#Invoices in depth

Selling covered the everyday invoice. This chapter is for the situations that come up once a week rather than ten times a day — and for understanding what the books are doing underneath, so that the numbers in Reports never surprise you.

#What posting writes

When you post an invoice, Tamra posts one journal entry with it: Accounts Receivable is debited for the total, revenue is credited for the net of each line (the product's income account, or the company default), and tax output is credited for the VAT. Discounts go to the sales discount account, shipping to freight income. Open Other info on the posted invoice to see the entry's number and jump to it. Unposting reverses exactly that entry.

A document discount comes off the amount before VAT, so the VAT is worked out on what the customer pays (Decree-Law Art. 39). Choose Before tax to type it on the amount before VAT, or Including VAT to type it on the total with VAT: 100 off a total of 1,050 at 5% becomes 95.24 off before VAT, so the invoice is 904.76 + 45.24 VAT = 950.00, and the editor shows the conversion under the discount. A percentage is the same percentage either way. An invoice posted before 1.85 with a discount after tax keeps it as it was booked (the VAT on the full amount, the discount in sales discounts, Paid once the total less the discount is in); a draft saved that way is refused at posting until you open it and save it again.

The discount comes off the goods and services only, never off a Less: advance line: the advance comes off at its full amount, on screen, in print, on the e-invoice and in credit notes. 10% off 10,000 + VAT, less an advance of 1,050, is 9,000 + 450 VAT − 1,050 = 8,400.00. A draft saved before 1.96 with a discount and an advance line is refused at posting until you open it and save it again; posted invoices keep their figures.

#Advances and deposits

A customer pays before there is anything to invoice — a deposit on an order, a retainer, a milestone. In the UAE the tax point is the moment the money is received, so an advance must itself be a tax invoice with VAT. Tamra's advance documents (ADV-) are exactly that.

#Receiving an advance

The cleanest door is the bank statement: in Books → Reconciliation, on the line where the money arrived, choose Reconcile → New advance from [customer]. Tamra creates an ADV invoice for the amount (backing the VAT out at the default sales rate), posts it, records the payment against it, and matches the statement line — one click, four things. The ADV appears in the invoice list with its own type and the customer's page shows it as an open advance.

Without a bank line — a deposit paid in cash, say — use Books → Payments → Advance / deposit → Take a deposit. It asks what the money is: an Advance for goods or services (the default; it needs the right to post invoices) issues the same ADV invoice, with the VAT inside the amount, and records its payment; a Refundable security deposit (keys, equipment, a lease) is not paid for a supply, so it carries no VAT and waits in Customer Advances until you apply or refund it.

#Applying an advance

When you raise the real invoice, its draft shows Apply Advance with a count of the customer's advances waiting. Choose one and how much; Tamra adds a Less: advance line for that amount. The invoice now bills only the balance, its VAT is computed on the balance, and the two documents together carry the correct total VAT. Apply the same advance again and the line grows rather than doubling; apply several advances and each gets a line. Only advances in the invoice's currency are offered, and a line never takes the invoice below zero: its amount before VAT is rounded so that, with its VAT, it comes to no more than what you apply. The printed invoice shows the Less advance rows, the Balance due, and the advance invoice's number as a reference.

#What the books do

At receipt: AR is debited, Customer Advances (a liability) and tax output are credited. At the final invoice: AR is debited for the balance, the advance liability is released, revenue and tax are credited in full. The settlement bar on the final invoice counts the advance as money already in; the Payments tab lists it as a row. An invoice the advance covers in full comes to 0: it posts with nothing to collect and shows Paid.

#Undoing

An advance that has been applied cannot be unposted — unapply it from the final invoice first (unposting the final invoice does that automatically). An advance that turns out to be a plain on-account payment can be handled through the Payments register instead.

A customer's advance or deposit set against a posted invoice from Books → Payments → Advance / deposit comes off it with Remove, under it on the invoice's Payments tab: the entry that used it is reversed on its own date, the invoice is open again for that amount, and the advance is free to use on another invoice or to refund. It needs the right to post invoices. One used on or before the Books Lock Date stays: move the lock date back first, or correct it with an entry dated after the lock.

#Credit notes

When you owe the customer — an overcharge, a return, a cancelled service — you don't edit the invoice; you issue a credit note against it. On the posted invoice, ⋯ → Credit note. Choose the whole invoice or pick lines and quantities for a partial note. Post it: the note takes a CN- number and reverses revenue and tax for its amount.

Tick Customer returned the goods when they came back: the selected quantities return to the shelf and their cost of goods sold is reversed, at the cost they left at. It works for an invoice delivered on its own and for one made from a sales order (the goods come back from the order's deliveries); only what was delivered, and not already returned on an earlier credit note, can come back.

#Customer returns

When a customer sends goods back, record it on the invoice: on the posted invoice, Record a return. Enter how many of each line are coming back and mark each Good, back to stock or Damaged, then choose The goods are here now or The customer will send them. Saving makes a return with a RET- number.

• Good goods go back on the shelf at the cost they left at, and their cost of goods sold comes back.
• Damaged goods go to a place called Damaged returns, with no stock value: their cost goes to the Customer returns write-off account (Tamra makes it next to your stock loss account the first time, or choose your own in Settings → Account mapping).
• The credit note is made against the invoice in the same click — revenue, VAT and the customer's balance come back, as with any credit note. If the goods are still to come, it is made when they are received. If you chose a Sales Returns account in Account mapping, the credit goes there instead of each line's revenue account.
• Replacement — tick it when the customer gets the goods again instead of a credit: the goods come back and no credit note is made. Send the new goods on a new invoice or sales order at no charge.

Inventory → Returns → Customer returns lists every return. Open one to receive goods that were still to come (you can receive fewer than expected, and say which came back damaged), to make its credit note, or to cancel it while nothing has been received or credited.

In a bigger team the warehouse and the accounts can each do their own part: tick Receive and credit as separate steps on that screen. The warehouse then receives the goods, and someone who can post invoices makes the credit note from the return. A credit note can also be made first and the goods received later.

Nothing comes back twice and nothing is credited twice: only what was delivered and not already returned can come back, and a credit note on lines a return is still waiting to credit is refused and names the return. An invoice with a return on it stays posted; the goods a return brought back stay received.

A posted credit note has two ways out, both on its own header:

• Apply to invoice — offsets the original invoice, reducing what the customer owes. The invoice's Payments tab shows the credit as a settlement.
• Record refund — money goes back to the customer from a bank or cash account, recorded as an outbound payment, dated on or after the note.

A credit note can be partly applied and partly refunded. The customer's statement shows all of it. On an invoice in another currency the note takes off exactly what the invoice booked, so no fils are left in receivables. A line that sold a fixed asset can't be credited while the asset's disposal stands: credit the other lines, and for money back on the asset post a journal entry to its gain or loss on disposal.

A credit note gives back its share of the invoice's document discount. Before tax, that's its share of the discounted amounts: crediting all of a 100 + VAT invoice at 10% off comes to 94.50, the invoice. On an invoice posted before 1.85 with a discount after tax, the note credits its share less the discount, so a refund pays back what the customer actually paid. On an invoice that used an advance, the Less advance line stays applied: the dialog leaves it out and credits the other lines, and anything the customer no longer owes waits on the note to refund or set against another invoice.

Unpost works on a credit note while nothing rests on it: it isn't set against an invoice and didn't bring goods back (void its refund first if it has one). Unposting gives the invoice its credited quantities back; posting the note again books the credit again and sets it against the invoice if anything is still owed. A credit note never comes to more than its invoice and credits only the invoice's own items. Once it is applied or has brought goods back, undo it with a new invoice for the same items.

#E-invoicing

Where a country requires structured electronic invoices, Tamra generates and submits them. Sales → E-Invoices lists every posted invoice with its e-invoicing state — not generated, ready, submitted, accepted, or rejected with the reason — and a validation panel that names what's missing before you try (a customer TRN, an address line, a tax category on a line).

For a UAE company the regime is implemented: on a posted invoice, Send ▾ → Submit e-invoice builds the structured document in the required format and records the submission and its outcome on the invoice. Angola's regime will follow the same door once its tax authority publishes the technical specification; Saudi Arabia's is on the roadmap.

A dinar, Bahraini or Omani rial invoice can't go out as a UAE e-invoice, which carries two decimals: the panel says so before anything is sent.

Inbound e-invoices (Purchase → E-Invoices) is the other direction: documents your suppliers send electronically arrive as Received, and you either create a draft bill from one — lines, taxes and totals prefilled — or dismiss it.

#Foreign currency

Set the invoice's currency and the exchange rate fills from the rate table: the newest rate dated on or before the invoice date (change it if the bank's rate differs). The label under it says where it came from: Auto-filled from settings with the rate's date, Saved on the document, or Typed; a typed rate stays when you change the date. With no rate on or before the date it says so, and a later rate is never used. The invoice prints in its currency; the journal entry records the base-currency equivalent at that rate. When the customer pays, the payment is booked at the newest rate on file on or before the payment date (the invoice's own rate when there is none), and any difference from the invoice's rate posts automatically as a foreign exchange gain or loss — so AR always clears to zero and the P&L shows the true effect. A payment in parts clears exactly what the invoice booked, also when a payment in the middle is voided and paid again. Reports convert each document at its own rate, never at today's. An invoice in another currency won't post without its rate: Tamra names the currency (a rate of exactly 1 stands only when the rate table says 1 for it). A duplicated invoice takes the rate of its own date.

Decimals. Amounts are kept the way the currency is written: three decimals for the Kuwaiti, Bahraini, Jordanian, Libyan, Iraqi and Tunisian dinar and the Omani rial (KWD 3.579), none for the yen, won and similar (JPY 1,050), two for everything else. Lines, totals, payments, printouts and the amount in words follow, and a dinar invoice is settled to the last fils: with 5 fils still open it stays Partial, and Record Payment is still offered.

#Intercompany invoices

If the customer is one of your own companies (a partner linked to that company), posting the invoice also creates and posts the matching bill in the other company, in the invoice's currency (at the invoice's rate when both companies keep the same currency), and for stockable products moves the goods into that company's inventory — one action, both books. The two documents are linked and reverse together if you unpost. Consolidated Reports can eliminate the internal sale so the group isn't shown trading with itself, and the advances one company paid the other. The (i) link on the draft says exactly this when it applies. An invoice that uses an advance (a Less: advance line) posts too: the sister's bill carries the goods and services at what the invoice billed them, after its discount, with a note naming the advance for the sister to apply with Apply Advance. A credit note on an invoice to a sister company stays out of the group's sales also when it is unposted and posted again.

#Opening balances

When you start Tamra with customers already owing you money, don't recreate history. Create one opening-balance invoice per customer for the amount they owe as at your start date, dated that day, with a single line to the opening-balance equity account. It carries the receivable into Tamra without touching revenue, ages correctly, and settles like any invoice. A balance in another currency is brought in in that currency: give the file a Currency column (and a Rate column, or Tamra takes the newest rate on or before the start date), or write the currency with the amount (USD 10,000, €5,000). Revaluation then reads it like any other foreign balance.

#Tax-inclusive prices

Some price lists and some customers quote prices that already include VAT. The Tax-inclusive prices switch on the editor tells Tamra that the unit prices entered are gross; it backs the tax out so totals match the customer's expectation to the fils.

#Quick actions from the list

The invoice list's row menu has a few shortcuts: Mark Paid records a payment for the full open amount in one step (for cash sales and small invoices), Duplicate copies an invoice into a new draft (without its Less: advance lines: apply the advance on the copy if it's due; without a line that sold a fixed asset — an asset is sold once, with Sell in Assets — and refused when that is all the invoice holds; without lines that bill expense claims — a claim line is billed once, so the copy's notes name the claims left out, and an invoice that bills nothing but claims isn't copied: bill more claims from Expenses → Bill), Archive hides an old or mistaken document from lists without deleting it (Unarchive brings it back), and Print selected batches PDFs for several invoices at once.

#Undoing, in order of gentleness

1. Edit — only drafts.
2. Unpost — a posted invoice nothing has been paid against: reverses its journal entry and its delivery, returns it to draft keeping its number.
3. Credit note — a posted invoice with payments or already in the customer's hands: the honest correction.
4. Force unpost — a super-admin action for a paid invoice recorded in error: reverses every linked entry including payments, each on its own date, so past reports and VAT returns don't move; when one of those dates is on or before the Books Lock Date it is refused — issue a credit note. A customer deposit used on the invoice comes off it and stays in the bank, free to use again, and the invoice can be paid again once it is posted again. It leaves a trail; use it when a credit note would misrepresent what happened. It runs as the super admin who is signed in, and isn't for a credit note or an invoice a credit note reversed.
5. Cancel — a posted invoice voided before payment keeps its number and shows Cancelled, so the sequence stays continuous for the auditor.

Nothing posted is ever deleted.

#Common questions

The customer paid a deposit in cash, not by bank. Use Books → Payments → Advance / deposit → Take a deposit with your cash account: an advance issues its ADV invoice with the VAT. Or key the cash receipt as a statement line on your cash account and use New advance there.

Can I apply an advance from one customer to another customer's invoice? No. Refund it, or transfer it through a journal entry with your accountant.

The e-invoice was rejected. The reason is on the E-Invoices page. Typically a missing TRN or an address field on the partner — fix the partner, then resubmit; the invoice itself doesn't change.

Why is there a small FX gain on a payment in the same currency as the invoice? The invoice and the payment were booked at different rates against your base currency. That's the point of the entry; it's real.

I voided an invoice — why does the number still exist? Numbers are never reused. A void keeps its place in the sequence, marked Cancelled.

#If something goes wrong

• Apply Advance shows no advances, but the customer paid one → the ADV isn't posted, is for a different customer record, is already fully applied, or is in another currency than the invoice (the button says so). Check the customer's page.
• Remove is refused: "on or before the books lock date" → the advance was used in a closed period. Someone who can close periods can move the lock date back first; or correct it with an entry dated after the lock.
• A credit note is refused: the line sold an asset → while the asset's disposal stands, its sale can't be credited. Credit the other lines; for money back on the asset, post a journal entry to its gain or loss on disposal.
• The final invoice's VAT looks too high → the advance wasn't applied as a line; the invoice is billing the full amount. Unpost, apply the advance, post again.
• A credit note won't post → the original invoice is a draft or cancelled (a note needs a posted invoice to credit), or the note would come to more than the invoice, or it carries an item the invoice doesn't have.
• Posting says the invoice doesn't add up → its total no longer matches its lines (a line changed after the total was worked out). Open it, check the lines, save and post again.
• Posting says the invoice has no exchange rate → it's in another currency with no rate; add the rate under Settings → Exchange Rates or type it on the invoice, then post.
• Unpost is refused → something has been paid, an advance applied to it is consumed, the books lock date covers it, your role lacks post rights, or an exchange revaluation still in the books took the invoice in (reverse it on Multi-Currency → Revalue, unpost, then revalue that date again — or issue a credit note). The message says which.
• Posting says the discount comes off the "Less: advance" line too → a draft saved before 1.96. Open it and save it again: the discount is then on the goods and services only, and the advance comes off whole. Then post.
• Posting says the invoice has a discount of more than its total → the discount after tax is above the total (a percentage over 100). Open it, correct the discount and save it again.
• Posting says the invoice has a discount after tax, saved before Tamra 1.85 → a draft from before the update. Open it and save it again: the discount becomes the same discount before VAT, and the VAT goes down with it. Then post.
• The credit note dialog leaves out the Less advance line → the advance stays applied to the invoice; credit the other lines.