Create an invoice and review its valuation

This article walks through raising an invoice, reading the valuation table, and taking it through to payment. For the background on how recorded hours, status updates and invoice amounts connect, start with Introduction: Status Allocations and Invoice Amounts.

Where to create an invoice

There are two routes:

• Billing → Invoices → Create
• From the project — open the project, go to the Finance tab, and click Create

Creating from the project is recommended. Kompass then pre-fills the Organization, Project, Reference and Details for you.

Choosing the type

Before anything else, pick what you're raising. The Type dropdown offers two options:

Two rules worth knowing up front:

• Kompass checks the sign. If you choose Invoice and your amounts net negative, it won't save, you'll get an error asking you to fix the type or the amounts.
• The type is fixed once saved. You choose it when creating; afterwards it's read-only. If you picked wrong, delete the draft and start again.

The Details section

The proposal item allocation table

This is where you decide what to invoice, and it doubles as the project's valuation at a glance.

Each proposal item takes one row, and splits into a sub-row per nominal account, so a single item can be invoiced across Core and Subcontract independently.

The arrow shortcut

Click the arrow inside any Amount Net field to copy that line's Remaining Value straight in.

Reading the table

Three situations you'll meet, using the example below:

• Proposal item 194151: Status Value is $4,300 but $4,800 has been invoiced. We've over-invoiced by $500, so Remaining Value shows $(500) — a credit sitting on that item.
• Proposal item 194171: Status Value is $498.45 and $200 has been invoiced, so $298.45 remains. We invoice it in full.
• Proposal item 194237: Status Value is $262.50 and a $100 credit note was raised previously, so Invoiced Net is −$100 and $362.50 remains available.

Four behaviours that surprise people

1. Set a Billing End date and the figures snapshot to it. Every valuation column gains an @ 30/06/26   suffix and shows the position as at that date, not today. This is what makes month-end invoicing accurate. But change the end date and the whole table moves.

2. "Show all" reveals hidden rows. In view mode, Kompass hides proposal items with nothing allocated on this invoice. Tick Show all to see everything. (The footer total always includes hidden rows, and says so.)

3. Editing an existing invoice changes the Invoiced figures. When you click Edit, the Invoiced Net and Remaining Value columns exclude this invoice's own lines. In view mode they include them. This is deliberate: while editing, your amounts appear in the Amount Net column, so counting them in Invoiced Net too would double them up. It does mean the same invoice reads differently in view and edit mode.

4. Unaccepted proposal items are struck through and left out of the price total. A warning triangle appears in the footer to tell you the total excludes them.

The Invoiced column with credits applied

Where a credit note has been applied, the Invoiced column shows the net figure, then breaks it out with two chips: I for the invoiced portion and C for the credited portion. The footer does the same.

Naming a Sales Order

If the project has Sales Orders, select the relevant one in the Sales Order field. This links the invoice to the client's authorisation, and the invoice's net value then draws that order down.

Kompass warns you as you approach the limit:

Both are advisory, Kompass won't block the save. They're there so you can check with the client before over-invoicing their PO.

Only live (non-closed) Sales Orders are selectable. If the project has none, the field reads No sales order. See Sales Orders.

Saving and the approval workflow

Complete the form and click Save. The invoice is created as a draft.

From there:

• Submit: when you need a colleague to check what's about to be invoiced.
• Approve: when you can confirm the invoice is correct and can go to the client.
• Post: when you're ready to finalise it and record it in your accounting system. This makes it part of the official financial record.

You can also:

• Reject a submitted or approved invoice. Saving a rejected invoice returns it to draft. The Save button reads Save as draft.
• Void an approved or posted invoice. Once posted, voiding is the only way to cancel it, it can't be deleted or rejected.

You don't have to follow every step. If your permissions allow, a draft can be approved or posted directly. Each action lets you leave a note, and the date, user and note are recorded on the invoice.

Kompass can email selected employees whenever an invoice changes state. Ask your administrator to set this up.

Sending the invoice and getting paid

Once an invoice is approved or posted:

• Documents: generate the invoice document from one of your organization's templates, as Word or PDF, and email it to the client. Recipients prefill from the Invoice Contacts. Any files attached to the invoice can be sent along with it.
• Mark as Sent: record that the invoice has gone to the client, with the date, who sent it, and any notes.
• Payments: as payments come in and are allocated, they appear in the Payments section on the invoice.

Raising a credit note

Credit notes can be created from the invoice page or from the invoice they credit. Open the approved or posted invoice, scroll to the Credit Notes section below Payments, and click Create.

Kompass then:

1. Opens a new record with the type already set to Credit Note.
2. Sets Invoice to credit to the invoice you came from.
3. Fills in every line automatically, copying the original invoice's proposal items and nominal accounts with the amounts negated.

Adjust the amounts to whatever you're actually crediting and save. You don't have to credit the whole invoice, and you don't have to leave the value on the lines Kompass seeded. If you'd rather book it against a different proposal item, move it. The credit still attaches to the right invoice.

A few rules:

• You can only credit an invoice whose value is recognised. Approved (or whatever status your organization treats as value), and not voided or rejected.
• Paid invoices can still be credited. A credit against a paid invoice is a refund.
• You can't over-credit. Kompass caps the total credit at the invoice's net value.
• A credit only takes effect once it's approved. A draft credit note doesn't reduce the original invoice yet.

The Credit Notes section lists every credit applied, with a total. On the credit note itself, the Credits Invoice field links back to the original.

Unapplied credit notes

A credit note doesn't have to be attached to an invoice. Leaving Invoice to credit empty creates a standalone credit that still reduces the proposal item's invoiced value.

Unattached credits are easy to lose track of, so Kompass flags them with a broken-link icon in the invoice list, and there's an Unapplied Credit quick filter to find them all.

Locking and editing

An invoice stops being fully editable when:

• Payments are linked to it
• Accounting transactions are linked to it
• It's been posted (unless you have the permission to edit posted invoices)

A red banner tells you which applies: "Invoice locked because payments are linked to it. Only some fields editable." You can still edit notes, tags, contacts and files, but not the amounts.

Approved invoices need a specific permission to edit. If you have it, the Edit button reads Unlock & Edit.

Deletion is blocked once an invoice is locked.

Reviewing the project valuation

After changing an invoice's state, Kompass returns you to the project. The valuation table on the Finance tab shows where the project stands overall.

WIP is the number to watch at month end: it tells you what you've earned but haven't yet turned into an invoice.