Advance invoices are used to request payment from a customer in advance, without the invoice being related to any transactions or expenses recorded to the matter.

When an actual invoice is later created for the matter, the advance payment made by the customer and recorded in the software will be automatically adjusted to that invoice.

An advance invoice can be attached either to a customer only, or to a customer’s specific matter. An advance invoice can be linked either to a customer or to a specific matter belonging to that customer. An advance payment linked only to the customer can be used for any of the customer’s matters. If the advance payment is also linked to a specific matter, its use is restricted solely to invoices for that particular matter.

The advance invoice itself is not visible in any bookkeeping reports, but the advance payment from the customer is listed in the Payment List. When creating a normal invoice to which an advance payment is adjusted, the invoice becomes visible in the Sales Diary. The open and unpaid advance invoices can be viewed in the Advance Invoices folder of the Financial Management area. The Open Advances report, found in the Financial Reports folder, shows the advance invoices that have been paid but haven’t been adjusted to a normal invoice. 

If an advance invoice is attached also to the customer’s specific matter, the advance payment can be adjusted to invoices of the selected matter only. If advance invoices should be printed with a different bank account, you can define the default account for advance invoices in the business unit’s information. When the default account is set, it will be filled into the details tab on advance invoices and printed on all advance invoices if not overridden in the printing dialog of an advance invoice.