Introduction - Invoices

An invoice is a financial document which indicates the supply of goods or services between a vendor and a customer.

How does an invoice work? The workflow of an invoice in Zoho Books is as follows:

• Create an invoice.
• Save it as a draft to be edited later (Save as Draft) or send it to your customer’s email address right away (Save & Send).
• In case the invoice crosses its due date, its status changes to Overdue.
• When you receive the payment from your customer, you can Record Payment for the invoice.
• After recording payment, the invoice status changes to Paid, and this will reflect in various sales reports.
• You can view all the payments recorded for your customers in the Payments Recorded module under Sales.

Create Invoice

You can create an invoice in Zoho Books from the sales module or directly from the dashboard.

From the Sales module

• Go to Sales > Invoices.
• Select + New button in the top right corner of the page.
• Select the Customer Name, Place of Supply, Invoice Date and other details.
• Enter the Invoice Number. The invoice number is generally auto-generated. You can manually enter the invoice number as well by clicking the Gear icon next to this field.

• Select if the item rates are Tax Inclusive or Exclusive.
• Associate the Price List, if required.
• Enter the Item Details in the table below. You can type or select the items from the Items Details dropdown.
• Enter the Quantity, Rate, Discount and Tax to be applied on the item.

• Include Shipping Charges, add Adjustments (such as packing or other charges) in the total section.

• Select the TDS rate, if applicable for the sale. This will be applied on the Sub Total of the invoice. Learn how to add TDS Rates.

• You can also click the Edit icon near the amount and type the TDS rate to update the TDS amount.

• Select the TCS Rate as per 206C - 1H, if applicable for the sale. This will be calculated on the total amount incuding all charges and taxes. Learn how to add TCS Rates.

• Review the total amount to be received.

• After entering the required details, click:
  • Save as Draft - to send it to your customer later
  • Save & Send - to send it to your customer right away

Note: Fields in red are compulsory, others are optional.

From the Dashboard

You can also create invoices directly from the Dashboard.

• In the Dashboard, click the + icon top of the page.
• Select Invoices under Sales.

Import Invoices

Do you already have invoices in your business? Zoho Books provides you the option to import invoices in the CSV, TSV or XLS format.

To import invoices:

• Go to Sales > Invoices.
• Click the Hamburger icon in the top right corner of the page.
• Select Import Invoices.

• Click the Choose File button under Upload File. You can download a sample CSV or XLS file for your reference by clicking sample csv file or sample xls file.
• Choose the Character Encoding and File Delimiter for your file.
• If you want your invoice number in the imported file to be auto-generated, mark the box Auto-generate Invoice Number.
• You can also Link Invoices to its corresponding Sales Orders by marking the box.
• Click Next.

• Ensure that all the fields are mapped correctly in the Map Fields page.
• To use the similar import format for the next time, mark the box Save these selections for use during future imports.
• Click Next.

• Click Import.

Types of Invoices

In Zoho Books, you can create different types of invoices based on how you want to collect money from your customers, the time intervals in which you want to invoice customers and a lot more.

Recurring Invoice

Create an invoice for a recurring time period. You can choose between the standard time period  weekly or  monthly or even set a custom time period.

Retainer Invoice

If you collect advance payments from your customers, you can using retainer invoices.

Next >
Record Payment for Invoice