Choose how orders are invoiced
Every account starts on Per order: one invoice per sales order, exactly as before sales invoices existed. Switch a channel or a customer to Per shipment when they expect one invoice for each shipment, or to Manual when you bill deposits or invoice in stages. For what each policy does, see How sales invoices work.
Before you begin
| Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
| Permission | You need permission to change settings for the account-wide page, and to update customers for a customer override. |
| Know what changes | A policy is saved on each order when the order is created. Changing a default only affects new orders. Existing orders keep the policy they were created with. |
Which policy an order gets
SKU.io takes the first one that's set:
- the customer's invoicing policy;
- the sales channel's override;
- the account default.
The settings page states this as "Precedence: customer override → channel override → this default."
Set the account default
- Go to Settings → Invoicing, or click Invoicing settings at the top of Orders → Sales Invoices.
- Under Default invoicing policy, choose Per order, Per shipment or Manual.
- Click Save Changes.
Override a sales channel
On the same page, Sales channel overrides lists each of your channels with three columns: Policy, Fee allocation and Number format. Leave a field on Use default to follow the account setting, or pick a different value for that channel only, then click Save Changes.
Override a customer
- Open the customer under Contacts → Customers and select the Settings tab.
- In the Invoicing section, set Invoicing policy:
- Inherit (channel / account default)
- Per order — one invoice per order
- Per shipment — one invoice per shipment
- Manual — invoice when you choose
- Consolidated — one invoice per period
- Optionally set an Invoice email. Issued invoices are emailed there when emailing on issue is on; without one, SKU.io uses the billing email.
- Save the customer.
Change one order's policy
Open the sales order and select the Invoices tab. The line under the summary reads, for example, Invoicing: One invoice per shipment (from customer Nordstrom Inc.), naming where the policy came from. Click Change, pick Per order, Per shipment or Manual in the Invoicing policy for this order dialog, then click Change policy. It applies to this order only.
Once an order has an issued invoice, Change is disabled. Hover it to read why: "Invoices already issued — policy is locked for this order."
Numbering
Invoice number format builds the number from tokens you insert:
| Token | Becomes |
|---|---|
{order} | The sales order number, for example SO-10482 |
{seq} | The invoice's position on that order: 1, 2, 3… |
{seq:3} | The same, padded to 3 digits: 001, 002… |
{series} | A running number across all invoices |
{series:6} | The running number padded to 6 digits: 000001… |
Two presets fill the field for you: SO-10482.1 ({order}.{seq}) and INV-000001 (INV-{series:6}). A preview shows the first two numbers for a sample order and the length in characters. A draft has no number. It gets the next one when you issue it.
Freight and order-level charges
Freight & order-level charges decides how shipping, handling and other order-level charges are split when an order is billed on several invoices:
- Prorate by product value (the default)
- All on the first invoice
- All on the last invoice
- Separate fees-only invoice
The last invoice always takes the exact remainder, so the invoices add up to the order.
Automation
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Auto-issue shipment invoices | Issues per-shipment invoices as soon as the shipment ships. When off, they're created as drafts for you to review. |
| Invoice date | The date on per-shipment invoices: Ship date or Issue date. |
| Email invoice on issue | Emails the invoice PDF to the customer's invoice email (or the order email) when it's issued. |
| Invoice Amazon MCF shipments awaiting tracking | Treats Multi-Channel Fulfillment shipments that are fulfilled but still awaiting tracking as shipped, so they're invoiced. |
| Void unpaid invoice when its shipment is voided | When off, the sales order shows a warning and you decide whether to void the invoice or issue a credit note. Paid invoices are never voided automatically. |
Consolidated invoicing and Overdue payment reminders are on the same page. See Send sales invoices to customers and Chase overdue invoices.