This list is by no means exhaustive.

• Accountants
• Airconditioners & refrigeration
• Architects
• Artists
• Auction houses
• Beauty salons
• Breeders
• Business management firms
• Butcheries
• Carwashes
• Chemical producers
• Construction companies
• Consulting firms
• Day-care facilities
• Design agencies
• E-commerce websites
• Electricians
• Engineering works
• Entertainers
• Entertainment facilitators
• Event organizers
• Farmers
• Financial advisors
• Flower shops
• Forensic investigators
• Guesthouses
• Hairdressers
• Hosting companies
• Import / Export companies
• Individual investors
• Investment agencies
• IT & Telecoms
• Jumping castles
• Labour brokers
• Landscaping artists
• Lawyers
• Locksmiths
• Make-up artists
• Marketing agencies
• Medical professionals
• Online portals
• Online shops
• Photographers
• Physiotherapists
• Plumbers
• Pool service
• Print houses
• Project managers
• Property developers
• Property rentals
• Real estate agents
• Roofing specialists
• Schools
• Security companies
• Small retail outlets
• Software developers
• Suppliers
• Travel agents
• Tutors
• Web developers

If you're still unsure, sign up for the free account & play around with the system.  If you require any functionality that we don't currently have, let us know and we'll try our best to help.

• Invoice Numbers & Invoice Dates must follow upon one another.
• The words TAX INVOICE must be shown for any VAT registered entity.
• A breakdown of VAT items must be shown.
• Invoices must be in an encrypted document format that prevents 3rd party alteration.
• Clients must be able to pull invoices at any time.
• Invoices must be kept for a period of 5 years - we keep them indefinitely.
• Connection to the application must be encrypted with at least 128 bits - we use 256 bit Extended Validation SSL.

In order to specify these fields, visit the Settings page, click on the Documents tab, and scroll down to the Custom Fields section.

Custom fields can be customised differently for each document type, just click on the different tabs that represent different document types.

Specifiable Options

• Show Account Nr? - This determines if the clients' account number is shown on the document.
• Show Order Nr? - Whether or not the Order Number is shown on the document.
• Show Paid By? - Whether or not the Paid By field is shown on the document.
• Show Due Date? (Invoices only) - Whether or not the Due Date is shown on the document.
• Show Contact Name & Surname? - Whether or not the client' contact name & surname is shown on the document.
• Prepend & Append - Document numbers can be automatically pre- or appended with these specified values.
• Custom Field 1 - 3 - Allows you to add custom fields, the values of which can be entered when creating the document.  These labels can also be changed while setting up a new document.

Proper Configuration

Under Settings -> Interface, you should set Client Selection to "Search by Typing" which will show a search box everywhere you need to select a client.  Once you reach around 150 clients, it becomes more efficient than displaying all clients in a dropdown select box.  You can type any part of the clients' name, email address, or id, to have matching clients displayed instantly.

Deleting or Unmarking Active

Clients that hasn't been issued any documents can be deleted.  As soon as a client has been issued something, he can no longer be deleted, as we allow clients to login and view all their generated documents.  Clients like these can be marked as inactive though by unchecking the Active checkbox when editing the client, or viewing the Clients page.  These inactive clients won't show up in searches or on any place where you need to select a client.

Restoring Active Status

Clients' active status can be restored from the Clients page.  First check the Include Inactive Clients checkbox at the top of the page, and then use the page as you normally would.

With all debit orders, we automatically process payments a couple of days after the batch has run.  You have options to specify how we should handle bounced transactions.

Automatic Debit Orders

The recommended method of collecting money via debit order.  You specify clients which should be processed via this method from the Payments -> Automatic Debit Orders page, set a couple of options, such as the Action Date, and an optional bounce fee.  Our system will then automatically generate a debit batch 3 Action Dates prior to your specified Action Date, so that you can be sure that your money is collected from your clients on your chosen day.  All that is required from you is that you authorise the batch at your payment gateway.  We will notify you via email as soon as the batch is ready.

Clients are automatically debited for their outstanding balance.  You can specify a minimum balance required before they are added to each batch.

Manual Debit Orders

Accessed from the Payments -> New Debit Order page.

1. Select your payment provider if you have more than one.
2. Check the clients you want included in the batch.
3. Specify the amount you want to collect from each client.
4. Click the Create Debit Batch button at the end of the page.

Our system will then automatically compile and submit the batch to your payment gateway, from where you would only be required to authorise the batch.

Debit Orders from Invoices

When creating an invoice or recurring invoice, you have the option to automatically create a debit batch for the invoice total.  At 15:00 South African time, we will automatically compile a batch for all invoices due to be debited on your selected action date.  InvoicesOnline will submit the batch to your preferred gateway and remind you to authorise the batch.

Debit Orders from Pro-Forma Invoices

When creating pro-forma invoices or recurring pro-forma invoices, you have the option to automatically create a debit batch for the pro-forma total.  At 15:00 South African time, we will automatically compile a batch for all pro-formas due to be debited on your selected action date.  InvoicesOnline will submit the batch to your preferred gateway and remind you to authorise the batch.

1. Create an Invoice now, with a recurring schedule.
2. Only create a recurring invoice, e.g. no immediate invoice, the first generation starts on the recurring start date.

The process for these two options are the same, except the page from which it is created.  To create an invoice immediately go to Dashboard -> Invoices and click on the New Invoice button.  To not create an immediate invoice, but only a recurring invoice, go to Dashboard -> Recurring Invoices and click on the New Recurring Invoice button.

Adding Recurring Invoices

1. Go to the correct page as described above.  For an immediate invoice with recurring options it is: Dashboard -> Invoices -> New Invoice, for a recurring invoice without an immediate invoice it is: Dashboard -> Recurring Invoices -> New Recurring Invoice.
2. Choose the Client.
3. Set the recurring schedule, options include: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Every 6 months, Annually, and Bi-Annually.
4. Ensure the recurring start date is as you want it.
5. Optionally add automatic increases - you can specify the increase percentage, and the increase interval.  If you want an annual increase for a monthly schedule, enter 12.  For an annual increase on an annual recurrance, enter 1.
6. Optionally specify a recurrance limit - if you want the recurring invoice to automatically stop after a certain amount of generate cycles.
7. Add line items, negative amounts is also fully supported.  Or add a discount amount or discount percentage if you want.P
8. Optionally add payment reminders.
9. Click Create Recurring Invoice at the end of the page.

Editing Recurring Invoices

1. All recurring invoices can be conveniently found on the Dashboard -> Recurring Invoices page.
2. Click on the Edit button in the line of the recurring invoice you want to edit.
3. Follow the same steps as above.

Pause / Resume Recurring Invoices

If you wish to skip a specific generation just ensure the recurring invoice is paused the day before it should generate, and it can be resumed from the day after it should have generated.

1. Go to Dashboard -> Recurring Invoices
2. Click on the Pause or Resume button in the line corresponding to the invoice you wish to pause or resume.

Delete Recurring Invoices

1. Go to Dashboard -> Recurring Invoices.
2. Click on the Delete button in the line corresponding to the invoice you wish to delete.
3. A popup will appear asking you to confirm the deletion.

For your benefit we also display some stats regarding your recurring income on the bottom of the Recurring Invoices page.  It shows you in monetary value what you will earn in total, and total per schedule.  It also shows what kind of money you are losing on paused items.

We hope that our easy recurring invoices simplifies your life.  It really should, we use it, and it saves us an incredible amount of time.

Basic Workflow

1. Client completes checkout -> Client is automatically created on InvoicesOnline, and a Pro-forma Invoice is created.
2. Payment received through any payment gateway -> Pro-forma Invoice is converted to an Invoice and Payment is assigned in InvoicesOnline.
3. If a payment was made without a payment gateway -> Pro-forma Invoice is converted to an Invoice and Payment is assigned when you mark the order as complete in WP Admin -> WooCommerce.

Options

• You have the option to turn on emails from InvoicesOnline, which would ensure all documents get emailed to the client from your InvoicesOnline account.  If turned off (default), no emails are sent, and download links are provided on the various order related pages in your site.

Requirements

• You require at least a Platinum account with InvoicesOnline in order to acquire API Access.  API settings is available from Settings -> API Access in Invoicing Mode.
• Your server requires cURL.  It is installed by default on 99% of servers.  If it isn't, please get in touch with your website host.

Our plugin includes automatic update abilities - once an update becomes available, please update it.

Installation

1. From Plugins in Wordpress Admin, select Add New.
2. Search for Invoices Online.
3. Click install.

Note that the plugin requires WooCommerce to be installed.

Setting up automatic debit orders is quick & easy.  You specify clients which should be processed via this method from the Payments -> Automatic Debit Orders page, set a couple of options, such as the Action Date, and an optional bounce fee.  Our system will then automatically generate a debit batch 3 Action Dates prior to your specified Action Date, so that you can be sure that your money is collected from your clients on your chosen day.  All that is required from you is that you authorise the batch at your payment gateway.  We will notify you via email as soon as the batch is ready.

Clients are automatically debited for their outstanding balance.  You can specify a minimum balance required before they are added to each batch.

Payments & debit bounces are processed automatically, and you are informed of the results.

Hosting & Installing Wordpress

The first thing you need is a PHP website host, if you need reliable hosting, we can assist with this - or you may want to sign up with any other provider that provides linux, php, & mysql hosting.  Don't worry about the technical details, just ensure they have those 3 things available to you.

Download Wordpress

• After setting up your website with a host, you'll need to download Worpress from https://wordpress.org/download/
• Go to the folder where you downloaded wordpress, and extract it.
• Next you'll need to upload the extracted files to your website host - you can use ftp for this, and there's a great free utility available called FileZilla - https://filezilla-project.org/ - Get the FileZilla Client from here, and install it.  After installation, use it to connect to your website with the details supplied to you by your hosting provider.  I recommend following the famous 5 minute setup instructions here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress

In part 2 we'll help you set up & configure WooCommerce.

Installing WooCommerce

1. Log in to the admin section of your Wordpress site.
2. Visit Plugins in the navigation panel, then click on Add New
3. Search for WooCommerce, it should be the first result if you searched correctly, then click on Install Now, confirm that you want to install it, and once a success message is displayed, click on Activate Plugin below that.