Invoices

Invoices are perhaps the most important part of any business.

Overview

Invoices are perhaps the most important part of any business. It’s how you get paid for the work you do. All accounting systems have their own terminology. Invoices are often referred to as a Sale. Regardless of what you normally call them, within Beeswax, anything that is income related should be entered as an Invoice.

In Beeswax there are a few ways you can create an invoice. Which way you choose will depend on the type of business you run and also how you run it.

Invoices can be created in the following ways:

  1. Manually. This is where you build an Invoice from the ground up. Adding each line item one at a time.
  2. Generated from Closed Tasks. In this case time logged against a Closed Task can be invoiced.
  3. You can load the contents of an Invoice from a Template
  4. Duplicated from another Invoice.
  5. Convert a Quote into an Invoice

While you can create as many invoices as you like within a Project you generally create them once a Project has been completed. Of course there are times when you may wish to generate them before you start a Project, such as in the case of a deposit or to cover any initial projects costs. You may generate installment Invoices during the course of a Project if it is a long running one. This will be up to you and how you run your business.

Just remember that invoices are simply the things you create to record a Sale or Income. Everything that is income related should be generated as an Invoice. Even something like interest that you receive from your Bank, which is considered income, should be entered as an Invoice.

Invoices exist under a Project, have a states like Draft, Finalised and Paid and you monitor what is outstanding via the Who Owes Me report.

We suggest running a general admin Project that correlates to your tax reporting period as this gives you the ability to monitor and track miscellaneous income (and expenses) for that period. You'll be able to locate and track quickly and it's nice to consolidate a dedicated project where internal administrative activity can be managed like a Project. This instill a certain discipline to your day to day operations.

All financial documents: Invoice, Quotes and Expenses, are colour coded so that you can see immediately what type of document you are in.

Invoices, of course, are GREEN. So there is not mistaking what type of document you are working on.

Invoice States…how do they work?

Invoices follow a specific flow and have the states shown below. Each state determines:

  1. What can be edited
  2. When accounts will be impacted (subject to which accounting method you are using: Cash or Accruals)
  3. When a Payment can be applied
  4. When it appears in the Who Owes Me report
Invoice States

Let’s look at each state…

Invoices start in the Draft state, which means:

  1. You can update and change anything without impacting your accounts.
  2. You can’t apply a payment yet
  3. The line Item do not impact your accounts. In other words, your General Ledger is not affected.
  4. You can’t send it as an PDF just yet (via the Beeswax emailing system)
  5. You can’t schedule it.

Invoices then move to a Finalised state, which means:

  1. The Invoice gets assigned an ID (this can be changed if needed. It is based on the Next Number sequence managed under Settings)
  2. A Payment can be applied.
  3. If you are using the Accrual accounting method then the transactions will appear on your General Ledger report. In other words, your accounts are affected.
  4. You can send it as a PDF attachment in an email using the Beeswax system
  5. You can download a PDF
  6. You can schedule it.

You then send an Invoice

When you send an Invoice to a Client the state gets moved to the Sent state. This indicates that the you have actually sent the Invoice via the Beeswax system.

By sending the Invoice via the Beeswax system  (as opposed to downloading a PDF and emailing it using your personal email) the activity is recorded in the Project Activities.

Here you’ll be able to see:

  1. When it was sent (Sent Date)
  2. Who sent it (User)
  3. The recipients (email to)
  4. As well as the message that was  included when it was sent.

Sometimes you need to Resend an Invoice

If you resend an Invoice then the status will be set to Resent. There might be a number of reasons why you need to resend an Invoice, such as:

  1. Your Client deleted it (accidently of course!)
  2. Your Client doesn’t believe it was ever sent (it’s gone into Junk and they can’t find it)
  3. It needs to be sent to someone else within their business, such as their accounts department or accounts person, or
  4. The Invoice is overdue and you (or in most cases your bookkeeper) is chasing up payment.

The Invoice status will remain in the Resent state until a payment is made.

Payment is made to an invoice

When a payment is made against the Invoice the state will show one of the following:

  1. Part Paid or
  2. Paid:

This is pretty self explanatory. Sometimes an invoice isn’t paid in full in which case you will see the Part Paid state.

There could be several Payments made to an Invoice and only when it is paid in full will it move to the following state of Paid.

The Invoice will move to the Paid state when it is fully paid. That is when the total payments equals the total amount of the Invoice.

Let's look at each Role

Owner

AKA: The Boss

This is the Owner of the Account and more often than not they are also the Owner of the business. The business Owner should obviously see everything so of course they have Full Access to all parts of the application but importantly they are unique in that they are the ones who are responsible for managing the Beeswax Subscription and associated Plan.
It's likely they have a business partner or a dedicated senior staff member who needs to be able to see and do all the same things that the Owner can. That's what the Super
Admin Role which we get to next.

Super Admin

Business Partner or a Senior Employee

The Super Admin User also has Full Access to everything however they don’t have access to the Subscription but that’s all. These are usually Partners in the business or Senior Employees who need to see and control everything in the Business. Warts and all!

Manager

Production Manager or Account Manager

The Manager Role is generally the person who takes care of the day to day running of Projects, and oversees Tasks.
This Role would be for a Production Manager,  Studio Manager or Account Manager for instance.
They generally don’t get involved in Payroll financial reports and as such are not expected to know anything about Accounting or Tax related matters.

Of course these things aren’t necessarily that difficult to understand, however,  so as to avoid the potential pitfalls associated with incorrectly allocated transaction Accounts and / or Taxes we have chosen to limit this Users access and control over such things.
So, while Manager can create Quotes, Expenses and  Invoices, they can’t change the Transaction Account and Tax when working on any of these documents. While Managers can create Quotes, Expenses and  Invoices, they can’t change the Transaction Account allocation nor the Tax Allocation when the are preparing any

These are defined by the Items that make up these documents and are therefore meant to be set up specifically by someone with this knowledge such as your Bookkeeper or Accountant.

Accountant

Your Accountant (obviously) or your Bookkeeper

This Accountant Role is obviously for the Accountant or Bookkeeper who need access to all things Money. They essentially have full access to the entire system with the exception of being able to manage the subscription.

Basic

A User who primarily works on Tasks

This Accountant Role is obviously for the Accountant or Bookkeeper who need access to all things Money. They essentially have full access to the entire system with the exception of being able to manage the subscription.

Contractor

External Resource

This is someone who usually is a freelancer that needs access to Tasks but not much more. They have a similar level of access as the Basic User but we've included this for future use.

Client

The Client

Someone who probably would like to get access to all your stuff but really you only want them to see things you want them to see. Like outstanding invoices and access to Files you share with them but apart from this you don't really need much more.

Roles
Owner
Super Admin
Accountant
Manager
Basic
Contractor
Client

Dashboard

Projects

Companies & People

Companies

The businesses you work with every day

Contacts

Just like the ones in your phone only it's for everyone in your business

Users

Users are those people you wish to invite into your account to do something

Money

Items

The Services you Sell or the things you Buy

Templates

Templates will save you heaps of time

Bank Reconciliation

Bank reconciliation or statement check

Bank Import

Import your Bank CSV file to allocate transactions

Scheduled

Used to automate the generation and sending of regular invoices

Bank Transfers

Move money from one bank account to another

Manual Journal

Need to fudge something. That's the only reason you should be here

Chart of Accounts

The heart of any accounting system

Reports

Reports

Reports...the ones you need and non you don't

Who Owes Me

See at a glance your Accounts Receivables

What I Owe

Your Accounts Payable Report

General Ledger

The report you accountant needs

Profit & Loss

Perhaps the most important report for any business

Tax Report

Yeah...no getting out of it

Time

Logging time is easy in Beeswax

Statement

A list of all outstanding Invoices

Subscription

Subscription

Manage your Plan under the Subscription page

Overview

Companies exist for two main reasons:

  • Assigning Projects & other related things
  • Grouping Contacts and Users

1. Assigning – Projects and other related things

Projects

Quotes

Expenses

Most things in Beeswax, like Projects, Quotes or Invoices, need to be assigned to a Company. These things can’t be assigned to a specific User or Contact.

Why? Because small businesses, those businesses that Beeswax is specifically built for, generally work with and provide services to other businesses rather than individuals or customers. In other words, we think of Beeswax as being a B2B application rather than a B2C. It’s one of the key assumptions we’ve made when building Beeswax.

Remember a Quote or Invoice is technically a legal document that relates to the obligations that your business has to another party. And therefore the name of the other party, which is usually a business, should be stated specifically. Of course you will have a contact who will receive documents from you but they are still technically representing the third party and are usually not themselves obligated to fulfil their financial obligations to pay you.
It’s the company or business they represent. When they leave the company still owes you money.However, while we think of these entities as Companies, it’s not to say that a Company can’t be something else. That’s for you to decide.In any case just remember that Projects, Invoices, Quotes and Expenses are all allocated to this idea, this entity, this concept, that we call a Company.

2. Grouping Contacts & Users

SM

JC

DJ

JC

It’s the way Beeswax groups or organises Users and Contacts. We think it makes sense to keep all Users and Contacts under the specific Company that they are associated with.