Settings › Invoice & Bill Settings holds the defaults for your invoices, estimates, credit notes, payments and supplier bills, plus your invoice templates. Set them once and every new invoice starts with the right address, due date, numbering and taxes.

Only Administrators and Finance Managers can open this page. For anyone else, the tile on the Settings page is greyed out.

Most settings are saved with the Save button below the Recurring/Retainer Invoices section. Payment instructions and templates are saved in their own popups.

Your address and tax number

The top of Invoice & Bill Settings, with the billing address, the company tax number and its label, and the Sales area.
  • Default Invoice/Billing Address: fill in Address Line, City / Suburb, State / Province, Zip / Postcode and Country. Avaza builds the Display Address from these fields. To type the address exactly as it should print, tick Override Display Address and edit Display Address. This is the "From" address on your invoices, unless a template has its own address. The structured fields are also used when you send e-invoices.
  • Company Default Tax Number: your tax registration number, such as a VAT number or ABN. Enter it here rather than in the address.
  • Company Default Tax Number Label: the label printed before the number, such as "VAT No.". Leave it blank to print "Tax Number".

The tax number only appears on invoices whose template has Show Company Tax Number switched on, on the template's Layout tab. A template can also use a different number. See invoice and estimate templates and reverse charge invoices.

Sales area

  • Default Invoice Trading Term: sets each new invoice's due date, counted from the issue date. Choose Upon Receipt or a number of days.

New companies copy this term when they're created, and each company can have its own Invoice Trading Term under Financial Details on its page in Contacts. Changing the default later doesn't change companies that already exist. On a single invoice, you can still pick another term, or Custom and a date, in the Due Date field.

  • Invoice Prefix, Retainer Prefix, Credit Note Prefix, Payment Prefix and Estimate Prefix: optional letters in front of each number, up to 20 characters. Each new number is the highest number already used with that prefix, plus 1. A new prefix starts again at 1. See changing the starting invoice number.
  • Default Inventory Item for Timesheets and Default Inventory Item for Expenses: the items used for lines added with Add Time and Add Expense. The default taxes on those lines come from these items too. An item used as a default can't be deleted or hidden. See inventory items.
  • Show Amounts as: whether new invoices are Tax Inclusive or Tax Exclusive. You can change it on each invoice, in Amounts are. See tax inclusive and tax exclusive.
  • Enable Project Invoice Link: adds a project picker to each line you type on an invoice. Lines added from timesheets, expenses and fixed amounts are linked to their project anyway. Project reports only count linked lines, and switching the setting on later doesn't link lines on existing invoices, so switch it on before your first invoice.

Payment instructions

Payment instructions are your bank or other payment details, printed on invoices under Payment Instructions.

  1. Under Payment Instructions, click Add Payment Instruction.

  2. Choose the Payment Type. The fields change to suit it, for example an account number or a payment link. Fill them in and click Add.

  3. Switch the instruction on in the Payment Instructions tab of each template that should show it.

Each template shows only the instructions switched on in it, on the web view and the PDF. They're also sent in e-invoices. To change or delete an instruction, click it in the list.

Automatic invoice reminders

Switch on Automatic Invoice Reminders to email customers about unpaid invoices. Then set up to five reminders:

  • For each of Reminder 1 to Reminder 5, choose Due In (days before the due date) or Overdue By (days after it), enter the days and tick Active. The reminders must be in date order.
  • Include a PDF version of the invoice: attach the invoice to each reminder.
  • Send reminders shortly after this time: the time of day they go out.
  • Send replies to: the Administrator or Finance Manager who receives customers' replies.

The wording of each reminder is in email templates.

If a reminder doesn't go out, check these:

  • Automatic reminders aren't available on the Free plan. If you try to switch them on, Avaza says "Automatic Reminders are currently only supported on Paid Accounts".
  • The company must allow reminders: Allow Automatic Invoice Reminders, under Financial Details on its page. It's ticked by default when you add a company in Contacts.
  • Invoices created while reminders were off don't get them. Open the invoice and choose Actions › Turn Auto Reminder On. The same menu turns them off for one invoice.
  • Reminders only go for invoices that are Sent, Late or Partially Paid, and they're emailed to the invoice's Customer Contact.

Bills area

This area only shows when Bills to Pay is switched on under Settings › General. It holds the same kind of defaults for supplier bills:

  • Default Bill Trading Term: the due date for new bills, unless the supplier has its own Bills Trading Term.
  • Bill Prefix, Bill Credit Note Prefix and Bill Payment Prefix.
  • Default Bill Inventory Item for Timesheets: the item, and its purchase tax, for time added to bills.
  • Show Amounts as and Enable Project Bill Link, which work as for invoices.

See getting started with bills.

Recurring and retainer invoices

Recurring/Retainer Invoice Send Time is the time of day, in your account's time zone, when recurring invoices and retainer invoices are created and sent. It's 10:00 am unless you change it. Changing it moves the next invoice of every existing recurring and retainer profile to the new time. See recurring invoices and retainer subscriptions.

E-invoicing and templates

Below the Save button are two more sections:

  • e-Invoicing: a link to the registration form (e-invoicing needs a paid plan) and, once your business is verified, its registration details. See e-invoicing.
  • Invoice & Quote/Estimate Templates: your templates, with their logos. Click one to edit it, or click Add Template. Bill Templates follow when bills are switched on. See invoice and estimate templates and adding a logo.