Send an invoice
Bill a customer for title work, repairs, storage or anything that is not a car sale. They open it on your website and pay by card or bank.
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An invoice bills a customer for anything that is not a car sale or a loan installment: title work done after the sale, a repair, parts, storage, detailing. The customer gets a link to the invoice on your own website, sees what they owe, and pays you by card or bank account through your own Stripe account. Payments you take another way (cash, a check, a card on another terminal) you record on the invoice.
This is about billing your customers. Your AutoDealer.io subscription is on Invoices and billing history.
Before you start
- Set your invoice options once. Go to Settings, Customer payments, Invoices: how many days after its date an invoice is due, your sales tax rate, the reminder emails, and a note printed at the bottom of every invoice.
- List the things you bill for. Under Things you bill for, click Add the usual list for title transfer, tag and registration, labor, parts, detailing, storage and doc fee, then set your usual prices, or add your own. Each item has a books account and a taxed flag, so a line is one pick.
- To take payment online, connect your own Stripe account (see Take payments with Stripe). Without it, the customer's page asks them to contact you, and you record the payment when they pay.
Make and send an invoice
- Go to Payments, click Get paid, then Send an invoice.
- Pick the customer, and the car if the invoice is about one.
- Add the lines: pick from your list or type your own, with a quantity and a price. Tick Charge sales tax on this line for a taxed line, like parts. The subtotal, sales tax and total update as you type.
- Add a note to the customer if you like, then click Save draft. A draft is not in your books and the customer cannot see it.
- On the invoice's page, click Send to the customer's email, or Mark sent and copy the link to share it yourself, by text for example.
Once it is sent, the invoice is in your books as money the customer owes you, and its lines are fixed. To change a sent invoice, void it and send a new one.
What the customer sees
The link opens the invoice on your own website, with your header and footer: what it is for, the total, what is still owed, and the due date. Pay opens a secure Stripe page for what is owed, by card or bank account, and the payment records itself on the invoice when Stripe confirms it. The customer gets a receipt by email. They can also download the invoice as a PDF. The page is never shown in search results.
Take a payment
- Take payment with Stripe on the invoice opens the same Stripe page at your desk, for the customer to fill in. Let them type their own card or bank details.
- Record a payment is for money you took another way. Enter the amount, how it was paid, the day and a reference if you want. It refuses more than is owed.
- A payment recorded by mistake can be voided from the invoice. A Stripe payment cannot: refund it in the Stripe Dashboard and the invoice follows by itself.
An invoice reads Unpaid, Partly paid, Overdue or Paid. Under Payments, Invoices, pick a view or search by customer or invoice number. Money paid on invoices also shows in the main Payments list.
Void an invoice
Void invoice takes a sent invoice out of your books, dated the day you void it, and the customer's link shows it as cancelled. You can void an invoice only when nothing is paid on it: void or refund its payments first. A draft is deleted instead.
Reminders
With Email a reminder when an invoice is due on, the customer gets one email the day before it is due, and one more a week after if it is still unpaid. A customer who asked not to be emailed never gets one.
In your books
- When you send it: the total goes to Accounts Receivable - Invoices, each line to its own account, and the tax to Sales Tax Payable. Title and tag fees you pass on to the state go to License & Registration Fees Payable, not to your income.
- When it is paid: the money comes in and the receivable goes down. Stripe's fee is booked to Merchant Processing Fees.
- A void reverses the invoice on the day you void it.
FAQ
Can a salesperson send an invoice?
No. Invoices are for owners, admin managers and accounting. A salesperson takes payments on their own deals.
Is the sales tax right for my state?
The invoice charges your one rate on the lines you mark as taxed. Rules for parts and labor differ by state, so check with your accountant which lines to tax.
Does the link expire?
No. The invoice link keeps working. Each time the customer presses Pay, a fresh Stripe page opens for what is still owed at that moment.
Can the customer pay part of it online?
Online, the customer pays what is still owed. A part payment taken another way you record with Record a payment, and the link then asks for the rest.