Proforma invoicing support about invoiceninja

[CyrusXxXxX]

I support this as it is same in Serbia. And I am talking about normal non hosting bussiness.

[dimi575]

I would also like to ask for the status of this feature. This is often needed as it is used as a common way of doing business in the EU. Also, pro-forma invoices are often legally required for international export. The US Department of Commerce even has an explanation about it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEnC4Syr9WE

As stated before, here in the EU a pro-forma invoice is considered an invoice and not a quote. Legally it is not a real invoice, meaning it has no effect on taxes. So it can be easily discarded after sending it out without having an effect on your bookkeeping. However, compared to a quote, you do not expect this to happen as usually you have already done the work/send the items sold. If the pro-forma gets payed or you have reached an agreement so you are certain the invoice will get payed, you send out the real invoice. This invoice will look exactly like the pro-forma except it does not have pro-forma on the document and has the actual invoice number.

If you want a real world example: I got requested to do an emergency repair at a factory I hadn't worked at before. As is common with larger companies, their factories are only allowed to work with approved suppliers, which I was not. So they only accept a real invoice after all the paperwork is in order to make me an approved supplier. For this, they request that you send out a pro-forma invoice (not a quote!). They then might for example demand certain payment terms that are different (like 60 days instead of 30) and in very rare cases, you might actually be rejected.
I don't need to make a pro-forma very often so at the moment, I just make a regular invoice with a special number, print-screen it and change to title in MSPaint to Pro-Forma and print it back out to PDF. When accepted, I change to number to a real invoice number. Not really a nice way of working so having this feature would be great.

[huglester]

I can add, that in Lithuania similar approach is used. For example:

User needs to pay in advance for domain to renew, we send him an email. if he is not going to pay, invoice is abandoned and domain not renewing. but if user pays for the invoice, it get the new invoice, the 'original' one with original numbering.

And yes, numbering for those 'proforma' invoices is different...

[rjd22]

@hillelcoren I was checking out invoice-ninja since this has been implemented but I think this has not been implemented properly.

Pro-forma invoices are different from quotes. When you issue a pro-forma invoice I would expect the following behaviour:

• A pro-forma invoice can be paid
• When it has been paid it will be converted to normal invoice.
• It need to be possible to add recurring of a pro-forma invoice.

I'm not completely sure but the above seems not possible right now.

[hillelcoren]

Ok, we'll keep this in mind for a future release.

[arigato-one]

We are planning to build this custom feature. I will keep you updated.
If you are interested to find out more, reach out to [email protected]

[Swerone]

1+ for this feature

[rjd22]

I'm closing this issue because I stopped using Invoice Ninja because of the lack of support for the Dutch tax rules and payment gateway's. Feel free to open your own but I don't want to get notified anymore.

[myedgy]

Hello @hillelcoren

Thank you for coming back to us!

No quotes are still something different in Europe.

How this topic started described it pretty well.
#93 (comment)

QUOTES is not the same as PROFORMA

A quote is like a offer/proposal that can be changed many times. To approve an idea/project, so that it's on paper.. to avoid discussion later with the client. It can be for example be 5 quotes for the same project, but all 5 with his own (specs for that project) so the client can choose which fits his needs best. This doesn't mean the client has to pay already or to pay all 5. So this is something else.. is just to approve a project if we the provider choose to make a quote or if the client ask for some proposal for his project. I hope i make some sense here :)

When the quote has approved a PRO-FORMA invoice is sent (this has is own pro-forma numbering). Some EU companies make a direct real INVOICE, but if the client doesn't pay.. you have to make a credit-nota to make up for the balance because otherwise, you pay taxes for unpaid invoices.

To avoid that we use first a PRO-FORMA, once that is paid the Pro-forma invoice will change to a normal invoice and will receive the next available invoice number.

And to make clear, this is not only for hosting companies, but all EU companies use this.

So it will be very nice if this could be built in and have the same features as the invoice, like auto-reminders for PRO-FORMA invoices, etc.

Feel free to ask more info, so i try to explain it more, if you're not from Europe.

[rjd22]

I'm reopening this issue seem it got some attention. But can someone else pickup the ball here? I don't use Invoice Ninja anymore.

[myedgy]

Hi, any news on this feature?

It cant be hard to make this. People are asking for it since 2014.

[turbo124]

@handmeatowel

Given a proforma invoice is closer to a quote than an actual invoice, you could rebrand the Quotes to Proforma Invoices?

[hillelcoren]

Thank you, this info is very helpful. We plan on working on this in a future build.

[hillelcoren]

I've checked in work on this feature

[hillelcoren]

This feature has been deployed

[hillelcoren]

Our implementation is close, when a user receives a quote they can pay it but they must first click 'Approve' which converts it to an invoice which they can pay.

We don't yet support recurring quotes.

[rjd22]

@hillelcoren In the hosting business like explained above we have a lot of recurring clients that may or may not pay. They already approved the subscription so they don't need to approve the new pro-forma invoices.

There is a difference between pro-forma invoices and quotes in that sense since pro-forma invoices are mostly used for subscriptions.

[Stordia]

+1

[wimg]

Any news on this feature ? There's quite a lot of our customers that would need this feature and this is one of the reasons why we can't switch them to Invoiceninja.

[hillelcoren]

Sorry, no update.

[codeagencybe]

Is this feature pro-forma invoices already available now or not?

[hillelcoren]

Sorry, it isn't yet supported.

[probastaller]

Is this on the roadmap of V2 to be implemented?

[hillelcoren]

Yes, we hope to support this

[valdiks]

I need this feature too.

[AlexR1712]

+1

[50uth]

+1

[myedgy]

Hello,

Is this new option already build in? This will be so usefull for the EU market!

As a pro-forma is different from a quote.

[myedgy]

This topic started in 2014 saying that it will become available. We are now 6 years later :)
It's basically the whole invoice options copy paste, but under a different name PRO-FORMA that is not an official invoice yet in the EU.

More info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro_forma
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/managing/charging/vat-invoices.htm

[myedgy]

@rjd22 Robert-Jan kan jij dit topic terug openen aub?

[hillelcoren]

My understanding is that some people use quotes to handle proforma invoices. Is that possible/what's missing with that approach?

One part which is missing in v4 is that the invoice number is assigned when the invoice/quote is saved. In v5 we've added an option to set the number when it's sent.

[hillelcoren]

Thanks, that's useful!

Our current focus is on v5, this is requiring us to rebuild all v4 features from scratch.

[myedgy]

Got it, where can I see those? Ps: InvoiceNinja also work on webserver OpenLiteSpeed?

[hillelcoren]

Sorry, can you explain?

https://www.invoiceninja.com/forums/topic/installing-invoice-ninja-on-litespeed-server/

[myedgy]

I mean all V4 features. I found a page somewhere, but now I'm not able to find it anymore.

Thanks for sharing! Ps: Maybe make a guide for OpenLiteSpeed as well.
OpenLiteSpeed is not listed.
https://docs.invoiceninja.com/install.html

[hillelcoren]

We were using this project but need to back fill more tasks/features

https://github.com/invoiceninja/invoiceninja/projects/3

[myedgy]

Sure! I will follow it up.

[myedgy]

@hillelcoren hi there, I hope you're doing well and your still saved from covid !

Saw the invoiceninja v5 demo and it looks stunning. Would it be possible to included the PROFORMA invoice option?

If you need better understanding please feel free to contact me. As it can be easy and fast being implemented if you have a few minutes of your time so I could explain it for you.

[myedgy]

Whats the status of this feature? Do you guys understand what a PRO-FORMA invoice is?

Because in mine opinion this can be added in less than one hour.

You just need to copy the whole invoice creating part in your software.. Make a clone of it... and rename everything from invoice to pro-forma and that's it.

A pro-forma is like an invoice.. but with it's own numbers, it's not an official invoice yet. Once that's paid, the true invoice follows with it's own invoice number, and stamped as paid already. For the EU market, this is so important to have.

[almfab]

Hello, Any update when this feature can be me available.

A pro-forma is part of normal invoicing/quoting in all European Countries.

This is a much needed feature.

Thanks

[myedgy]

Unfortunately not :/ don't know if they even care about the EU market.. this request goes already all the way back to 2014. :(

[codeagencybe]

I already gave up long time ago on this... you might as well want to check out Odoo ERP as open source alternative.
They have proforma feature by default

[50uth]

I know it's not open source but holded.com does pro formas

[handmeatowel]

What's the status of this?

Belgian company here; we require proforma invoicing for our hosting business with pre-paid month-to-month contracts.

[klijakub]

Any update on this? :)
We're using invoice ninja v5 (invoicing.co) and would be super to have Proforma Invoices instead of Quotes