One-time invoices: Overview

In TaxDome, you can easily create a one-time invoice for non-recurring services such as consultations, audits, liquidation, and more. Here, find out more on how to start using invoices in TaxDome.

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One-time invoices, explained

Along with serial accounting services like bookkeeping, payroll, and tax preparation that require recurring invoices, non-recurring services are possible:

• Consultancies, such as tax planning or auditing
• Audits of companies' tax or financial statements
• Customization or optimization of accounting software and systems
• Preparation of financial documents in cases of companies' liquidation, etc.

One-time invoices are manually created to debit a specified amount from a client's account. Here's what the created invoice looks like for the client:

Before you start

Keep in mind some essential things before creating your first one-time invoice:

1. Connect your TaxDome account with Stripe or CPACharge to accept credit card or bank debit payments. Otherwise, your clients cannot pay the invoice and see an error. 

2. If using Stripe, turn on your preferred payment method and allow bank debits on TaxDome so your clients can pay via bank debit. Bank debits (ACH payments) typically have lower processing fees, reducing the overall cost of processing payments.

3. Sync your TaxDome account with QuickBooks Online. Once you do this, you’ll see all payments and details made through TaxDome in your QuickBooks account.

4. Use a default tax rate to add the tax automatically.

5. Ensure that you have itemized all the services you provide. You will be able to add them to your invoices as line items then quickly.

6. Customize your invoices' look by defining the color scheme of your invoices, selecting the layout and more. 

Then, you can proceed to create invoices.

How invoice numbers are generated

The invoice number is a unique identifier assigned to each invoice that helps to track and distinguish between invoices. Each invoice inside your firm has a unique number.

If you don’t enter an invoice number but leave the field empty when you create an invoice, a number is generated for you. Autogenerated invoice numbers are sequential. This means that numbers will be assigned sequentially without omissions, following a logical numerical order. For example, if the first invoice number is  001, the next will be 002, 003, etc.

• Once TaxDome and QuickBooks are synced, the invoice numbers on QuickBooks will match. To avoid duplicate number errors, make sure the Sync invoice numbers with QuickBooks Online toggle in Settings toggle is on.
• Once synced, edited invoice numbers automatically update on QuickBooks.

Selecting your first invoice number

You can choose the first invoice number on TaxDome if you are a firm owner or admin. This is useful if your firm, say, already has 1,500 invoices, and you don't want to start at No. 1, because it will throw off QuickBooks sync.

To do this, go to Settings > Invoice from the left menu bar. Fill in the number in the Invoice number sequencing section, then click Save. Now, TaxDome will start numbering invoices from that specified number.

How do your clients see one-time invoices

Your clients can view and pay one-time invoices in different ways by clicking:

• The notification on their dashboard or in the mobile app under Waiting for action
• The link on the Invoices page from their portal or mobile app
• The link in their email notification (no need to log into the client portal to pay)

Your clients can pay one-time invoices fully or partially. By default, they see the total amount due to pay, but you can request them to pay a smaller amount as a deposit and pay the rest amount later.

If you want to see what TaxDome looks like from a client's point of view, access a read-only view of their portal.

Partial payments

If you want to ask for a deposit or request that your clients pay a part of the invoice amount in advance, you can secure your services by issuing an invoice and asking them to pay its part in advance. It is especially convenient if your clients have many invoices (e.g. if you provide several different services) and you want to manage their payments and request partial payments for particular invoices.

This option is enabled by default, and you don't have to do anything to start using it. You'll be able to find the full payment history inside the invoice.

Where to find the one-time invoice once it's sent

Once the one-time invoice is created, you can find it in the Billing > Invoices section. From here, you can:

• View the invoice status (whether it was accepted, paid on time, etc.)
• Find out the total amount and sum of unpaid invoices
• Edit invoice data, link to jobs, download, etc., if it has Unpaid status

Note that the list of actions available for unpaid invoices will be much wider than for paid invoices.