Creating, sending and tracking invoices and credit notes

The role of documents in Bookelio

The Documents page brings together invoices, credit notes — also known as credit memos — and incoming documents. An invoice describes a sale. A credit note records a commercial adjustment. Money received and refunds continue to be tracked separately through payment requests.

This guide explains how the software works, not which tax or accounting treatment to choose. Have your rates, exemption reasons, numbering rules and correction procedures checked by the person responsible for your accounts.

Preparing the necessary information

Before your first invoice, complete the business settings: legal name, tax identifier, address, contact details and relevant bank accounts. Add your logo if you want it to appear on PDFs. Also check the customer's billing identity, country and VAT number, if they have one.

The document is created from the information supplied at the time it is generated. Changing a customer record or price afterwards should not be treated as a correction to an invoice already issued. Check the data before confirming.

Creating an invoice directly

1. In Documents, choose New Document and the Invoices tab.
2. Select the customer, or create one from the form if necessary.
3. Check the seller's and buyer's details.
4. Enter the issue date. You can provide a document number if your procedure requires one; otherwise, let Bookelio generate it.
5. Enter the due date. An invoice for an amount greater than zero requires payment terms, including when you enter an amount already paid.
6. Add the line items: description, quantity, unit, unit price excluding VAT, VAT rate and tax category. Complete the exemption reasons where applicable.
7. Optionally add the buyer reference and the amount already paid.
8. Check the totals, then create the document.

Selecting a customer may trigger a check of their eligibility for reverse charge. The displayed indication helps with configuration; it does not replace checking the nature of your transaction. Do not select a zero rate merely to make a validation error disappear.

Bookelio checks the structured document when it is created. An error may relate to missing information, inconsistent tax or totals, or an unavailable validation service. Keep the exact message and correct the identified cause.

Creating an invoice from a payment request

If the sale already has a payment request, open its details. The invoice creation action appears when no invoice that has not been deleted is already linked to that request.

The confirmation lets you specify a number, issue date and due date. The line items come from the request and the invoice uses its language. The dialogue also asks a separate question: should a completed payment transaction be added?

Choose no if the payment is already recorded or if you are creating an invoice that still needs to be paid. Choose yes only when you actually need to record the corresponding payment. This option adds an external payment; it does not charge the customer. Take particular care with this choice on a request that already includes a deposit, to avoid counting money received twice.

Using the amount already paid

When creating an invoice directly, the Amount Already Paid field can record a payment received earlier. This amount cannot exceed the invoice total. A positive amount creates a completed external payment on the linked request.

The PDF document and its structured version distinguish the prepayment from the outstanding amount. Example: an invoice for €300 with €100 already received should show €200 to pay. If the amount due reaches zero, the PDF displays the corresponding payment indication.

For an existing invoice that has not yet been fully paid, the Mark as Paid action is offered when its linked request has a positive outstanding balance. It records money actually received; it does not initiate a bank payment.

Creating a credit note

1. Open New Document and choose Credit Notes.
2. Select the relevant customer.
3. Enter the document information and the line items for the adjustment.
4. Where relevant, enter the original invoice reference in the field provided.
5. Check the amounts and taxes before creating the credit note.

A credit note has its own document type: do not arbitrarily turn all quantities into negative numbers. Follow the meaning and values expected by the form and your accounting procedure.

Creating a credit note does not automatically transfer money to the customer. If money must be returned, also handle the payment refund. Likewise, cancelling a training session or booking and correcting the documents are separate actions that need to be checked together.

Viewing, sending and exporting

Each document row offers a PDF preview. The action menu lets you download the PDF, download XML when a structured version exists, send by email when the conditions are met and send via Peppol.

The PDF is intended for people to read. The UBL XML contains the structured data used for electronic exchanges. Downloading a document sends nothing to the customer; sending by email and sending via Peppol are two different actions. An invoice being sent does not mean it is paid.

Filter outgoing documents by period and customer. Sorting supports fields including the number, issue date, due date and total. The export gathers the documents matching the filters into a ZIP archive, containing PDFs, XML files or both, depending on the selected option.

Software subscription proration and offers

An immediate subscription change may create an additional prorated payment request. It follows the seller's invoice-timing choice described below; invoices already issued stay unchanged. If no supplement remains to pay, no fabricated payment is recorded.

A carried reduction after decreasing a plan or seat count is a commercial discount excluding VAT on future charges for the same subscription. It is deducted before VAT and appears in newly invoiced amounts. It is not an accounting credit note correcting the previous invoice, nor a bank refund. Generic refunds for subscriptions with adjustments are blocked pending suitable reconciliation; do not simulate a refund using a negative payment.

A free-month offer applies to a future eligible period: it erases no invoice and settles no unpaid bill. The complimentary cycle creates neither a payment request nor an automatic invoice. Read the software subscriptions guide to select commercial options and view their history.

Automation and important limitations

Peppol is optional for every invoice type: bookings, training, collective classes, packs, balance requests and software subscriptions. Its absence does not prevent invoicing activation or email delivery. Automatic Peppol delivery only applies when the service is configured, sending access is enabled and the recipient is compatible. Peppol sending checks still apply; document validation is not disabled.

The Group classes and packs setting adds an independent automation, disabled by default, after future full payments in euros for sessions and pack purchases. On-site payments must be recorded as received. Free sessions and sessions paid with credits are not invoiced again. Partial payments or payments whose net amount is insufficient after refunds do not trigger an invoice. Emails and invoices are processed in the background with retries on failure; historical payments are not automatically backfilled.

In Invoicing settings, the three options for bookings and training remain independent: generating an invoice after payment for time-slot bookings, generating one after payment for training registrations, and generating one when a training balance is requested. Invoices generated after payment are sent by email and, where possible, via Peppol. The balance reminder keeps its link to the payment interface. These functions require working email and storage services.

The Software subscription invoices card offers a separate setting for software subscription sales: After full payment — default or When the payment request is created. The first preserves the historical behaviour. The second generates and sends an invoice even while the request remains unpaid; it requires configured email and storage services. While saving, the form's controls are temporarily disabled to prevent concurrent changes.

The choice applies only to the seller organisation's future paid cycles. Cycles and requests already created retain their rule, and free plans or trials without a payment request have no automatic invoice. For an invoice triggered when the request is created, the issue date and due date match that request's creation date: it is due on issue. Any grace period temporarily permits use of the software but does not postpone that due date.

A generation or delivery error may delay document availability; the worker retries without creating a second invoice. Later payment reuses the invoice already issued without replacing its PDF/XML. Track the up-to-date payment state on the linked request: issuing an invoice never marks the customer as having paid and does not grant features on its own. Invoice timing and access entitlements are independent settings.

The dashboard does not offer invoice deletion. Do not try to make a document disappear to correct a sale. If there is an error, identify the appropriate correction with your manager and examine the linked documents from the payment request.