Invoicing is the best part of the entrepreneurship. You have done your job well, and now it is time to get paid for it.
Creating invoices in the UKKO Private Trader service is quick and easy, especially when you take advantage of all the features available. For example, if you have customers to whom you send invoices at regular intervals, you could save the customer information in the Customer Register. This way, you do not have to enter customer information for every invoice you create as you can just choose the right customer and all the customer information will be automatically filled in.
Let’s get started and create a new invoice!
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The easy steps are the following:
1. Customer - add your customer's details
2. Invoice details - add due dates etc.
3. Items - what the invoice is about
4. Preview - check that everything is correct
5. Invoice done - Well done!
6. Invoice status and mark as paid
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First, you should click on Incomes from the menu on the left, which will take you to a page where you can see all the information about your incomes added to the service.
From this page, you can start creating a new invoice by clicking the ‘New Income’ button at the top right. After that select the ‘Create New Invoice’ option.
1. Customer
On the first page, the service asks for information about your customer. You can either select the ‘New customer’ option if you have not previously saved the customer information in the service or retrieve the customer information you have already saved in the ‘Search customer register’ section. So, if you want, you can save your customer information to the customer register in the 'Customers’ section and easily refill your customer information when creating invoices.
All the necessary information about your customer is marked with a star * sign.
You should choose whether your billing client is a company or an individual. The required information changes when the type changes.
What is the VAT-number?
The VAT number consists of the country-specific code (in Finland it is FI) followed by the company’s business ID where the dash (-) is removed. For example, if your business ID is 1234567-8, your VAT number is FI12345678.
Next, choose how to send the invoice. The method can be:
- Download = The invoice will be downloaded to your device in PDF format. In this case, the service does not forward the invoice to your customer. You have to send it by yourself.
- Email = An invoice will be automatically sent to the email address you provided in the customer information section.
- By mail = Your invoice will be sent to the paper invoice print queue to Apix, from where the invoice will be sent by letter to your customer. Please note that in this billing method, you must provide your customer's address information.
- E-invoicing = Your invoice will be sent as an e-invoice to Apix, from where the invoice will be sent as an e-invoice to your customer's operator. Please note that in this method you must provide your customer's e-invoice address.
2. Invoice details
Next, we will move on to the invoice details.
The system will automatically set the date of your invoice when you create the invoice. By default, a 14-day payment term** is set for the invoice, which you can edit when creating the invoice or setting a customer-specific payment term for the customer in the customer register. (please read more about the payment term at the end of the page).
Your invoice also has a default late payment interest rate of 5%, which the service will automatically calculate on your invoice if you send a payment reminder to your customer. You can customize the late payment rate and the notice period time if you wish. Please note that if you are sending the invoice for a consumer and want to change the late payment interest rate, the rate cannot be higher than what it is mentioned in the Finnish consumer protection law. Companies can decide together what the rate can be.
The delivery date field is optional and can be filled out, for example, if you are invoicing a product that you deliver / mail to your customer. If you wish, you can add the Order Number, Our Reference or/and the Customer's reference to the invoice. This is alternative information that is not required to create an invoice. The invoice number is automatically generated as a running number from the previous invoice you made. If you make the first invoice, the number of your first invoice is 101. This continuous numbering invoicing system is determined by the Accounting Act.
3. Items
In this part, you can add products and services to your invoice. You can also add additional text to your invoice if you wish.
To get started, click the +Add new text.
You will see a Product / Service line where you can also add products or services stored in the product register. You will see the products you have saved when you start entering the name of your product/service in the field and then just click the right option. Click here to find out how to add a product to the registry.
You can also add a product/service manually. Enter the name of the product or service, the quantity to be sold and the unit in which the product appears on the invoice (e.g. pcs, kg, meters etc.).
Enter the unit price for your product, whether the price includes VAT or whether VAT and VAT percentage are added to the price.
If you wish, you can also set a discount percentage for your product.
4. Preview
In the last step, you will be able to see a preview of the invoice you have made. You can either save your invoice as a draft by clicking Save as a draft or finish the invoice by clicking Send/Download Invoice.
5. Invoice done
Congratulations, the invoice is now ready, and it has been sent to the customer if you chose the sending method for the invoice! If you downloaded the invoice, please note that you need to deliver the invoice to your customer by yourself.
6. Invoice status and mark as paid
Your invoice will now appear in your incomes section in unpaid mode. You should mark the invoice as paid once you have received the payment. You can mark an invoice as paid by clicking on the three points on the right side of the invoice and pressing the Mark as paid option.
In the window that opens, you can select the amount you want to mark the invoice as paid and the payment date when the money was paid to you.
**The payment note time is automatically put for 14 days for consumers. Of course, you can also use this note time for your business customers. You can send a payment reminder to the company immediately after the invoice is due. This is not specifically defined in the debt collection act. Usually, a payment reminder will be sent to the company approximately 7 days after the due date.