If you have integration with Xero or QuickBooks Online enabled, you can create invoices in those systems from completed visits in SortScape.

To create invoices in SortScape, you first you need to connect your SortScape account to Xero or QuickBooks Online Online. Then go to the “Invoicing” screen where you will see a list of visits that have been completed but not yet invoiced.

Select the visit(s) you want to invoice and then click the “Invoice” button at the top of the screen. If you selected multiple visits, it will combine all of those visits into one invoice. (Alternatively you can click on the visit from the schedule and click the “create invoice” button on the visit.)

After clicking this button, you will be presented with a “Create invoice” form showing the line items already added for that visit. The line items are added based on the “invoicing basis” you specify for that visit (see below). On this form you can add, remove or edit line items and other invoicing details before creating the invoice.

By default, the billing contact will be same as the service contact specified for the property. You can, however, select a different billing contact to use when you create an invoice. When you change the billing contact and create an invoice, you can optionally choose to remember this contact as the default billing contact for that property.

If you click the "Automatically email invoice" checkbox then SortScape will prompt Xero or QuickBooks Online to email the invoice to the customer as soon as it's created. Please note that this box is only selectable if the billing contact has an email address specified and, in the case of Xero, the default invoice status is either "approved" or "waiting approval." The subject and body of the emails sent from Xero are generated using your Xero account's default Sales Invoice template. The email sent from Xero does not include a PDF attachment of the invoice so please make sure you're default Sales Invoice template in Xero includes a link to the online invoice.

You can also add attachments to invoices. For example, if your employees upload a photo of the completed work to the visit, you can attach that photo to the invoice. The attachments will default to “Send with Invoice” in Xero and “Attach to email” in QuickBooks Online so that the attachments can be shared with your customers when you send the invoice to them.

Click the “create” button in the bottom right hand corner to create the invoice in Xero or QuickBooks Online. Once the invoice has been created, you can log into Xero or QuickBooks Online to view the newly created invoice, print it, or send it to your customer for payment.

If the billing contact you specify does not already exist as a customer in the connected Xero or QuickBooks Online account, then a new customer will be created in that system.

If a material referenced on an invoice line item don’t exist as a product or service in the connected Xero or QuickBooks Online account then a new product will be created in that system.

Note for QuickBooks Online users:

When creating or editing a visit, you can set the “Invoicing basis” which specifies how that visit will be invoiced once it’s marked complete. The options for the invoicing basis are:

You can set the default invoicing basis on the visit settings screen. Any new visits will be created using this default.

Visits on a “Time and materials” basis are invoiced based on the hours added for that visit in addition to any materials used. By default, all visits are created on the “time and materials” invoicing basis.

When you mark complete a visit on a “Time and materials”, you’re prompted to enter the time spent on that visit as well as any materials used (see time and materials).

For example, you may enter 2.5 hours + $25 in materials for a visit.

When creating the invoice for this visit, those hours and materials are automatically added as line items on that invoice. The “hourly rate” specified on the visit settings screen is used by default for calculating the price per hour. You can also set a custom hourly rate on each visit. Alternatively, if you have selected a “Material for employee time” on the QuickBooks Integration settings or Xero settings page, then it will use the price from that material for the hourly rate.

To specify which QuickBooks or Xero item to use on the invoice line item for hours worked, you can set the “Material for employee time” setting in the Xero settings screen or QuickBooks Online settings screen. When the hours worked come through on the invoice they will be allocated that item.

In our example, if the hourly rate $50 then it automatically creates an invoice line item for $125 (2.5 hours x hourly rate of $50) and a line item for $25 in materials.

Visits with a “fixed price” invoicing basis are invoiced based on the price and quantity you specify when creating that visit. When creating a visit with a fixed price basis, you are prompted to enter the line item quantity, price and description which will appear on the invoice created from that visit. For example, you might enter a description of “Basic lawn care service” with a price of “$75” and a quantity of “1”.

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You can still enter employee hours for that visit but those hours will not appear on the invoice. Only the price, quantity and description specified above will appear on the invoice. In the example above, there will be just one invoice line item with the description “Basic lawn care” for $75 irrespective of how many hours were spent on the visit. Any materials added to the visit will also appear as line items on the invoice.

Any visits set to be non-billable will not prompt you to create an invoice after they are completed.

SortScape respects the invoicing settings you’ve configured in QuickBooks Online and Xero where possible.

SortScape uses the tax settings on each QuickBooks Online product / service to determine:

By default, invoices are created with the status of “approved” in Xero. From the Xero settings screen you can change the “Default invoice status” for invoices to “draft” or “awaiting approval” depending on your Xero invoicing workflow.

To determine whether an invoice should be “tax inclusive” or “tax exclusive”, SortScape uses the Tax Defaults specified in the financial settings of your Xero account as shown below:

To determine the tax rate applied on each invoice line item, SortScape uses the “Account code” set for the Xero Product or Service specified on the line item. If no Xero product or Service is specified then SortScape will use the “Account for new Xero products” setting specified in SortScape’s Xero settings screen.

To determine the due date for each invoice, Xero uses the setting for "Sales Invoices Default Due Date" in Xero when creating an invoice.