Invoice numbering
kevinfreels
Member Posts: 8
When I first started using this today for my monthly recurring invoices, the invoice numbers started with 1,2,3, etc. I contacted support and asked about a way to start where my last invoicing system left off, or at least start with invoices of 1000001 or something like that. I was told that there was no way to do that and there was no way they could do it on the back end.
But then I stumbled across a workaround. I created a manual one-time invoice with a number of 1100001 and from then on, even my recurring invoices now increase by 1 incrementally with each invoice. So I thought I would pass this on for others who don't want invoices in the single or double digits or who want to use invoice numbers that pick up where their last system left off.
Comments
Hey @kevinfreels, what you've come across is correct!
The invoice/estimate numbering pattern will always increase from the previous sequence you set. For example, if you create an invoice or estimate (let's say 0019) and create another, the digit at the end of the sequence will increase by 1 (0020). If you add letters, the final digit will always increase by one as well (Name 0021, etc.), and letters cannot be customized (i.e. the same letters will carry over in the next invoice).
Recurring invoices will also follow the sequential order from regular invoices. If you create 5 regular invoices numbered 5-10, the next recurring invoice that generates will be invoice 11. You can edit invoice numbers by navigating to 'Sales > Invoices' and click on the invoice to edit the number in the top right corner. Recurring invoice numbers cannot be edited or customized until the invoice generates as they will automatically generate based on your sequence.
Basically, when the system generates the next invoice number, it will always take the largest number ever used in the past and increment that by one (which you were able to create on your end). I'm glad we have this thread to clear up potential confusion for others as they come across this; thanks for submitting this post!
I have made a single payment from the business current account which covers several invoices (uploaded in receipts) from one supplier. However I am not able to split the entry of the single payment and then merge each split with the individual receipts in the transactions page, or at least I cannot see a way to do this. The only work around is to duplicate the entry, manually change the amounts and then merge each of them with the receipts... Is there another way?
This was once possible in Wave but the feature seems to have been removed - split debits are listed as one transaction and the splits are only detailed if you click on the transaction.
I had this same question - and had also tried this work around, but my recurring invoice hadn't sent yet - so thank you for clarifying that it will work.
Wave - might be worth adding this to your help articles, as I searched there first.
I agree with the previous comment, perhaps you should add this to your help articles because it took me about ten minutes to find this information. However, if you simply add a section on numbering to your 'Guide to Recurring Invoices', it would reduce the amount of time spent looking for this information.
But I am very pleased to hear that recurring invoices increment from the previous manually set one. I also add the year at the beginning of my invoice numbers, so I just have to remember to create a manual invoice at the beginning of the year :-)
https://support.waveapps.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002487743-Guide-to-recurring-invoices
Excellent! So helpful, exactly what I was looking for too. Thank you
Hi all,
please can you advise where and how do I change numbering format for both estimates and invoices to include current year and then consecutive number ie YYYY - #####.
Thanks,
Chris
Hi @grbcic .
Feel free to take a look above at Ryan's post (from Feb 18, 2019) which will explain how our invoice numbering works. With this being said, just change your invoice to the number you want, and all following invoices will increase by 1 from that number (if it's the highest).
Hi @alexlewiszarkos ,
I have a question. So I was testing few features of wave and I created a dummy invoice(019/11) which I forgot to delete. Now I have other invoices(019/12 to 019/19). If I delete the dummy invoice i.e. 019/11 will the rest of the invoice numbers be adjusted automatically or is there a way to adjust the numbering of the other invoices.
Thank you in advance
Hi @muthu2417 , welcome to the Wave community! If you delete the dummy invoice, the invoice numbers for the other previously created invoices will not automatically adjust. You are able to edit an invoice number by going to Sales > Invoices > Click on the Invoice to edit > Edit Invoice. Here you can edit the invoice number field. The new invoice number that you enter into this field must be unique. Click Save and Continue when you are done to confirm the changes.
I receive a lot of invoices each month from multiple suppliers from whom I have credit. I have logged all of those invoices to COGS. At the end of each month I pay an agreed amount off my account with the suppliers. This payment can cover multiple invoices and/or invoices from prior months - there is no direct link of payment to specific invoice. Can I handle this in Wave or am I wasting my time?
I was thinking I might have to set up the Vendors as Accounts, not vendors - but then that might screw up the allocation of their expense to COGs against the Product Sales.
I was expecting an admin might respond to keep me interested but after a week I guess not. Maybe time to give up on Wave.
Hey @Irish! Good question, what you could do here is create bills in Wave for these expected payments. When you create a bill it credits an 'Accounts Payable' liability account for that amount, showing the expenses your business is expected to pay in the future. When the time comes to make a payment to the Vendor, you can split the expense transaction in Wave to each bill your are paying off. This will mean the expenses are tracked and recorded appropriately for each Vendor.
Very good - it's simple when you know the answer isn't it. I will try that approach - thank you.
So let's see if I have this right - if someone could answer please. I am entering my Bills from Vendors and categorising them as COGs - some for one store and more for the second store, sometimes splitting one Bill across the two stores. I then assign my bank payment to the vendors Bills by selecting "payment for Bill sent in Wave" and locating the various Bills which make up the payment, splitting the payment until it covers the total amount of the Payment. Is this OK? I notice that some of my bills don't appear on the list when I try to assign - is there a limit to the length of the list or is this a different problem?
Hey @Irish . The "Payment sent for a Bill in Wave" will only locate Bills that have unpaid amounts on them. If they have already been marked as paid in some capacity and your payment equals more than what is left to be paid on the Bill, Wave will not allow you to assign the payment. Please ensure that the Bill itself has not yet been marked as paid when assigning a payment to it.
The bills are not marked as paid but dont show up on the list when i scroll through to allocate them. I was thinking that there was a limit to the list length and as you allocated some more would appear at the bottom, but this is not happening. The bills just dont show on the list for some reason.
@Irish Hmm... would you be able to send me a direct message with your email and business name and I can take a further look at this for you?
I think I might have figured it out. The Bills that are not showing up are UK suppliers from who I receive my bills in UK Sterling. I pay them in Euro from a Euro account - but I think wave does not see them because they are inSterling and I don't have any sterling account. Would that make sense? In any case I'll send you a direct message with my email and business name. Thanks!!
Can you clarify for me if your payments have to be matched to invoices in a vendor account or can they just be assigned to the vendor account and not the specific invoices?
@Irish The payments themselves have to be assigned to specific Invoices / Bills as I'm afraid they can't be assigned to the vendors themselves. Taking a further look at your account, it looks like it's based in Euros which means that you can't match a Euro payment to a Bill in UK Sterling. The work around for this would be to change the currency of the Bill to represent the payment itself (Euros) and then you should be able to match them up. Let me know if this works for you.
Hi Alex. Yes - I figured that out and changed the bills to euros. Pity you cant just assign payments to vendors rather than invoices as sometimes you just pay off an amount of what is owed, not necessarily matching invoices. Most system allow this.
I have tried to do a workaround on this by just allocating random bills to make up the payment received but the system seems to get confused. Is there any way around this issue of having to allocate payments to specific bills.
Hey @Irish - sorry I'm not understanding. What do you mean by allocating random Bills to make up the payment received?
So i may have 20 bills outstanding and I make a payment to the vendor. Then I try to select a number of bills at random that can make up the total payment made, not that easy - but it seems like you have to try to match the total payment with a number of invoices matching that amount exactly. Thats what I am attempting to do. I was wondering if there was an easier way?
Another query which is complicating the same issue. If I enter a credit note as a Bill and put in a negative amount it classifies it as paid immediately. Sometimes you pay the vendor the net amount of an invoice minus a credit note and there is no way to account for this.
Hi @Irish . I'm afraid I don't have a better workflow for you here. This is a tricky one as is. I'd probably just select the first how ever many bills need to be paid that make up the total amount of what you paid for your vendor and use their amounts to break out the payment transaction in the Transactions page.
For example, if all of your bills were in $300 dollar amounts and you made a payment of $1100, you could split out the payment into 4 parts, the first 3 being $300 each, and the 4th being $200. You can then assign each of these split transactions to the Bills, with your last Bill still owing $100 which you can pick up on your next payment. Obviously this isn't easy, but it is probably the easiest way to handle it.
In regards to credit notes, this would be the only way to do it as assigning a credit note to a Bill would effectively zero some out considering you no longer need to pay that amount for that Bill.
Hi Alex, thanks for your help. If you assign a refund (income) to a bill it adds that amount to the bill rather than taking it away - surely that is a bug? If it did what it should do and removed it off the bill that would be a reasonable way of handling credit notes.
Hey @Irish . If you assign a refund to a Bill, the amount owed goes up because technically that amount is now owed on the Bill (as it's no longer paid). To get around this, you can add a new line item to the bill with a minus sign in front of the price in the amount that was refunded to zero it out.
I really dont understand that logic. A refund off a bill should reduce the amount owed. What am I missing? How can a refund off a bill increase the bill????