First lets delve into the fields that make up an Invoice

Transaction ID: This is a numerical integer value which uniquely identifies every transaction. The system automatically generates serial numbers for you, separately for your Customers and your Sub-Resellers, starting from 1, incrementing upwards for each additional Invoice created.

Transaction Date: This is the date on which the Invoice was created

Description: This is the Description of the invoice, describing the purpose for which the Invoice was created

Order ID: All Invoices are related to ONE SINGLE Order. An Invoice is always dependant on an Order. An Invoice can only be created for a particular Order. The Invoice depicts a certain amount of money to be paid for an Order

Invoice Amount: This is the amount of the Invoice. This is the amount your Customer or Sub-Reseller needs to pay for that Order. Incase your Selling currency is different from your Accounting Currency, you will see the Invoice amount in both the currencies.

Pending Amount: This is the amount pending against this Invoice. To begin with this will be same as the Invoice Amount. For instance if the Invoice amount is USD 200, the pending amount will also be USD 200. If the Customer now chooses to make a payment of USD 100 against this Invoice, the Pending Amount will then be USD 100. Incase your Selling currency is different from your Accounting Currency, you will see the Pending amount in both the currencies.

Forex Gain/Loss: If your Accounting Currency is different from your Selling Currency then the System records your Forex Gain/Loss for every transaction. Each time an Invoice is paid, the appropriate Forex Gain/Loss for that Payment is calculated and maintained by the system. This has been explained in greater detail in FAQ: Balancing (Payment) of a Pending Invoice/Debit Note explained in Detail

Other Details: An Invoice contains several other details such as Contact Information, Tax information, etc..

It is important to note that All of the above fields CANNOT be modified once an Invoice is created. An Invoice can only be balanced. It can never be modified. The amounts, address information, everything remains as it is. Another important aspect to note is that an Invoice contains even your OWN contact details. If you click on the Print button in an Invoice detailed view, it will show your contact details too. These contact details are separately stored with each Invoice. These too cannot be modified. Even if you change your company name after 1 month, it will not affect the Invoices already raised under the previous company name. This change will only affect newer transactions. The same applies to applicable Taxes too.

Incase of an unpaid Invoice you may see any of the below additional fields:-

Request Cancellation Days: This signifies the number of days, post which a pending Request will be cancelled if the payment on the Invoice is not made. This will only be visible if a Request is not yet executed. For instance if a Customer requests for a Domain Name, but this Domain Name is not yet Registered, in this case the Invoice will display a Request Cancellation date. If the Invoice is not paid for by the Invoice Cancellation date the Request and the Invoice will be Cancelled. The Request Cancellation date can be set anywhere between 7 and 60 days, in accordance with standard business practices. For instance, a Domain Registration Request could be set to cancel after 7 days, because a service as basic as Domain Registration is unlikely to warrant a longer duration. However, for ancillary services such as Mail Forwarding, you would want to allow more time for a Customer to pay for it.

Order Suspension Date: This signifies the Date on which the Order will be Suspended if the balance payment in the Invoice is not made

Order Deletion Date: This signifies the Date on which the Order will be Deleted if the balance payment in the Invoice is not made

Reminder Days: This signifies the number of days after which a reminder for Payment of the Invoice is sent to your Customer/Sub-Reseller, by the system, automatically

The above four fields are the MOST powerful fields that are available to you with respect to an Invoice. These four fields are not modifiable once an Invoice has been raised. These are discussed in further detail in this FAQ: Payment Collection System and Parameters explained.

Now lets understand the different types of actions that can be performed on an Invoice. These actions are accessible from the toolbar in an Invoice detailed view.

Pay:
You can pay the Invoice using funds from your Customer's or Sub-Reseller's account. On clicking Pay, you will be able to directly use funds from your Customer's or Sub-Reseller's account to pay for the Invoice. The pay button assumes that your Customer or Sub-Reseller has funds in their account. If your customer or Sub-Reseller does not have funds to cover the Invoice, you can choose to first Add Funds in their account and then subsequently pay the Invoice.

To understand the calculations performed by the System during the process of balancing (paying) an Invoice/Debit Note, visit FAQ: Balancing (Payment) of a Pending Invoice/Debit Note explained in Detail.

Cancel as Bad Debt: Once you have executed the request associated with an Invoice and are not able to recover entire Invoice amount from your Customers/Sub-Resellers, you may choose to write off (cancel) the pending Invoice amount as Bad Debt. Clicking on this button, would raise a Credit Note of the pending amount.

Cancel: You can only cancel those Invoices that have a Request associated with them and are fully unpaid, using the cancel button. Additionally, if there was any request associated with that Invoice it will be cancelled too, unless the Request has already been separately executed. E.g. if a Request for Registration of a Domain Name was placed, an Invoice associated with it will be created. Upon clicking cancel for this Invoice the associated Request will be cancelled. This is discussed in more detail separately.

To understand the calculations performed by the System during the process of cancelling an Invoice/Debit Note, visit FAQ: Cancellation of a Pending Invoice/Debit Note explained in Detail.
 

Discount: A Discount may be offered either prior to receiving payment for an Invoice or after you have received payment from your Customer/Sub-Reseller. You may Discount an Invoice until it has been completely reversed, through one or more combination of Discounts (including Sales Reversals) and/or Cancellation due to Bad Debts. Click here to understand the calculations performed by the System while giving Discounts >>

Print: You can use this button to obtain a Printable Copy of the Invoice for your reference.

Execute w/o Payment: This is a special action which can only be performed with Invoices of your Customers, which have a Request associated with them. This is explained in detail later in this answer.
 

Types of Invoices

There are two types of Invoices:

1. Invoices Associated with a Request
2. Invoices that do not have an Associated Request

Invoices associated with a Request
These refer to Invoices which have a Pending Request related to them. The Request is fulfilled after the payment of the Invoice. The Request is actually pending with respect to the Order for which the Invoice is raised. For example, if an Order Renewal is requested, an appropriate Invoice is created for that Order Renewal. This Invoice is associated with the request of renewal. The Renewal would be carried out once the Invoice is paid for.

You can perform the following special actions on any Invoice that has an associated Request with it

Execute w/o Payment: You can choose to execute the Request without using your Customer's funds. To do this, click on the Execute w/o Payment button. The Execute without Payment button executes the underlying request. You have two choices when using the Execute w/o Payment button -

Choice 1: Execute the Request, and keep the Invoice as it is. That way your Customer can pay for this Invoice later
Choice 2: Execute the Request, but Cancel the Invoice. That way your Customer will not have to Pay for this Invoice at all

If you choose to keep the invoice as it is, the request will be executed but the invoice will still show up with the Status as Pending Amount against the underlying Order. Your Customers and you may continue to get Payment Reminders for this Invoice until they have paid for it, or you have cancelled it. It can also result in the Suspension or Deletion of the Order if the Invoice remains unpaid beyond your Payment collection settings for that Invoice. This is described in detail further.

If you execute the request, but cancel the Invoice, the request will be executed, but the Invoice will be cancelled, by creating a Discount Credit Note of the balance amount of the Invoice and balancing it against the Invoice. You will have to remember to recover the Payment from your Customer yourselves. The system will not assist you in the payment collection for this Request once the Invoice is cancelled by means of a discount. You may choose to do this incase you have already received a payment from the Customer. However in that case it is a better idea to feed the payment into the System and balance the Invoice against that. This allows you to maintain records of all your Customers and Sub-Resellers and use the advanced Payment Collection features provided by the system.

Some salient points to note about Invoices associated with a Request are as follows

• Only the System can raise Invoices associated with a Request. This is because requests are automatically created in the System. In fact, you can think of an Invoice associated with a Request as an Order placed by your customer through the interface. The Invoice will be raised based on your Selling Price to the Customer, for whatever Services your Customer Requests.
   

• The Request associated with the Invoice can be separately executed by using the Execute w/o Payment option.
   

• If the Request is not executed, and the Invoice is cancelled, the Request automatically gets cancelled too.
   

• If the Invoice is paid for fully, the Request is also executed.

Let us understand this and some other aspects by using an example. Lets assume a Customer of yours - Customer A, places a Request for Renewal of an Order. The Invoice created for this purpose is as follows

Transaction ID: 1
Invoice Description: Renewal of someorder.com for 1 year
Invoice Amount: USD 100
Pending Amount: USD 100

The above Invoice is automatically created by the System. This Invoice is associated with the Request for Renewal of someorder.com. We can now perform the following actions with the above Invoice

Pay: You or Customer A, can Pay for the Invoice. The Payment can be of the full USD 100 or a partial payment of say USD 50. If the payment made is of the full USD 100, the Renewal request will be executed immediately. If however a partial Payment is made on this Invoice, then the Request will continue to remain pending until the balance payment is made too

Cancel: If this Invoice is cancelled, the Renewal Request associated with the Invoice will be cancelled too, provided the Request has not already been executed.

Execute w/o Payment, and Cancel Invoice: If you choose to execute this Request without Payment, and Cancel the Invoice, the Renewal will get executed, but the Invoice will be cancelled. The Renewal then cannot be reversed. It would have been completed. You will have to remember to collect the Payment for this Renewal from Customer A yourself.

Execute w/o Payment, and Retain Invoice: If you choose to execute this Request without Payment, and retain the Invoice, the Renewal will get executed, and the Invoice will be retained. This way, your Customer's Order is renewed immediately. The Invoice however remains pending in the System, and the System will continue to remind you that you have to Collect this Payment from your Customer. The reminders will continue for as long as you have either recovered the Payment and fed it in the system, or cancelled this Invoice. The Renewal action however is irreversible. If after a few days you choose to Cancel the Invoice, the renewal which was already done will not be affected.

An important point to understand out here is that if you choose to "Execute w/o Payment" and "Keep the Invoice" the Invoice now changes to an Invoice that is NOT associated with a Request. Let us understand this a little better. At this point in time, Customer A had an Invoice which had an associated action - Renewal of someorder.com for 1 year. If you however choose to execute the Renewal without paying for the Invoice, then the Request for renewal does not exist anymore. The Invoice therefore is no more associated with a Request. It continues to be associated with the Order. This Invoice now becomes of the second type - i.e. an Invoice that does not have an Associated Request.

Auto-Cancel: If you do not perform any of the above actions on the Invoice, the system will cancel the Invoice and the associated Renewal Request automatically in a predefined time period. This time period is set as the Request Cancellation Date as per your Payment Collection Settings.

Invoices that do not have an associated Request
Invoices that are associated with an Order, but do NOT have any PENDING Request dependant on their payment, are known as Invoices that do not have an associated Request. These are Invoices that are directly created by you, by using the Add Invoice function in your Control Panel from within the Billing section under Sub-Resellers and Customers in the menu bar. These Invoices are associated with an Order, but do not have an associated Request. This functionality is provided to allow you to create Miscellaneous Invoices related to an Order and use the Payment Collection systems provided by us to collect your Payments.

For instance if you have a Customer who buys a Domain Name - abcd.com. If you wish to now charge this Customer a separate charge for some web designing related to this domain name, you can simply raise an Invoice in the system, and the system will take care of the Payment collection on your behalf. This is an extremely powerful capability and you should take time in understanding the functionality available to you.

Each Invoice which does not have an associated Request has the following extra fields

Order Suspension Date: This signifies the Date on which the Order will be Suspended if the balance payment in the Invoice is not made

Order Deletion Date: This signifies the Date on which the Order will be Deleted if the balance payment in the Invoice is not made

These two fields are not available for an Invoice which is associated with a Pending Request. They are only available for Invoices which DO NOT have a Pending Request. These are extremely powerful fields which you can use for your Payment Collection. These are discussed in further detail in FAQ: Payment Collection System and Parameters explained

Important aspects to understand about Invoices which do not have an associated Request -

• These are Invoices manually created by you in order to use our Payment Collection system to collect your Payments

• These Invoices do not have any Action or Request associated with them. Paying for these Invoices will not execute any action. Canceling these Invoices will not cancel any action, since there is no action associated with these Invoices