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Documentation › Accounting

Raise an invoice, proforma or credit note

Draft a bill, send it for agreement as a proforma, issue it with the next number in your series — and correct it properly with a credit note if anything changes.

Last updated 12 October 2026

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At a glance

  • Every invoice starts as a draft — no number, freely editable.
  • A draft prints as a proforma: a preliminary bill for agreement, with no number and no tax value.
  • Issuing takes the next number and makes it permanent.
  • An issued invoice is never edited — it is corrected with a credit note.
  • PDF and email are one click each, and the books are written for you.

On this page:

  1. The life of an invoice
  2. Start a new invoice
  3. Add the lines
  4. Send a proforma
  5. Issue the invoice
  6. Raise a credit note
  7. Void a document
  8. Find a document
  9. Questions

1The life of an invoice

1DraftLines added; prints as a proforma
2IssuedTakes its number; cannot be edited
3Part paidPayments recorded against it
4PaidBalance is nil
The status moves by itself as you issue the document and record money against it.
StatusWhat it means
DraftStill being written. No number; lines can be added and removed.
IssuedNumbered and permanent. Waiting for payment.
Part paidSome money received; a balance is still due.
PaidSettled in full.
CreditedCancelled by a credit note.
VoidShould never have existed. Kept on the record, with the reason.

2Start a new invoice

  1. Open Accounting → Invoicing and click New invoice.
  2. In Billed to, choose who it is for. Anybody in your address book may be invoiced; click Add one if they are not listed.
  3. Set a Due date and any Notes.
  4. Click Create draft. The draft opens, ready for its lines.

Customers live in Contacts — one address book for the whole system. The tax number on a contact (GSTIN, VAT number…) and their state are what decide the tax on their invoices, so fill those in on the contact itself.

3Add the lines

Under Lines, each row is one thing you are charging for. Add it in either of two ways:

Item

Pick something from your catalogue. Its description, price and tax rate are filled in for you.

Free text

Type a description and a price for a one-off charge with no item behind it.

  • Set the Qty and Unit price; type a Tax % only to override the item’s rate on this line.
  • The ✕ on a row removes it — while the document is still a draft.
  • The totals on the right add up as you go: Subtotal, each tax component, any Round off, and the Total.

How the tax on a line is calculated, and which slabs you can choose from, depends on your country of business — each country has its own system. See Tax regime, rates and financial year.

4Send a proforma

A proforma is a draft, printed. It tells the customer what the bill will be — so they can agree it or pay in advance — without yet being a tax document.

  1. On the draft, click Proforma to download it as a PDF.
  2. Or click the email button beside it. Filantis asks you to confirm the address, then sends the PDF to the customer.

Proforma invoice

No number. Says on its face that it has no tax value. Can still be changed.

From a draft

Tax invoice

Numbered from your series. Permanent. In your books and on your tax reports.

Once issued

The email button is greyed out when the contact has no email address. Add one to their contact record and it is offered here.

5Issue the invoice

  1. Check the lines and the total.
  2. Set the Issue date if it is not today.
  3. Click Issue. The document takes the next number in its series and is written into your books.

If the customer is paying there and then, choose how the money was Taken as, add a Reference such as a cheque number, and click Issue and mark paid instead: the invoice is issued and its payment recorded in one step.

Issuing is permanent. After that the document can only be corrected with a credit note. Send a proforma first if the customer has not agreed the figures.

Once issued, the buttons at the top change to PDF and email, and Statement opens everything on that customer’s account with a running balance. If you have switched on a payment gateway, Ask for payment gives you a link the customer can pay with.

6Raise a credit note

A credit note is how an issued invoice is reduced or cancelled. Both documents stay on the record, so the correction can always be explained.

  1. Open the issued invoice and find the Credit note card.
  2. Type the Reason.
  3. Tick Cancel it in full to credit every line as issued — or enter an Amount to credit (before tax), What for and the Tax % for a partial credit.
  4. Click Raise credit note. It takes its own number from the credit-note series.
Invoice10 chairs billed
Credit note2 chairs returned — amount before tax, tax credited with it
Balance due8 chairs — the invoice shows Credited against its total
The tax is credited with the amount, so your tax report nets out correctly.

7Void a document

Void this document is for a document that should never have existed — issued to the wrong customer, or twice by mistake. A document that was right and then changed is corrected with a credit note instead.

  • A void needs a reason; it is a permanent record.
  • A document with payments against it cannot be voided — raise a credit note.
  • A draft is simply deleted, not voided: it never took a number.

8Find a document

Accounting → Invoicing lists every document with its number, customer, date, due date, total, amount paid and status. Three figures sit above the list:

Billed

Everything you have issued.

Outstanding

What has not been paid yet.

Overdue

Outstanding and past its due date — shown in red.

Filter by status or by kind — invoice, receipt, credit note — and click a row to open it.

9Questions

I issued an invoice with a mistake. Can I edit it?

No — and that is deliberate. Raise a credit note for the wrong part, or cancel the invoice in full with one and issue a new invoice. Your customer and your auditor can then see exactly what happened.

Is a proforma counted in my sales?

No. It is a draft: nothing is in your books, on a statement or on a tax report until it is issued.

Can I invoice someone who is not a customer yet?

Yes. Anybody in the address book may be invoiced. Add them from the Billed to box.

Can I back-date an invoice?

You set the Issue date when you issue it. The number is always the next one in the series, whatever the date.

Where do hotel bills fit in?

A guest’s running account appears on the same list as a draft invoice, and is issued as an invoice at check-out. See the hotel guides for the front-desk side.

Invoices that keep your books for you

Issue an invoice and the tax is split, the number is taken, the ledger is posted and the customer has a PDF — in one click. No second system to re-key it into.

  • Proforma to invoiceOne document, from draft to paid.
  • Tax done for youSplit correctly for your country.
  • Never rewrittenCorrections are credit notes.
Create my free workspace See accounting

What to do next

The invoice is out — now take the money: Record a payment against an invoice. To see where it all lands, read Vouchers, ledger and day book.

Still stuck?

Write to support@filantis.com with your workspace name and what you were trying to do.