My business is a service industry Franchise ( I am the Franchisor) and Franchisees (branches set up as clients who help me to expand the business) order materials from me as their supplier (requested under purchase orders PO’s). As Franchisor (supplier), I use these PO’s to create invoices to send to Franchisees (clients) requesting payment after dispatching the goods. As Franchisor, I also have my own customers (also clients) and have created separate trading styles to differentiate between general customers who we sell our service to and the Franchisees who request materials and goods from us. They in turn have their own customers also.
In short, I would like to send purchase orders and invoices between Affinity accounts. Unfortunately, I have discovered that the invoice created by the supplier account (Franchisor - me) does not look the same when received by the client accounts (Franchisees)? Things like Purchase Ref field are missing and specific payment instructions do not appear - layout looks totally different?
I have tried to link accounts in several ways following the knowledge advice …initially trying the ‘I want to link with my client’. However, the instructions for a supplier to link a client account do not appear to work for Affinity accounts. I assume this is because the creator of the Affinity accounts is the same for supplier and client so the Quickfile scan check in the client control panel does not look for members but only account creators/administrators, which for Affinity accounts is one and the same person i.e. me the Franchisor who created the accounts in Affinity.
So, I have tried to link the accounts FROM the client accounts (Franchisees) requesting the supplier account (the Franchisor - me) push invoices automatically. This works in a fashion, BUT the client accounts do NOT receive a copy of the invoice created in the supplier account, but rather a semblance of an invoice from data. So the efforts undertaken by the supplier account to create an invoice template and specific trading style layout for the Franchisees is just wasted as the invoice pushed into and received by these client accounts looks completely different?
I am not sure how to get around this as the client accounts need to know the purchase order reference numbers and payment instructions on the invoices they receive (not just the invoice number created by the supplier) in order to cross match for them with the goods they ordered and must now pay for.
So, in summary, the question is, as the supplier, how do I create an invoice for my Affinity client accounts which will look the same when received in accounts which are linked. I could of course just send an email of the invoice which they could they re-key into their QF system, but that would seem to defeat the object of having linked accounts and only keying the invoice once!
The appearance will obviously be different as the supplier as they don’t have a style associated with them like the sales invoice does - this is standard regardless of a link between accounts. However, a PDF of the sales invoice is automatically attached to the client’s account when they receive the invoice.
Regarding the payment details - like the look of an invoice, supplier invoices don’t have the option to record this, so it’s not carried across. Typically you would have an original document which has all this on, and would be attached - in this case, the attached PDF has this information.
I notice you mention “purchase reference” doesn’t appear - do you mean the supplier reference? This should certainly appear on the invoice, so I’m happy to get this looked in to.
Hopefully I’ve understood correctly, but if there’s anything I’ve missed, please let me know.
Hi and thank you for getting back to me so quickly and clarifying things. I didn’t realise the supplier would receive a pdf copy of the sales invoice which pretty much resolves my worries.
However, …Re your statement: “…I notice you mention “purchase reference” doesn’t appear - do you mean the supplier reference? This should certainly appear on the invoice, so I’m happy to get this looked in to.” YES, you are correct. When the clients submit purchase orders the purchase order numbers should ordinarily be entered in the ‘Purchase Reference’ field when the supplier creates the invoice. This is so the client can tally up the invoice with the respective purchase order. So as you mention, this data field should automatically carry across when the invoice is pushed into the clients account.
Thank you for looking into this so quickly and I hope that from a data point of view, clients purchase order numbers will soon carry across onto supplier invoice when pushed through linked accounts.
P.S. I wasn’t sure if you also realised that credit notes issued by the supplier against certain invoices, …push thru into clients accounts named as purchases? Is this correct? am I missing something which is more to do with accounting processes, but I thought the credit notes would push through and be called credit notes and reduce matched invoices.
Apologies for any confusion there @mickrich - I think I may have got my wires crossed in my previous post.
Supplier invoices (purchases) don’t have an option to include a purchase order number of any kind, but it should show the supplier’s reference (e.g. the invoice number) - and that should come across all OK.
However, what may be an idea is to save the purchase reference (purchase order number or what ever the client provides when placing their order) into the notes at the bottom of the invoice.
No, unfortunately credit notes don’t push through because it’s a bit tricky to match up to the original invoice - for example, if the original is edited, or unlinked from the supplier; or if the supplier “refunds to a bank account”, but uses a holding bank account?
So at this time, credit notes aren’t automatically pulled from one account to the other.
Hi, … I think we’re getting confused here as the Supplier Invoices DO have a field for entering the supplier reference …it is called the Purchase Ref: … Usually a supplier would enter a Purchase Order number (or some other reference that the person submitting the order has provided) in this field, so that when an invoice arrives, he or she can match the invoice to the correct order. The problem is, when the invoice is pushed into a linked account the ‘Purchase Ref’ field on the invoice disappears! All the other fields, seem to be pushed through i.e. Invoice Issue Date, Invoice number, Due Date, Item, description, Cost etc … just the Purchase Ref. field missing.
Whereas with the sales invoice you have an option to enter a purchase order number, this isn’t something that’s available for the purchase invoice (therefore, it’s not pulled over).
However, as I mentioned above, the PDF of the sales invoice is pulled over and attached to the purchase invoice for the client.
Hi and thank you for getting back to me on this. I still think there my be some confusion about my query, as it is a normal accounting function for a customer to give the supplier a purchase order number to put on the associated invoice so when the goods arrive the customer can immediately see which Purchase Order, the invoice relates to. I appreciate there might be technical reasons for not being able to do this, but it would be a very handy feature if it can be done. I took the following jpg images to illustrate the steps we want to follow: (1) Customer orders goods, (2) Supplier dispatches and sends invoice (3) Customer receives invoice and matches to the original order.
(1) Scotland branch requests chemicals from Head Office (the supplier in this case) by system generated Purchase Order PO00007
(3) Head Office (supplier) dispatches goods and creates Invoice, manually typing PO00007 into the Purchase Reference Field. Invoice is then flagged as sent so it appears in the linked client (Scotland Branch) account as a purchase invoice.
… I accept that the client can find the PO by looking at the attached pdf hard copy, but given that the data is available to push, it would be very helpful and time saving if the purchase reference could be displayed alongside the less relevant ‘Receipt Number’ and ‘Supplier Reference’ fields. Although important to the supplier, these other fields are not as important from the customers/clients point of view as the Purchase Order number explains what the invoice relates to.
If it is possible to add this as a feature, it would be much appreciated, but again, I understand as mentioned earlier, if there are technical reasons why it might not be feasible.
Thank you again for getting back to me so quickly.
I think the best thing to do for the moment is to start a thread in the #feature category requesting the PO number to be recorded for purchases. Without this, it’s impossible to push it from the supplier to the client, because there’s no where to record it.
If that’s added in, it should be possible to link the two (although our development team will confirm if they implement this).
you are correct. When the clients submit purchase orders the purchase order numbers should ordinarily be entered in the ‘Purchase Reference’ field when the supplier creates the invoice. This is so the client can tally up the invoice with the respective purchase order. So as you mention, this data field should automatically carry across when the invoice is pushed into the clients account.
