The invoice & money
What an invoice is made of, field by field, and how its amounts add up. Read this page when a figure surprises you, or before you bill in a currency other than your own.
Where to find it: Finance → Invoicing — open any document, or click New invoice
When you'll use it
- Filling in the invoice form and wanting to know what each field does.
- Explaining to a customer, line by line, how the total was reached.
- Checking why an invoice made from an order differs from the order.
- Billing in a foreign currency from a Polish company.
Key concepts
Seller and buyer details are copied onto the document. The seller comes from the sales entity (your invoicing company). The buyer comes from a contractor in Entities (customers & suppliers), or from what you typed. When you issue, the seller's details, bank account and logo are copied again from the sales entity, as they are at that moment. After that, editing the sales entity or the contractor does not change the issued invoice.
Each line has a net price and a gross price. The one you typed is the exact one. The other is worked out from it and the VAT rate. One invoice can mix lines priced from net and lines priced from gross.
Totals are the sum of the lines. The document's net, VAT and gross are the lines' own net, VAT and gross added up. Nothing is recalculated on the totals.
The currency is a label. It applies to the whole document. Changing it does not convert any amount.
The screen
📷 Screenshot to add: the New invoice form with the Buyer, Line items and Payment & dates sections and the Summary beside them
The parties
Seller (entity) is chosen in the Document section. For a Polish entity, a warning appears under it when the entity has no connection to KSeF (Poland's national e-invoicing system), or when its connection points at the demo environment. See KSeF.
Buyer type is Company or Individual:
- A buyer with a Tax ID or EU VAT number is a company.
- A buyer from the seller's own country with no number is an individual by default.
- A buyer from another country with no number has no default. You must choose the type, or the invoice cannot be issued.
- A document for an individual cannot carry a tax ID or an EU VAT number. If an order marks the customer as a private person but gives a tax number, the draft gets the type Company and a note asks you to check.
- The type decides the numbering series. For a Polish seller connected to KSeF it also decides whether the invoice goes there.
In Search a partner you choose a contractor from Entities (customers & suppliers). While a contractor is chosen:
- the buyer fields and the buyer type are locked, because the details come from the contractor;
- Edit contractor opens the contractor. You need the Entities (B2B/B2C): Edit permission.
To type the details yourself, clear the picker with ×.
| Buyer field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Buyer name | Required to issue. |
| Tax ID | Company only. For a buyer in Poland the number is checked as you type. The Registry button fills in the name and address from the Polish business registry. |
| EU VAT | Company only. It must start with the code of an EU country, for example DE. For a company in another EU country the form recommends filling it in. |
| Registration no. | Company only. |
| Country | Required for a company. |
| The address Send by email uses. | |
| Street and number, Postal code, City, Phone | Printed on the document. Some documents need the full address before they can be issued. |
Notes that can appear in this section:
- This contractor's data has changed in the database since the document was saved. Click Update to database data to take the current details, or leave the document as it is.
- A note that the buyer address comes from the order and differs from the contractor's billing address. It is most likely the delivery address. Correct it on the order, or clear the contractor link and type the address.
When the contractor has several contacts, Contact person lets you choose whose e-mail and phone go on the document.
Line items
The currency selector is in the header of the Line items section. Click Add line for each line.
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Product from catalog | Optional. Choosing a product fills in the name, the price and the VAT rate. Leave it empty for a line of your own. Click the product name to open a quick preview of it. |
| Name | Required. Locked while a catalog product is chosen. |
| Qty | The quantity. A line needs a quantity above zero to be issued. |
| Unit | The unit printed on the document. New lines start with your company's default unit, if one is set. |
| Net price / Gross price | Per unit. Type either one. The other is recalculated. |
| VAT (%) | A rate from 0 to 100, or a code. See VAT on invoices. |
Under the fields, each line shows its Net value and Gross value.
How lines behave:
- A product's price is taken in the invoice currency. If the product has no price in that currency, the line gets 0.00 and the note No price in …. Type the price yourself. Nothing is converted.
- A line from an order with a discount, or with an amount that does not divide evenly by the quantity, keeps its exact gross amount until you change its price, quantity or VAT rate.
- A line that came from an order carries the tag From with the order number.
- When the lines of one invoice have different delivery dates, each line shows its own delivery date.
- For a company buyer from outside the EU and a line with the code
np, a switch marks that the buyer accounts for the tax in its own country. The invoice then carries the reverse charge wording.
Dates and payment
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Issue date | Starts as today. Required to issue. It cannot be later than today. An earlier date needs your confirmation when you issue. |
| Sale date | Starts as today. On an invoice made from an order it comes from the order: its delivery date, otherwise its order date. With several orders it is the latest of these dates, unless you choose another in the dialog. Required to issue. |
| Payment term (days) | Starts as 14. An empty field also means 14. A term of 0 makes the invoice due on its issue date. |
| Payment method | Bank transfer, Cash, Card or Other. |
| Due by | Calculated: issue date plus the payment term. Not editable. |
| Bank account | One of the seller entity's accounts. The entity's default account is preselected. Required for Bank transfer. |
| Notes | Free text printed on the invoice. |
Two more fields appear only for a Polish seller:
- Split payment mechanism — for a company buyer. Turn it on when the invoice is subject to the Polish split payment rules. The invoice then carries that marking.
- The tax point arises when the invoice is issued — for an invoice in a foreign currency. Tick it when the tax point is the issue of the invoice rather than the delivery. It changes which day's exchange rate is used.
Summary
In the form, the Summary shows:
- Net;
- one VAT row per rate or code;
- Total gross;
- Paid and Left to pay, when payments are already counted on the document;
- the exchange-rate note described under Foreign currency, for a Polish seller and a foreign currency.
On the invoice page, the amount is in the status card at the top. The Summary card holds the breakdown: net, VAT per rate, the exchange rate and the list of payments. For an invoice with corrections it also shows the Amount after corrections.
Status
| Status | What the status card says |
|---|---|
| Draft | The document has no number and is not in legal circulation. |
| Issued | In circulation: the document is the basis for the buyer's payment. |
| Partially paid | Partially paid. The remaining amount is still due. |
| Paid | Settled in full. |
| Overdue | The payment due date has passed. |
| Cancelled | Withdrawn from circulation: the amounts are not receivables. |
On a pro forma the card adds that a pro forma is not an accounting document.
The money model
Totals are the sum of the lines
For each line:
- priced from net: the net value is the net price times the quantity, and VAT is added on top;
- priced from gross: the gross value is the gross price times the quantity, and the net is worked back out of it.
The VAT breakdown groups the lines by rate and by code. Each group's net, VAT and gross are the sums of its lines. The document totals are the sums of the groups. So the net amounts of the lines always add up to the net total of the document.
Discounts come from the order
The invoice form has no discount field. Discounts arrive with the lines when you build an invoice from an order:
- a line discount lowers the line it belongs to;
- a whole-order discount is spread over the lines of that order in proportion to their gross value. The parts add up to the discount exactly.
On a consolidated invoice each order's discount stays within that order's lines.
Matching the order total
After the lines and discounts are worked out, Complaia compares the invoice's gross for each order with the order's total:
- A difference the size of a rounding error is spread over the lines so that the two match. The limit is small: about one minor unit (for example one cent) per line, a little more on large documents.
- A larger difference is left visible. It means that the order and its lines disagree, most often because an order line has no VAT rate.
The delivery line, lines with a code and lines at 0% are not adjusted.
Foreign currency
An invoice can be in any currency on the list. When the seller is a Polish entity and the currency is not PLN, the VAT amount must also be shown in PLN. Complaia does this when you issue:
- It takes the average rate of the National Bank of Poland (NBP) from the last business day before the tax point. The tax point is the delivery date, or the issue date when you ticked that the tax point arises when the invoice is issued.
- It saves the rate on the invoice and calculates the VAT in PLN. The invoice page shows both, as NBP rate and VAT in PLN.
While you edit, the Summary shows a note about the PLN amount and a Preview line with the latest rate, its table number and date. The preview is for information only. The rate that counts is the one saved at issue.
One invoice has one exchange rate. If the lines of a foreign-currency invoice have different delivery dates, they would need different rates, so the invoice is not issued. Issue a separate invoice for each date.
A correction of a foreign-currency invoice uses the rate of the corrected invoice, not a new one.
Without an exchange rate the invoice is not issued
If the bank's rate cannot be obtained, the issue is refused. The document stays a draft, and no number is used. Try again later.
For a seller outside Poland, or an invoice in PLN, no rate is saved. Documents under the EU One-Stop Shop (OSS) scheme have no NBP rate either. See OSS returns.
When it doesn't work
| What you see | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The buyer fields are grey | A contractor is chosen in Search a partner, and the details come from the contractor. | Click Edit contractor, or clear the picker and type the details. |
| Choose the buyer type. | The buyer is from another country and has no tax number, so Complaia cannot tell the type. | Choose Company or Individual. |
| No price in EUR (or another currency) on a line | The product has no price in the invoice currency, so 0.00 was filled in. | Type the price. Nothing is converted. |
| An error about the EU VAT number format | The number does not start with an EU country code. | Type it with the code, for example DE123456789. |
| The invoice differs from the order by more than a few minor units | The order's total and its lines disagree, usually because an order line has no VAT rate. | Compare line by line and fix the order. See VAT on invoices. |
| The discount is spread over lines you did not discount | A whole-order discount is shared by every line of that order. | Nothing to fix. A line discount stays on its own line. |
| I changed the currency and the amounts did not change | The currency is a label, not a conversion. | Type the prices again in the currency you mean. |
| An error that the lines have different tax points | A foreign-currency invoice can have one exchange rate. | Issue a separate invoice for each delivery date. |
| An error that the NBP rate could not be determined | The rate is missing for that day, or the bank could not be reached. | Try again later. |
Permissions
| To do this | You need |
|---|---|
| Open an invoice and download its PDF | Finance: View |
| Create and edit a draft | Finance: Create |
| Issue a draft | Finance: issue invoices |
| Use the Registry button on the buyer | Finance: settings |
| Follow the links to orders, products and contractors | Orders: View, Products: View, Entities (B2B/B2C): Edit |
Related
- Invoicing — the list, creating, issuing, sending and exporting
- VAT on invoices — rates, codes and the delivery line
- Payments — recording money against the amount due
- Corrections & cancellation — changing an issued document
- Sales entities — where the seller details, bank accounts and numbering come from
- The order record — the order the invoice is built from
- Glossary — net, gross, VAT code, correction