Revision as of 20:30, 5 May 2020

Setting the Starting Number

WHMCS allows you to set the next invoice number that it will generate. This is useful for if you want to start invoicing at a number other than 1 or start invoices for a new year from a new number. You do this as follows:

• Go to Setup > General Settings > Invoices tab.
• Enter the next number to assign in the "Invoice Starting #" field.
• Click Save.

The value will then disappear from the field but the system will assign that number to the next invoice.

Automatic Invoice Generation

WHMCS automatically generates invoices for recurring products and services in advance of the due date.

You can configure exactly how far in advance to generate invoices in Setup > Automation Settings > Billing Settings. By default, this is 14 days.

You can also use the "Advanced Settings' to configure the number of days in advance to generate invoices on a per billing cycle basis.

The cron job performs the generation each day, so it's important to configure the Cron Tasks.

Invoice Reminders & Notices

WHMCS allows you to send:

• A maxmimum of one reminder prior to the invoice reaching the due date.
• Up to three overdue reminders once the invoice has passed the due date.

You can configure when you would like these notices go out in Setup > Automation Settings > Billing Settings.

Group Similar Line Items

By enabling this option in Setup > General Settings > Invoices tab, the system will automatically combine any identical line items into one summarised quantity format. For example:

 Monthly Lease $15.95
 Monthly Lease $15.95
 Monthly Lease $15.95

becomes

 3 x Monthly Lease @ $15.95  $47.85

Only the client (printable) invoice uses this format. The admin area invoice will still display each item on an individual line.

Automatic Grouping of Items

WHMCS automatically groups products, services, addons and domains into a single invoice if they are due on the same date with the same payment method and the same person.

By doing this, it means the customer only receives a single invoice and only needs to make a single payment. This, then, reduces your transaction fees.

If you have a client for whom you do not wish this grouping to occur, you can disable it either by the Separate Invoices setting within a clients profile or the same setting within client groups.

Continuous Invoice Generation

Continuous Invoice Generation refers to whether the system creates invoices for unpaid items. For example:

Consider a hosting account for which the customer pays monthly. The user places their order in January. They receive an invoice and they pay their invoice. In the following month, the user gets their next invoice and they pay that. Then, in March, the user receives their invoice but they don't pay it because they no longer wish to use the account or simply because they miss the emails about it. If you have disabled continuous invoice generation, the user would not receive any further invoices until they paid the March invoice. However, if you enable continuous invoicing, the user would receive invoices every month until termination, regardless of whether they paid for the item.

When you enable Continuous Invoice Generation, any product that is Active, or Suspended will continue to generate invoices regardless of the status of its previous invoice(s). Pending, Completed, Cancelled or Terminated services will not generate invoices.

Enabling Continuous Invoicing

To enable this feature, go to Setup > General Settings > Invoicing and check the checkbox next to this setting. After enabling this option, if there are users who are due invoices for months that you haven't yet invoiced, the system will generate one invoice on each cron run for the user for the following days after enabling this.

Proforma Invoicing/Sequential Invoice Numbering

This feature is primarily for EU-based companies where, for accounting reasons, it is sometimes necessary to ensure paid invoice numbers are sequential. Of course, anyone can use this feature in WHMCS regardless of location.

Enabling Sequential Invoice Numbering

Configuring Sequential Invoice Numbering

To enable this feature:

1. Go to Setup > Payments > Tax Configuration.
2. On the "General Settings" tab, enable "Tax Support".
3. Click on the "VAT Settings" tab.
4. Enable "Proforma Invoicing/Sequential Paid Invoice Numbering".
5. In the "Sequential Invoice Number Format" field below, specify the format you want to use for the numbering. You can also include letters (for example, include your company's initials and the year to differentiate invoices for each year to create WHMCS2007-{NUMBER}). WHMCS replaces {NUMBER} placeholder with that invoice's number.
6. The "Next Paid Invoice Number" field allows you to set the next number to assign to an invoice. Each time a customer pays an invoice, the number increases by 1. You may want to alter the number here if, for example, you remove an invoice or at the beginning of a new year, to start at 1 again.
7. The "Auto Reset Numbering" setting determines when WHMCS will automatically reset the Next Paid Invoice Number to use for newly paid invoices. This can be set to "Never", "Monthly" or "Annually".
8. You can enable the " Set Invoice Date on Payment" settingto have WHMCS change the Due Date of an invoice to the payment date.

Sequential invoice numbering is now enabled. Each time a customer pays an invoice, the system will apply the next number in the sequence.

Proforma Invoicing

Generally, you will use the sequential numbering in conjunction with proforma invoicing. Invoices will display the term "Proforma invoice" while in unpaid status and "Invoice" once a customer pays. You can enable this under Setup > General Settings > Invoices tab > Enable Proforma Invoicing'