3.11. Invoices and Receipts
Invoices are meant to be given to your tenants before the rents are due, as a notice of payment. One of the benefits of this is that you have evidence in court that your tenants knew ahead of time when and what rents were due. Invoices are not just use for rents, you can produce an invoice to your tenant to inform them about any amount they may owe you (electricity bill, parking...).
Receipts are a record of payment which you give to your tenants after you have received the rent or other payments.
Invoices and receipts are completely optional. Many tenants don't require or really just don't care about invoices and receipts, and therefore many property managers or landlords avoid this step if there is no benefit, which is why they are completely optional.
All the steps required to deal with a receipt are the same as for an invoice, and vice versa. Therefore, we will describe only the steps related to an invoice because they are the same for receipts.
Depending if you need an invoice for a rent, a one-time payment such as a damage fee, or a recurrent payment such as an electric bill, you will choose from the steps 1A, 1B, or 1C.
STEP 1A: Create an invoice and a receipt for a rent
By default in the program, each time you create a new lease, a Scheduled Invoice and a Scheduled Receipt are both automatically created for you and are recurring at the frequency you specified in the lease (ex: every month).
This feature can be enable or disabled in the Preferences menu, when you click General Preferences and then select the preference group to Lease Preferences.
STEP 1B: Create a one-time invoice or receipt
To create a new invoice, go to Invoices menu, click New at the top of the screen and fill the information related to that invoice. The Start and End Dates of the Invoice are to indicate the timeframe which the invoice is applicable. So for example a rental invoice for the month of January would be from January 1st to January 31st.
You can associate a landlord and/or a tenant to the invoice depending on which information you wish to present on the invoice.
To add a payment from a pre-existing Accounting Entry Click Get on the right side of the items box. In the pop up window you will see a list of accounting entries associated to the Landlord or Tenant you chose. Select the ones you want and click Select.
To create a new Payment, click New on the right side of the items box. In the pop up window, enter in the appropriate information and click Ok.
STEP 1C: Create a scheduled invoice or receipt
If the invoice you want to create is about a recurrent payment, click on Schedule at the top of the screen and fill the information in the pop-up window. You will need a Starting Date for when the invoice will start, a Frequency at which the invoice will be recurring, and an Advance Notice so you can be informed when the invoice is about to come. Alternatively you can also go to the "Scheduled Invoices" tab in the main window to create new Scheduled Invoices, as well as view, edit, and delete existing ones.
STEP 2: Edit the invoice or receipt
Each time a Scheduled Invoice or Receipt is created, a Suggested Invoice or Receipt is created as well. If your Invoices change each month, then you have to edit the entries each month to the appropriate amounts. This can include previous balances owed or the gas bill for example (assuming the tenant didn't have a previous invoice for the amount).
In the Invoices menu, click on the tab Suggested Invoices, select an invoice and click View on the ride side menu.
To edit a payment, select one from the list in the items box and click Edit. In the pop up window, edit the payment then click Ok.
** Note: Although you are selecting an Accounting Entry, there is no link within the software between the invoice payment and the Accounting Entry for safety reasons. For example if you edit an Accounting Entry, the software shouldn't change the Invoice because this may have already been printed and given to your tenant. Similarly, it's possible that the tenant doesn't pay, doesn't pay in full, and so on, which means that the Invoice may not match the actual Accounting Entry. Therefore, changing the selected Accounting Entries value in the accounting screen will not change the invoice payment entry, or vice versa.
STEP 3: Accept the invoice or receipt
If you created a one-time invoice described, it will instantaneously be visible on the Main Board in the upper portion of the screen. However, if you created a Scheduled Invoice, it will be listed among others in the tab Suggested Invoice at the specified time. You have to either Accept, Edit and Accept, or Deny the Suggested Invoice onto the Main Board.
In the Invoices menu, click on the tab Suggested Invoices, select an invoice and click Accept on the ride side menu. Once accepted the data jump to the upper portion of the screen.
STEP 4A: Print the invoice(s) or receipt(s)
In the upper portion of the screen select the invoice of your choice and click Print in the top menu. Please note that you can select multiple invoices for them to be print at the same time.
STEP 4B: Email the invoice or receipt
In the upper portion of the screen View the invoice of your choice and then click Email in the top menu. You can only email one Invoice at a time because each invoice requires an addressee (To) and a message. As well, sending all your invoices at the same time can result in your email address, domain, and/or server being incorrectly flagged as sending spam emails which can lead to all sorts of complications and problems.
STEP 5: Matching up invoices and receipts and accounting
Invoices and receipts are separate and independent and they may not match up to the accounting system. It's very easy for the amounts to get out of synch. For example it's possible to have an invoice for a rent that's never paid. It's also possible to have a receipt for a rent where the check bounces a week later. In this case, your invoices will not match your receipt, nor the accounting entries. Therefore because they are separate you can do whatever type of mixing and matching you need, which works to your advantage here.
As well, many tenants don't really care or want any invoices and/or receipts even if they should, so for those property managers and landlords it's possible to omit this section completely for those tenants and save them some time when processing rents.
This is also why all accounting related reports generate their data only from the accounting section and not the Invoices and Receipts.