Invoicing and credit sales

With a credit sale (kredittsalg) the customer gets the goods now and pays later against an invoice. Cmerce does not create the invoice itself: it is created and sent by your accounting system (currently Fiken), and the payment is recorded there. The till and the webshop issue the invoice – they never take payment for it.

Before you start

Three things must be in place:

1. Credit sales must be switched on for your shop by Cmerce. You cannot do this yourself. Contact Cmerce to have it enabled.
2. A connected accounting system that can invoice. See Connect Fiken.
3. Credit rules stating who may buy on invoice, and where.

How to do it

1. Switch on invoicing in the accounting integration

1. Go to «Integrasjoner» (Integrations) → «Regnskap» (Accounting).
2. Click «Faktura» (Invoice) on the accounting card.
3. Switch on «Aktiver fakturering» (Enable invoicing). Without it, invoice is not offered as a payment method anywhere.
4. Choose «Oppgjørskonto» (Settlement account) – the bank account the invoice should be paid to.
5. Choose «Utsendingsmåte» (Delivery method) in order of priority. «Automatisk» (Automatic) lets the accounting system choose based on what is registered on the customer.
6. Optionally enter a «Standard fakturatekst» (Default invoice text), and click «Lagre» (Save).
7. Click «Sjekk fakturering» (Check invoicing). The accounting system replies whether it can create invoices now. If you get «Fakturering er ikke klar» (Invoicing is not ready) because an invoice number series is missing, you can click «Opprett fakturanummerserie» (Create invoice number series).

2. Decide who may buy on invoice

Go to «Innstillinger» (Settings) → «Salg og betaling» (Sales and payment) → «Kreditt og faktura» (Credit and invoice).

• «Kredittmodus» (Credit mode): «Kun godkjente kunder (anbefalt)» (Approved customers only – recommended) or «Alle kunder unntatt sperrede» (All customers except blocked ones).
• «Standard kredittgrense (kr)» (Default credit limit) and «Standard betalingsfrist (dager)» (Default payment terms in days).
• «Krev organisasjonsnummer» (Require organisation number) – only business customers can buy on invoice.
• «Sperr ved forfalt faktura (dager)» (Block on overdue invoice) – the customer is blocked from new credit purchases once an invoice is that many days overdue.
• Under «Hvor faktura tilbys» (Where invoice is offered), switch on «Kredittsalg i kassen» (Credit sales at the till), «Faktura i nettbutikken» (Invoice in the webshop) and/or «Faktura på abonnement» (Invoice on subscriptions).

For one particular customer, open the customer under «Kunder» (Customers) and click «Kreditt» (Credit). There you set «Kredittstatus» (Credit status), a personal «Kredittgrense (kr)», «Betalingsfrist (dager)», «Faktura-e-post» (Invoice email) and «Deres referanse» (Your reference).

Good to know

• At the till a registered customer is required. The walk-in customer (Kontantkunde) can never buy on invoice. See Credit sales and invoices at the till.
• In the webshop invoice is only offered to logged-in customers approved for credit.
• On subscriptions every renewal is invoiced. Renewals are not stopped by the credit limit, because the agreement already exists.
• A sale never fails because of the accounting system. If it is down, the invoice waits in a queue and is retried automatically.
• Payment is made to the bank account on the invoice and recorded in the accounting system. Cmerce checks every hour what has been paid, marks the invoice as paid and frees up the customer's credit limit.
• Returning a credit sale produces a credit note in the accounting system. No money is paid out at the till.
• Reminders and debt collection are handled in the accounting system.

Following up invoices

«Salg» (Sales) → «Fakturaer» (Invoices) lists all invoices with «Beløp» (Amount), «Utestående» (Outstanding), «Forfall» (Due), «Status» and whether it was «Sendt» (Sent). The filters «Kun ubetalte» (Unpaid only), «Forfalt» (Overdue), «Trenger oppfølging» (Needs follow-up) and «Ikke sendt til kunde» (Not sent to customer) help you find what needs doing. On each invoice you can:

• «Åpne i regnskapssystemet» (Open in the accounting system)
• «Send på nytt» (Send again), or «Prøv sending igjen» (Retry sending) if it never arrived
• «Merk som betalt» (Mark as paid) – for payments the reconciliation cannot see
• «Krediter faktura» (Credit invoice)
• «Prøv igjen» (Try again) on an invoice that failed

«Integrasjoner» → «Regnskap» → «Fakturaoverføringer» (Invoice transfers) is for whoever looks after the integration. It shows whether the accounting system accepted the invoice, the number of attempts and the error message. «Prøv alle på nytt» (Retry all) resends everything that is stuck.

Credit sales without an invoice

If the invoice for a credit sale at the till is never created, Cmerce books the sale anyway – but only once it is certain the invoice will not come, and at the earliest three days after the sale. You then get the notification «Kredittsalg bokført uten faktura — kunden er ikke fakturert» (Credit sale booked without invoice – the customer has not been invoiced). The customer has not received an invoice, so it must be sent manually. If the invoice is created later after all, the voucher is reversed automatically, so the sale is only booked once.