Invoice or no invoice: when you need one and when you don't
Knows how to tell when a sale calls for a full invoice, when a simplified invoice (the receipt) will do, and when you don't need anything at all, and sets up the numbering in their invoicing software.
You get paid and you're left wondering: does this need an invoice, is a receipt enough, or is nothing required at all? Get it wrong on the side of caution and you waste time filling out paperwork nobody asked for. Get it wrong the other way, and the day a customer asks for an invoice, you won't have one, or worse, the IRS will. Then there's money that comes in without being a sale: a transfer between your own accounts, a refund, a loan. Treat that like a payment and your books won't add up.
This course solves that in the order it'll actually happen to you. First, you decide based on who's buying: an individual or a business. Then you separate what's a sale from what's just money moving without being one. With that sorted, you set up your full and simplified numbering in your invoicing software before your first payment comes in. And you finish with the right document for each payment, done right in that software, including the invoice someone asks for late, without touching the receipt you already gave them.
For anyone who bills individual customers directly, and sometimes businesses too, and needs to know which document to hand over in each case. It's not for anyone who only bills other businesses, since that almost always calls for a full invoice, with little left to decide.
- Deciding whether a sale calls for a full invoice, a simplified invoice (the receipt), or nothing at all, depending on who's paying
- Asking for tax details before you get paid, when the invoice is going to need them
- Setting up numbered, sequential series with no gaps in your invoicing software before your first payment
- Issuing the full invoice a customer asks for after the receipt, without rewriting or voiding that receipt
It helps to have payments already turned on for your website and your invoicing software already picked out.
The 6 lessons
In the order it makes the most sense to read them.
- 1
Who's buying decides whether there's an invoice
You'll know whether a payment needs a full invoice or just a simplified receipt, based on who's paying, and you'll ask for the tax details before getting paid, not after.
4 min - 2
If the customer doesn't ask for anything, a receipt is enough
You'll know when a receipt is enough for an individual customer, up to what amount it works on its own, and why giving one isn't optional even if nobody asks for it.
4 min - 3
If nothing has actually changed hands, that payment doesn't need an invoice
You'll learn to tell money that comes in from a sale apart from money that just passes through your account without actually being a sale, and how to record it without issuing a single extra invoice.
4 min - 4
The number you can't just make up when it's asked for
By the end, you'll have your invoice series (full, simplified, and corrective) sequential and without gaps, ready in your invoicing software before your first payment.
5 min - 5
The invoice for every payment, without missing a single one
You'll know what detail decides between a full invoice and a simplified one, and how to set up your invoicing software so every payment ends up with its own document and number, without relying on your memory.
5 min - 6
The invoice requested after the receipt doesn't rewrite the receipt
You'll know how to ask for the missing tax details, issue the full invoice under its own series, and leave the receipt exactly as it was, without touching or repeating any numbers.
4 min