You create a sales invoice to record your agreement with a customer to sell certain products on certain delivery and payment terms.

You can negotiate with the customer by first creating a sales quote, which you can convert to a sales invoice when you agree on the sale. For more information, see How to: Make Offers.

After the customer has confirmed the agreement, for example after a quote process, you post the sales invoice to record your obligation to deliver the products as agreed. When you post the sales invoice, you also output the invoice as a document that you must send to the customer as a copy of the agreement.

In most business environments, you now fulfill the agreement by delivering the products. In turn, the customer fulfills their agreement by paying for the products according to the payment terms, for example within 14 days. In business environments where the customer must pay before products are delivered, such as in retail, you must wait for the receipt of payment for the products before you deliver the products. For more information, see How to: Reconcile Payments Manually.

You can easily correct or cancel a posted sales invoice before it is paid. This is useful if you want to correct a typing mistake or if the customer requests a change early in the order process. For more information, see How to: Correct or Cancel Unpaid Sales Invoices. If the posted sales invoice is paid, then you must create a sales credit memo to reverse the sale. For more information, see How to: Process Sales Returns or Cancellations.

Products can be both inventory items and services. For more information, see How to: Register New Products. The sales invoice process is the same for both product types.

Note
In Microsoft Dynamics NAV and in this topic, a product is referred to with the term “item”.

You can fill the top FastTabs of the sales invoice in two ways depending on whether the customer is already registered. This is indicated by alternate steps 3.1. through 3.5. in the following procedure.

To create a sales invoice

  1. On the Role Center, choose Open Sales Invoices.

  2. On the Home tab, in the New group, choose New.

  3. In the Customer Name field, enter the name of an existing customer.

    Other fields in the Sales Invoice window are now filled with the standard information of the selected customer. If the customer is not registered, then follow these steps:

    1. In the Customer Name field, enter the new customer’s name, and then leave the field.

    2. In the dialog box that appears, choose the Yes button.

    3. In the Customer Templates window, choose a template to base the new customer card on, and then choose the OK button.

      A new customer card opens, prefilled with the information on the selected customer template. The Name field is prefilled with the new customer’s name that you entered on the sales invoice in step 3.1..

    4. Proceed to fill fields on the customer card that were not prefilled from the template and fields that are specific to the new customer, such as address and contact information. For more information see How to: Register New Customers.

    5. When you have completed the customer card, choose the Close button to return to the Sales Invoice window.

      Several fields in the Sales Invoice window are filled with information that you specified on the new customer card in step 3.4. Any fields that are not prefilled, you can now fill directly on the sales invoice.

  4. Fill in the fields on the Sales Invoice FastTab as described in the following table.

    Field Description

    Document Date

    Specify the date that you want to record as the creation date, for example on the printed sales invoice. By default, today’s date is entered.

    Posting Date

    Specify the date when you want the sales invoice posting to be recorded. By default, today’s date is entered.

    Due Date

    Specify when the sales invoice must be paid.

    By default, the field is calculated as the date in the Shipment Date field plus the period defined in the Payment Terms Code field.

  5. Fill in the fields on the Invoice Details FastTab as described in the following table. If the FastTab is not visible, on the Home tab, in the View group, choose Invoice Details.

    Field Description

    Currency Code

    Specify the currency of amounts on the sales invoice lines.

    Leave the field blank to use the customer’s default currency code.

    Shipment Date

    Specify the date when you expect to ship the products on the sales invoice. By default, today’s date is entered.

    VAT Bus. Posting Group

    Specify the customer’s VAT specification to link transactions made for this customer with the appropriate general ledger account according to the VAT posting setup.

    Payment Terms Code

    Specify a formula, such as 14 days, that calculates the payment due date, payment discount date, and payment discount amount on the sales invoice.

    By default, the payment term from the customer card is entered.

    Payment Method Code

    Specify how the sales invoice must be paid, such as bank transfer or check.

    By default, the payment method from the customer card is entered.

  6. Fill in the fields on the Ship-to and Bill-to Addresses FastTab with an alternate shipping address or an alternate invoice address. If the FastTab is not visible, on the Home tab, in the View group, choose Ship-to and Bill-to Address.

    Note
    In the Name field in the Bill-to Customer group, you can enter a customer that is not registered yet. In that case, you will follow the same steps as described in steps 3.1 through 3.5.

    The top FastTabs on the sales invoice are completed. Proceed to fill the sales invoice lines with inventory items or services that you want to sell to the customer.

    Note
    If you have set up recurring sales lines for the customer, such as a monthly replenishment order, then you can insert these lines on the invoice by choosing the Get Recurring Sales lines button.

  7. On the Lines FastTab, in the Item No. field, enter the number of an inventory item or service.

  8. In the Quantity field, enter the number of items to be sold.

    Note
    For items of type Service, the quantity is a time unit, such as hours, as indicated in the Unit of Measure Code field on the line.

    The Line Amount field is updated to show the value in the Unit Price field multiplied by the value in the Quantity field.

    The price and line amount are shown with or without VAT depending on what you selected in the Prices Including VAT field on the customer card.

    Note
    If you have set up special item prices on the Sales Prices and Sales Line Discounts FastTab on the customer or item card, then the price and amount on the invoice line are automatically updated if the agreed price criteria are met.

  9. In the Line Discount % field, enter a percentage if you want to grant the customer a discount on the product. The value in the Line Amount field is updated accordingly.

    Note
    If you have set up special item discounts on the Sales Prices and Sales Line Discounts FastTab on the customer or item card, then the line discount percentage, price, and amount on the invoice line are automatically updated if the agreed discount criteria are met.

  10. To add a comment about the invoice line that the customer can see on the printed sales invoice, write a text in the Description field on an empty line.

  11. Repeat steps 7 through 10 for every item that you want to sell to the customer.

    The totals shown at the bottom of the sales invoice are automatically calculated as you modify the lines or create new lines.

  12. In the Invoice Discount Amount field, enter an amount that should be deducted from the value shown in the Total Incl. VAT field at the bottom of the invoice.

    Note
    If you have set up invoice discounts for the customer, then the specified percentage value is automatically inserted in the Customer Invoice Discount Percent field if the criteria are met, and the related amount is inserted in the Invoice Discount Amount field. For more information, see How to: Set Up Invoice Discount Terms.

  13. When the sales invoice lines are completed, on the Home tab, in the Posting group, Post and Send.

    The Post and Send Confirmation dialog box opens showing the preferred sending method for the customer. You can change the sending method by choosing the AssistEdit button to the right of the Send Document to field. For more information, see How to: Set Up Document Sending Profiles.

The sales invoice is now registered as your obligation to fulfill the agreement, and the sales invoice is output as a document. The sales invoice is removed from the list of sales invoices and replaced with a new document in the list of posted sales invoices, which you access from the Role Center.

Tip

See Also