At Archimedia Accounts, we understand all the hard work that goes into running a business — which is why we want to help you spend less time on drawn-out, day-to-day tasks like invoicing and more time nurturing and growing your company.
Our experienced team of accountants use the online accounting software Xero, which is designed to help small companies transform the way they do business. Using Xero to create sales invoices makes the whole process quick, easy and offers a host of benefits you wouldn’t get from physical or email invoicing, such as tracking, customisation, automatic reminders and cloud support.
Many companies still send out paper invoices to clients and customers. Still, by taking advantage of intuitive Xero sales invoices and sending them in just a few clicks, you can instantly lighten your workload and no longer have to worry about delivery delays or slow processing and payment.
Once you’re set up on Xero, creating a sales invoice is really easy, and we’re here to guide you through the process if you haven’t done it before. After getting your sales invoice template set up, it’s simply a question of entering the customer, amount, VAT and expense category — read on for further details about how it all works.
Setting Up The Sales Invoice Template
Archimedia Accounts are specialist Xero Bookkeepers, and our professional team of accountants understand how the Xero accounting system can benefit your business. One of the advantages of using Xero sales invoices is the software’s sales invoice template feature, which is simple to use and enables you to create a range of custom themes to use in different situations.
To create Xero invoice templates, follow these steps:
- Select the organisation name, click “Settings”, then go to “Invoice Settings”.
- From here, select “New Branding Theme”.
- Enter a name to help you identify the theme in future.
- Adjust the available options to customise the appearance of your sales invoice. This is where you can change fonts, margins, choose where to put your logo and enter contact details and invoice terms. There’s also a tick box section here which you can use to show or hide additional fields.
- Click “Save”.
You can also copy Xero invoice templates, which allows you to easily create repeating invoices. To do this:
- Select the organisation name, click “Settings”, then go to “Invoice Settings”.
- Select the template you’d like to copy. Click “Options” then “Copy”.
- Enter a name for the newly copied template.
- Click “Save”.
If you need to edit a sales invoice template created previously, simply do the following:
- Select the organisation name, click “Settings” then go to “Invoice Settings”.
- Select the template you’d like to edit. Click “Options” then “Edit”.
- Make any required changes.
- Click “Save”.
If you’d prefer a visual guide to Xero invoice templates, you can also find all of the above information and more in this video.
Creating Your First Sales Invoice
Creating Xero sales invoices is simple. To get started, click the plus sign in the top right and select “Invoice”. Or, you can select “Business” > “Invoices” > “New Invoice”.
On the invoice screen, type the name of the customer you’re invoicing into the “To” field. If it’s a new customer, you’ll notice an “Add new customer” button that pops up for you to select.
Now, fill out the remaining invoice details. Enter the date and due date. The invoice number should be generated automatically.
Enter the description, quantity and unit price. When formatting data, you can add multiple lines to the invoice for easy separation or drag and drop the item lines to reorder them.
Under “Account”, enter the sales category — note that you can separate your sales by adding new cost categories through “Accounting” > “Chart of Accounts” > “Add Account” and entering them under “Sales”. When doing this, make sure you give each one a code close to the other sales codes.
Now you can enter the “Tax Rate” and select whether you want the invoice to be tax inclusive or exclusive. Make sure the amount and VAT at the bottom look correct, then either click “Save” to save the sales invoice as a draft or “Approve” to create it.
For a visual guide to everything mentioned above, watch this video.
Finding Your Sales Invoices
To find a sales invoice, you can either select “Business” > “Invoices” or go through “Contacts” and search for the relevant client. Whichever method you choose, you’ll be able to see what’s still owed to you easily.
If you’d rather use Xero’s search tool, you can also find invoices by selecting “Search” from the sales dashboard and entering a number, reference or contact name. For date-based searches, use the date fields to find invoices by transaction or due date.
At Archimedia Accounts, our team of modern bookkeepers use the most up-to-date software, providing innovative and efficient cloud accounting solutions for our clients.
Get in touch to find out how our expert team of accountants can save you time and money.
