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Create Invoices

How to create Invoices

Updated over 4 months ago

Creating Invoices is super easy! If you haven't yet, take a peek at our Invoices Overview article before starting to create your Invoice. Folks who can create Invoices are anyone on your Pro Team and Collaborators who have Everything marked in their Financials permissions on the project.


Create an Invoice

Create your first invoice by clicking the + Create Your First Invoice button. Subsequent Invoices can be created using the + Add Invoice in the top right corner.

Within the invoice you'll see the following sections that are customizable:

Invoice Number

You can optionally change your Invoice number to a new number or to start from a brand new set of numbers. Once you've changed your Invoice number, all other numbers that follow will be sequential.

Description

Enter the description of the invoice to quickly denote what the Invoice is for. This appears at the top of the invoice and below the Invoice Number in the main Invoices tab. This description is outside of the item descriptions, this is just for this Invoice.

Status

The Status is chosen and adjusted within the invoice. The default Status is Draft.

  1. Draft - the Invoice is not finalized and has not yet been sent to the client

  2. Open - the Invoice was sent to the client and has not yet been paid

  3. Paid - the Invoice was paid

  4. Void - the Invoice was voided

  5. Overdue - applied automatically when an invoice has an Open Status and the Due Date is in the past

Only Draft invoices can be edited. Once an invoice is moved to Open, the invoice can't be edited. To make an invoice editable again, you must move it back to Draft.

Payable To

Your company name and address appear in the Payable To section, which comes directly from your Company Settings (https://buildbook.co/team). Clicking Edit will take you to these settings.

Keep in mind that any changes made in Company Settings apply not only to the invoice but to other areas of BuildBook including the Client Dashboard and Portfolio.

Bill To

Choose an existing contact, create a new contact, or edit an existing contact from the Bill To section. This automatically populates with the first client invited to the project. If there is not a client invited, it will default to sample information.

  1. Add Someone - click the Add Someone link. Then choose from existing contacts under the People dropdown.

  2. Add Someone New - Click the Add Someone link and choose the Add Someone New link beneath the People dropdown.

  3. Edit an existing contact - Once someone is added under Bill To you can edit their contact information by clicking Edit underneath their name.

  4. Remove - Once someone is added under Bill To you can remove them by clicking Remove underneath their name.

Bill Date and Due Date

The Bill Date is the date the invoice was prepared and billed to the client. The Due Date is the date the invoice needs to be paid.


Add Line Items

Add Budget Items

To build your Invoice by adding existing Budget Line Items click + Budget Line Items.

  1. Select one or more items from your Budget to add to the invoice.

  2. Choose the percentage that you'd like to Invoice from those Budget items. You can choose to invoice for 100% of the item's price or use the Calculate Percentage at the bottom to choose how much you'll invoice for that particular item.

If any Budget Item has been previously Invoiced, you will see the remaining balance on that item represented in the "Remaining" column.

If you've selected multiple items you CANNOT assign a dollar amount to each item. You must enter a dollar amount within "Total to Add to Invoice", and it will be split by an equal percentage across all items you've selected.

Once a Budget Item(s) has been added to an invoice, you can manually edit individual line items by clicking on them. From here you can re-adjust the invoice amount for that individual Budget Item.

Add Custom Line Items

Sometimes you may need to Invoice for things that are not Budget items such as Change Orders or Bills & Expenses. To build your Invoice by adding Line Items that are not Budget items click + Add Custom Item.

Line Items can include:

  1. Name

  2. Description

  3. Tax

  4. Quantity

  5. Unit Cost

  6. Markup

The Tax, Quantity, and Unit Cost calculate the Cost. If Markup is applied, this calculates the final Price.

Add as many Line Items as needed to build the invoice.

In order for the Cost to appear in the total, there must be a Quantity of at least 1.

Calculating by Percentage

Calculate based on Projected Price: Perfect when you want to Invoice installments or at specific milestones. Set 25% in the “Projected” area and the Invoice will automatically calculate 25% against your Project’s Projected Price.

Calculate based on Remaining Price: This allows you to Invoice against the remaining balance of a Project. If you’ve already created a few Invoices, this will allow you to set 25% in the “Remaining” area and the invoice will automatically calculate 25% against the Remaining Costs of the Project.

Notes: Notes are shown in the exported invoice and are meant to include any applicable notes related to the invoice for the client to see.

Payment Terms: Payment Terms outline any specific information regarding how payment should be made, such as by check only or by including a specific link that the client should visit to pay the invoice.


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Selections Overview

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