Method CRM Help Center

Every small business, at its root, has the same goal: to ensure the amount of revenue they produce is comfortably higher than the amount of money spent to keep the company afloat. Simply put, the point of a business is to make money, and the time-honored way to keep track of amounts owing is the invoice. An invoice informs your customer that a balance is due, and Method's invoice system allows you to build new invoices and keep track of (and edit) existing ones in a simple-to-use format. This is a great way of building out the trail of breadcrumbs that illustrates your interactions with a customer. This section will show you how to create a new invoice, edit an existing invoice, and will provide a breakdown of the screen to explain each area in detail. Let's get invoicing!

How to create a new invoice

From Method CRM, go to Customers > Invoices.
From the Customer:Job drop down menu, choose a customer or lead with whom to associate this invoice. This will auto-fill any address information Method has on file for this customer or customer job.
From the Account drop down menu, choose an account to associate with this invoice. The only option available out of the box is Accounts Receivable, but you can add more in your QuickBooks account!
From the Date drop down menu, choose a date for this invoice. The default will be today's date.

In the Line Item grid, choose the items that will be included for this invoice by using the Item drop down menu(s). You can include as many items as you want; if you run out of space, click New Line Item to generate further lines. Choosing these items will auto-fill the Description, Quantity, Amount, Cost, and Tax fields in the grid. You can change these, as well as the other options, as you desire (please see Screen overview for more information about these fields). Click Update when you're done filling in line items to generate a total.

TIP:

The above fields are the only required fields on this page and represent the minimum amount of information Method needs to create an invoice. However, the more information you provide, the more comprehensive your invoice will be! For more information on the remaining fields on this page, please see our Screen overview below.

Clicking Save at the bottom of the screen will save this invoice; when you reload the Existing invoice grid you will see it there. If you have clicked Email notification when saving, the button below will appear as Save & Email, and will generate and send an email to any contact on the account who has Opt out of billing unchecked (please see our documentation on Contacts for more information). If the Email notification box is left unchecked, this button will appear as Save & New, which means it will save the fields and clear them in preparation for a new invoice. The rest of the buttons provide you with additional options; please see the Screen overview below for more information.

How to edit an existing invoice

From Method CRM, go to Customers > Invoices.
In the Existing invoices grid, choose the invoice you wish to edit and click select. This will populate the fields to the right with any pertinent information already saved and associated with this invoice.
Ensure the Customer:Job, Account, and Date fields are filled out (if you are selecting an existing invoice they will already have information in each field) -- they do not have to have the same information (you can change both of these fields to suit your needs) but they must be filled out in order for Method to save the invoice.
From this screen, you can alter any of the existing fields - change the text in writable fields, change the chosen option in drop down menus, and change any of the information listed in the line item grid. If you choose to update the line items, remember to click Update to generate a new total based on the new items you've chosen.
Clicking Save at the bottom of the screen will save this invoice; when you reload the Existing invoice grid you will see it there. If you have clicked Email notification when saving, the button below will appear as Save & Email, and will generate and send an email to any contact on the account who has Opt out of billing unchecked (please see our documentation on Contacts for more information). If the Email notification box is left unchecked, this button will appear as Save & New, which means it will save the fields and clear them in preparation for a new invoice. The rest of the buttons provide you with additional options; please see the Screen overview below for more information.

Screen overview

As with most of the New/edit screens of this type, the screen is divided between the Existing invoice grid on the left and the New/Edit invoice screen on the right. Let's start by taking a quick look at the Existing invoice grid (for more information on how grids work, see our article on Grid functionality).

Existing invoice grid

This grid displays all the existing invoice records in Method and can be filtered a variety of ways through the Filter by view drop down menu.

My invoices: This will show you all invoices associated with the current user signed into Method.
My invoices from today: This will show all invoices with today's date in the Date field.
My invoices not assigned a Campaign: Any invoice that is not connected to a Campaign will be shown in this view.
My invoices not assigned an Opportunity: All invoices that do not have an Opportunity assigned to them will be displayed here.
My non-posted invoices: These invoices have not yet been kicked over to QuickBooks.

There are also Shared options for each of these choices.

Clicking "select" next to any record will auto-fill the information available from that record into the pertinent fields in the screen to the right. You can also sort and search the grid by Invoice #, which will be explained in a moment, Date on the invoice, and the Customer:Job with which the invoice is associated. If you click on the Lead or Customer listed in the Customer:Job field, it will open the Edit screen associated with that contact type (e.g. clicking a Lead will bring up the Edit Lead screen).

New/edit invoice

Now let's take a look at the fields associated with creating a new invoice. Remember, editing an invoice only requires you to Select it from the Existing invoices grid, and then changing the fields as necessary before saving!

Customer:Job: This drop down list allows you to choose a customer and/or a job with which to associate this invoice. Choosing one will auto-fill the pertinent fields associated with the customer (for example, billing addresses, any opportunities associated with the customer, etc.)
Class: This drop down list refers to the type of job being invoiced.
Account: This drop down list allows you to choose an account with which to associate this invoice (the only one available in Method is Accounts Receivable, but more can be added via your QuickBooks account).
Date: This refers to the date the invoice was created. Clicking the drop down list generates a clickable calendar you can use to choose a date.
Invoice #: Typically this number is generated by QuickBooks, but you can edit it here. It's used to keep track of your invoices in the Existing invoices grid.
Bill to/Ship to: This encompasses the pertinent address information for your customer, and should be auto-filled when you choose him or her from the drop down list. You can still make changes in this screen, however.
PO Number: This number references the purchase order sent in by your customer during the initial ordering phase.
Terms: This refers to terms of payment. Please see the related documentation explaining terms.
Due date: Similar to a due date on an opportunity, this is the date you choose to determine whether or not the customer will go ahead with the work based on the invoice.
Rep: This drop down list allows you to choose a sales representative to associate with this invoice.
Via: This drop down menu gives you the option to identify what carrier service will be used to deliver the product, if applicable.

Line item grid

Directly below you will find another grid; this grid appears when you select a Customer:Job from the drop down list. This grid is where you can input individual line items into your invoice.

You can include as many items as you want/need to on this grid, as well as the pertinent information associated with each. If you run out of line item spaces, click on New line item and more will be generated (you have to have used all the existing ones for this function to work, however).

For each item, the following fields can be filled out:

Service date: This refers to the date the service was carried out, if applicable.
Item: This is a drop down list generally populated from your associated QuickBooks account. Choosing from this list will automatically fill out some of the following fields, depending on what
information is associated with the item. You can also make a New item by clicking on the ellipses button (...) which will open the New item screen.
Description: This is, simply, a description of the item.
Quantity: The quantity is usually measured in items (for products) and events (for service).
Rate: This number refers to how much a single item or event costs. The rate, multiplied by the number of items or events, will be the Amount.
%: This denotation is typically used for discount items. Please see our Items documentation for more information.
Amount: This is the total for each line item, as determined by the rate multiplied by the number of goods or services ordered (e.g. if the client has ordered four items at $30 apiece, the total will express as $120). When you click Update, a total amount for all line items will be tallied at the bottom of this column.
Tax: This drop down menu allows you to apply tax (or not) to this line item.
Delete: Clicking this will delete the selected line item. This cannot be undone.

Click Update to generate a new total based on the line items you've included, or click Cancel to delete any unused line item sections.

Below the Line Item grid is a tertiary section dedicated to additional information. When you click Save, a subtotal will be generated in the Subtotal field. Depending on whether or not you have made the items taxable, a Tax amount will also appear, with an option to choose either Taxable or Out of state (please see our documentation on Taxes for more information). A Total for the invoice is generated from these numbers. Additionally, you will be able to see if any payments have been applied to this total, and a Balance due will show you how much remains to be paid off. On the left-hand side of this section there are several other options. Let's take a look!

Customer message: This drop down menu allows you to choose from several pre-built messages to include with the invoice (e.g. "Thank you for your business!")
Memo: This writable field allows you to include any additional information that wouldn't fit anywhere else on the invoice (think of it in the same way as the "memo" space on a check).
Opportunity #: This drop down menu allows you to associate this invoice with a saved Opportunity within Method. You can also search for a specific number by typing it into the writable field. When saved, this invoice will now appear in the Invoices grid in that Opportunity.
Campaign: This drop down menu allows you to associate this invoice with a saved Campaign within Method. Please see our documentation on Campaigns for more information!

Additional options

There are also several additional options that can be clicked. They are as follows:

To be emailed in QuickBooks: Checking this option flags this record in QuickBooks as "to be emailed", which will allow you to group and email en masse from QuickBooks at a later time.
To be printed in QuickBooks: Checking this option flags this record in QuickBooks as "to be printed", which will allow you to group and print en masse from QuickBooks at a later time.
Mark invoice as pending: Checking this option will flag this invoice in your QuickBooks account as "pending", which means it will not be posted to QuickBooks' accounting records until it is unchecked manually in Method.
Wait for sync approval: If this option is checked, this invoice will not be pushed over to your QuickBooks account until you manually uncheck it.
Email notification when saving?: Checking this option means any contact on this account that has opt out of billing unchecked will receive a form email notifying them of the invoice. Please see our Customer documentation for more information.

Buttons

At the bottom of each screen you will see the same set of buttons: More actions, Document, Print Preview, Save, and Save & Email. This is a breakdown of what they do.

More actions: This button gives you several options.
- Choose email template: This option allows you to choose which email template will be used when you select Email notification when saving. Please see our documentation on Email templates for more information.
- Clear / New: This option will clear the fields above in preparation for a new invoice.
- Customize print templates: This option will open the Customize templates screen (please see our documentation on Email templates for more information).
- Delete invoice: This will delete the current invoice. You will be prompted with an "are you sure" notification because this can't be undone.
Document: This option allows you to Link an existing document, Upload a new document, or View existing documents for this invoice. Please see our documentation on Documents for more information!
Print preview: This option opens a PDF of what your Invoice will look like when printed.
Save: This button saves your changes to Method CRM.
Save & Email: This button saves your changes in Method, and will send out the notification email if you have chosen that option above.

Created on	Oct-10-2013
Last modified on	Sep-17-2015