This article covers three things you do with selling invoices once they exist: creating a credit invoice against one, changing the status of several invoices at once from the invoice grid, and the status rules that apply whichever way you change a status. It does not cover setting up invoice types or number ranges — see How to create invoice type in Freightools — or how exchange rates reach an invoice — see ROE (Rate of Exchange) in Freightools.
Before you start
- A credit invoice is created under an invoice type that has the Credit checkbox ticked. Your company's invoice types are listed under Settings → Accounting Configuration → Invoice Types. There are three credit types: Credit Invoice for selling invoices, Credit Commercial invoice for commercial invoices, and Credit BUYING invoice for supplier invoices. Your Freightools administrator sets invoice types up — see How to create invoice type in Freightools.
- Selling invoices live under Invoicing → Selling Invoices, where the buttons are New Invoice, Journal, Save Changes and Set Status.
- The customer on the invoice must be approved for invoicing. If you create an invoice from a Shipment Order for a customer who has not been approved, Freightools shows a message. Approve the customer first — see How to approve a new customer for invoicing.
- Setting an invoice to Paid needs the Accounting capability on your user. The same article explains where your Freightools administrator turns it on.
Create a credit invoice
There are two ways to create a credit invoice:
- By creating the credit invoice directly, without starting from the invoice it credits: open
Invoicing → Selling Invoices, click New Invoice and, on the Basic Information tab, set
Type to Credit Invoice. The Type list offers Selling Invoice, Credit Invoice,
Demurrage invoice, Commercial Invoice and Credit Commercial invoice. Choose the
Billing Customer, then fill in Currency, Finance Currency, Payment Term, Date
and Finance Date; Business Unit, Bank, Customer Address, Reference and
Tags are optional. Invoice Number is read-only: Freightools assigns it. The window's
other tabs are Orders, Printouts & Mails and History. Click Save Changes. - From the original invoice, with the Credit button or the Credit Order control (below).
Both ways lead to the same rule on currency, below.
Credit from the original invoice
- Open the invoice you want to credit from Invoicing → Selling Invoices (or Buying Invoices for a supplier invoice) and go to its Orders tab.
- To credit the whole invoice, click Credit at the top of the tab.
- To credit single lines, use the Credit Order column, the last column of the lines grid: tick the lines, then click the Credit Order button at its head.
Either way the credit invoice is created at once, in status Open, with the credited lines as negative lines and the original invoice's number in its Reference field. Open it from Invoicing → Selling Invoices (or Buying Invoices) to check it and move it on.
Credit and Credit Order appear only on an invoice that:
- is in status Finance Approved,
- has an invoice number, and
- is not itself a credit invoice.
Credit is shown only while none of the invoice's lines has been credited yet. Credit Order is shown while at least one line has not been credited.
On a Shipping Order's Economics tab, the group header also has a Credit button when there are active credit orders, and the Show Credit / Hide Credit toggle shows or hides credit lines in the grid.
How to recognise a credit invoice
- Its Type is Credit Invoice, Credit Commercial invoice or Credit BUYING invoice. To list only credit invoices, filter the invoice list by Type; there is no separate credit column. See How to find and filter invoices.
- On its Orders tab every value — Original Value, Unit Value, Total Value, Document Value and Value Inc. VAT — is negative.
- It has no Credit button and no Credit Order column of its own.
Why you cannot pick a different currency for a credit invoice
A credit invoice is always created in the currency of the original invoice. This holds whether you start from the Credit button or create the credit invoice directly. If the original invoice is in USD, the credit invoice is in USD; you cannot create it in EUR or in your company currency instead.
How exchange rates and ROE dates are applied to invoices is explained in ROE (Rate of Exchange) in Freightools.
Change the status of several invoices at once
You do not have to open invoices one by one to change their status. In Invoicing → Selling Invoices:
- Tick the invoices whose status you want to change.
- Click Set Status. The Set status of selected invoices dialog opens and tells you how many invoices are selected.
- Pick the New status — New, Open, Pending, Operation Approved, Finance Approved, Paid (Closed) or Canceled.
- Click Update. Cancel closes the dialog without changing anything.
This works the same way as editing the validity of several agreements at once from their grid: you select the rows first, then apply one change to all of them.
The status rules in the next section apply to a bulk change exactly as they apply to a single invoice, because they are enforced on the invoice itself, not on the screen you change it from. The dialog says so itself: "Each invoice moves only if the status is allowed from its current one, exactly as in the invoice dialog. Selling invoices moved to Finance Approved get the invoice date set to today (or the fixed date)."
Invoice status rules
Finance Approved cannot be undone. Once a selling invoice reaches Finance Approved, its status cannot go back to an earlier one — not from the invoice, not from the invoice grid, and not from a consol or another tab that shows the same invoice. Check the invoice before it reaches Finance Approved. The official invoice date is set when the status changes to Finance Approved — see ROE (Rate of Exchange) in Freightools.
Only users with the Accounting capability can set an invoice to Paid. If the Paid options are greyed out for you, your user does not have the Accounting capability. Ask your Freightools administrator.
If something goes wrong
| You see | What to do |
|---|---|
| The credit invoice cannot be given a different currency from the original invoice | By design. A credit invoice is created in the original invoice's currency only. |
| A selling invoice at Finance Approved will not go back to an earlier status | By design. The status of a selling invoice cannot be moved back once it has reached Finance Approved. |
| The Paid options are greyed out in the invoice dialog | Your user does not have the Accounting capability. Ask your Freightools administrator. |
| Set Status answers "No invoices were selected." | Tick the rows in the grid first, then click Set Status again. |
| There is no Credit button on the invoice | The invoice is not Finance Approved, has no invoice number, is itself a credit invoice, or one of its lines has already been credited. To credit the remaining lines, use Credit Order on each line. |
| A message appears when you create an invoice from a Shipment Order | The customer has not been approved for invoicing. See How to approve a new customer for invoicing. |