A progress payment is generally the payment attributed to partial supply of goods or services. For example, when homes are built, there are several progress payments made along the way that make up the entire contract for the build. Each one is usually invoiced separately or via a contracted payment schedule.
Sometimes you may need to handle progress payments and invoicing. In Saasu, if you have a project or job that has several milestones, you can handle this in a few different ways. We haven’t considered your specific tax, legal, and accounting needs and procedures so these may or may not be appropriate. There are several Contract related issues to consider with your advisors. In this example, we look at some ways to capture multiple billing milestones:
Create a Sales Order Detailing the Milestones
In Saasu you can create a Sales Order which represents each milestone as a separate line item. In effect, when you do this you are building up a Payment Schedule for services, etc. When each milestone is met, create a new Sales Order for the Balance of work to be completed. To do this you duplicate the original and remove the line item you are going to invoice. Lastly, convert the original, keeping just the relevant milestone.
Create a Sales Order for each Milestone
In Saasu you can create a Sales Order for each milestone. When the progress payment is billed for completing the milestone, you convert the appropriate one to an Invoice dated the day you can legally issue it (basis contracted agreement or completion, etc) and issue it to the customer.
Create Single Quote or Estimate and use it to Generate Invoices at each Milestone
Another way to deal with this is to create a Quote or Estimate with a line item for each milestone. You would then duplicate the Quote or Estimate when each milestone is completed and remove the line items not being billed before saving it as an Invoice each time.
Create Single Invoice with Separate Line Item and Due Date for each Milestone
This method probably only works where there is a high level of legal and completion certainty for each milestone. Additionally, it may not be appropriate if your accounting procedures and customers don’t allow for the project being invoiced upfront but have it payable over time dependent on milestones being completed. The due dates could also be included as a schedule in the Notes area if you didn’t want this among the line items.
Invoice Number already in use
If you are using the Autonumbering setting for Sales or Purchases and you have previously used an invoice number, you will get the following error message which prevents the invoice being created:
The invoice number you entered or autogenerated (x) has already been used. Please choose a different invoice number.
You shouldn’t get any error messages if:
- (a) the number is available and
- (b) there isn’t an equal or higher invoice number being used in the system.</>
If you do get this error message you need to find the latest/highest invoice number and then go to Settings > Sales and set the “Next invoice number” field to be the latest/highest invoice number you have used plus one. I.e: If you have issued sale number 345 then the number to enter in the “Next invoice number” field is 346.