Audience: owners, managers, accountants Difficulty: new user
What this covers
The full path from quote to paid invoice: write a quote, send it for acceptance, convert it to an invoice, send the invoice, record the customer's payment.
If you don't use quotes, jump to Step 3 — Create the invoice directly.
Step 1 — Add the customer (if new)
- Open Solabooks.
- Go to Sales > Customers.
- Click Add Customer.
- Fill in:
- Name — display and document name.
- Email — used for sending links and emails.
- Billing Address — appears on documents.
- Tax ID — if applicable.
- Default Currency — defaults to your base currency.
- Click Save.
Step 2 — Write a quote (optional)
- Go to Sales > Quotes.
- Click New Quote.
- Choose the Customer, Quote Date, and Valid Until.
- Add line items:
- Click Add Line.
- Pick an Item from your inventory, or type a free-text description.
- Set Quantity, Unit Price, and (if VAT is on) Tax.
- Review the totals. Add notes or terms in the footer fields if you want them on the PDF.
- Click Save Draft, or Save and Send.
Send Quote generates a public link /q/{token} and emails the
customer. The customer can Accept or Decline on that page —
your team sees the result on the quote page.
When accepted:
- Click Convert to Invoice. A draft invoice is created with the same lines and customer.
Skip Step 3 — proceed to Step 4.
Step 3 — Create the invoice directly
- Go to Sales > Invoices.
- Click New Invoice.
- Choose the Customer, Invoice Date, and Due Date.
- Add line items the same way as a quote.
- Review the totals.
- Click Save Draft.
The invoice exists, has a placeholder number, and does not affect your books yet.
Step 4 — Post the invoice
Posting is what writes the invoice into your accounting ledger.
- Open the invoice.
- Click Post (the button only appears for users with
sales.invoices.post). - The system writes a journal entry:
Dr Accounts Receivable / Cr Sales Revenue / Cr Output VAT. - The invoice number is locked. The status changes to Posted.
If posting fails:
- "Required account missing" — set defaults in Settings > Accounting Defaults.
- "Period locked" — change the invoice date to a date inside an open period.
- See reference/troubleshooting.
Step 5 — Send the invoice
- From the posted invoice, click Send to Customer.
- The system creates a 24-hour secure link (
/i/{token}) and emails the customer with the document. - The customer clicks the link, sees the invoice, and can download the PDF.
If the customer's link expires before they pay, they can click Request access on the expired page to get a fresh link, or you can Send again from the invoice page.
For details on link expiry, see customer-portal/secure-document-links.
Step 6 — Record the payment
When the customer pays:
- Go to Sales > Customer Payments.
- Click Record Payment.
- Choose the Customer and Payment Date.
- Pick the Bank Account the money landed in.
- Enter the Amount Received.
- Allocate the payment:
- The system shows the customer's open invoices.
- Tick the invoice(s) being paid. The amount auto-fills.
- Edit each allocation if it's a partial payment.
- Click Save Draft, then Post.
Posting writes:
Dr Bank / Cr Accounts Receivable. The invoice's outstanding balance
drops by the allocated amount. Fully allocated invoices move to status
Paid.
Step 7 — (Optional) Send a receipt
- Open the posted payment.
- Click Send Receipt.
- The customer gets a
/i/{token}link to a payment confirmation PDF.
Editing after posting
Once posted, an invoice cannot be edited directly. Two options:
- Unpost (
sales.invoices.unpost) — temporarily reverts to draft. Edit, then post again. Disabled if a payment is allocated. - Reverse — creates a contra journal that cancels the original. Both rows stay in the audit trail.
For partial corrections after a payment has been allocated, issue a Credit Note (Sales > Credit Notes) instead of unposting.