Within TutorCruncher, an Invoice is a document issued by an organisation to one of their Clients to facilitate payment for tutoring services rendered unto them. They are typically comprised of charges for Lessons alongside any other Ad Hoc Charges (i.e. Lesson-related expenses). When a Client pays an Invoice, this will be reflected in their Client balance.
The Draft Invoices page - found via Accounting > Draft Invoices - is where Invoices are drafted, reviewed and raised. The page contains a list of all Invoices that have been regenerated, but not yet sent out to the Client, alongside how much the Invoice is for, how many items it contains, and who the paying Client is. The email icon found on items indicates that the Invoice will be sent by email, and the ‘auto charge’ Label indicates that the Invoice will be automatically charged.
An example of a Draft Invoices page.
Here you can:
Select a Client’s name from either list to view their Invoice’s details.
Use the Regenerate button to regenerate Invoices from any completed Lessons.
Use the Raise Confirmed Invoice(s) button to raise any Invoices listed in the ‘Confirmed Invoices’ panel.
Use the checkboxes next to an item in one of the lists to select it (selecting the checkbox next to the lists' title will select every item in the list).
Use the blue arrows next to items on the list to move them to the adjacent panel.
An example of a draft Invoice.
Here you can:
Use the View PDF button to preview the PDF that will be attached to the Invoice’s payment request email.
Click Confirm to confirm the draft Invoice.
How do I create Invoices?
Once a Lesson has been marked as ‘Complete’, you can navigate to your Draft Invoices page and select Regenerate before specifying a date range for the Invoices to be generated for. If the completed Lesson falls within the specified date range, an Invoice for that Lesson will be generated by the system, and will appear in the ‘Draft Invoices’ panel on the left hand side.
Regenerating Invoices for June.
Note: You can also generate Payment Orders including items not associated with a paid Invoice by using the aforementioned checkbox.
To confirm and raise an Invoice, simply use the blue arrows next to an item on the list within the ‘Draft Invoices’ panel to move it over to the ‘Confirmed Invoices’ panel. You can use the checkboxes next to items in the list to select multiple items, and then use the blue arrow at the very top to move them all over to the confirmed panel in one go.
Once they’re in the confirmed panel, select Raise Confirmed Invoices to raise the confirmed Invoices.
Alternatively, you can navigate to a draft Invoice by selecting its item on the list and clicking Confirm.
How do my Clients pay an Invoice?
There are two ways they can do this:
If Client Login is enabled, then your Clients can log into their Client dashboard and view & pay the Invoice from there - they simply need to click the green ‘Pay Now’ button next to an Invoice found on the ‘Unpaid Invoices & Credit Requests’ panel.
An example of a Client dashboard, with the ‘Unpaid Invoices & Credit Requests’ panel highlighted.
They can also pay the Invoice without logging in via the secure payment link found on any payment request emails sent to them - this will take them to the secure Invoice payment portal.
Paying an Invoice.
How are my Clients notified when I send them an Invoice?
If the Client has a valid email address, they will be notified via the ‘Payment Request’ Email Definition. If you have ‘Client login’ enabled in your Branch Details then your Clients will be able to log into their Client dashboard and view their Invoices from there.
With that said, Invoices can be sent without notifying the Client via email - particularly useful if you are reissuing a corrected or already paid Invoice and you want to avoid potentially confusing your Client.
You can do this when raising your confirmed Invoices; selecting Raise Confirmed Invoice(s) will open the ‘Raise Confirmed Invoices’ panel, from where there will be a checkbox list of all the users who will be notified of the Invoice via email - simply deselect them from this list to prevent an email being sent.
Can I control whether an itemized PDF breakdown is sent alongside the payment request emails for my Invoices?
Yes - this can be toggled on/off via the ‘Attach Invoice and Credit Request PDFs to Payment Request emails’ checkbox found in your General Accounting Settings.
In cases where you don’t want a specific Client to receive a PDF with their Invoice, you can disable this for them via their Client profile. Navigate to their profile, select Actions > Edit Profile before opening the ‘Accounting & Client Manager’ tab where you will find a field titled ‘Attach Invoice and Credit Request PDFs to Payment Request emails’ that will allow you to override the setting on a per-Client basis.
For more information on customizing Invoice PDFs, see our article on HTML Templates.
Can I split my Invoices so that they are one page per Student?
Yes - to do this, navigate to System > Settings > Accounting Settings > General and enable ‘Split Invoices by Student’ checkbox. With this enabled, Lesson details will appear on an individual page for each Student on the sent Invoice.
Can I prevent free Lessons appearing on Invoices?
Yes - simply navigate to System > Settings > Accounting Settings > General and toggle on the ‘Ignore free Lessons’ checkbox.
Why is there a Lesson missing from my Invoice?
Troubleshooting steps:
Has the Lesson been marked as 'Complete'? If you navigate to the Lesson’s main page, is there a green box indicating that the Lesson has been completed?
Has the Lesson already been Invoiced for? You can find an indication of this on the Lesson’s Accounting page.
Is the Lesson chargeable? This is an easy check - on the Lesson’s main page, beside the Student's name, there will be the amount you are charging. If this is zero, then the Lesson won't be invoiceable.