About invoice processing flow

During all the stages of processing an invoice, Visma Net assigns the document a status that indicates its current state within the processing flow.

The main stages are the following:

1. Recording:
   In this stage, you create a document or you enter all the necessary information into the system.
   When you save the document for the first time, the system assigns a unique reference number to it for tracking purposes.
   By default, the system assigns to the document the Balanced status when you initially save it.
   This status indicates that the user has finished editing the document and is ready to release it.
   (You still can edit a document with this status, however.) Alternatively, you can select the Hold check box to indicate that this document is not ready to be released; this changes the status of the document to On hold.
   For details, see: About invoice recording.
   This stage does not apply to a document with the Overdue charges type, which is generated only by the system.
   For details, see: About overdue charges.
2. Releasing:
   You can release a document only if it has the Balanced status.
   When you release the document, the system changes its status to Open, updates the customer's balance, and generates a general ledger batch with the document transactions. This status indicates to users and the system that the document is pending a customer payment.
   For details, see: About invoice releasing.
3. Closing:
   When the full amount of the document is paid manually or automatically, by one payment for the full amount or by multiple payments, the system changes the status of the document to Closed and decreases the balances of the documents involved in the application. The system may change the balance of the customer if documents with different currencies are involved.
   For details on applying payments and closing invoices, see: Processing payments and applications - overview.

In addition to the actions you perform during the main stages, you may need to do the following:

• Print an invoice, note, or an overdue charge and send it to a customer by postal mail or electronically.
• Correct an amount of a released document by issuing a credit or debit note.
• Reverse a released document.

As described above, the three primary statuses the system assigns to an invoice are Balanced, Open, and Closed. In Visma Net, you can require a user to perform additional steps during the recording of an invoice; these steps cause the invoice to be assigned additional statuses.

You can use invoice-wide settings, located under the Data entry settings section on the General settings tab of the Customer ledger preferences (AR101000) window, to change the processing flow of invoices.
For details, see: About changing the processing of customer ledger documents.

Before you release an invoice or note, your company's internal policies might require you to print it (to send it to the customer by mail), email it (to send it to the customer electronically), or both print it and email it.

To implement such policies, you need to perform the following steps:

• Select the Require invoice printing before release or Require invoice emailing before release check box (or both) on the General settings tab of the Customer ledger preferences (AR101000)window.
• Make sure that the printing and emailing preferences of your customers are configured for customer classes, as described in the Default printing and emailing settings section of the About customer classes topic.
• Make sure that the corresponding mailings are configured, as described in the Manage mailings - overview topic.

To print and email customer ledger documents before release, use the Sales invoices (AR301000) window or Send invoices (AR508000) mass-processing window. See Print invoice and Send invoices by email for more information.

When the user prints or emails the invoice or memo (or does both), the system selects the Printed or Emailed check box (or both) on the document entry window. The document is considered printed or emailed if the corresponding check box is selected.
These settings can be viewed on the Invoicing address tab of the Sales invoices (AR301000) window, in the Print and email options section.
The Printed and Emailed settings are affected only by the related actions performed in the Send invoices (AR508000) window.