There are a few different ways you can adjust invoices both pre-billing and post-billing, including adding discounts, making adjustments, completing write-offs, and adding credit notes. Brief explanations of these are provided below.
Making Pre-Billing Adjustments
There are two ways to make adjustments to an invoice before sending it to your client.
Add an Adjustment
You can add a fee adjustment to an invoice. For example, if your invoice total is $250 and you need to change the invoice to $225, you can add a -$25 fee adjustment to an invoice.
To learn more, see Creating a Fee Adjustment.
Add a Discount
You can add a discount to the invoice before it is sent to the client. For example, if your invoice total is $1,845 and you want to change it to $1,800, you can add a $45 discount.
To learn more, see Adding a Discount to an Invoice.
Making Post-Billing Adjustments
There are two ways to make adjustments to an invoice after sending it to your client.
Add a Write-Off
CAUTION: If you have an accounting integration with Xero/QuickBooks, you cannot perform a write-off as this transaction will not be replicated in Xero/QuickBooks and you will receive an error. Actionstep recommends using a credit note in this situation.
A write-off is performed when you are unable to collect money your client owes your firm after you've sent the invoice.
For example, you may have sent an invoice for $100 to a customer and it has been outstanding for over three months. You may decide that proceeding with debt collection is not worth the value of time and fees and so you decide to write off the balance. This means that the invoice is cleared and the funds are not recovered.
To learn more, see Performing a Write-Off.
Use a Credit Note
A credit note creates a credit against a matter that can be than be applied to an invoice. This type of transaction will also mark an invoice as credited within Xero/QuickBooks.
To learn more, see Creating a Credit Note and Applying a Credit Note.
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