👉 Important: This article only concerns companies registered in Italy. 🇮🇹
You can easily create and manage customer invoices directly on your Qonto account to streamline your payment process. This feature is available for all plans, and can be accessed by Owners and Admins. Accountants can access the customer invoices but cannot create them.
To generate an invoice with Qonto, connect to your interface from your computer and click on Invoicing from the side menu section.
💡 If you’re creating your first invoice, you will have the possibility to take a tour of the invoicing tool via a demo. You can also upload your last invoice and the system will read automatically its contents to complete required information in the invoice settings.
1. Set up automatic invoice numbering
- Review the suggested invoice number or insert a new one via Invoice settings.
- Once confirmed, Qonto will automatically generate unique and sequential invoice numbers for future invoices.
If you don’t want the numbering to start again at 001 at the beginning of a new year, you can change the numbering manually as described above.
The regulations do not prescribe either option. It is merely common practice to start with 001 at the beginning of a new tax year.
2. Enter customer information
Please note that it is currently not possible to issue invoices to public entities such as Municipalities, Provinces, Universities, and so on.
a. Add a new customer
If you are creating an invoice for the first time, click on the '+' button to add the details of a new customer.
Next, indicate whether your customer is a company, a professional or an individual and fill in the information required by the form.
💡 After selecting the correct country, make sure that the VAT number of your foreign customer has a country code other than IT, before the VAT digits (e.g. GB0000000 for the UK, DE0000000 for Germany and FR0000000 for France).
In case your customer does not speak the language of the country where your company is registered, you have the possibility to set the language in which the invoice will be issued. You can choose between English, French, Spanish, Italian and German.
You can select a different currency to issue the customer’s quote and invoices, if not in Euro
Check that the information is correct and click on Confirm.
Your customer information will be saved and you will not have to enter it again for future invoices!
b. Select an existing customer
Open the drop-down menu and select the customer to whom you wish to send your invoice.
👆If you want to import your list of clients via a file or integration, visit this article to learn how to do it.
3. Reuse and add items to your catalog
Consider adding your products and/or services to your Qonto catalog to easily integrate them into your quotes and invoices:
- Access the 'Products and Services' section from your web or mobile application.
- Click on "Add a new item" on the web, or use the (+) button on mobile.
- Enter all the required information, including name, price, currency, quantity, unit, and VAT. Optionally, you can add a description, an external link, and your personal notes.
- When creating a quote or an invoice, select the items to be invoiced directly from your catalog for a quick and error-free process.
👆 If you want to import your list of items via a file, visit this article to learn how to do it.
4. Create an invoice
It is now time to create your invoice.
- 🖥️ From your computer, go to Invoices > Client invoices, in the left-menu. Then, click on Create invoice in the top-right corner of your screen.
- 📲 From your mobile app, go to Create invoice, then select “+”
If you’re creating your first invoice, you will have the possibility to take a tour of the invoicing tool via a demo. You can also upload your last invoice and the system will read automatically its contents to complete required information in the invoice settings.
You can create two types of invoices:
-
Standard invoices for regular billing
-
Deposit invoices when you need to request advance payment from your clients
When creating an invoice, fill in the required fields as indicated:
- Choose the type of invoice. By default, a standard invoice will be created. To create a deposit invoice, toggle on the "Deposit invoice" switch in the Invoice details section.
- Issue date and due date;
- Order number (optional);
- Objects: You can add one or more objects to your invoice based on the services or products you are charging the customer for.
Each object must contain a title, description (optional), quantity, item unit (optional), unit price and VAT rate;
- Tax details (INPS pension/contributions, withholding tax and revenue stamp are optional - to be added according to your specific situation).
- Choose Payment Method, Payment Conditions and Account to credit.
- Finally, add further information under Terms, conditions and legal notes: Your VAT number, tax identification number or tax identification certificate are mandatory pieces of information to be added manually in this section.
If you wish, you can also add optional ones.
☝️ Important! In case of multiple accounts:
For the payment to be associated with the corresponding invoice, your customer must make the transfer directly to the IBAN indicated on the invoice.
5. Checking Additional Information
- Your VAT number;
- Your tax identification number or tax identification certificate.
⚙️ We are working to automate the inclusion of the VAT number on Qonto invoices, and to improve its visibility.
6. Personalize your invoice (optional)
You can customize your invoices to reflect your brand by following these steps:
- Company details
- Add your logo: Upload a JPEG or PNG file (maximum size of 5MB) via the "Settings" tab at the top of the screen.
- Set issuer email address: Specify the email address you want to display on your invoice.
- Set a VAT number for your invoices.
- Set your transaction type, whether Goods or Services.
- Set the VAT payment condition according to your need: Whether on receipt or on debit.
- Insert your Capital share and RCS number.
- Change the colors of your invoice: you can customize the brand color and the text color.
- Note: Customization changes will only apply to future invoices and can be modified at any time. Previous invoices will not be updated with new logo or email changes.
- Terms and conditions
- Set the discount conditions regarding the payment.
- Set late payment penalties for your invoices.
- Set legal fixed compensation regarding the payment of your invoices.
7. Share your invoice
As soon as your invoice is approved by the Interchange System (Sistema di Interscambio), you can choose to share your invoice with your customer in two ways:
a. By email
From the Invoicing section, click on the invoice in question and then on Send Invoice at the bottom right of the screen. Enter the recipient's email (you can also enter more than one, separating the addresses with a comma) and customise the subject and message of your email.
To facilitate the tracking of the email, you can tick the box Insert me in cc at the bottom of the page. When you have finished, click on Send.
b. Via link
If you prefer to send the invoice from your personal email address or via another channel (e.g. WhatsApp), go to Invoicing, click on the Share via link section and copy the URL link to share with your customers.
8. Download your invoice
You can select and download individual invoices, or a set of multiple invoices, in one compressed (zip) file, which will be automatically sent to your email address.
This file contains all the selected invoices in PDF format, and can be forwarded to your accountant or any other person of your choice.
For more information on how to download your invoices in PDF format, you can refer to this article: Where can I find my Qonto invoices?
Instead, with Qonto you have a package of 400 accounting elements (including active invoices, passive invoices and credit notes).
For example, you can create 200 active invoices with 50 credit notes, and receive 150 passive invoices from your suppliers. It does not matter how many items you create (or receive), as long as you stay within the 400 accounting items limit.
After 365 days from the time you create your first accounting item, the count returns to 400 again.
Have you reached the limit? Contact our team!
9. Cancelling your invoice
You made a mistake and want to cancel your invoice? You can refer to this article.
What are the different types of invoices I can issue with Qonto?
The different types of invoices you can currently issue are:
- Quote (learn more) and standard customer invoice
- Deposit invoice: The deposit is paid by the client before the delivery of goods or the provision of services. It represents a part of the total amount of the order which is deducted from the final invoice. (learn more)
- Balance invoice: This is the final invoice used to request the payment of the balance from the client, deducting any deposit paid. (learn more)
- Credit note: A credit note is an accounting document used to correct or cancel a previously issued sales invoice. Either the company refunds the client directly, or the amount of the credit note will be deducted from a future purchase.