I could not agree more. A quotation facility is needed.
But also the option to call it "Proforma Invoice", as some companies want, instead of a quotation or an invoice.
I'm in the UK, but 90% of what my company sells is exported, so we tend to deal with customers from many countries, that might have different practices. We generally deal with small companies or individuals, and require advance payment.
I find what typically happens with my customers is
1) An engineer inquires about our calibration kits.
2) We provide a quotation, offering different models, with different options to those kits. There might often be a lot of technical details, which the engineer wants. We do not put a "total" amount on the quotation, as not everything offered will be wanted, and in some cases they are mutually exclusive.
3) The engineer decides what he thinks his/her company should purchase, but the accounts department want a "Proforma Invoice" to allow them to make an advanced payment, NOT an invoice, and NOT a quotation. The proforma invoice lists just what is wanted by the engineer, so frequently this is a subset of what was on the quotation.This has a "total" on it.
4) Payment is hopefully made - but there's no guarantee this will happen.
5) We issue an invoice, IF payment is made.
I'm not currently using GnuCash as part of my business, but are thinking of it, although my accountant has recommended Kashflow. As stated on the Kashflow website
"Only after a proforma invoice is converted to a true invoice will its value be registered in your accounts; this is because, until that point, there is no guarantee that the customer will agree to your terms."
I've been using OpenOffice in "Word mode" to generate quotes. If the customer needs a proforma invoice then I just change the wording from "Quotation" to "Proforma Invoice". If payment is received, I remove the word "Proforma", and just call it "Invoice".
I'm not happy about issuing invoices, and all this being recorded in the accounts, if nothing is actually paid for, and nothing sent.
Anonymous
I could not agree more. A quotation facility is needed.
But also the option to call it "Proforma Invoice", as some companies want, instead of a quotation or an invoice.
I'm in the UK, but 90% of what my company sells is exported, so we tend to deal with customers from many countries, that might have different practices. We generally deal with small companies or individuals, and require advance payment.
I find what typically happens with my customers is
1) An engineer inquires about our calibration kits.
2) We provide a quotation, offering different models, with different options to those kits. There might often be a lot of technical details, which the engineer wants. We do not put a "total" amount on the quotation, as not everything offered will be wanted, and in some cases they are mutually exclusive.
3) The engineer decides what he thinks his/her company should purchase, but the accounts department want a "Proforma Invoice" to allow them to make an advanced payment, NOT an invoice, and NOT a quotation. The proforma invoice lists just what is wanted by the engineer, so frequently this is a subset of what was on the quotation.This has a "total" on it.
4) Payment is hopefully made - but there's no guarantee this will happen.
5) We issue an invoice, IF payment is made.
Other products like Kashflow, offer this
https://www.kashflow.com/proforma-invoice/
I'm not currently using GnuCash as part of my business, but are thinking of it, although my accountant has recommended Kashflow. As stated on the Kashflow website
"Only after a proforma invoice is converted to a true invoice will its value be registered in your accounts; this is because, until that point, there is no guarantee that the customer will agree to your terms."
I've been using OpenOffice in "Word mode" to generate quotes. If the customer needs a proforma invoice then I just change the wording from "Quotation" to "Proforma Invoice". If payment is received, I remove the word "Proforma", and just call it "Invoice".
I'm not happy about issuing invoices, and all this being recorded in the accounts, if nothing is actually paid for, and nothing sent.
Dave