Invoices and templates.

A bill is a numbered invoice with saved amounts and a document. A client bill goes from an organization to its client. A personal bill goes from a freelancer to the organization for their own work.

These use separate billing layers. The time guide explains review of Mikrons, the records that can supply invoice lines.

Issuer details and defaults

The issuer issues the invoice; the recipient is billed. Organization Settings holds sender details, tax identifiers, bank details, numbering and defaults. Personal Settings holds a freelancer’s own identity and template.

Choose currency and check the template before issuance. Numbering suggests a number from the issue date until you edit it. Numbers must be unique for the issuer, including those used by cancelled invoices.

Eligible work

Eligible work is accepted work that meets billability and processing conditions at that layer. The rate guide explains project and category settings.

• Client accountants with write access can bill eligible work, including colleagues’ work, for their assigned clients without manager rights. Organization accountants have wider scope.
• Personal bills need personal billing permission and contain only the issuer’s work, even with accountant rights.
• Work already billed at the same layer cannot be billed there again.
• Client billing waits for required forwarding and host acceptance. Personal billing needs local acceptance and does not wait for forwarding.

The editor explains exclusions, including missing acceptance or forwarding. Organization financial settings can stop new client invoices. Personal invoices remain separate and need their own permission.

Work lines and rounding

1. Open organization Bills and its create action. Choose Bill a client or Bill your organization where offered. Personal Profile → Bills also offers personal invoice creation.
2. Check issue date, number and work period under From and Until.
3. Inspect included and ignored Mikrons. Check project/category lines, rates and VAT.
4. Add other items or reductions. Check totals and note.
5. Use Preview bill. Select Save bill when ready to issue.

Check automatically proposed expenses as well as the work period. Those expenses are not limited to the selected work dates. After invoicing elsewhere or re-enabling client invoices, review both before saving; Treetops has no record of invoices issued outside it.

Each work line groups selected minutes for one project and category. Net excludes VAT; gross includes it.

Hours round down to two decimals. Net line prices round down to the cent; VAT rounds to the nearest cent. VAT rounding can make the total slightly higher than the exact unrounded amount.

An invoice with VAT in another currency must also state the tax amount in the currency of your country. This applies to plain and electronic invoices. Treetops has no exchange rates, so you enter the amount in the bill editor, using the official rate of the month. It appears in the invoice note, so the template needs its {{note}} placeholder.

Manual hour override replaces recorded hours with agreed hours on permitted client bills. Typed hours also round down to two decimals and may not exceed 10,000 per line. The control is disabled when forwarding work to that client. Read its warning and check breakdown availability. Overrides do not create extra time records.

See the invoice editor.

Custom items and expenses

A custom item is a non-time line with description, quantity, unit net price, VAT and project allocation. Under Add new item, choose the custom-item option and enter its details.

When the client has active billable projects, each saved line needs a valid project. Check any preselected project.

A passed-on expense charges a recorded cost to the client. Its charge can differ from its cost. Under Add new item, choose a client expense and select it. The line keeps its project. Configured expenses can also be proposed automatically.

Adding a line does not issue the invoice. Check amount and VAT. See expense setup and processing and the invoice editor.

Reductions

A reduction subtracts a fixed net amount or percentage from selected positive lines before VAT.

1. Open Add new item and choose reduction.
2. Select work or item lines under Applies to.
3. Enter a description and an absolute amount or percentage.
4. Check the selected subtotal and reduction, then add it.

Reductions cannot exceed the selected subtotal. They retain project and VAT allocation across tax rates. Reducing an expense line also lowers its recovered net amount.

Invoice templates

An invoice template defines document layout, language and paper size. It is separate from a time-entry template.

1. Open the template editor from organization or personal Settings.
2. Choose a Document language. The editor then shows only the templates in that language.
3. Select a preset and inspect the preview. Presets cannot be overwritten.
4. Use Edit template to change HTML, the document markup. Use Save copy for a custom template.
5. Choose the paper size, save and select the template.
6. Preview an invoice before issuing it.

Each language has three presets. A copy keeps the language of its template. The French presets contain the payment notices that French law requires between businesses. Treetops records no due date, so state the payment term in the invoice note.

Document and interface language are independent. Structural edits require HTML knowledge. See the template editor.

Issued invoices retain their saved document, amounts and language. Later template, rate or sender changes affect new documents.

States and exports

Bills separates incoming, outgoing and open invoices within your access. Filters can use issue or receipt dates. Receipt-date browsing excludes invoices without recorded receipt. Financial charts still use issue dates.

Use a bill’s status action for permitted changes. These record facts without processing payments. Cancelled bills have read-only status dialogs. Older bills with unknown direction restrict actions that depend on it.

Open the invoice’s print/export action and select Export PDF. For a non-cancelled invoice with linked work, include a breakdown or export the breakdown alone. Without retained work links, a breakdown is unavailable.

Exporting one invoice opens a PDF. Exporting several produces a ZIP, with the selected breakdown option. An XRechnung or Peppol BIS invoice always comes as a ZIP with its XML file and PDF. Check the downloaded pages because the preview only approximates page breaks.

Existing invoices remain available within your permissions when new client invoice creation is disabled. Status changes, cancellation, deletion and export retain their own authority checks.

See the bill list and the financial report guide for income and result definitions.

Electronic invoices

An electronic invoice holds the invoice as data a computer can read, so an accounting program can import it. Treetops offers three formats. All follow the European standard EN 16931.

• ZUGFeRD 2.5.2 is a PDF that looks like any other invoice and also contains the data.
• XRechnung 3.0 is the German format for public bodies. It is XML data only.
• Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 is the format of the European Peppol network. It is XML data only.

With XRechnung or Peppol BIS, the download is a ZIP with two files: the XML file and a PDF of the same invoice. The XML file is the invoice that counts, so send it to the client. The PDF is for people who want to read the invoice.

Treetops makes the files, but it does not deliver invoices to recipients. To send a Peppol invoice, upload the XML file to your Peppol provider, a company that connects you to the Peppol network. Some countries require that invoices between companies go through an approved platform. Check the rules of your country.

1. In the organization’s financial settings, enter your address with a two-letter country code, your IBAN, and your VAT number or company register number with its register type. For a personal invoice, these details come from your Profile.
2. In the tax rate settings, choose the Kind of tax for electronic invoices for each rate. A rate without VAT also needs a Reason why no VAT applies.
3. In the financial settings, choose the Default electronic invoice. It applies to every client. None (plain PDF) means no electronic invoices. Your Profile has the same setting for personal invoices. To use another format for one organization, open your member page there and change Settings for this organization.
4. In the client, Electronic invoice starts on the default. Choose another format or None (plain PDF) if this client is different.
5. Enter what the client asks for: VAT number, Electronic invoice address and its type, Recipient reference, Order number and Contract number.
6. For XRechnung, add a telephone number and an email address to your address. Enter an Electronic invoice address for you and for the client, the client’s postcode and city, and a Recipient reference. For a public body in Germany, the recipient reference is its Leitweg-ID.
7. For Peppol BIS, enter an Electronic invoice address for you and for the client. Its address type has four digits, such as 0088 or 9930. Peppol does not accept EM. Enter a Recipient reference or an Order number. When you and the client are both in Germany, the XRechnung details also apply. A company in the Netherlands needs its KVK number with register type 0106 or its OIN number with type 0190.
8. In the bill editor, Electronic invoice shows the client’s format or your default. You can change it and the three references for this invoice.

The formats you can choose depend on the country of your address and on your currency. All three formats are available in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, in euros, US dollars, British pounds and Swiss francs. In Belgium, the normal format between companies is Peppol. Choose Peppol BIS there, or use ZUGFeRD only if you agreed it with the client.

When you save, Treetops checks that the invoice has everything it needs. If a detail is missing or a number has a wrong check digit, it saves nothing and tells you what to fix. You can fix it, or choose None (plain PDF).

Select Print... and Export PDF. Treetops builds and validates the files at that moment. If the check fails, it exports nothing and shows the reason. Invoices saved as a plain PDF cannot become electronic later.

Cancel an electronic invoice

Select Cancel... next to the invoice. Treetops also creates a cancellation document for the full amount in the same format, numbered as the invoice plus -S. Export PDF then gives that document. To get the original, tick Export the original invoice instead of the cancellation.

A cancellation is not a refund. Payment records stay on the original invoice, and Treetops moves no money. To bill the work again, select Create replacement, check the editor and issue the new invoice under a new number. The stage No client invoices still allows cancellation but not a replacement.