Invoice questions and troubleshooting

The questions below are the ones that come up most often. Each answer links to the page that explains it in full.

Totals, discounts and tax

My additional discount won’t apply before tax

Because the line items carry different tax rates. A before-tax discount needs the same tax % on every line — otherwise there is no single rate to apply afterwards.

Either make the rates uniform, or take the discount after tax instead. See notes, discounts and extra fields.

What is the difference between a per-line discount and Additional Discount?

The Discount column reduces one line, and how it is read — percentage or flat amount — comes from the invoice’s Discount Type. Additional Discount comes off the invoice as a whole, and is the one with the before-tax/after-tax choice.

A line is on the invoice but isn’t being charged

It is not marked Billable. That flag is the difference between something the client pays for and something recorded on the invoice for the record. See invoice line items.

A service came across as Non Billable and I wanted to charge for it

The contract’s free quota covered it — the line carries a Free Quota badge saying so. The recurring fee has already paid for that work, so billing it again would charge the client twice. See non-billable services and free quota.

My inventory is out of step after invoicing

Remove stock from the inventory was probably unticked on the line. That tickbox is what makes an invoiced item actually leave your stock, and it is ticked by default — so a line that drifted was unticked on the way through. See invoice line items.

Why does a service line list several things underneath it?

Those are the services the job type covered, ticked beneath the line. One line at one price with the included work itemised under it reads far better to a client than a bare service name and a number.

Labour and time

There is no way to add labour on an invoice

Labour is not added on the invoice — it is added on the job, and reaches the invoice from there. Open the job, go to Item / Invoice → Item(s) and use Calculate.

Labour is worked out from who worked and for how long, and those hours belong to a job. An invoice may have no job linked yet, or several at once, so there is nothing at that level to calculate from. See labour is added on the job.

How do I bill for the hours actually worked rather than an estimate?

Use Internal Labour (Staff-Based) from the job’s Calculate menu. It works the charge out from your assigned users’ recorded hours. For outsourced workers use External Labour (Manual Entry) and type the rate yourself.

Should I be charging the client for travel time?

That is a commercial decision, and normally a term of your agreement with the client. Billing Based On in the Labour window offers four bases — actual job time, plus travel, plus breaks, or both — so pick the one matching what you agreed and apply it consistently.

Payments

There is no payment button in my invoice email

PayPal or Stripe is not connected. Add one in Settings → Integration and both payment buttons become available in the email template designer; place one in the template you send. See taking payment from the email.

The client paid through the email — do I still record the payment?

No. An invoice paid through the PayPal or Stripe button is marked paid automatically, and the payment appears in its payment history.

The client only paid half

Record it. Amount Received does not have to be the full amount, so part payments are normal — the Paid and Due figures move with each one, and the invoice shows the true position. See invoice payments.

Can I record a payment received last week?

Yes. Payment Date is a field you set, not today’s date automatically. Record it as of the day the money actually arrived.

Where do I keep the remittance advice?

On the payment. The Add Payment window takes a note and an attachment, so the receipt or bank confirmation stays with the payment it belongs to rather than in someone’s mailbox.

Can I bill someone who isn’t in my client list?

Yes. Tick Create invoice for not saved client or you don’t want to save on the Add Invoice form and type their details straight onto the invoice. Good for a one-off sale you don’t want cluttering the client list. See creating an invoice.

The goods go somewhere other than the billing address

Untick Shipping address same as billing address and give the delivery address separately. The invoice then shows Bill To and Ship To as two blocks.

Deleting and correcting

What is a proforma invoice, and why isn’t it in my totals?

It looks exactly like an invoice but is deliberately kept out of your calculations — it says what something will cost rather than billing for it. Convert it into an invoice when it becomes real, and it starts counting. See proforma invoices.

The client paid against a proforma — why doesn’t it show?

Because a proforma is not a bill yet. Convert it into an invoice first, then record the payment against that. Until it is converted, your figures do not know the money exists.

The client has money on account — how do I use it?

Tick Advance Amount in the Add Payment window and the balance settles this invoice. If it is greyed out, the client has no advance held.

An advance gets there either from a quotation deposit the client paid on approval, or by taking money from the client directly and adding it to their record. Both land in the same balance, and it stays available until it is used. See applying an advance.

How do I confirm a payment to the client?

Tick Send payment receipt to client? when recording it.

I forgot to send the receipt when I took the payment

You have not lost anything. Open the Payment History tab and use Payment Receipt Preview on that payment’s row — it opens the same send window. See sending a payment receipt.

A payment won’t sync to my accounts package

Check whether the invoice has synced. A payment can only sync against an invoice that already exists in your accounts system, so an unsynced invoice blocks its payments. Note also that invoices sync one way only — EyeOnTask invoices go out to QuickBooks or Xero, but invoices raised there cannot come back in — while clients and payments go both ways. See what syncs, and which way.

An invoice exists in QuickBooks but not in EyeOnTask

It will not appear here, and it cannot be imported. Invoice sync runs one way only. Anything billed directly from your accounts package stays there — which is why invoices should be raised in EyeOnTask and allowed to flow out, or the job behind them will look unbilled.

I overcharged on an invoice the client already paid

Issue a credit note for the difference. The original invoice stays as it was sent and the correction sits beside it, which is what both your books and the client want. See credit notes.

Where do I see overdue invoices?

In Reports. The invoice list itself only badges invoices Paid or Unpaid — one past its due date still reads Unpaid there. Overdue is worked out from the due date against what is still owed.

What do Pay Now, Synced With and Invoice Sent mean in the list?

Pay Now takes a payment against that invoice, and becomes a PAID badge once nothing is owed. Synced With shows whether it has reached your accounts package. Invoice Sent shows whether it has gone to the client. See Table View.

The invoice won’t delete

It has a payment recorded against it. A paid invoice cannot be deleted — it is a financial record at that point. Correct it by editing, or issue a credit note. See deleting an invoice.

The job has no invoice on it, but I’m sure it was billed

It was probably billed on a combined invoice covering several jobs. A multi-job invoice does not display inside the job the way a single-job one does — the job points out to the invoice instead. Follow that through rather than raising a second invoice, which would bill the client twice. See one job, or many.

Which job does this charge come from?

Read the colour. Every linked job gets a colour, and its line items carry the same one, with the job codes shown as chips above the table. A line with no colour band is a standalone item — one added directly to the invoice rather than coming from any job. See reading an invoice that has jobs on it.

Can I add an extra charge to an invoice that already has jobs on it?

Yes, always. Add Item and Add Job Type/Services work on any invoice regardless of what is already there. The line you add is a standalone item on that invoice — it belongs to no job, so it appears without a colour band among the coded ones.

What does a contract invoice actually contain?

It depends whether jobs are attached. Without jobs, the contract amount appears as a line item in its own right — the fee for the period. With jobs, the items used on those jobs come across automatically as priced lines. Both can sit on the same invoice. See what an invoice can be attached to.

An invoice appeared that nobody raised

Look at Created By. Invoices generated by a contract’s recurring pattern show Created By: System, and the invoice carries a banner saying a recurring pattern is running, with a link to the schedule. See how invoices work.

Should I use Mark As Paid?

Only when the payment happened outside the system and you have nothing to record. Add Payment keeps the amount, date, mode, reference and any receipt — Mark As Paid keeps none of it. See marking status by hand.

I made a mistake on an invoice the client already has

Edit it and send it again. Edit Invoice reopens everything — lines, rates, dates, tax — and recalculates as you go. The client sees the corrected version only when you resend it, so send it.

Sending

There is no e-sign option when I email an invoice

The invoice template is not set up to collect a signature. Go to Settings → Invoice & Accounts → Invoice Template, pick the template, open Signature, T & C, enable Customer Signature and Customer Name, then Update Template. The option appears in the mail body afterwards. See collecting a signature.

Can I send the job card along with the invoice?

Yes — tick it under Other Attachment(s) in the send window. Sending the record of what was done next to the bill for doing it prevents most queries.

I just want the PDF

Download in the preview window saves it without sending anything. Printing is the same document.

Invoices and other modules

Should I invoice a job that is under a contract?

Usually not directly. A contract normally bills on its own cycle — the recurring fee plus that period’s jobs — so invoicing the job separately risks charging twice for work the fee already covers. See invoicing a contract.

The client approved a quote — do I retype it into an invoice?

No. Either convert the quote straight into an invoice, or use Fetch Data on a new invoice, choose Quotation, pick its code and fetch the line items across. The same works from a Request. See pulling in the detail.

What is the difference between Fetch Data and Fetch & Link?

Fetch Data pulls line items from a request or a quotation. Fetch & Link attaches jobs, and the contract fee, pulling each linked job’s items in. Different sources, both usable on the same invoice.

What does the R on an invoice mean?

It is a recurring invoice — one generated by a recurring pattern rather than raised by hand.

I sold the client a unit — how does it become equipment they own?

Use Convert Into Equipment on the invoice. The item was your inventory; once sold, the client owns it, so it becomes their asset — trackable, serviceable, and available to put on a contract. The list shows every non-consumable item on the invoice; pick the ones to convert. See Convert Into Equipment.

My recurring schedule is wrong — do I change it on the contract?

No. Change the pattern itself. A recurring pattern is its own record, attached to the job or invoice it produces — reach it from there, or through the link on the invoice banner. See how recurring patterns work.

The client paid me in cash — how do I close the invoice?

Either record it as a payment with Mode of Payment set to cash, which keeps the full record, or use Mark As Paid for something squared up entirely outside the system. Recording the payment is better where you can — Mark As Paid closes the invoice but leaves no trace of how. See marking status by hand.