Just starting out. Business began in 2016. Adding all invoices and bank receipts/payments to QF so that I have full history.
Trying to create my first invoice so that I can start the process and it’s showing as in DRAFT. I want to complete it but I have two issues.
I don’t want to send it to the client. It’s from 2016 and it’s been paid already. I use their invoicing system… I don’t have to produce any invoices for them. For those that might understand what I’m talking about…my company sub-contracts to another professional services company who in turn invoices the end bank client. I use the professional services company’s own timesheet recording and invoicing system to log timesheets and it creates invoices once the timesheet has been approved by a manager in the end bank client. I then download the invoice and save as a PDF on my computer for VAT purposes.
I don’t have nor do I want to attach a logo in the invoice template. I just have the company name, address etc. Because of this I cannot proceed to finalise the invoice because I’m being asked for a logo. What’s the answer? Do I need to create a logo and upload it? How do sole traders operate this system as they are most unlikely to have a logo too.
VAT Issue now…when I set the company up I applied to join the flat rate VAT scheme. Because I didn’t have a VAT number I couldn’t charge VAT to the professional services company. Then once the VAT registration was completed and I had a VAT number, I had to create and send the professional services company a VAT invoice…for the VAT! This was the VAT that was due on the previous 5 invoices which I didn’t charge VAT on.
There’s no need to send the invoice, but you can “Flag as sent”, which will pull it through to your profit and loss reports etc. Usually the invoice would appear in your clients control panel (if you give them access), but it sounds like this won’t be an issue based on your method.
QuickFile keeps your invoice in your account, even after deletion (it’s moved to the “Deleted” section). You can also attach related documents to both sales and purchase invoices, so there’s no need to download the files to your computer if you don’t wish.
Not having a logo won’t prevent you from creating, saving or sending the invoice. We do however include a notice on the invoice to encourage users to upload a logo. For most businesses, this is part of their branding and marketing strategy, but we understand that not every business has it. You can simply ignore this; providing everything else is there in it’s place (item descriptions, quantities, prices, and client details), then you should be able to continue as normal.
Just to confirm - were these invoices only for the VAT and nothing else?
Or if you want to shut it up just type something like your initials in a reasonable size font in Word, take a screenshot and crop it to size. If you’re not actually sending QuickFile invoices out to your clients it doesn’t really matter what they look like.
Re: Logo - since I wasn’t sending it out I figured I’d try adding anything as a logo…so I uploaded my picture Worked a treat and now I’m able to create invoices.
While I’ve got you and talking about invoices…I’ve created 5 manually dating back to December 2016 but I have over 100 more to add in starting on 6th January 2017!
I want to set up a recurring invoice then just post them but the system date defaults to 30th December 2018…not what I want. Am I going to have to manually create and add 100 invoices covering 2017 and 2018 to bring me up to date or is there a quicker automated way that you know of?
Recurring invoices are automatically created on the morning they’re next due, so it will only work from today onwards.
The easiest way to get started is to enter your opening balances through a trial balance or similar (if you’re coming from MS Money, that may be able to produce one).
If you want the records of the invoices themselves, then this will either need to be done individually, or you use can the bulk input tool which is available as part of the Power User Subscription. It’s also worth noting that if you’re bulk entering historic data, your account may hit the L threshold quicker than anticipated as they create nominal entries.
Re your point 3, the simplest way to do this in QuickFile is to create an invoice with two lines, one for the original net amount plus 20% VAT, the second line for minus that same amount at “no vat” (saying something like “less net already invoiced”). The overall result will be an invoice with zero net and the correct amount of VAT.
Worked a treat and now I’m able to create invoices.