From quote to invoice: what a small company's sales process looks like

An accepted quote becomes a draft invoice with the same lines in one click. That needs the Invoicing module too (paid module); the Quotes module works on its own, and the convert-to-invoice button appears with the Invoicing module.

• A draft is not yet an invoice: you can review and complete it, and only issuing makes it official.
• Issuing goes through your company's own Számlázz.hu or Billingo account, and they report to NAV's Online Számla system; HelloCRM does not report itself.
• The same invoice cannot be issued twice, and an issued invoice is not edited: it is reversed (storno) or corrected.
• Without access details, invoicing runs as a dry run and says so; the issued invoice's PDF is kept in HelloCRM too.

The VAT rate, payment terms and hourly rate are your company's own settings, so they do not have to be entered on every invoice. The invoicing software's fee is set by Számlázz.hu or Billingo.

When a job's material cost is high, many small companies ask for money up front. Two documents can come into play then, and they do not mean the same thing.

• A proforma is a request for payment, not an invoice, so it is not reported to NAV. HelloCRM's Invoicing module issues proformas too, and never sends them for reporting.
• If an advance arrives, the VAT Act requires VAT and an invoice (an advance invoice) for the advance too. The final invoice covers the full amount and deducts the advance already invoiced.
• HelloCRM marks the document for an advance as an advance invoice at the invoicing provider.

This is general information, not tax advice. Which document your jobs need and when is something to check with your accountant, and NAV's rules are at onlineszamla.nav.gov.hu.

Issuing the invoice does not finish the job: the money has to arrive too. In a small company late payment is rarely ill will and far more often forgetfulness, for which a polite reminder is enough.

• The Invoicing module shows overdue items aged: who owes, and since when.
• With the Automations module (paid module) a polite reminder can go out on the day an invoice falls overdue, and if it is still unpaid a week later, it becomes a task for a colleague.
• If the company keeps a cash book, a cash payment is entered there too, with a voucher.
• A foreign-currency invoice is held at the rate it was issued at, not today's.

If a customer pays the same each month (a maintenance fee, a retainer), a recurring invoice goes out by itself. Dates follow the start date, so an invoice starting on the 31st goes out on 28 February and on 31 March again, and only one invoice can be made per period.

When you write the quote in a spreadsheet and the invoice in another program, you type the lines twice and can get them wrong twice. After a mistyped quantity or a forgotten discount the customer sees a different total on the invoice than the one they accepted, and that means explanations, a corrected invoice and late payment.

The rounding method matters too. A set of lines can be rounded line by line and then added up, or added up first and rounded at the end, and the two do not always agree. Three lines of 0.05 at 27% VAT come to 0.18 rounded per line and 0.19 rounded at the end. It is a small thing, but there must be no difference between a quote and the invoice made from it.

In HelloCRM the quote and the invoice use the same calculation, rounded per line, so the buyer sees the same total on both, and the total shown on screen is the one that is stored.

Every paid module can be tried for 3 days; module prices will be published soon. The Számlázz.hu or Billingo fee comes on top.