Getting paid.
The work is done, so the invoice is built from the agreed quote, your customer pays by card on the invoice itself, and the reminders go out for you. The last two steps of how it works.
The balance is worked out for you.
Raising the final invoice adds up the quote and every piece of extra work your customer accepted, then takes off everything already billed against the job. Nothing is retyped, so the price your customer agreed to is the price you send.
- Quote 0117
- $9,800.00
- Extra work, acceptedGarage door, second coat to the hall
- $820.00
- Extra work, still unansweredAdded once your customer says yes
- $0.00
- Deposit already raised
- −$2,940.00
- Bill a deposit, a progress claim or the balance: each knows what the others have taken, so the last is the remainder
- A progress claim can't over-claim the quote, and a voided invoice gives back what it had claimed
- Put the stages on the quote and a claim is a percentage against work your customer already agreed to. Every claim keeps its own rows, so "previously claimed" is read off what you issued
- The deposit is credited the way the quote said: a share off every claim, off the first claims until it's used, or off the final one
- In New Zealand a claim can go out as a payment claim under the Construction Contracts Act, with the Act's statement and Form 1 on it. One claim at a time, and only when you ask for it
- Your payment terms set the due date; your bank details and terms are copied onto the invoice as it's raised
- The first invoice on a job lists the work. Once a deposit exists, the balance is one line, because the work was already listed on the first one
Every figure here is GST-exclusive, and each invoice adds its own GST, so a deposit and its final add up to the quote to the cent.
An invoice keeps the numbers it went out with: the subtotal, the GST rate and the total. Move your rates afterwards and last quarter's invoices still say what they said. Cancelling an invoice voids it with a reason on it, and an invoice number is never used twice, so you can account for every one.
Your customer can pay it from the page they read it on.
The invoice goes out as an email with a link, and the PDF is attached. The link shows what's owed, when it's due and your bank details, so a customer who pays by direct credit has everything they need. Connect Stripe and there's a card button beside the bank details.
Your own Stripe account
The charge happens on your own Stripe account and the money lands in your bank. Card payments are in the one price, like everything else.
The fee is your call
Stripe's 2.7% + 30c comes out of the payment. You can wear it or add it to what your customer pays. Add it and the sum is worked out so you still get the full balance, and your customer sees the fee before they pay. Your bank details stay on the page without it.
Recorded once, whatever happens
The payment lands against the invoice like any other, with the card and Stripe's reference beside it. It's recorded the moment your customer sees "paid", and Stripe confirms it to us separately, so however long that takes the payment is only ever recorded once.
A direct credit, cash or a cheque is recorded against the invoice yourself, in part or in full, with the method and a reference on it. What's still owed, and whether the invoice is paid, late or short, is worked out from the payments against it, so a payment you reverse six weeks later puts the invoice back on the overdue list on its own.
Xero gets a copy. The record stays here.
Connect your organisation and a sent invoice shoots over to Xero as authorised, under your own numbering. An invoice you're still writing stays here until you send it.
- Payments recorded in Stringline go over to Xero, and payments Xero's bank feed reconciles come back, so the invoice closes itself here
- You choose which account codes sales and payments post to, and nothing is sent to Xero until you've picked them
- The GST treatment comes from your own organisation's tax rates, and a code your Xero doesn't have stops the sync and tells you, so nothing posts to the wrong account
- A card surcharge goes over as its own line on the invoice, so the payment Xero receives matches what the invoice says
- You send itA draft would have stayed here
- Pushed
- Xero has itUnder your own number
- Authorised
- Your customer's bank pays itReconciled in Xero on Thursday
- Paid here too
A Xero outage can't stop you sending an invoice. It goes to your customer, and the invoice tells you Xero hasn't had its copy yet.
The chasing happens on its own, and stops when the invoice is paid.
Up to three reminders per invoice, in your words, each one set a number of days from the due date. So you can have one go out three days before the invoice falls due, and the next a week after.
It starts when you send
The reminders begin as soon as the invoice goes out, so one can land before the due date. An invoice you sent before you wrote your reminders is picked up too.
Working hours only
Weekdays, eight to six, in your own timezone, so a reminder reads like you sent it.
It checks before it sends
Every reminder checks the invoice just before it goes. However the payment arrived, by your bank, the card, Xero's feed or you typing it in, the reminders stop. Whether an invoice is overdue is worked out the moment you look at it, so the overdue list is never a day behind.