Invoicing and terms
Invoices raised when the order ships.
Terms are set once: a default for the business, and an override on any location that needs one. When an order is marked fulfilled, its invoice is written into your accounting, QuickBooks or Xero, dated to the order's delivery date and due on that location's terms, counted from the same day.
No spreadsheet of who's on which terms, and no week of drift between shipping and invoicing.
Terms are easy to offer and hard to run.
Deciding to give an account Net 30 takes a sentence. Everything after that is the work: remembering which location is on which terms, raising the invoice off the right date, and getting it into the books without typing the order in twice.
Terms live in someone's head
The account that negotiated Net 60 two years ago is still on Net 30 in the system, or the other way round. Nobody finds out until the conversation gets awkward.
The clock starts on the wrong day
Terms run from the invoice, and the invoice gets raised whenever somebody gets to it. A week of drift on every order is a week of receivables you financed for free.
Every order is typed twice
The order lives in one place and the invoice is keyed into the books by hand, a line at a time. Every retyped line is another chance for a price or a quantity to come out different.
How it works
Set the terms once. The invoice follows the order.
Terms, set once
A default for the business, and an override on any location that needs one. Every location's page shows the terms it is on, and whether they are its own or the default.
business default Net 30
Juniper Street Cafe Net 30 (org default)
Canal Bakery Net 30 (org default)
Northgate Deli Net 15
Invoiced on fulfillment
Switch it on for the order channels you bill, such as portal orders and the ones your team enters. When an order is marked fulfilled, its invoice is raised from that order, with the same lines, quantities and prices, instead of being retyped.
order 4417 fulfilled lines 6 $1,284.50 memo Order 4417 // PO: 88-2031
Due from the delivery date
The invoice is dated to the order's delivery date and falls due on that location's terms, counted from the same day. Retrying a sync a few days later doesn't move either date.
delivered 2 Sep order 4417 $1,284.50 invoiced 2 Sep QuickBooks due 2 Oct Net 30
Your accounting stays the book of record
Your accountant keeps working in QuickBooks or Xero. Every sync attempt is logged on the order, and a fulfilled order whose invoice didn't reach the books is flagged at the top of the orders list until it is sorted out.
1 fulfilled order didn't sync to QuickBooks: 4419 4417 Synced 4418 Synced 4419 Failed Retry sync
What lands in your books.
The invoice is written from the order itself: each line against the accounting item it maps to, at the quantity and price on the order, with the delivery date, the delivery method, and the PO number and order notes on the memo. effizient doesn't calculate sales tax; that stays with your accounting and however you have it set up there.
Change an order after it has been invoiced and the same invoice is updated, not a second one raised. If someone changed its lines in the books in the meantime, the sync stops and says so rather than overwriting them.
Questions we get asked
- Do we need Shopify Plus?
- No. Invoicing and terms run between effizient and your accounting, so nothing here depends on your Shopify plan, or on selling through Shopify at all.
- Does this replace our accounting system?
- No. QuickBooks or Xero stays your book of record. effizient writes the invoices into it, keeps them in sync with the orders, and tells you when one didn't arrive.
- Can accounts pay online?
- Yes. Accounts pay their invoices online, by bank transfer or card, through your own Stripe account connected to effizient, and each payment is recorded against its invoice. Accounts that pay by check can keep doing so.
- Can we start with a few accounts?
- Yes. effizient only invoices the orders that go through it, so a handful of accounts can order there while the rest carry on as they are, and you widen it when you trust it.
See whether it fits how you bill.
Twenty minutes on how you invoice today and where it slows you down.