Chipply Business - What is Invoicing?

An invoice is a bill: a document that tells a customer what they owe and when it's due. Until now, most Chipply dealers have kept track of what a group owes them, in some other platform, on a spreadsheet, or on paper, and then chased payment separately.

Invoicing brings that into Chipply. From a store's Sales Order Summary page, you create an invoice that totals what the group owes, subtracts any money you've already collected, and emails it to your customer. When they pay, you record the payment right there, and Chipply keeps a running list of who still owes you.

What you can use Invoicing for

It is best practice to invoice every store, even if the shoppers paid for everything themselves at checkout and there's nothing left to collect. However, invoicing also becomes extremely essential the moment there's money still owed after the store closes. Most commonly:

E-certificates that were issued but not paid for up front
Promo codes that reduced what shoppers paid
Purchase orders (POs) where a group paid by PO instead of credit card
Setting up new artwork for a group
Charging a one-time setup fee for a store
Any bulk or offline order where the group pays as a whole rather than shopper-by-shopper

As one way to think about it: if you're charging your organization any sort of money outside of your Chipply web store, you already have a reason to invoice.

A few terms worth knowing first

Everything on the Sales Order Summary page builds off of two numbers, plus a few related ones you'll see along the way:

Term	What it means
Total Sale	The full amount the group owes you for the products and decoration you're giving them, including things like organization fees. It does not include fundraising, since that's money you owe them, not the other way around.
Deposit Balance	The amount you've already collected from the group, combining eCom Deposits and any Deposits you requested.
eCom Deposit	Real money collected through the web store checkout (credit card, debit card, Link, Klarna, etc.).
Deposit (Deposit Request)	Money you asked the group to pay ahead of time, before you know the final invoice amount, for example half the cost of e-certificates up front.
Invoice	The actual bill. Creating one invoices everything on the sale that hasn't been invoiced yet, and lets you apply your Deposit Balance toward it.

Good to know

Total Sale and Deposit Balance often won't match, and that's expected. Total Sale is what's owed; Deposit Balance is what's already been paid. Invoicing is what brings the two together.

How invoicing works, start to finish

Every invoice follows the same path, whether it's a group store, a catalog store, or an offline sale:

Turn billing on for the organization. This is a one-time setting per organization.
Create the invoice from the store's Sales Order Summary. Any deposits you've already collected are applied automatically.
Send it to your customer by email, or download a copy.
Collect payment when the customer pays, whether that's a card over the phone, cash, check, or through the org portal.
Track what's still owed from the Accounts Receivable pages.

If you want to...	Read
Create and send an invoice for a standard group store	How to Invoice a Store
Invoice a catalog store with batches	How to Invoice a Catalog Store
Record a payment or see who still owes you	Collecting Payment and Tracking What's Owed

Before you start: Billing Has to Be Turned on

Invoicing only works for organizations that have billing turned on. If an organization has billing turned off, you'll see a message telling you invoicing isn't allowed for them. You'll need to visit that organization's settings and turn on Allow Billing before you can create an invoice. Clicking on the organization name will take you to that organizations settings in a new tab, so you can quickly turn billing on/off.

A few more things to know

This won't affect your web store. Invoicing is a back-office tool for you and your team. It doesn't change anything about the shopping experience for your customers.
Offline Sales will use these same steps.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to invoice every store?It's best practice to invoice every store, even one that was paid for entirely at checkout. Otherwise there's no way to tell "fully paid, just never invoiced" apart from "actually still owed." Invoicing it is what makes a store's status trustworthy at a glance.

Where does e-certificate or promo code usage show up?It's reflected in the Accounting Summary's totals, but it doesn't currently appear as its own line item. If you want to see exactly how much was used in e-certs or promos, check the Accounting Summary before you invoice.

Can I invoice just part of a sale?Not yet. Creating an invoice bills everything on the sale that hasn't already been invoiced. You can't currently pick and choose individual line items. If new orders come in after you've already invoiced once, invoicing again will just bill the new amount.