Customer Invoices

A customer invoice is a formal request for payment. You send it before the customer has paid, share the link via WhatsApp or SMS, and your customer pays you by bank transfer at their convenience. SabiBooks tracks every status change — Draft, Sent, Partially paid, Paid — so you always know who owes you and how much.

Invoices vs Receipts vs Credit

Three different concepts. Easy to mix up.

Receipt (Sale)

The customer has already paid. You record it in the POS. The receipt is a confirmation of money received.

Invoice

The customer has not yet paid. You send an invoice as a request for payment, with a due date and your bank details.

Credit

A trusted customer takes goods now and pays later — usually informal, no formal document. Tracked under Credit Management.

Note

An unpaid invoice does not appear in your Credit and Debtors page — invoices and credit are tracked separately. Use invoices when you want a formal payment request your customer can forward; use credit when you’ve already handed over goods on a “pay-me-later” handshake.

Creating Your First Invoice

1. Open Invoices

   Tap the “More” menu in the bottom navigation, then tap “Invoices”. You’ll land on the Invoices list.

2. Tap New Invoice

   Tap the “New Invoice” button (top right on desktop, floating button on mobile).

3. Pick a customer

   Tap Customer and search by name or phone. If the customer doesn’t exist yet, add them first (see Customers).

4. Choose the type

   In the Type section, pick:

   • Invoice (default) — a regular invoice. Use this most of the time.
   • Proforma — a formal quote. The customer can review it and you can convert it to a real invoice later.
   • Tax Invoice — only visible if your business is VAT-registered. Stamps your TIN and VAT registration number on the invoice.

5. Set the dates

   • Invoice date defaults to today.
   • Payment terms (days) defaults to your business setting (configured under Settings → Invoicing). Adjust per-invoice if you need different terms.

6. Add line items

   For each item you’re billing, search your products by name or SKU. Or add an ad-hoc item for one-off charges like “Delivery fee” — type a name, set a price, set a quantity. Discount per line is optional.

7. Save as Draft

   Tap “Save as Draft”. The invoice is created but not yet visible to the customer.

Tip

Mama Chidi says: “I always save as draft first, then check the totals before I share. Once I share, the customer sees it — so I want everything correct.”

Sharing the Invoice

Drafts only become real invoices once you share them. Sharing changes the status to Sent and decrements your stock for the items on the invoice.

1. Open the draft

   From the Invoices list, tap the invoice you want to share.

2. Tap Share

   Tap the “Share” button. A modal opens with sharing options.

3. Pick a channel

   • WhatsApp — opens WhatsApp with a pre-filled message containing the invoice link.
   • SMS — opens your phone’s SMS app with the same pre-filled message.
   • Copy link — copies the public link to your clipboard so you can paste it anywhere (email, Telegram, etc.).
   • More… — opens your device’s native share sheet (if supported).
   • Download PDF — downloads a printable A4 invoice, useful if your customer prefers paper.

Caution

Sharing a draft for the first time decrements your stock for the items on the invoice. If the invoice is later cancelled, SabiBooks restocks automatically — but if you change items on a Sent invoice, the stock recomputes accordingly.

Resharing

Once an invoice is in the Sent state, the button changes to “Reshare”. Resharing is safe — it does not double-decrement stock and does not send a second email automatically.

What Your Customer Sees

When the customer taps the share link, they see a clean public payment page with:

• Your business name and logo
• The invoice number, date, and due date
• All line items, totals, and any VAT
• Your bank account details (only if you’ve filled in all three bank fields under Settings → Invoicing — bank name, account number, and account holder name)
• A polite “Contact merchant for payment details” line if your bank fields are incomplete

The page works without login — your customer just opens the link and pays you by bank transfer.

Tip

Always fill in all three bank fields under Settings → Invoicing → Bank account. A partial fill (e.g. account number but no bank name) will hide bank details from the public page entirely so customers don’t transfer to the wrong account.

Recording a Payment

When the customer pays, record it on the invoice.

1. Open the invoice

   Tap the invoice in the Invoices list.

2. Tap Record payment

   The button is available when the invoice status is Sent or Partially paid.

3. Enter the payment details

   Field	Description	Example
   Amount	How much was paid (defaults to the full balance)	₦25,000
   Payment method	Bank transfer / Cash / POS / Payment link / Other	Bank transfer
   Reference	Optional — bank transaction reference, etc.	”TRF-99221”
   Notes	Optional — anything worth remembering	”Part payment”

4. Save

   The invoice balance updates immediately.

Partial vs Full Payment

• Partial payment — the invoice moves to Partially paid. You can record more payments later.
• Full payment — the invoice moves to Paid. SabiBooks automatically creates a Sale under the same total, with the same line items, and links it back to the invoice. This means a paid invoice flows into your Reports the same way a regular sale does.

Note

The auto-conversion-to-Sale on full payment is one-way. Once converted, the linked sale cannot be voided directly — refund the invoice instead.

Cancelling an Invoice

You can cancel a Draft or Sent invoice. Cancelling a Sent invoice also restocks the items.

1. Open the invoice.
2. Tap “Cancel” (the action is owner/manager only).
3. Optionally enter a reason — useful for your own records.
4. Confirm.

Caution

Cancel is for unpaid invoices. If the invoice is already Paid, use Refund instead. If the invoice is Partially paid, refund any received payments first or contact support.

Refunding a Paid Invoice

For a fully paid invoice, Refund reverses the entire transaction in one step.

1. Open a Paid invoice.
2. Tap “Refund” (owner/manager only).
3. Optionally enter a reason and a refund reference.
4. Confirm.

What happens behind the scenes:

• All items are restocked.
• The customer’s payment total is reduced.
• The auto-converted Sale is voided.
• The invoice status moves to Refunded.

Note

Phase 1 supports full refunds only. If you only need to return part of the money (e.g. one of three items), we’ll add partial refunds in a later release. For now, refund the full invoice and create a new one for the items the customer is keeping.

Proforma Quotes

A Proforma is a formal quote — useful when a customer asks “how much will this cost?” before committing.

A Proforma:

• Has its own invoice number with the same INV-YYYY-#### format
• Does not decrement stock (it’s a quote, not a commitment)
• Does not appear in your Sales reports
• Can be edited freely until you convert it

Converting a Proforma to an Invoice

When the customer accepts the quote, convert it to a real invoice:

1. Open the Proforma.
2. Tap “Convert to invoice” (owner/manager only).
3. Pick the invoice type (Invoice or Tax Invoice).
4. Optionally adjust the invoice date and payment terms.
5. Confirm.

The new invoice gets a fresh invoice number, copies all line items and the customer verbatim from the Proforma, and starts as a Draft — ready for you to share. The original Proforma is kept (linked) for your records.

Tip

The converted invoice’s totals are locked to the accepted quote. If you change your default VAT rate between accepting the quote and converting, the converted invoice still uses the rate the customer agreed to.

Tax Invoice Mode (Advanced — VAT-registered businesses only)

Note

Most SabiBooks merchants are not VAT-registered and don’t need Tax Invoice mode. Plain invoices work for everyone — no VAT registration required. Skip this section unless you’re a VAT-registered business.

If your business is VAT-registered, you can enable Tax Invoice mode to issue invoices with your TIN and VAT registration number stamped on them — required by FIRS for VAT-registered MSMEs.

Enabling Tax Invoice Mode

1. Go to Settings → Invoicing.
2. Scroll to Advanced settings.
3. Toggle VAT registered.
4. Enter your TIN (Tax Identification Number).
5. Enter your VAT registration number.
6. Save.

Once enabled, the Type section on the invoice form gains a Tax Invoice option. Pick it when you need to issue a VAT-compliant invoice. Plain Invoice and Proforma still work as before.

Bank Account & Default Terms

Set these once under Settings → Invoicing, and every new invoice picks them up automatically.

Field	What it does
Bank name, account number, account holder name	Shown to your customer on the public invoice page so they can pay you by transfer. All three must be filled, or the bank panel is hidden entirely.
Default payment terms (days)	How many days from invoice date is payment due, by default. Each invoice can override it.
Invoice number prefix	Defaults to INV. Change it if you prefer something like INVL or your initials. Numbers reset every January.

Caution

Only the business owner can configure invoicing settings. Managers and staff can create and share invoices but cannot change bank details or VAT mode.

FAQ

When is my stock decremented?

Stock decrements when you share a Draft invoice for the first time (Draft → Sent). It does not decrement when you save a draft. If you cancel a Sent invoice, the stock is restocked. If you edit items on a Sent invoice, SabiBooks recomputes the difference.

Proforma quotes never decrement stock.

Why isn't my unpaid invoice in Credit?

Invoices and credit are tracked separately because they’re different mental models. An invoice is a formal payment request with a due date; credit is an informal “pay-me-later” arrangement on a sale already handed over. Don’t expect an unpaid invoice to show up under Credit and Debtors — check the Invoices page for the unpaid balance.

Can I edit a Sent invoice?

Yes. Tap Edit on a Sent invoice’s detail page. If you change line items, SabiBooks recomputes stock by the difference. The customer sees the updated invoice the next time they open the share link. You cannot change the invoice type after creation — to convert a Proforma to an Invoice, use the Convert to invoice action instead.

What happens if I change my VAT rate later?

Existing invoices are not retroactively recalculated. Already-shared invoices keep the rate they were created with. New invoices use the new rate.

A converted Proforma is a special case: its totals are locked to the accepted quote, so a mid-flight rate change does not affect a Proforma you converted last week.

Can I send the same invoice twice?

Yes — tap Reshare. It does not double-decrement stock and does not send a second auto-email to the customer. Use it for friendly reminders.

Does it cost anything to send invoices?

No. Invoices are unlimited on every SabiBooks plan, including the free tier. No per-invoice fee, no transaction fee from us.

Further Reading

Read the long-form story with worked examples and the customer scenarios that make invoices feel natural:

How to Send Your First Invoice in SabiBooks The full Mama Chidi story, three types of invoice requests, what your customer sees, and how to handle changes.