Marking paid, voiding, reopening and crediting an invoice

An issued invoice ends one of three ways: it is paid, it is cancelled because it should never have been raised, or it is credited because the client should not pay it. Maliru records each one with its reason and keeps the number, so the sequence always accounts for every document you issued.

All of this needs Manage commercial. Maliru records payments; it never takes or moves money.

Marking an invoice paid

Open an issued invoice on Commercial › Invoices and choose Mark paid in the footer. Maliru asks first, with the figure in the question:

Record £1,284.00 as paid? Whatever is still owed on INV-0041 is recorded as paid, in full.

Choose Record payment. A payment for the whole outstanding balance is written to the invoice's payment record, the status becomes Paid, and the Activity says Payment recorded.

Mark paid always records the full balance. Part-payments can't be recorded from the app yet. An invoice can show Part paid when a partial payment reached it another way, and Mark paid then settles whatever is left.

A quote never offers Mark paid: nothing is owed on a quote.

Voiding an invoice

Void an invoice that should never have been issued — raised for the wrong client, say. Open it, choose ⋮ More actions › Void, and give a Reason; it is required. If the invoice should stand but something on it is wrong, such as a date, the PO or a measure, correct it instead and keep its number: see Correcting an issued document in Raising an invoice from approved measures.

The number stays on record as void and its measures go back to the approved pool to be billed again.

The document shows Voided: with an Undo button beside it, and its Activity records the same. The measures it carried return to Unbilled on the Measures board, ready for the corrected invoice. If it was converted from a quote, the quote goes back to being an open quote.

Two things stop a void:

• Payments recorded against it. A paid or part-paid invoice cannot be voided, and a payment cannot be removed from the app. If the client should not have paid it, raise a credit note instead.
• A credit note against it. Void the credit note first.

Undoing a void

A voided invoice can be brought back with the same number: Undo on the void notice, or ⋮ More actions › Reopen. Its measures are claimed back onto it.

Maliru refuses if the work on it has since been billed somewhere else — say, on the replacement invoice — and names that document: "Void or remove that first, or raise a new invoice instead."

Deleting a document

A voided document counts for nothing, and ⋮ More actions › Delete removes it from the register:

This cannot be undone. Any measures on it become available again. The number is not handed back — INV-0039 stays a gap in the sequence, as the record that it existed.

An issued document cannot be deleted — void it first. A draft is removed with Discard draft.

Crediting an invoice

A credit note cancels the money owed on a document that stands — the work happened, but the client should not pay for it, or should get their money back. Open an issued, part-paid or paid invoice, application or pro-forma and choose ⋮ More actions › Create credit note.

A draft credit note will reverse the full amount of this invoice. Its number is assigned when issued. The original measures remain billed.

Add a Reason (optional) and choose Create draft credit note. The draft opens, saying Credits INV-0041. Issuing it settles that document without payment. Issue it: it takes the next number in the credit note sequence (CRN- to start with), and the original invoice becomes Credited — Settled by a credit note.

A credit note always covers the full amount; there are no partial credits. A document can have one live credit note at a time — void it to raise another. Voiding a credit note puts the original back as it was. Credit notes export to your accounts package as negative amounts.

Correct, void or credit? Correct it when the invoice stands but something on it is wrong: a date, the PO or, while nothing is paid, the tax or a measure. It keeps its number, and the version it replaces is kept. Void when the invoice should not exist at all: the measures go back to be billed again. Credit when the invoice stands but the money should not: the measures stay billed.

A document's history

Every document has an Activity section, folded until you choose Show: Draft raised, Issued as INV-0041, Emailed to …, Payment recorded, Corrected by …, Voided: wrong client, Reopened, after being voided: …, Went overdue, and so on — who did it and when.

Doing it to many at once

On the Invoices tab, choose Select and tick documents. The bar offers Issue, Mark paid, Send, Convert to invoice, Void (one reason for all of them), Reopen, Delete and Cancel selection.

Each action only touches the documents it applies to — Mark paid only settles issued invoices with something owed, Reopen only voided ones — and says how many it left out. Issuing, settling, sending, converting, voiding and deleting all ask first, with the total where the currencies agree. The result says what actually happened: Settled 3 of 5.