An invoice is a document with which you bill a delivery or other service to your customers. An invoice contains important information about your service, payment, seller, and customer. When you send an invoice, it is binding.
Note
You can enter the mandatory legal information, general use of shipping methods, and payment methods in the system settings. You can find the information in the setup path under System setup (Implementation).
You can also define tax rates globally or at the project or product level in the system settings. You can find information about this in the accounting section in the articles Tax / Currency and Tax rates.
Important
Before you start invoicing, make sure to understand the tax regulations applicable to your business. You can do this by consulting your local tax office or tax authority.
Creating a new invoice:
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Navigate to Accounting > Invoices and click on +NEW to open a new blank invoice document in draft mode.
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Enter the customer’s name or customer number in the Customer field and click Apply to import the customer data from the master data.
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Enter additional data or make changes, such as a different delivery address or payment method than the one stored.
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Click Save.
Note
You can also create an invoice from a sales order. To do this, click on Continue as an invoice in the action menu of the sales order. The data will be extracted from the sales order and from the master data, such as the different billing address.
Adding positions to an invoice:
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Navigate to the Positions tab in your invoice.
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Enter the product name or product number in the Product field. The product will be loaded, and you can adjust the values from left to right using TAB.
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Click insert. The product will be added to the table.
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If you want to edit products in the table, you can click on fields such as Quantity, Delivery date, or Price. Alternatively, you can edit the entire position by selecting Edit.
Approving and sending an invoice:
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Review your invoice document in the preview. Here, you can see the configured taxes and prices.
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Click on the Approve button in the invoice and confirm with Approve now.
Your invoice will now receive the next available number in the number range. (Note: If you use different number ranges per project, the next available number will be assigned to the project you have set in your document.)
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You can now send the invoice. Click Send document in the notification message above or alternatively select the action via the action menu: Submit order.
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You can print the document or send it via email. Click Send or mark as sent to mark the document as Sent. If you have already sent the invoice, you can also select Other as the sending reason.
Note
Write protection: After being sent, the invoice is locked for further editing. You can control in the system settings whether the invoice can be reopened by an admin or your accounting department. In any case, you will receive a log entry for any changes made. If corrections are needed for sent invoices, you should correct them using a cancellation document or a credit note and then issue a new invoice.
Logistics: If you use a logistics process and send your customer invoices in one process step, the document will be automatically marked as sent and write protection will be enabled.
Marking an Invoice as paid:
You can manually mark an invoice as paid, reconcile payments with a bank account, or automatically mark certain payment methods through a sales channel as paid, such as credit card payments via the Shopify channel or all credit card payments.
If you are refunding your customer either fully or partially for an invoice, the invoice is reversed with a credit note - a special type of document. The money amount is typically refunded. Additionally, you can correct an incorrectly created invoice by issuing a cancellation invoice. In accounting, the cancellation is always done through a "contra document".
In Xentral, a credit note is issued as a reverse invoice if the corresponding option is selected. Therefore, you can choose both types of documents within your company. The amounts in the reverse invoice are displayed as negative, whereas they are presented as positive in the credit note.
Note
Before you start with credit notes and cancellation invoices, make sure to verify the tax regulations applicable to your business by contacting your local tax office or tax authority.
There are several ways in Xentral to cancel an invoice or continue it as a credit note/cancellation invoice: Directly using the delete icon, through the action menu, or creating it retroactively without a previous invoice or linked to an existing invoice.
Creating a new credit note (without reference to an invoice):
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Go to Accounting > Credit Notes and click on +NEW to open a new empty credit note document in draft mode.
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Enter the customer's name or customer number in the Customer field and click on Apply to import the customer data from the master data. Enter additional data or make changes, such as selecting a different refund method.
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Click on Save.
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Add positions and assign a number from the number range to the document using the Approve button. Send the document. (Follow all steps as mentioned above for invoices).
Creating a new credit note/ cancellation invoice (with a reference to an invoice):
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Go to Accounting > Invoices and click on the action menu of an invoice: Create credit note / Cancellation invoice. Alternatively, you can also click on the X symbol for cancellation in the invoice overview or the invoice itself.
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Confirm Proceed as credit note/ cancellation invoice with OK. The invoice data and positions will be transferred to the credit note/ cancellation invoice.
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Assign a number from the number range to the document using the Approve option. Then, send the document. (All steps as above for invoice).
Note
You can define whether the default document type is a credit note or a cancellation invoice in the system settings. If you need the other type of document, you can check the "Cancellation invoice" box in the credit note to issue the other document. Both document types share the same number range.
If you need a different term instead of Cancellation invoice, such as "Reverse invoice", you can also define this in the system settings.
A chart of accounts is a directory of all accounts used in your accounting system. It's a standardized framework that helps you categorize and record your business transactions.
In the Chart of Accounts module, you can manually create a chart of accounts or import one from another software as a CSV file. In Xentral, you are not restricted to a specific chart of accounts and can freely create the most important accounts. You set up revenue accounts (for invoices and credit notes) in the basic settings. If you use multiple projects (e.g., branches or legally separate channels), you can define the revenue accounts in the project settings. Project-based settings take precedence over global basic settings.
A liability is your obligation as a business owner to your suppliers or customers. It's typically a monetary payment that you owe to your supplier.
The module Liabilities offers you functions such as storing invoices, booking tax rates, and controlling invoice receipt inspection. It also includes pre-accounting for accounting and enables scheduled output of the liability as a SEPA transfer with cash discount settings.
To create a new liability:
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Navigate to Accounting > Accounts Payable and click + NEW.
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Click on the field labeled Supplier and select a supplier from your contacts, then click Apply. The supplier's address data will be loaded.
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Enter the data of your supplier invoice: Invoice number, Invoice date, Amount/Total (gross), Booking text, Entry date, Payment method, Due date.
(Optional, you can fill in additional fields for informational purposes and also, for example, link a purchase order.)
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The following Approval can be granted for the document and control the order status indicator in the liabilities overview (process approval for payment from Xentral):
Goods/Service inspection (Purchasing): With this approval, you switch the order status indicator to green and confirm the receipt of goods/services as fully arrived.
Invoice verification (Accounting): With this approval, you switch the order status indicator to green and confirm the supplier invoice as correct (data, mandatory information, and billed goods).
Info: As long as one of these order status indicators is orange, the liability will not be released for payment.
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Click Save.
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Click Approve to assign a consecutive number from your number range to the liability.
Note
Upload the supplier invoice as a PDF to transfer it to Datev or other accounting systems. Click Select file to upload a PDF file. Choose the file and click Save.
You create an account assignment in a liability as follows:
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Go to Accounting > Accounts Payable and click on a liability. (For example, use the liability you just created.)
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Open the Pre-accounting tab.
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Click +New entry.
A window opnes in which you can enter the following data: G/L account, Amount, Currency, Booking text, Receipt field, Tax rate, Cost center.
Note: Enter an account from your chart of accounts. The amount will be pre-filled based on your input from the liability in the field Amount/Total (Gross). You can also split the amount into multiple positions if needed.
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Click Save.
Note
The account assignment is the basis for your accounting export, such as Datev Business Online. The attached PDF in the payment tab will also be transferred to Datev.
Create a new liability from a purchase order:
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Go to Buy > Purchase Orders and click on the quick preview of a purchase order in the overview (= Mini-Detail). Alternatively, click on a purchase order and go to the tab Details > Protocol tab.
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Click Create liability. You will receive a new tab with the liability pre-filled with Supplier, Purchase order, Amount/Total (Gross), and Payment method.
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Enter further data.
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Click Save.
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Click Approve to assign a consecutive number from your number range to the liability.
Note
In the purchase order, each linked liability is displayed along with the status of approval and the quantity. You can check in the goods receipt whether supplier invoices are already available from the purchase orders.
Xentral offers three integrations with DATEV solutions for Financial accounting export:
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Financial accounting export with extensive accounting features, including CSV file export (DATEV format, e.g. posting stack) with document data and account assignment. (DATEV: Financial accounting, e.g., Financial accounting single space).
The account assignment of tax rates in Xentral is retrieved from the project or from the global company data (the project takes priority over the global settings).
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Export for DATEV Company online XML export files in the same interface as mentioned above. (DATEV: Invoice data service: Interface that transfers the document image and data to the pre-system DATEV company online (Invoice service 1.0)).
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Complete digital document transfer to DATEV via the interface to DATEV Rechnungsdatenservice 1.0. Invoices, credit notes, and liabilities are transmitted to DATEV through the export process (without downloading and uploading files).
(DATEV: Booking data service -> Documents are transferred to the document storage associated with Company online. The dataset is transmitted directly to the tax office - it is more comprehensive and contains more information, such as the account assignment.)
Note
The integration is done via DATEV SmartLogin with a QR code.
Your Xentral instance receives a wealth of data that you can leverage to boost your business growth. With this data, you can obtain detailed insights into your customer base, identify your top-selling products, and optimize your inventory management. In Xentral, there are many ways to analyze your data to enable data-driven decision-making:
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Dashboards with the ability for deeper analysis, e.g., Revenue Analysis
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Data tables and statistics such as invoice summaries, revenue statistics in tabular form
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Standardized industry reports through the Reports module with the option to create custom SQL reports, such as revenue per item, revenue per shop/ channel.
Exclusive to Xentral NextGen, you'll find our three latest reporting modules with charts and tables to support you in processing your data:
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KPI Overview: General key performance indicators (KPIs) such as open sales orders and receivables, parcels to be shipped, returns, top-selling items
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Revenue Analysis: Revenue and cost development, such as net revenue, cost of goods sold on an invoice or sales order basis
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Inventory Analysis: Value and performance of your inventory, such as stock quantity, value, ABC categorization
Select a comparison period, and you will receive an analysis of your data, which you can further refine and customize as needed.
The KPI Overview provides you with a general overview of your company's key metrics, such as total sales orders or inventory turnover rate. The board is primarily designed for your company's management, allowing them to quickly gather insights into the most important metrics and compare them with other periods.
The Revenue Analysis allows you to analyze your revenue statistics in more detail. It provides a quick overview of net revenue, cost of goods sold, and contribution margin. Additionally, you can analyze your sales in depth using various filters. For example, you can examine the sales figures of a product in different countries or compare the revenues of your sales channels.
With Inventory Analysis, you can gain a better understanding of your inventory. Here, you'll find data on the value of your stock, turnover rate, and sell-through rate. You can compare this data with previous periods or examine it over time to identify trends and optimize your inventory. Additionally, you can conduct in-depth analysis of your inventory using the table feature.
You can export the current view of all your data tables (e.g., invoice overview, credit note overview, sales order overview) in Xentral. You can customize the view by filtering them based on specific parameters such as date range, project/channel, customer, or supplier.
More comprehensive exports can be downloaded using the module Sales Statistics or the Reports Module.
Another important feature is Reports. These provide you with insights into various data points of your business, such as yearly bestsellers or products with a short shelf life. For typical use cases like these, you can choose from around a hundred pre-built and industry-standard reports. You can also create custom reports tailored to your specific needs.
In your own reports, you can analyze your data through SQL queries of your Xentral database. You can find the necessary database names and tables for creating custom reports in the Database view module.
You can export your reports in CSV or PDF format and continue working with them in third-party systems. You can automatically transfer your reports to other systems at specified intervals via (S)FTP, email, URL, or API.
Note
If you don't have sufficient SQL skills yet, we recommend contacting one of our partners. They can create the desired reports for you.
Tip
If these data exports are not sufficient for your needs, the following topics are a useful additions, as well as the Helpdesk category Advanced topics:
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New API (beta) , API (old REST API)
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Transfer Modul (XML Logistics), Smarty transfer Modul , Smarty Introduction