Revision as of 10:05, 24 November 2015

The following document discusses working with invoices. If you are looking for documentation regarding configuration of invoice related settings, please visit Invoicing Setup.

Creating Custom Invoices

WHMCS automatically generates invoices for recurring products and services.

To create a one-off custom invoice, follow the steps below:

1. Navigate to the client you wish to generate an invoice for
2. Click the Create Invoice link located in the Invoices/Billing panel on the Client Summary page
3. A new invoice will be created in Draft status
   The due date for manually created invoices defaults to the same number of days in the future as you allow for automatic invoice generation. The due date can be customised via the Options tab when managing an invoice.
4. You can immediately begin adding line items to the invoice
5. For each one you wish to add, enter a description and amount, followed by the Save Changes button. A new row will then appear to allow adding further line items.
6. If you wish to customise any of the invoice options including due dates, payment method, tax rates, etc..., you can do so via the Options tab located at the top of the invoice

Publishing an Invoice

To publish an invoice, click the Publish button located to the top right of the invoice creation screen. Two publish options are available:

• Publish & Send Email - clicking this button converts the invoice to Unpaid and sends the Invoice Creation email to the customer.
• Publish - clicking this button converts the invoice to Unpaid without notifying the customer.

Please Note: The publish buttons will only be displayed when the invoice is in Draft status.

Creating Mass Pay Invoices

When enabled under Setup > General Settings > Invoices tab clients can pay several invoices in a single transaction, this is quicker and more convenient, plus it reduces your transaction costs. When enabled Pay Selected and Pay All options will be displayed on the client area homepage, they can be used to pay only certain invoices or pay all unpaid invoices respectively.

Staff can also create mass pay invoices under a client's Invoices tab by selecting the relevant invoices and clicking the Mass Pay button beneath.

A new invoice will be generated containing the invoice numbers of the original invoices (one invoice per line). The client should then pay this invoice and the credit will then be used to pay the original invoices.

The invoice will be displayed under the client's Invoices tab in the admin area, but will not be visible to clients. This ensures that a client doesn't see a massively inflated invoices balance, or a large invoice which consists of nothing more than a combination of other invoices. Additionally this prevents a client from creating a mass pay invoice, not paying it, and instead paying one of the original invoices, then going back and paying the mass pay invoice - effectively paying for the same thing twice.

Creating Add Funds Invoices

If enabled under Setup > General Settings > Credit Tab clients can deposit funds into their account, this will be stored in the form of account credit which can be used to pay for future purchases.

Staff can also create add funds invoices by clicking the Create Add Funds Invoice link under the client's Summary tab. This is particularly useful for charging a specific amount to a clients credit card.

Splitting & Merging

There may be occasions where you need to split certain line items that have been grouped into a single invoice out into an invoice of their own, for example if the client doesn't want to renew all the items that a particular invoice contains. To do this, simply follow the steps below:

1. Begin by locating the invoice containing the line items you want to split
2. Next, select one or more of the checkboxes on the line items you want to split out into a separate invoice
3. Now in the dropdown immediately below the invoice items, choose the option Split to New Invoice and the page will reload on the new invoice containing those items
4. You can then finish by clicking the Send Invoice Created button to notify the client should you wish

Similarly, you may find there are times you want to combine items which have invoiced separately into a single invoice and again WHMCS makes this possible. To merge invoices, follow the steps below:

1. Merging can only be done from the clients invoice list within the client profile section so begin by searching for and loading the client summary page of the client you want to work with
2. Once there, you need to select the Invoices tab
3. Next, tick the checkboxes next to the invoices you want to combine
4. And finally to complete the process, click the Merge button located at the bottom of the list

Refunding Payments

If you are using a gateway in WHMCS that has automated refunds implemented (which includes PayPal, Authorize.net, Quantum Gateway, 2Checkout etc...), then WHMCS allows you to issue a refund without ever logging into your gateway. A real time saver!

Even if the refund can't be automated, you can still use this process to enter the refund billing entry into WHMCS which will update the income totals and reflect the refund on the invoice. Then you would go to your gateway and actually send the refund from there.

And as a final alternative you can issue a refund to the clients credit balance with you which instead of losing the money entirely allows you to just give the user a credit against future purchases or renewals from you.

So to perform a refund, simply follow these steps below:

1. Locate the invoice you wish to issue a refund for either by searching or from Billing > List Paid Invoices and click the invoice ID to view it
2. Select the Refund tab
3. Choose the transaction you want to refund if more than one has been applied towards the invoice
4. Enter the amount you want to refund if only giving a partial refund or leave blank for full
5. Then select the Refund Type from the options "Refund through Gateway", "Add to Client's Credit Balance" or "Record Only"
6. Tick the Send Email checkbox if you wish to send a refund confirmation email to the client, it contains useful information on the refund including the amount and refund type.
7. Click the Refund button to submit

Notes

If "Refund through Gateway" is chosen, the results of the refund will then be displayed. If successful the relevant transaction entry will also be added. If it fails, you can check in Transactions > Gateway Log for the detailed response from that gateway as to why.

If refunding a payment that has been added to a clients credit then you must first check that the credit hasn't been used and manually remove the credit. This is because the system does not known that the amount you refunded was (a) linked to a credit and (b) not yet used as a credit.

Troubleshooting Invoice Generation Problems

When invoices are not generating as you expect, there are a number of things you should check first.

Please refer to Troubleshooting Invoicing Issues for more information.