Create a tax invoice

Create a tax invoice to bill for services and goods supplied by your farm business.

Step 1. Build your tax invoice

In the Needs Action page, click on Create tax invoice.

Complete the header information:

Invoice date
Due date
Other Party - this is a compulsory field
Reference - this can be customised for each tax invoice and can be anything you like- common usage includes customer or order numbers
Account - the bank account you would like to be displayed on the invoice for payment

TIP: Here is an article from IRD about taxable supply information.

Complete the information in the body of the invoice:

Choose a code.
This is for your use, the recipient won't see this on their invoice.
Enter a description
Explain what it is you're supplying. This is a mandatory field per IRD's requirements. You can also record a note which will be displayed on the invoice.
Enter a quantity
This is also a mandatory field where the value needs to be greater than 0 as it will help to calculate each line amount.
Enter a figure to multiply by (Optional)
This is an optional field that helps Farm Focus calculate and display a greater level of detail. Check out the scenarios below to see how the Multiplier works in your tax invoices.
Enter a unit price
The unit price is the price you would enter for a per-head, kg, ha, bale etc.
Line amount
Using the quantity, multiplier and unit price Farm Focus will calculate the line amount for you.

How you can use the Multiplier

The Multiplier helps you calculate a value in your tax invoice.

In the example above:

Qty - There are 300 grazing hoggets
Multiplier - There is an ave. weight gain of 16kg/head
Unit Price - The grazier charges $2.10/kg live weight gain

Qty - There are 21 carry-over cows out grazing
Multiplier - For 4 weeks
Unit Price - The grazier charges $14 per week per cow

Using the multiplier, you can show all three elements of the calculation.
This will also be displayed on the invoice.

Select Save Draft if you want to check any information and come back to it later. If you have saved a tax invoice as a draft you will find it on the Invoice side of the Needs Action screen with an orange tag on it.

Step 2. Preview and Generate your tax invoice

Click Preview & Generate.
Choose to directly email your tax invoice to your customer from Farm Focus. See the section below Email your tax invoice directly to your customers
Review the invoice, and when you're happy with it, click Generate and Send. Information in the tax invoice cannot be changed after it has been generated. When you generate your tax invoice, it becomes read-only and an invoice number is allocated.

A PDF copy of your tax invoice will be saved to your downloads and a copy will sit in the Needs Action page until you match it to the corresponding transaction once it has been paid.

Email your tax invoice directly to your customers

When you create a tax invoice in Farm Focus you can choose to send an email directly to your customer with a pdf copy of the invoice attached. This function will help to keep track of which invoices have been emailed, and on what date, to help you manage your debtors.

For this function to work, ensure your customer's email address is saved in your contacts. Go to Settings > Contacts. The email will be sent to only one address so ensure it is the correct email address for your customers' accounts or admin contact. You can also choose to edit your contact from within the tax invoice form when you are creating the tax invoice. Click to input your Other party and choose the pencil icon to edit the contact and fill in any missing details.

If you have an email address for your Other party you will be able to check the box to send the email and invoice attached directly.
The email address for your customer will appear next to the check box for a final view to ensure the email address is correct before sending.

If you haven't got an email address for the customer in your contacts, you will not be able to send the invoice directly to your customer. You will be prompted to update your Other party. You can still click to Generate Tax Invoice and a PDF of your tax invoice will be saved to your downloads for you to manually email or send to your customers.

The PDF of the tax invoice will be attached to an email that is sent from a default Farm Focus email address. You will also be sent a copy of this email as a BCC (Blind carbon copy) recipient so that you can keep track of the dates and times an email was sent. The BCC recipient will be to the email address of the Farm Focus user who is logged in on that session.
Settings are in place to ensure that if a customer replies to this email it will be directed to the sender, not to Farm Focus.

What does the email look like?

The email message is a default which is not customisable. You have the option to create custom messages within the tax invoice if you choose. Click here to learn more about personalising your tax invoices.

A PDF attachment will be included with the email. The text will tell the customer the tax invoice number, the amount to pay, and the due date.

Stock invoices

You can create a dollar-per-head stock invoice. When you enter a stock code the fields in the invoice will change.

This allows you to create a:

dollar-per-head
dollar- per-kg or
total kg stock invoice.

Managing tax invoices

On the Actuals page, click on the Tax Invoices page to view all the tax invoices you have created in the past. You can also select to view any deleted invoices.

There are a couple of ways to keep a check on the tax invoices that have been sent.

Any of the emailed invoices will also be sent to you as a BCC recipient and you can keep a folder in your emails to file these if needed.
You can also click into your Tax Invoices tab in your Actuals and will see that any emailed invoices will now be flagged with a SENT token.

You will know if an invoice has not been paid, as it will remain on the Needs Action page.

Repeat or copy a tax invoice

If you have invoices that go out regularly to the same person for the same amount, you have the option to create a repeating invoice.
If you want to send a similar invoice, you have the option to copy the invoice. Make the appropriate changes to the invoice and generate and send a new invoice.

Click here to learn more about repeating or copying an invoice.

Resend an outstanding tax invoice

If you have an outstanding invoice, you can send a reminder to the customer by going into the invoice and clicking Send email. A copy of the invoice will be sent to your customer.

Resend a historical tax invoice

If you need to resend a paid historical invoice, say from a previous year, download a copy of the invoice and manually email it to your customer.

Locate the tax invoice of interest
Click on the paper clip icon on the top right and corner of the screen
Open the invoice and click on the download icon on the top right-hand side
A PDF of your tax invoice will be saved to your downloads for you to manually email or send to your customer.

Restore a tax invoice that has been deleted

If you have accidentally deleted a tax invoice, you can quickly restore it.

To restore a deleted tax invoice. go to the Actuals screen:

Select Tax Invoices.
Click on the Show deleted tab and it will change to Hide deleted. All deleted invoices will be displayed.
Hover over the invoice you want to restore and click on the 3 vertical dots.
Click Restore.
The tax invoice will now appear in the Actuals screen on the Needs Action page.