiration date, the status of the invoice will be updated to "expired". |
Search Invoices:
From this page you can do the following:
-Download your invoice reports as an XLS file or CSV.
- Search invoices by the Transaction ID, date range, status, or by the team member who created the invoice.
Bulk invoicing is a feature that enables you to send many invoices to multiple customers at once. Get to know more about Bulk Invoices by checking this article here.
Create an invoice
Creating an invoice from your dashboard is easy, follow the below steps:
- Navigate to Invoice > click the plus button on the top right corner of your index table.
- Select whether it can be a standard (one-time use) invoice or a re-usable template invoice.
Standard: it's a single invoice. The link will expire once a customer completes this payment.
Template: It will generate a link, and you can share this link with your customer via any source(message/WhatsApp/email, copy/paste), and the same link will remain open to re-use anytime. (you can also control the expiration date while making the template)
Note: Invoices that have been created through invoice endpoint, it will have the type of API. - Then select the Invoice display language.
- Select if you want the invoice to be edited after it has been created
*If you selected "No", that means that you won't be able to edit the invoice later.
This action cannot be undone, once you choose "No" and save, you won't be able to edit this invoice anymore
- Fill in your product information(optional).
- You can customize the "Payment Method Filter" (Optional)
-By default, all available methods are shown, however, you can use this option to control what payment methods are offered on the payment page.
-To control the methods, enter a comma-separated list of the methods to enable or disable.
-By using a method name on its own or with a + prefix means to enable that method. Using the method name with a - prefix means to disable that method.
For example, to enable all methods except for installments use the filter for all,-installments
To enable one specific method only, put only that method in the list. For example, Apple Pay
- The list is processed in order, so something like -installments,+all would result in all methods including installments.
- If all items in the list are prefixed with - then a starting point of all methods enabled is assumed, otherwise, the starting point is no methods enabled.
NOTE: You cannot enable methods that are not enabled by default - Add new items by clicking on the edit button then fill in each item pricing with the ability to add discount and tax, and the option to include additional charges.
* "SKU" refers to a stock-keeping unit
Multiple items/products can be added to the same invoice
- You can always prefill the Customer details so that the customer doesn't need to provide it again on the Payment page.
-Make sure to fill in the Zip code also (Where applicable).
- Finally, you can either save the invoice for later or "Save" it and "Send" it by email.
Learn more about the 6 different ways to create invoices via this article: What are the different ways to create invoices?"Cancel" or "Edit" an invoice
Merchants can cancel or edit the details of a pending or active invoice at any time based on their needs. For instance, if a merchant wants to cancel the sale for any reason, change the invoice amount, or is unable to fulfill the product, ...etc.
Cancellation of an invoice is only possible of its an unpaid invoice under the "Pending" status
How to cancel an invoice:
- Go to "Invoices" tab, open the related invoice from the invoice list.
- Once you open the invoice, go to "Cancel" button.
- Then click on "Confirm".
- The invoice status will be shown as "Cancelled"; however, it will not be totally deleted from your invoices list on your PayTabs account' dashboard.
*f you have already shared the invoice with the customer, he will not be able to see the Pay Now button and it will be shown as "CANCELED" instead.
Note: This action is irreversible
How to Edit an invoice
An invoice can be edited only under the below conditions
- The status of the invoice is "Pending"
- You allowed the Edit option at the time of creating this invoice.
How to edit a pending invoice:
- Go to "Invoices" tab, open the related invoice from the invoice list.
- Once you open the invoice, go to "Edit" button.
- Then click "Save" to apply the new changes.
If you have disabled the "Allow Edit Invoice" option, you won't be able to find this button or edit the invoice anymore).
View Invoice options
-Upon creating an invoice, you can see multiple buttons active which allow you to view, download, share, or even edit the existing invoice, please check the below screenshot to understand the function of each button.
Update: You can now use "Mark as Paid" option which allows you to mark an invoice as paid if you have received payment outside of the system (Such as Cash, cheque or Bank transfer)
| Copy | This button allows you to copy and paste the link manually. |
| Share options | "WhatsApp, SMS, Email ", check the detailed explanation below. |
| Pay | This button will direct you to the Payment page directly. |
| Mark as Paid | This allows you to mark an invoice as paid if you have received payment outside of the system. You will need to indicate the payment method used, and provide a description of the payment (for example, if paid by cheque then the description could be the cheque number) |
| Edit | This option is available only if the invoice is still in Pending status (Note: If you have disabled the "Allow Edit Invoice" option, you won't be able to find this button or edit the invoice anymore). |
| Cancel | You can use this button whenever you want to cancel an unpaid invoice |
| Duplicate | Use this button to create a new invoice with the same details as an existing invoice |
| Download as PDF | this button allows you to download the invoice as PDF so you can share the copy anywhere according to your needs. |
| View | You can use this button whenever you want to view invoice |
Most of the options can be found only if the invoice is still "Pending" / "Unpaid" and neither "Canceled" nor "Expired".
Customize your invoice
1- You can Customize your invoice labels, based on your business needs (Optional):
-You can choose whether the "Customer Ref", "Invoice Ref" and "Expiration date" are mandatory or optional.
-Change these terms: "Customer Ref", "Invoice Ref" and "Expiration date" to any other titles (free text).
Here is how:
-Go to the "Profile" Tab > Custom invoice label >click on the pen icon to edit.
-Next: You can choose to enable the "Mandatory" and the "Display" buttons for any of the below options.
-If you choose these options to be mandatory, you have to fill in their data while creating any invoice:
-To change the names of these options, you can simply fill in these fields with the replacement in both the English and Arabic versions. Here is an example to show the difference between the standard invoice and a customized invoice:
-A customized invoice:
-Here is how the customized invoice will be displayed to your customer:
2-You can also add your Terms and Conditions to the invoices issued to your customers.
Learn more about enabling this option by visiting this article: How to add my Terms & Conditions to Invoices?What is the Predefined Invoice Product?
If you need to create multiple invoices for the same product, you can set the predefined Invoice product to save the information of this product instead of refilling the same information each time, such as the SKU, Description, or price.
If you don't have a website/online shop, this option will be more helpful for you.
For more information you can check our What is the Predefined Invoice Product? solution article.How to set a Predefined Customer?
You can use this option if you have regular customers and want to save time and effort by auto refilling the customer's details while creating the invoices.
For more information you can check the: How to set a Predefined Customer? solution article. Send invoice via: SMS, Email, or WhatsApp:
After creating the invoice, you can share it with your customer via email, SMS, or WhatsApp.
-To perform such an action first you need to choose the invoice you want to share.
Via SMS
- Click on send by SMS button on the invoice preview screen.
- Then provide a valid customer's phone number then click send.
Via Email
- Click on send by SMS button on the invoice preview screen
- Then provide a valid customer's name and email then click send.
Via WhatsApp:
- Follow the same steps as SMS but choose WhatsApp icon instead.
- Once you enter the phone number, you will be redirected to the WhatsApp page as shown below, where you can log in to your WhatsApp number.
Check the PayTabs Invoice article for more detail