Types of invoices, what they are and in what cases to use them

The accounting department of a company is essential, it is impossible to have customers and not process invoices, but do you know how much time is wasted processing invoices? Lately, the trend is to switch to automation that some business management software allows.

Software often indicates what you should enter in each box, but knowing how to create an invoice and what type of invoice to use for each occasion is basic. Invoices take up a lot of time in the workday of accountants, specialized software and knowing the world of invoices perfectly can save time.

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What is invoicing?

When we create an invoice, we are actually making the previous step to invoicing. Invoicing is the process by which a company carries out all actions related to the preparation, sending, and collection of invoices. Invoicing in Spain is regulated by the Tax Agency and all companies are required to carry out this process.

An invoice is simply a document that contains the data of a commercial transaction made by a company. Normally, these types of documents are prepared by the accounting area of ​​companies, although self-employed individuals can also issue them.

It is ultimately the day-to-day operations of all businesses and can be very useful to know some characteristics of your company, such as liquidity, what services or products you sell the most, or where the income comes from. Knowing this, you will surely be able to make better decisions related to investment.

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How to make an invoice?

Spreadsheets can be very complicated, as well as classifying invoices and defining each section. To ensure that your company's accounting is correct and that you do not have to repeat invoices, with the resulting time loss, it is important to be clear about what data you should enter on your company's invoices.

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What information should an invoice contain?

As a general rule, the data that every invoice must contain are:

• Name and surname, address, and tax identification number (NIF) of the issuer and receiver
• Invoice concept, where you must add the basic information of the commercial transaction
• Amount (excluding taxes) and breakdown of each value
• Imposed tax rate and tax amount
• Invoice number, place, and date
• Date of issue and method of payment (date on which the operations are carried out if it is different from the date of issue)

Types of invoices and in which cases to use them

The aforementioned data should always be found on your invoices, but it is true that there is not only one type of invoice. Normally, we talk about 6 types of invoices and the use of one or the other depends on the purpose of the invoice.

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Standard or regular invoice

This is the most commonly used invoice and serves to record an economic transaction between the seller and the buyer.

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Summary invoice

In a summary invoice, you will find a list of various invoices. The objective is to group different operations according to the desired criterion that have been carried out over a specific period of time. For example, grouping them by supplier or by customer.

It is practical when you have carried out different similar operations for the same customer for a period of time and they prefer to receive all invoices unified.‍

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Rectifying invoice

It is used when it is necessary to rectify a regular invoice and can be prepared when it is necessary to correct the information or some amount, when a legal requirement is not met, when you want to recover VAT from an unpaid invoice, or when important information has been omitted.

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Proforma invoice

This is an invoice that is actually a provisional estimate of what the invoice will be. It serves to indicate the sales conditions or prices and only has informational objectives, never accounting value. Now, the question is if there is any difference between the proforma invoice and a budget.

The truth is that yes, in case of disagreement the proforma invoice has legal validity, furthermore, it includes more information than the budget. However, as we would in a budget, it includes price, base, and taxes.

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Simplified invoice

This invoice used to be known as a "receipt", it is simply a proof of payment issued to end consumers.

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Electronic Invoice

We refer to an electronic invoice when we talk about any invoice issued electronically, known as e-invoices. There are two types, structured format and unstructured format.

Structured format invoices are those that are generated and sent automatically by software. Unstructured format invoices are paper invoices that are later digitized. If your invoice is a PDF, the electronic signature must always appear, if not, it cannot be considered an electronic invoice. To know how to sign a PDF click here.

The idea of its implementation was furnish the billing process, since they facilitate transactions, the accounting department wastes less time on invoices and, in addition, they save paper.

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How to make an invoice through taclia

With the taclia platform, you can create invoices and estimates in two clicks, forget about calculators because the app does them automatically, monitor progress thanks to the graphs and statistics that the platform generates automatically, and classify them by date, projects, clients, and much more.

The taclia app has a section dedicated exclusively to invoices, with which you can save time. It is as easy as filling in each field and sending it to the email or WhatsApp you want, printing it, or downloading it to your computer. With estimates, it is just as straightforward.

You don't need to get home or to the office to do it, you have it at a click of a button from your mobile phone, in addition, if you have doubts about how your company's accounting is going, you can quickly check which invoices are pending and which ones are processed.