Invoicing

The Invoice feature allows you to email your customers an invoice which they can choose to pay via credit card. Invoicing is available for back-office purchases at the time of original purchase and for purchases with an outstanding balance. The feature allows your customers to use a self-service payment feature for the remaining balance on a purchase through the 'Pay Invoice' button on the confirmation email. Regardless of whether partial payment or no payment at all was taken on the original purchase, the remaining outstanding balance can be paid by the customer when Invoicing is enabled.

What's covered in this article:

• Setting up the Invoice feature
• Creating an Invoice
• Other ways to send an Invoice 
• The Customer Experience 

Setting up the Invoice Feature

To set up Invoicing, you will first enable it through the App Store by navigating to App Store > Invoicing > Click "Install" > Agree to the Terms of Service.

Once Invoicing is on for your account, follow these steps to allow your customers to pay the remaining balance of a purchase from their confirmation and reminder emails:

1. Navigate to Products > Experiences > Click Edit on the experiences you wish to enable invoice payments. 
2. Select the Self-Service sub-tab on the left.
3. Toggle on "Allow customers to make payment".
4. You can also configure a balance reminder email under Products > Experiences > Click Edit > Pricing sub-tab. On this page, you can set the number of days prior to the arrival date that the remaining balance is due, and whether or not you would like an automatic balance reminder email to send on the due date.

Creating an Invoice 

1. Make a back office purchase as normal through the Make a Purchase button.
2. In the Payment section choose Now, to select Invoice. 
3. Enter the number of days before this experience that the invoice must be paid.
4. Enter an optional message to the customer.
5. Click Send Invoice.

Tip: You can send an invoice for the full amount or a Deposit.

The customer can pay the invoice through email (detailed below in the Customer Experience section), or you can click Collect Balance on the Purchase tab to settle through the back office.

Note: Until the customer pays the invoice, they'll remain in the Pending Action Queue and a balance will remain open on their purchase. Xola will not automatically collect the balance.

Other ways to send Invoice

Additional Charges

Once a purchase has been paid for, you may find yourself in a situation where you need to add a charge to the reservation. You now can send an invoice for the additional charge by following these steps:

1. Navigate to the desired purchase record in the Purchases tab.
2. Add a charge using the Modify button shown under the Purchase Summary on the right and select the option for Custom Line Items from the dropdown.
3. Add the charge amount and type in the reason for the additional charge.
4. Select the Collect Balance Via Invoice option.
5. Select the number of days prior to the arrival date that the new balance is due, and type in an optional message to include in the emailed invoice if you'd like. 

This will trigger an email to be sent to the customer informing them of the new balance, with a Pay Now button that will allow them to self-service the payment.

Manually Send Invoices for Balance Due or Partial Amount

Another situation you may encounter if you use deposits for online checkout is wanting to collect the balance due via invoice in case the card on file cannot be charged or you want to provide customers the option to pay on a different card.

1. Go to the purchase record in the Purchases tab
2. Click on the Collect Balance button.
3. This will bring up a pop-up window to ask if you want to collect the balance now, by invoice, or later.
4. Select the invoice as the collection method. 
5. Select the number of days prior to the arrival date that the new balance is due, and type in an optional message to include in the emailed invoice if you'd like. 

The Customer Experience 

1. After you send the invoice, the customer will receive an email containing the invoice, the "Pay Invoice" button, and details regarding the experience.
2. The customer will click the green Pay Invoice button
3. A secure checkout window will open up where the customer can pay by credit card.
4. Once the customer pays through the checkout window, Xola will automatically update the purchase.