Invoice Creation - Building Manual Invoices for Accounts
The Invoice tool creates manual invoices with full control over line items, pricing, tax, shipping, and payment handling. Use it for phone orders, services rendered, custom charges, or any situation where you need to create an order on behalf of a customer.
There are two ways to access the Invoice tool:
- Navigate to Tools > Invoice in the Ecommerce portal
- Open an account and click the Invoice button on the Account Details tab (this pre-selects the account)
Step-by-Step Invoice Creation
1. Select the Account
Choose the Account from the dropdown. Only open accounts are listed. The help text reads: "Select the account to which this invoice will be charged."
Choose the Account Contact from the dropdown. This field is optional and determines whose group-based discounts apply to the order. The help text reads: "(Optional) Select the primary or billing contact as the person making the purchase. Use when discount groups for the person should apply. This is someone with this account selected in the billing tab of their person record."
3. Enter a Title (Optional)
Enter a Title to identify this invoice wherever invoices are listed (purchase history, statements, etc.). The help text reads: "(Optional) The invoice title identifies this invoice wherever invoices are listed."
4. Choose Payment Handling
Select how the invoice should be paid using the Payment radio buttons:
- Pay with account. If declined, do not create an unpaid invoice. — The system immediately attempts to charge the account's payment method. If the charge fails, no invoice is created.
- Charge to account but do not pay. An unpaid invoice will be added to the account, but no invoice is sent. — Creates an unpaid invoice on the account. No payment is attempted and no notification is sent to the customer.
- Create the order but do not charge the account. It will be billed during the next batch. — Creates the order and marks it for batch processing. The order will be completed and payment attempted during the next Housekeep cycle.
5. Choose Payment Failure Handling
If you selected the first payment option, choose what happens when payment fails using the If Payment Fails radio buttons:
- Abort billing. (No notification sent) — The invoice is not created and no notification goes to the customer.
- Retry every three days. (Declined notification sent) — The invoice is created as unpaid and the system retries payment every three days. A declined notification is sent to the customer.
6. Select Ship/Tax Address
Choose the Ship/Tax Address from the dropdown. This is populated from the account's saved shipping addresses. Select an address if shipping is required or if tax needs to be calculated based on the shipping destination.
The help text includes a link to manage account shipping addresses: "Select an address if shipping is required or tax is to be calculated."
Choose how shipping should be handled using the Shipping radio buttons:
- No Shipping — no shipping charge is added
- Calculate Shipping Charge — the system calculates shipping based on the selected ship method, item weights, and shipping address
- Set Shipping Charge — enter a manual shipping amount
8. Assign a Staff Member (Optional)
Select a Staff Member from the dropdown. This assigns the sale to a specific staff member for tracking and commission purposes. The help text reads: "(optional) Select the staff member responsible for this sale."
9. Enter a Tip (Optional)
If tips are enabled for your site, enter a Tip amount. The help text reads: "(Optional) Enter the tip for the Staff Member."
10. Add Line Items
Build the invoice by adding one or more line items. Each line item has:
- Quantity — the number of units
- Item (optional) — select a catalog item from the dropdown, or leave blank for a custom line item
- Unit Price — the price per unit. When an item is selected, this defaults to the item's price but can be overridden.
- Line Item Description — a text description of the line item
- Item Total — automatically calculated (quantity x unit price), read-only
Click Add Row to add additional line items.
Below the line items, the invoice displays calculated totals:
- Shipping — calculated or manually entered shipping charge
- Tax — tax calculated based on taxable items and the shipping address
- Tip — the tip amount if entered
- Invoice Total — the sum of all charges
11. Add Invoice Messages (Optional)
Enter optional messages that appear on the invoice:
- Unpaid Message — text that appears on the invoice before it is paid
- Paid Message — text that appears on the invoice after it is paid
The help text reads: "The unpaid message appears on this invoice before it is paid. The paid message appears on the invoice after it is paid."
12. Submit the Invoice
Click Create Order to process the invoice.
After Invoice Creation
On success, the system displays: "Invoice created successfully for account [account name]" with a link to the account's purchase history.
If an error occurs during processing, an error message is displayed and the form is preserved so you can correct the issue and try again.
Validation
The system validates the following:
- A valid account must be selected
- The order must be valid for the selected account
- At least one line item should have a price or description
Tips
- Use the "Charge to account but do not pay" option when creating invoices that should appear on the customer's next statement without immediate payment
- The "Batch" option is useful when creating multiple invoices that should all be processed together during the next Housekeep cycle
- When selecting an item, the unit price defaults to the item's configured price — override it only when a custom price is needed
- If you navigate to the Invoice tool from an account's Details tab, the account is pre-selected for convenience
- Items with options configured cannot have their options set through this tool — for items requiring option selection, use the catalog checkout process instead