Hi, i'm really new to this and love your trial software so i'm trying to figure out how to do the following with it:

I'm a wedding photographer, I take a deposit then the balance is paid in full no later than 14 days before the wedding date which can sometimes be over a year away. I also accept part payments until this time too. What is the best way to create invoices for this scenario?

I want to just create one invoice for the full amount, apply the initial deposit as a payment and then send my customers that invoice with the date the balance is owed. If they pay additional amounts during the period, I would like to send them an updated invoice. I've seen I can do this with the terms but I'd have to create a new term with days remaining to the 14 days prior to the wedding so my terms list could grow quite large.

Is there an easier way I could do this or is my lack of understanding confusing me. Does this need to be done with one or more invoices?

I hope i've not left you as confused as I am at the moment.

Many thanks.

My understanding having had a part payment is raise the invoice for the full amount, receive what you have been paid against it and the change the date for the balance. You can then print the invoice which should just have the outstanding amount.

You would need to work on when payments are received, for the accounting to be correct.

If this is wrong Im sure Mark will correct me on this.

Hi Paul,

Yes it is not simple to produce 'progress invoices' in Solar Accounts. Tom is basically correct, except that you should issue Pro-Forma invoices until you have actually provided the service.

Let's say you take an order for £1,000 for a wedding due on 6 February 2012. The customer pays a deposit of £200 on 6 February 2011 and the balance of £800 on 23 January 2012. Create an invoice for £1,000 dated 6 February 2012 but leave the terms field blank. Instead, type 'Balance due by 23 January 2012' into the Free Text field. When you receive the deposit payment on 6 February 2011 do the following:
1. Record an invoice payment dated 6 February 2011 for £200
2. Change the date of the invoice to 6 February 2011
3. Click menu Setup > Invoice Template, then change the invoice title to 'Pro-Forma Invoice'
4. Print the invoice
5. Click menu Setup > Invoice Template, then change the invoice title back to 'Invoice'
6. Click menu Edit > Undo to change the invoice date back to 6 February 2012

Do the same when you receive payment of the balance (except use a date of 23 January 2012).

Lastly, I assume that if the wedding is cancelled you keep the deposit. If this happens, you should change the date of the invoice to the cancellation date and change the invoice amount to the forfeited deposit amount.

Regards,

Tom and Mark, thank you for getting back to me is extremely appreciated and i'll give the suggestions a test run, many thanks for that. Before explore your suggestion, I spent a bit of time after posting my question last night and had a fiddle to see if I could create my own workaround for it but I'm not sure if it's best practice to do what I've done so any advice would be gratefully received.

Your right Mark in assuming the deposits are non-refundable, with that in mind I've done the following:

I've created an invoice specifically for the deposit dated when I received the deposit payment. I've then created another invoice specifically for the full amount owed with the date being 1 month before the wedding date with the terms being 14days which gives a two week grace on payment in-line with my 14 day balance payment T&C. I have two products on the second invoice, first is the full package description and price and the second product is "deposit paid" but with a negative amount so the balance owed is correct.

Are there any issues with doing it that way?

Many Thanks,
Paul

Hi Paul,

The problem with that approach is that it records income before you actually perform the service. To avoid this, I suggest you record a new liability account called 'Customer Prepayments' and use this account on your invoices. Then when you have actually performed the work record a General Transaction from the 'Sales Income' account to the 'Customer Prepayments' account. You should also change the invoice titles to 'Pro-Forma Invoice' when you print them.

Regards,