Proforma Invoice to Sales Invoice in One Click

Get paid first, then invoice with one click.

Send the customer a proforma, a payment request with no tax event date and no VAT liability, and turn it into the real sales invoice once the money is in.

The billing clerk creates the proforma, an approver confirms or rejects it, and after the payment arrives the billing clerk generates the invoice, which then walks the normal invoice flow.

Use the documented operating model as a starting point, then adapt fields, approvals, reports, or connected areas when your process differs.

Before you start

Put the right records and roles in place.

The customer and the products already exist, and a colleague sits in the Approver group to confirm proformas.

Documented sequence

From payment request to sales invoice.

Each stage identifies the action, handoff, or record change that moves the work forward.

01
Create the proforma — Billing clerk
Pick the customer and date; company, currency, payment method and bank account are pre-filled. The proforma is numbered at once from its own Proforma (PF) series and starts as DRAFT; lines calculate like invoice lines.
02
Confirm or reject — Approver
In the Inbox or on the proforma, the approver sees number, date, customer and total. Confirm moves it to CONFIRMED, so you send it and wait for the payment; Reject ends it at CANCELLED.
03
Generate the invoice — Billing clerk
Once the payment is recorded, Generate Invoice creates a draft sales invoice for the same customer, company, currency and payment method, dated today. The proforma turns INVOICED; the invoice follows its own flow.

Connected work

Carry the record into the next decision.

Related features and workflows reuse the same business records instead of asking teams to rebuild the context.

Sales InvoicingProforma invoices next to sales invoices: fields, line arithmetic, the Proforma and Sales Invoice series and all statuses.Record a customer paymentHow the incoming money is recorded and waits as unallocated credit until the invoice is issued.Issue a sales invoiceThe approve, issue and send steps the generated invoice goes through.

Current scope

Generate Invoice creates only the invoice header; the lines are added on the new draft invoice.

A starting point, not a fixed package

Match proformas to how you collect payment.

Proforma status names are maintained in the settings and payment methods in the registries, and the Proforma series counter can be set under Settings → Document Numbering. Further changes, such as a different confirmation step, can be scoped as a Custom adaptation.

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Decision-stage answers

From proforma invoice to real invoice FAQs

Is a proforma a tax document?

No. It is a payment request: it has no tax event date and creates no VAT liability. The tax document is the sales invoice generated from it.

Does the proforma use up an invoice number?

No. It is numbered on create from its own Proforma series with a PF prefix. The generated invoice takes its SI number from the Sales Invoice series only when it is issued.

What happens to the customer's payment?

It is recorded as a customer payment and waits as unallocated credit. When the generated invoice is issued, that credit allocates to it automatically, often marking it PAID straight away.

Can the generated invoice still be rejected?

Yes. It is an ordinary draft, so the approver can reject it at its approve step even though the proforma already reads INVOICED. A rejected proforma stays on record; raise a new one rather than reviving it.

Review the real workflow

Take one proforma all the way to its invoice in BusinessIntents.

Use a real record or transaction to compare the documented flow with the way your team works today.

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