Invoices

An invoice is what a payment request becomes when you issue it. Press Invoice on a request and it gets a number and a printable document. That is why there is no separate invoice list to keep in step with your requests — they are the same thing, so what you asked for and what you invoiced can never disagree.

Everything on the invoice is frozen when it is issued. Your name, address and VAT number, the customer’s details, the dates, the amount and the VAT split are all captured at that moment and never worked out again. Rename your campsite, move premises or correct a price afterwards and invoices already sent stay exactly as they were sent — which is the point, because somebody is holding a copy.

Numbers run in an unbroken sequence, separate from your booking references, because that is what an accountant needs. You can set a prefix and a starting number on the Prices page — useful if you are moving from another system and are already up to 500 — but the number can only ever go up: winding it back would issue a second invoice with a number already used.

Or you can print the booking reference instead — a checkbox in the same Invoices box on the Prices page. A group already has a reference from the booking; this shows them that number rather than a second one invented just for the invoice. The sequential number above still runs underneath either way — it is still what makes an invoice unchangeable once issued — the checkbox only changes what gets printed. If a booking is billed in more than one invoice, a deposit and then a balance, the second one is suffixed “-2” so the two are never mistaken for the same document. Credit notes are not affected by this: they keep their own separate numbers regardless, for the same unbroken-sequence reason as above.

You need your address on file before any invoice can be issued, since an invoice has to say who it is from, and your VAT number too if you are registered. That is checked before a number is handed out — issuing a broken invoice and deleting it would leave a gap in the sequence somebody has to explain.

Your bank details go on it, if you give them. In the Invoices box on the Prices page there is a Bank transfer section: account name, sort code, account number, and a spare line for a building society roll number or an IBAN. Fill it in and those details are printed on every invoice you issue from then on, included in the invoice email, and shown on the page a group opens from the payment link. Your booking reference sits in the same little table, as a row rather than a note underneath, because a transfer that arrives with no reference is money you cannot match to a booking.

It is all three or none. A sort code with no account number is an instruction nobody can follow, so a half-filled form saves but prints nothing. You do not have to fill it in at all — if you take a cheque, or a card at the gate, leave it empty and your invoices simply do not mention bank transfer. And because everything on an invoice is frozen when it is issued, invoices you have already sent will not grow bank details. New ones will.

An issued invoice cannot be edited or deleted. If one is wrong, credit it. Print it, or save it as a PDF from your browser’s print dialog, or press Email to send it to the customer — the invoice goes in the body of the email rather than behind a link, so it survives being forwarded to a treasurer. Emailing an invoice also marks the request sent, because that is the same thing happening.

If you are not registered for VAT, the document says Invoice and shows a total and nothing else. If you are, it says VAT invoice, carries your registration number, and splits the total into net and VAT. There is deliberately no zero VAT line for an unregistered campsite: “zero-rated” is a different claim from “we don’t charge VAT”.