Sending Invoices
The process for collecting payments from clients is as follows:
- The project lead enters the billing information for the relevant time period in the
Financial Planning
spreadsheet. - A member of the Finance Working Group (WG) creates an invoice and sends it to the client using QuickBooks Online using the information from the spreadsheet.
- The bookkeeper settles the invoice payment after it is received.
1. Populate Financial Planning Spreadsheet (Project Lead)
If this is the first time the client is being invoiced:
- Confirm with the client which currency they will be invoiced in, and in what country their financial institution is based.
- Work with the Finance WG to set up the right invoice template and cost centres.
Go to the Customer Invoices
sheet of the Financial Planning
spreadsheet and fill in the details for the invoice:
Period
: It should match the upcoming Service Period at the top of the sheet.Service Date
: The end date of the provided service. If a client is billed monthly, this would list the last day of the billed month.Description
Qty
Rate (<currency>)
Sales Tax
- Notify the Finance WG that the invoice data is ready.
Access to the
Financial Planning
spreadsheet is controlled by the Finance WG.
2. Send Invoice in QuickBooks Online (Finance WG)
Go to Quickbooks Online.
If the client has not been set up:
- Open the
Customers & leads
menu and selectCustomers
. - Click
New customer
. - Enter the client details and click
Save
.
If the project has not been set up:
- Open the
Projects
menu. - Click
New project
. - Enter the project details, including the correct client, and click
Save
.
To create an invoice:
- Open the
Invoicing
menu and selectInvoices
. - Click
Create invoice
- Select the Project from the dropdown menu. QuickBooks will autofill all the client information.
- Copy and paste all the line items from the
Financial Planning
spreadsheet:- Service Date
- Description
- Qty
- Rate
- Sales Tax
- Leave the
Class
column blank
- At the bottom of the page, click
Customize
to select the invoice template listed in theFinancial Planning
spreadsheet.- If a new template is required or the payment information needs to be changed:
- Select the
Content
tab, click on the bottom section of the template preview to reveal theAdd payment details and footer
section. - Enter the applicable payment information, you can look at a previous invoices for examples.
- Review the invoice preview, then click
Done
.
- Select the
- If a new template is required or the payment information needs to be changed:
- Click
Preview
and review the information. The calculated total must match the one from theFinancial Planning
spreadsheet.- If this is the first time the client is being invoiced, the invoice must be reviewed by the project lead before it is sent out.
- Click
Save and Send
to send the invoice to the client.
3. Settle an invoice payment (Bookkeeper)
Once the client has paid the invoice, we can check the amount received in the appropriate account. The bookkeeper will settle the payment in QuickBooks.