Invoicing, or sending bills to your customer, is how you collect the money that customers owe you for goods and services that you provide. Creating an invoice is a snap with ZipBooks!
Here’s how to create a simple invoice:
Log in to ZipBooks, and click on Invoices at the top of your screen.
Click on the round green ‘+’ button toward the top right of your screen.
You’ll see a blank invoice with yellow fields where you can add information. Fill in the Customer, Date, Invoice #, and any other pertinent information.
To import time or expenses tracked for a certain project, click Import unbilled time/expenses to invoice.
Move down and add Tasks (services performed), the rate of each task, and how many hours.
Add any Items in the next field down (products purchased from you), the price of those items and how many of each.
Click the green +Task and +Item buttons to add more lines.
At the bottom, include any Terms, additional Notes to the customer, and any Discount if it applies.
On the right side of your screen, you’ll see a small box titled Options. Move the sliders to ON to accept Credit Cards and/or PayPal.
Click the blue Save button above your invoice.
Note: If you don't enter anything in either the Tasks or Items field, that section will not appear on your final invoice. For example, if you are sending an invoice for a product purchase only and not billing for any hourly services, the Tasks section will not appear when you finalize for sending.
Here's how to send your invoice:
From your Invoice, click the Finalize For Sending button.
In the window that appears, enter the email address you want to send to. You can also change the default subject and message–we’ll automatically include a link your customer can click on to access their invoice, and you can also choose to attach it as a PDF.
Hit Send.
And that’s it! Your invoice will be marked as Viewed when your customer has seen it. You’ll be sending out your invoices, and receiving payments in no time.
Note: It’s best practice to finalize your invoice before sending in order to create more accurate accounting records.
If you leave them in Draft status and then add a payment to them, the system will combine that transaction to Sale and Payment in one–you won’t be able to edit them separately. Alternatively, finalizing an invoice before receiving payment will create a Sale transaction in your accounts receivable. Then, the payment (added later) will be created as a separate Payment transaction, preserving your ability to edit it later if needed.