Receiving an order from a government entity and flipping it into an invoice for billing

This guide follows one order from the Inbox to the invoice: receive it, check the sales order it becomes, then bill it and send the invoice back through InvoiceNow. What an order is, and what to set up first, are in How to receive an order from a government entity.

Receive an order

1. Open InvoiceNow›Inbox. A new order shows the Type Order or Advanced Ordering and the status New.
2. Click Review on its row.
3. Check the top of the window: Received From names the agency, Document Ref. is its PO number, and Currency is the order's currency.
4. Go through the lines. For each one, set the Item Type: Inventory for a stock item, GL Code for a service or charge, or blank for a free-text line.
5. For an Inventory line, pick the item and its unit. For a GL Code line, pick the account. Change the tax type if the one shown does not suit you.
6. Choose Receive as: Draft to check the sales order before it counts, or Confirmed to accept it as it is.
7. Click Receive. The row's status changes to Received.

What receiving does for you:

• The customer. The agency is matched to an existing customer by its InvoiceNow ID or UEN. If there is none, a customer is created from the order.
• The items. A line whose item code or name matches one of your stock codes comes in already set to that item. Any other line comes in as free text until you set it.
• Not an acceptance. Receiving only records the order on your side. To tell the agency you accept it, send an order response. See Send an order response.

Find the sales order

1. Open Sales›Sales Order and search for the agency's PO number. The sales order shows it in Other Reference, and for a government customer also in Purchase Order No..
2. Open the sales order. It has its own number from your sales order numbering. Check the customer, the lines and the totals against the agency's order.
3. If you received it as a draft, click Confirm once it is right.

Turn it into an invoice

1. On the confirmed sales order, click Generate Invoice.
2. Set the Invoice Date. For a government customer it cannot be in the future or more than 7 days back.
3. Enter the quantity to bill on each line. You can bill part of the order now and the rest later.
4. Click Generate Invoice. The invoice is created and confirmed in one step.
5. Open the invoice and click Submit GST InvoiceNow, or Submit InvoiceNow if GST InvoiceNow is not active.

The agency's PO number, and each line's PO Line No., carry onto the invoice by themselves. They let the agency match your invoice to its order. See Send a sales invoice or credit note.

If you deliver before you bill, generate the delivery order first. The invoice is then raised from the delivery order instead. See Invoice one or several deliveries.

What can stop you

• If you see "Some lines need attention: pick an item (and its unit) for each Inventory line, and an account for each GL Code line, before receiving." a line is set to Inventory or GL Code with nothing picked. Pick it, or set the line back to blank.
• The order is in a foreign currency. Receive stays greyed out until that currency is switched on, and your plan must include more than one currency. See Working in more than one currency.
• If you see "You can view this document but do not have permission to receive or drop it." your role can open the Inbox but not receive. Ask an administrator to allow receiving in the InvoiceNow Inbox.
• The order is already here. The Inbox marks a repeat as a duplicate. Overwrite draft replaces the draft sales order you already made from it, and Import as new creates a second one. If the first one is right, click Drop instead.