Create an Invoice

This guide walks you through creating a sale invoice from start to finish. Purchase invoices follow the same steps — the only difference is that you select a supplier instead of a customer, and stock increases rather than decreases.

Before you start

Make sure you have:

• At least one party (customer for sale, supplier for purchase) in your Parties list
• At least one item in your Items catalogue (optional — you can type a description directly on the line item)

Step 1: Open the new invoice form

From the left navigation, click Invoices, then click New Invoice. You can also press the keyboard shortcut N from the invoice list.

Step 2: Select the invoice type and party

1. Choose Sale or Purchase from the type selector at the top of the form.
2. Click the Party field and start typing the customer’s or supplier’s name. The dropdown shows matching parties. Select the one you want.

If the party does not exist yet, you can create them inline by clicking + Add new party in the dropdown. This opens a quick-add modal where you enter at minimum the party name.

Step 3: Set the invoice date and due date

• Invoice date — defaults to today. Change it if you are backdating an invoice.
• Due date — optional. If set, the invoice status changes to overdue after this date if it is still unpaid.

Step 4: Add line items

Each line item represents one product or service on the invoice. Click Add Line Item or press Tab after the last field of an existing line item.

For each line item, fill in:

Field	Required	Notes
Description	Yes	Type to search your items catalogue. Selecting an item auto-fills unit price, tax rate, and HSN. Or type a custom description.
Quantity	Yes	Number of units. Supports decimals (for example, 2.5 for 2.5 kg).
Unit	No	The unit this quantity is in. Defaults to the item’s base unit. For alternate-unit items, you can switch to the alternate unit and the conversion is applied automatically.
Unit Price	Yes	Price per unit in INR.
Tax %	No	GST rate. Auto-filled from the item, but you can override it.
Discount %	No	Line-level discount. Calculated before tax.

The Total column shows the computed amount for each line item: (quantity × unitPrice × (1 - discount%)) × (1 + tax%).

Selecting item variants

If an item has variants (for example, a t-shirt in multiple sizes and colours), a Variant dropdown appears after you select the item. Choose the specific variant. The variant’s stock is tracked separately from the parent item.

Reordering line items

Drag and drop line items using the handle on the left edge of each row to reorder them. The order is preserved in the PDF.

Step 5: Apply discounts and additional charges

Below the line items table, you can add:

Invoice-level discount

An additional discount applied to the invoice total (after line-item discounts). You can enter it as:

• A flat amount in INR (for example, ₹500 off)
• A percentage of the subtotal (for example, 2%)

Additional charges

Custom charges added on top of the invoice total — for example, delivery charges, packing fees, or handling charges. Click Add Charge and enter a label and amount. You can add multiple charges.

Round-off

If you want to round the invoice total to the nearest whole rupee (or any value), enter the round-off amount in the Round Off field. This can be positive (round up) or negative (round down).

Step 6: Add notes and terms

• Notes — internal or customer-facing notes printed on the invoice PDF (for example, “Thank you for your business”).
• Terms and Conditions — your standard payment terms printed at the bottom of the PDF.

Step 7: Preview the total

The invoice summary panel on the right (or below the form on mobile) shows:

Field	Meaning
Subtotal	Sum of all line item amounts before tax
Tax Amount	Total GST (split into CGST/SGST or IGST on the PDF)
Discount	Total discount applied
Additional Charges	Sum of extra charges
Round Off	Round-off amount
Total	The amount due from the customer

Step 8: Save the invoice

Click Create Invoice. The invoice is saved with status draft and a sequential invoice number is assigned (for example, INV-00001).

From the invoice detail view, you can:

• Download the PDF
• Record a payment
• Change the status (for example, mark as sent after you email it)
• Edit the invoice if the status is not paid

Cannot edit paid invoices

Once an invoice is fully paid (status paid), you cannot edit it. To make a correction, remove the payment first, then edit the invoice, then re-record the payment.

How totals are calculated

Hisaabo uses fixed-point arithmetic (strings passed through the shared calcLineItem and calcInvoiceTotals utilities) — not floating-point JavaScript numbers — for all monetary calculations. This avoids rounding errors.

For a single line item:

taxableAmount = quantity × unitPrice × (1 - discountPercent / 100)
taxAmount     = taxableAmount × (taxPercent / 100)
totalAmount   = taxableAmount + taxAmount

For the invoice:

subtotal          = sum of all line item taxableAmounts
taxTotal          = sum of all line item taxAmounts
invoiceDiscount   = flat amount or (subtotal × discountPercent / 100)
chargesTotal      = sum of all additional charge amounts
total             = subtotal + taxTotal - invoiceDiscount + chargesTotal + roundOff

Frequently asked questions

Can I add a line item without linking it to an item in my catalogue? Yes. Type any text in the Description field without selecting from the dropdown. The line item will have no item link and will not affect stock quantities.

What happens to stock when I create an invoice? Stock is updated inside the same database transaction as the invoice. Sale invoices reduce stock; purchase invoices increase stock. If you have alternate units, the quantity is converted to the base unit first.

Can I duplicate an existing invoice? Not directly from the UI in the current version. The quickest workaround is to open the invoice you want to duplicate, note the details, and create a new invoice with the same party and line items.

How do I handle a return from a customer? Create a Credit Note (choose document type “Credit Note” when creating the document). Reference the original invoice in the Reference Document field. The credit note will appear in your GSTR-1 report under the credit notes section. See GST on Invoices for how credit notes affect your GST liability.