Invoicing

Build polished invoices, deliver them to customers, and monitor payment status -- built for professional accountants managing multiple clients.

Creating an Invoice

Kantivo stores every invoice securely in your database for easy retrieval and reporting. Here is how to generate a new invoice:

1. Open the Invoice Center from the sidebar navigation
2. Press Create Invoice to open a blank invoice form
3. Choose the Customer who should receive the bill
4. Define the Invoice Date and the Due Date for payment
5. Populate the invoice with one or more line items (details below)
6. Verify the calculated totals at the bottom of the form
7. Press Save to store it as a draft, or Save & Send to deliver it immediately

Line Items

Each row on an invoice represents a distinct product or service being charged. The available fields are:

• Description: A concise explanation of what the charge covers
• Quantity: How many units are being billed
• Rate: The cost charged per individual unit
• Amount: Computed automatically by multiplying Quantity by Rate
• Income Account: The general ledger account where Kantivo records the earned revenue

Entering lines quickly

The line grid works like a spreadsheet, and follows the Grid appearance settings you chose for your registers.

• Type to find a product or account. Click the product cell and type any part of the name -- audit finds Website Audit; the Account cell works the same way, by name or number. Arrow keys and Enter choose.
• A new line is always waiting. As soon as you type in the last line, a blank one appears beneath it, so a long invoice never needs + Add Line. The blank line is ignored when you save.
• Tab moves through the fields only -- product, description, account, quantity, price -- skipping the remove button.

Estimates, purchase orders, bills and Write Check use the same grid, and the Customer / Vendor pickers at the top of each form search as you type too. On a check with several expense lines, Tab out of the last memo adds a line, and an empty line suggests the amount still left to allocate against the check total.

Sending Invoices

Deliver invoices electronically to your customers without leaving Kantivo:

1. Navigate to the invoice you want to send
2. Press the Send Invoice button
3. Examine the email preview to confirm the content
4. Press Send to dispatch it

The recipient gets a professionally formatted PDF attached to the email.

Recording Payments

Once a customer makes a payment, record it in Kantivo to keep your accounts receivable accurate:

1. From the Dashboard, select Receive Payment
2. Pick the customer who is paying
3. Specify the payment amount and the method used (check, cash, card, etc.)
4. Indicate which outstanding invoice or invoices the payment should be applied against
5. Press Save Payment to finalize the entry

Payment Schedule (Draws / Milestones)

For projects billed in stages, Kantivo lets you break an invoice into structured payment milestones. This is particularly useful for contractors, consultants, and any phased engagement.

Creating a Payment Schedule

From the invoice detail view, select + Add Payment Schedule to define your draws:

• Description: Label each draw clearly (e.g., "Deposit," "Framing Complete," "Final Payment")
• Amount: The payment expected for this milestone
• Due Date: When the draw payment is expected
• Condition: An alternative milestone trigger if a fixed date does not apply

Tracking Draws

Each draw displays its current status -- Pending, Paid, or Overdue. When you record an incoming payment, Kantivo automatically suggests the next unpaid draw so you can apply funds in sequence without manual searching.

Automated Payment Reminders

Kantivo can dispatch reminder emails on your behalf each morning at 8:00 AM for any invoices that remain unpaid. Your computer must be running at that time for reminders to go out.

Activating Reminders

1. Navigate to Settings and open Company Preferences
2. Locate the Payment Reminders area
3. Toggle on Enable Automatic Payment Reminders
4. Adjust the reminder timing to suit your collection policy

Scheduling Options

• Pre-Due Reminder: Sends a courtesy notice a configurable number of days before the due date (3 days by default)
• Overdue Notices: Follows up at 7, 14, and/or 30 days after the payment deadline has passed

Reminder Content

Customers receive a clean, professional email containing:

• The invoice number along with the balance still owed
• The original payment deadline
• How many days remain before the due date, or how many days payment is overdue
• Your business name and contact details

Invoice Status

Editing & Deleting Invoices

• Draft invoices: Fully editable and may be removed at any point
• Sent invoices: Still editable; the customer receives an update notification when changes are saved
• Paid invoices: Cannot be removed from the system -- use the void function instead to reverse the transaction

Invoice Deposits

For large projects or high-value orders, you can require a deposit or downpayment before work begins. Kantivo tracks the deposit amount separately from the remaining balance so both you and your customer have clear visibility into what has been paid and what is still owed.

Requiring a Deposit

1. When creating or editing an invoice, locate the Deposit Required section
2. Toggle the deposit option to On
3. Choose the deposit type:
   • Fixed Amount: A specific dollar amount (e.g., $500 deposit on a $2,000 invoice)
   • Percentage: A percentage of the invoice total (e.g., 25% deposit, which automatically calculates to $500 on a $2,000 invoice)
4. Enter the amount or percentage value
5. Save the invoice

How Deposits Appear on the Invoice

When a deposit is configured, the invoice displays three figures clearly:

• Invoice Total: The full amount for all line items
• Deposit Required: The upfront amount the customer must pay first
• Balance Due After Deposit: The remaining amount owed after the deposit is received

Tracking Deposit Payments

When the customer pays the deposit, record it as a partial payment against the invoice. Kantivo automatically recognizes it as a deposit payment and updates the invoice status to Partial. The remaining balance reflects the amount still outstanding after the deposit.

Multi-Currency Invoices

Kantivo supports issuing invoices in currencies other than your home currency, which is valuable when working with international clients:

1. When building a new invoice, pick the desired currency from the dropdown selector
2. The current exchange rate is fetched and displayed automatically
3. Every line item and total on the invoice appears in the chosen foreign currency
4. Kantivo simultaneously calculates the equivalent in your base currency so your general ledger stays accurate

Sales Receipts

A sales receipt records a sale that has already been paid for. Use one whenever the money arrives at the same moment as the goods or the service — over the counter, at a market, on a card reader. Use an invoice instead when the customer will settle up later.

The distinction matters in the ledger, not just on paper. An invoice creates a balance in accounts receivable and shows up in that customer's aging until it is paid. A sales receipt never touches receivables at all, so a cash sale can never masquerade as an unpaid debt.

Recording one

1. Open Sales Receipts from the sidebar navigation
2. Press + New sales receipt
3. Set the date, and optionally attach a customer — a walk-in needs no customer record at all, so you can simply type a name or leave it blank
4. Choose how it was paid: Cash, Debit, Credit Card, Cheque, E-Transfer, or Other
5. Answer Where did the money go? — the bank, cash drawer, or undeposited funds account that actually received it. This is the only required field beyond the lines themselves
6. Add the lines: pick a catalog item to fill the description, price, and income account in for you, or type a one-off line by hand
7. Check the running total, then press Save receipt

Tax on part of a receipt

Choose a tax code once at the top of the lines, then use the Tax tick on each line to say which items it applies to. A receipt can carry a taxable item and a zero-rated one side by side — the common case in provinces where some goods attract GST and others do not.

The calculated tax appears in an editable box, not as a fixed figure. If the printed slip in your hand says something a cent or two different, type that in and the receipt is saved with your number rather than ours. A small calculated … · reset note appears beneath so you can always see what the arithmetic produced and go back to it.

Stock, and what happens on delete

Selling a tracked inventory item on a receipt draws that stock down and posts the cost of goods sold at the same time, exactly as an invoice does. Deleting a receipt reverses all of it: the journal entry is removed, the ledger balances are restored, and the stock goes back on the shelf.