AR Invoice - Invoice vs. Free Text Invoice

Navigation path: Accounts receivable/Sales orders/All Sales orders

Accounts receivable are liabilities due by a customer when an organization sold goods or services without paying in cash up front (goods on credit). In the Accounts receivable modules, the next logical process step after the sales order has been created, confirmed and shipped is the invoicing process. A user is able to create customer invoices that are based on sales orders/packing slips. Additionally, a user is able to enter and process free text invoices that are not related to sales orders as well as process pro forma invoices. A customer invoice based on a sales order is a bill that is related to a sale. The invoice is handed to a customer. This type of customer invoice includes order lines and item numbers. However, a free text invoice is not related to a sales order. It contains order lines that include ledger accounts, free-text descriptions, and a sales amount that you enter but no item numbers. A main account for the sale is specified on each invoice line, which a user can distribute to multiple ledger accounts if needed. Additionally, the customer balance is posted to the summary account from the posting profile that is used for the free text invoice. Lastly, a pro forma invoice is an invoice that is prepared simply as an estimate of the actual invoice amounts before the invoice is actually posted. A pro forma invoice can be printed for a customer invoice from a sales order as well as for a free text invoice.