Creating, sending and chasing invoices

Sidebar: Invoices. The top of the page shows Total Invoices, Awaiting Payment, Paid and Total Revenue.

You need the View invoices permission to see this page, and Check out & take payment to create, edit or cancel them. Owners, managers and the Front Desk role have both by default.

Finding an invoice

Search by invoice number, client name or pet name. The status filter starts on Active. Switch it to All statuses or a single status to see more.

Statuses

• Draft: made, not sent yet.
• Sent: emailed to the client. Clients see it as "Pending" in their portal.
• Partially Paid: some money is in, some is still owed.
• Paid
• Overdue: sent and past its due date.
• Cancelled

Creating an invoice

Most of the time, you don't need to make one by hand:

• Collect Payment on a client's profile puts their unpaid visits on one invoice and takes payment. See Checking out multiple pets on one ticket.
• Complete & Create Invoice on an appointment makes an invoice for that visit to pay later.
• Checking out a boarding or daycare stay settles its invoice.
• Add charge on an appointment or stay that is already paid makes a follow-up invoice for the extra.

To make one by hand:

1. Click Create Invoice.
2. Pick the Client.
3. Add line items, each with a description and price.
4. Enter any Tax ($), a Due Date and Notes.
5. Save. The invoice starts as a Draft.

Sending it

On a draft, click Send. The invoice moves to Sent and is emailed to the client. The email lists each item and links to the invoice in their portal. Read the message that pops up:

• "Invoice sent to client": the email went out.
• "Invoice marked as sent, but the email could not be delivered": the status changed, but the email failed.
• "Invoice marked as sent — the client has no email on file": add an email to the client.

If emails keep failing, see Controlling which emails Alaga sends.

Getting paid

• Pay Now opens a card payment page in a new tab. It shows on Sent and Overdue invoices when a card processor is connected.
• Mark Paid records money you took another way. It works on drafts too. Pick the Payment method: Cash, Check, Card (charged elsewhere), Bank transfer, Other, or the client's account credit. You can add a tip and who it goes to.
• Clients can pay in the portal, under Invoices & Payments. The Pay button charges what is still owed. If your business only takes payments in person, the portal says so.
• Partly paid invoices show what is left. Collect the rest with Mark Paid or by opening the visit's checkout.

Editing, tips and staff

Open an invoice to see it. From there you can Download PDF, Edit lines, Add tip, Edit staff (who did the groom or bath) and Send Invoice.

You can edit the lines on Draft, Sent, Partially Paid and Overdue invoices. Paid invoices are locked.

If you pass on a card processing fee, it shows under the subtotal as Card processing fee, not as a line.

To change the closing line printed at the bottom of every invoice, go to Business Settings → Payment Settings and use the Invoice Closing Line card.

Cancelling

Invoices are never deleted. They are cancelled and kept on record.

• Cancel draft (the cancel icon on a draft with no payment). The number is not reused.
• Cancel invoice (on a Sent or Overdue invoice with no payment). It stops counting as owed. Tell the client if they already have it.

An invoice with money on it can't be cancelled. Refund the payment instead. See Refunds, voids and adjustments.

Overdue and reminders

Two things happen on their own:

• Every hour, Sent invoices past their due date become Overdue. Due dates use your business's time zone.
• Once a day, clients with overdue invoices get a reminder email. The same invoice is not chased more than once every 7 days. Clients with no email are skipped.

Invoice numbers

Invoices are numbered in order for your business, like INV-00001. Invoices made by selling a package use an older code, like INV-MXK2P0A1. That is expected.