Creating Invoices

Sonido allows you to create Invoices that can be send to contacts when invoicing a project. The purpose of an Invoice is to share financial details of a project in order to capture payments from your clients.

CREATE AN INVOICE

To create a new Invoice, go to the "Financials" section of the menu and select "Add Invoice." This will display the new Invoice creation page where you can add details for the new Invoice. The Invoice will contain your primary company information, such as your logo, your company name and other company details (these details are displaying from the Company Settings page).

INVOICE NUMBER - You can add any alpha-numeric string in this field and Sonido will automatically use that number and continue counting upward by a single digit each time you create a new Invoice. For example, if you enter ABC001 as the Invoice Number, the next time you create an Invoice Sonido will automatically assign the Invoice Number as ABC002. 

INVOICE DATE - The Invoice Date field will automatically populate with the current date, but you can change it to reflect the date of your choosing. 

TAX ID / VAT NUMBER - If you have added a Tax ID / VAT ID to your Company Settings, this number will display within the Invoice as well. 

PROJECT - Invoices are tied to Projects from Sonido. In order to create an invoice, you will need to first have the Project created or available. From the Project field, you can select from a list of any Project within your Sonido account to tie the Invoice to the appropriate record. 
If you do not yet have the Project created, you will need to create the Project in Sonido before creating the Invoice. 

PROJECT START DATE - After selecting the Project for the Invoice, the Project Start Date will automatically apply based on the start date specified in the Project record. You can, however, make a change to the Project Start Date in this section, if needed. 

BILL TO - In the Bill To field, you can populate any email address for whom the Invoice is to be directed as a Bill To recipient. If you click in this field, Sonido will populate a list of contacts that already exist within your Sonido account as suggestions. As you type, the list will filter down to the suggestions that match what you are typing. You do not have to select from an existing contact in your Sonido CRM, but you may also simply type a full email address and press "enter" to apply a new email address to this field. You may add as many recipients as necessary to the Bill To field. 

CC TO - The Cc To field is similar to the Bill To field. Any additional contacts that may not be the Bill To contact may be added as a copied contact in the Invoice. 

CUSTOMIZE - You have a couple options in customizing the Invoice format or details that display in an Invoice. In the first dropdown field, you have the option to select the Invoice format, such as Quantity, Hours or Amount. This option updates the available columns within the Invoice depending on what format you intend to use, such as an Invoice by hourly rates, by quantity, or a fixed project rate ("Amount"). 

The second dropdown field for "Add / Remove Detail" allows you to add additional details to your Invoice, such as Details Descriptions to each line item, a Tax value for the overall Invoice, Discounts based on a percentage or fixed amount, and even the ability to add a new Custom Amount field, which could be used for adding a fee or additional value to the Invoice that is not a single line item. 

INVOICE LINE ITEMS - You have the ability to create as many line items as needed that outline the services that you are invoicing. You can easily add additional line items to the Invoice by selecting the "+ Add Another Line Item" button ad the bottom of the existing line items. The subtotals from the added line items will all display in the Subtotal and Total lines.

ADD TRACKED TIME - You can easily invoice for time tracking entries that have been saved against the Project related to the Invoice. If the Project has Time Tracking entries that have not been invoiced, you can select the "+ Add Tracked Time" button to view the list of available time entries, select the entries that you'd like to invoice, and Sonido will apply them to your Invoice directly. You will also see any entries that have already been added to a previous invoices (these entries are not available to add to your current invoice). You can make any changes necessary to the line items, such as renaming the descriptions or values. 
If no Time Tracking entries are available for the associated Project, the "+ Add Tracked Time" button will be grayed out. 

ADD PRICE LIST ITEM - By selecting the "+ Add Price List Item" selection, you will see a list of any Price List items created within your account and you can make a selection to add the Price List item to your Invoice as a new line item. When added, this will include the Name and Price (Rate) from the Price List item directly to a new line item - the Quantity field will default to "1".
You may add as many Price List items as you wish to your Invoice. 
To create new Price List items, see the Price Lists guide.

ADD BOOKING HOURS - You can also easily invoice any booking hours that have been tied to Sonido users. If the Project has booking hours that have not been invoiced, you can select the "+ Add Booking Hours" button to view the list of available booking hours, select the hours that you'd like to invoice, and Sonido will apply them to your Invoice directly. You will also see any bookings that have already been added to a previous invoices (these bookings are not available to add to your current invoice). You can make any changes necessary to the line items, such as renaming the descriptions or values. 
If no booking hours are available for the associated Project, the "+ Add Booking Hours" button will be grayed out.
The calculation of these booking hours is dependent on Users within Sonido displaying hourly rates in their user record. If no hourly rates have been defined, the Rate field will display and calculate against 0. While you can manually change the rate field in the Invoice, be sure to update your User records to reflect the appropriate hourly rate so that Sonido can calculate the appropriate numbers. 

NOTE TO RECIPIENTS - The Notes field allows you to add any details that you'd like to the recipients. This could be a thank you for choosing your studio, detailed expectations for next steps, how to communicate with you with questions, how to go about making payments on the invoice, etc. These details will display on the Invoice when send to the recipients in the Bill To and Cc To lines. 

TERMS AND CONDITIONS - The Terms and Conditions field can display any details related to your studio terms for sessions, payment, etc. You can enter your company Terms and Conditions within the Company Settings, which will automatically populate in this field within all Quotes and Invoices when created so that you don't have to enter these details manually every time. 

ATTACH FILES - If you have need to attach any additional files to the Invoice, you can do so by using the Attach Files section. Here, you can browse your local computer or device for the appropriate files to include as additional attachments upon sending the Invoice to your recipients. 

INTERNAL MEMOS - You have the ability to add internal memo notes to an Invoice as well, which are notes related to the Invoice that the recipients would not see. You can use the "+ Add memo to self" option to populate these internal notes as needed. 

SENDING INVOICES

Once you have populated all necessary information within your Invoice, you can now send the Invoice to your indicated recipients. Under the "Action" button at the top or bottom of the Invoice, you have options to send. 

SAVE & SEND

This option will save the Invoice and automatically send the Invoice to your recipients by email.

SAVE & SHARE LINK

This option will save the Invoice and provide you with a link that you can use to share the Invoice through your own email or through a text message outside of Sonido.

The "Save" button on the top and bottom of the Invoice includes some additional options that are helpful when drafting an Invoice. 

SAVE - This option simply saves the Invoice, but does not send it to any recipients. You will see the Invoice in the Invoice List with the status of "Saved."

SAVE AS DRAFT - This option will also save the Invoice, and does not send it to any recipients. You will see the Invoice in the Invoice List with the status of "Draft."

SAVE AS TEMPLATE - Within Sonido, you can save Invoices as Templates, along with all the information added to the Invoice. The "Save as Template" option in the Save dropdown allows you to save the Invoice as a Template to apply to any new Invoice in the future, which brings in all the saved data fields to save you time in composing a new Invoice. 

When saving an Invoice Template, it is recommended that you leave the Bill To and Cc To fields blank before saving so that they do not automatically populate for every Invoice when the template is applied in the future. 

APPLY AN INVOICE TEMPLATE

If you have any Invoices saved as templates, you can easily apply the template by selecting the appropriate Invoice template through the "My Template" option at the top of the new invoice creation dialog. This will display a list of all saved Invoice templates to select from. After selecting the desired template, all data fields in the Invoice that apply to that template will be populated within your new Invoice. 

DELETE AN INVOICE TEMPLATE

To delete a template from your list, you can apply the template to a new invoice, then click on the "Delete" button. This will permanently delete the Invoice template from your account. This action cannot be reversed.