Getting paid is important to every business owner, right? Sending invoices and collecting payments from your the old school way is time consuming and gets hard to keep with. Online invoicing with Iris makes it easier and faster for you to get paid.

Here is our guide to getting started with invoices with Iris!

Invoice Set Up

First thing you’ll want to do is work on getting your invoice settings and preferences squared away. To do this, you’ll head to My Settings > Settings located in the top right of the software. After that you’ll head over to Invoice Set Up to get started (or simply click here to take you right to the page)!

Connect to Square

In order to collect online payments, you will need to get connected with Square. Square is the payment processor that we integrate with so users can collect payments easily from their clients in a variety of ways.

Settings

• Currency
  Be sure to set your currency. We have options for USD ($), CAD ($), EUR (€), GBP (£), AUD ($), and NZD ($) .
• Sales Tax
  Here you can set your default sales tax percentage. When you have this toggled on, the sales tax will automatically be applied and calculated on your invoices and invoice templates for any line items that are taxable.
• Square Settings
  Our integration with Square offers a variety of additional and optional settings you can turn on at any time.
  • ACH Payments – you can toggle this option on if you would like to allow your clients the ability to pay using bank transfers.
  • AfterPay – this will allow your clients to make a payment using AfterPay which is a buy now, pay later service. All studio contact information must be completed in order to turn on this option.
  • Apple Pay / Google Pay – this allows your clients to pay from their mobile device using Apple (available for Safari browsers only) and Google Pay.
  • Cash App – Allows your clients to use their Cash App account to make a payment (Must have all studio contact information + US accounts only, Tips are not currently available with CashApp)
  • Accept Gift Cards – With Square, you can set up E-Gift cards to sell and your clients can use these to make a payment on their invoice.
  • Tips – you can give your clients the option to leave a tip when paying their invoice when you toggle on this option.
• Send Automatic Payment Reminders
  Toggle on this option if you would like to send automatic payment reminders for your invoices that have payment schedules. These reminders are sent 5 days before an installment is due and on the day an installment is due if not paid yet.
• Inculde a Customized Message
  You can customize the email message that is sent whenever you send a client an invoice. This message will be applied to the body of the email for all invoices sent directly from the invoice page.

Create Your Invoice Products

Next, you’ll want to add your invoice products. These will be saved in your account to use on invoice templates and/or invoices, which you’ll add as line items. These can include retainers/deposits, session fees, packages, or tangible products (such as prints). Simply select “Add” to begin creating a product. You’ll need to give it a name, description, and price. You can also mark whether it is something that is taxable by checking the box for taxable. This means that it will have sales tax applied to it. Once you’re done filling out the fields be sure to hit the check mark icon to save it.

Set Up Invoice Templates

If you would like to attach an invoice to your booking calendars or email templates, then you will need to create an invoice template. Invoice templates can also be used to have a base invoice to load up instead of manually adding products, tax, discounts each time you go to create your client’s invoice and can save you some time.

When setting up your invoice template, you’ll see an option for “Days Until Due”. When you enter a number in this field, it will use that to automatically set the invoice due date when the invoice is generated from this template. For example, if the number is 5 and I create an invoice today using this template – then the due date will automatically be set for 5 days from now.

You can also apply tax and/or a discount to your invoice template, and switch the order of these two by selecting the reverse icon located next to those two sections. This will allow you to apply the discount before tax or after tax.

You can also add a payment schedule to your invoice templates to break up the invoice into installments.

Attach an Invoice to Booking Calendars

Our booking calendars allow you to attach an invoice template to them so you can collect payment during booking. This is a great way to ensure retainers/deposits get paid before your client’s session gets added to your calendar. No more trying to track down your client for their payment.

When setting up your booking calendars, you will see an option to require an invoice and just toggle on this option and select your invoice template you would like to use.

Automate Invoices with Workflows

You can attach invoice templates to your emails templates and include these in a workflow which will automate sending email with the invoice attached.

You can send the email once the session is booked, number of days before/after the session, or number of days after the session has been booked. To learn more about setting up a workflow, you can watch our Youtube tutorial.

 

Manually Send Invoices

You also have the option to manually create and send invoices to your clients. This is great if you need to customize their invoice. You can navigate to the client’s profile and invoices tab located on the left hand side to begin setting up an invoice for the client by selecting “New Invoice”. You can also go to Invoices across the top of Iris to create and send invoices by selecting “New Invoice”.

A window will pop up where you can select the client, invoice template if you’d like, and set your issue and due dates. You can also add a memo if you have any notes you’d like to share about this invoice that your client will see when they access the invoice. Then select “Create Invoice”.

This is where you will add in your line items, discount, and tax (for taxable products). If you’d like for your client to pay in full when they receive the invoice, then you can simply hit “send” once you’re ready.

Payment Schedules

If you would like to break up your invoice into installments, you can select the three dots at the top of the invoice which will open a menu > then select “Add Payment Schedule”. This will allow you break up your invoice into different payment plan types or you can create a custom payment plan. You can use the payment frequencies or after selecting those and the installments are generated, you can manually adjust the due dates by selecting the pencil icon to edit and then select a specific date on the calendar.

When you send an invoice with a payment schedule, you client will be prompted to pay the installment that is due and then will be reminded when the next installment(s) are due (be sure to have your automatic reminders turned on).

Sending Quotes

When you are creating an invoice manually, you will also have the option to send it as a quote. You will just need to select the check box next to “Quote?” and it will be set up as a quote.

When you send a quote to a client, they will have the following options:

• Accept – this means they agree with the quote and it will then be converted into an invoice so they can make payment(s).
• Decline – this means they do not agree with the quote and have declined moving forward
• Requestion Modification – this allows the client to add modification notes to send back to you for review.

You will be able to see your quotes broken up into these categories on your Invoice page.

If you need help figuring out how to get your online invoicing started in your account, you can schedule a 1:1 call with us and we’ll assist you!