Invoices & the invoice-first model

Invoices are the financial source of truth in SwiftFox. Every subscription period generates an invoice; payments reduce the invoice balance, adjustments are recorded against it, and Paid To Date and arrears are derived from it. You can also create one-off invoices for ad hoc charges.

How invoices are generated

• Anniversary subscriptions generate one invoice per payment period — a fortnightly anniversary subscription generates a new invoice every fortnight; a monthly one every month.
• Common period and common renewal subscriptions generate a single invoice for the entire year (or the configured renewal interval), which is then paid down by periodic payments. For example, a member paying $10 per fortnight on a 26-fortnight common period sees one invoice for $260 reduced by each $10 payment.
• Direct debit subscriptions receive invoices too, not just invoice-payment members.

Create a one-off invoice

1. Open the contact's profile and go to the Financial tab. In the Invoices section, click Create Invoice. This opens the Manage Invoice form.
2. Check the header fields: Invoice No (filled in automatically with the next number), Customer (the contact you started from), Invoice Date (required, defaults to today) and Currency (required). Optionally enter a Reference and a Due Date. Under Integrations, click Integrate with Xero if you want the invoice raised in Xero via the Xero Integration.
3. Click Add Line Item and complete each line. The line-item table has the columns Item, Comment, Quantity, Unit Amount, Account, Tax Rate, Tax Inclusive, Tax and Amount, followed by a column for each of your account's tracking categories (for example Location and Department — your account sets up its own).
4. Choose Save as Draft, Approve & Email, or — from the dropdown beside Approve & Email — Approve or Submit for approval.

The draft exists as soon as the form opens. Opening Create Invoice adds a $0.00 Draft invoice to the contact's Invoices table straight away, and closing the form with the cross does not remove it. If you opened the form by mistake, use the Delete button at the bottom of the form rather than just closing it.

Pay, adjust, write off, void

Open any invoice from the contact's Financial tab. The invoice appears in a drawer with Print and Email buttons. The finance actions sit in the dropdown beside Email:

• Pay Invoice — record a payment (see Recording & allocating payments (Document ID: 363)).
• Adjust Invoice, Write Off and Open Pay Now page (see Adjustments, write-offs & voids (Document ID: 356)). Write-off and void wording depends on the invoice: an unpaid invoice offers Write Off as Paid and Write Off & Void; a part-paid invoice offers Write Off Remaining Balance.

Invoice statuses

An invoice has one of seven statuses:

• Draft — created but not approved.
• Pending Approval — sent for approval with Submit for approval, not yet approved.
• Approved — approved, awaiting payment.
• Partially Paid — some payment allocated, balance remaining.
• Paid — fully paid (including an invoice written off with Write Off as Paid).
• Voided — cancelled (no payments existed), for example with Write Off & Void.
• Deleted — removed.

There is no separate written-off status: a write-off is recorded as an adjustment on the invoice, and the invoice ends up Paid or Voided — see Adjustments, write-offs & voids (Document ID: 356).

Voided and deleted invoices are hidden by default. The Invoices table on the contact's Financial tab arrives with a filter already applied — Where Status exclude Deleted, Voided — so a voided invoice looks as though it has disappeared. To see them, open the filter on the Invoices table and remove Voided (or Deleted) from the excluded statuses.

Email an invoice

1. Open the invoice.
2. Click Email on the invoice drawer (in the Invoices list you can also use the three-dots menu on an unpaid invoice).
3. Confirm the recipient email address.
4. Click Send.

The emailed invoice is a snapshot at the time of sending, and includes a Pay Now link. When the member pays, SwiftFox auto-emails a confirmation, generates a receipt, and marks the invoice Paid.

The Pay Now link

The Pay Now link in emailed invoices lets the member pay online and always reflects the current outstanding balance — even if the member clicks an old email. So if you make changes after sending, the link still charges the correct amount.

Print or download an invoice

1. Open the contact's Financial tab and click the invoice.
2. Click Print (or the printer icon, or three-dots → Print).
3. The PDF opens — save or print it as required.

Method tracking (SwiftFox vs Xero)

Each invoice records whether it was raised in SwiftFox or Xero. This shows in the Method column of the contact's Invoices table and of finance Invoices Action Centres, and in the invoice view. With the Xero Integration, invoices can be created in Xero and (if enabled in Xero) auto-sent from there.

Recommended: invoicing a subscription

To generate and send an invoice tied to a subscription, use Receipts → Make payment with Payment type set to Subscription rather than creating a standalone invoice. This automatically adds the full membership fee for that contact and links the invoice to the subscription.