What is a sales invoice in Receipt Capture?
Most documents your client receives are costs, so XBert publishes them as a bill or an expense, but some are actually income for your client, even though someone else wrote them, and those are published as a sales invoice:
RCTIs (recipient-created tax invoices): the buyer writes the invoice for your client. For example, a grain buyer's statement or a processor statement.
Account sales: an agent sells on your client's behalf, for example at a saleyard, or wool or produce agents. The statement shows the gross sale, less commission, freight and levies, which equals the amount paid out.
Publishing one of these as a Sales invoice creates a sales invoice in your client's accounting software against the buyer or agent as a customer. A sales invoice records the money coming in, rather than a bill your client owes.
💡 Sales invoices work with Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks Online
For clients on FreeAgent, the option is greyed out, and hovering over it shows Sales invoices are available for Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks Online clients.
💡 For documents someone else wrote
Use Sales invoice for RCTIs and account sales your client receives from a buyer or agent. Invoices your client sends to their own customers are created in their accounting software as usual.
How XBert records it
XBert creates one sales invoice per document, using the document's date and your client's own accounts and tax codes:
The sale goes to an income account. In Xero it uses GST on Income.
Deductions such as commission, freight, yard dues and levies go on the same invoice as negative lines against expense accounts. In Xero, deductions with GST use GST on Expenses, and GST-free levies use BAS Excluded. On MYOB and QuickBooks Online, deductions use a GST code for sales, so their GST reduces the GST on sales. The net GST is the same.
The total equals the net amount actually paid to your client, so it matches the deposit in the bank feed.
The customer is whoever issued the document: the buyer on an RCTI, or the agent on an account sale. See How XBert finds the customer below.
The original document is attached to the invoice in Xero and QuickBooks Online. MYOB doesn't accept attachments on sales invoices, so attach it yourself in MYOB after publishing.
💡 XBert doesn't send the invoice
The sales invoice is only created in your client's accounting software. Nothing is emailed to the buyer or agent.
What you can do on each accounting software
| Xero | MYOB | QuickBooks Online |
Publish an RCTI or account sale as a sales invoice | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
Switch an emailed bill to a sales invoice | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
Choose Draft or Approved | ✅ Yes, Draft by default | ❌ No, it's open and live as soon as it's published | ❌ No, it's open and live as soon as it's published |
Original document attached | ✅ Yes | ❌ No, attach it yourself in MYOB | ✅ Yes |
Where the document's number goes | Reference | Customer PO number. MYOB gives the invoice its own number | Invoice number, if the company enters its own invoice numbers. Otherwise it goes in the invoice's private note |
GST on deductions | GST on Expenses, with GST-free levies on BAS Excluded | Reduces GST on sales. The net GST is the same | Reduces GST on sales. The net GST is the same |
Tracking | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes, Category and Job | ❌ No |
Duplicate check | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes, and it also checks MYOB directly | ✅ Yes |
A business set up only as a supplier | Uses the existing contact | Creates a customer card without pausing | Creates a customer without pausing, named [name] (Customer) if a supplier has the same name |
FreeAgent clients can't publish sales invoices. On every accounting software, sales invoices are published by someone on your team clicking Publish, never by a Publish with XBert rule, and they're never emailed to the buyer or agent.
On MYOB, if the document has no due date, the invoice uses the customer's default payment terms. The work item also explains the GST: On MYOB the deductions on this invoice reduce GST on sales rather than adding to GST on purchases; the net GST is unchanged. QuickBooks Online shows the same message.
Before you start
The client must use Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks Online, and have Receipt Capture switched on.
👉 Read more here: How To: Turn On Receipt Capture for Your Clients
For Xero clients, check whether sales invoices will go to Xero as Draft or Approved. See the section below.
Choose Draft or Approved
For Xero clients, you choose which state a sales invoice arrives in Xero:
Draft: the invoice waits in Xero's Drafts, so someone can review and approve it in Xero.
Approved: the invoice goes straight to Awaiting Payment in Xero, with no second review in Xero.
Every client starts on Draft. This setting is separate from Publish Bills As, so you can approve bills straight away and still review sales invoices in Drafts.
MYOB and QuickBooks Online don't have draft invoices, so there's no choice to make. The preview panel says To MYOB as an open invoice: it's live in MYOB as soon as it's published or To QuickBooks Online as an open invoice: it's live in QuickBooks as soon as it's published.
Set the default for a client
You need admin access to change a client's default.
In the left-hand menu, click Settings.
Under Receipt Capture, click Settings.
Find the client using the search at the top.
In the Publish Sales Invoices As column, click Draft or Approved.
Hover over it and you'll see Approved sales invoices go straight to Awaiting Payment in Xero - they will not wait in Drafts for another review.
Change it for a single document
In the left-hand menu, click Receipt Capture.
Click the document to open the preview panel.
Next to To Xero as Draft, click Change to Approved.
You'll be asked Publish as approved? Click Publish as approved to confirm.
To switch back, click Change to Draft.
⚠️ Approved sales invoices need a due date
Xero won't accept an approved invoice without a due date. If it's missing, publishing stops at Validate sales invoice data with Due date is required when publishing as Approved.
Add the due date, click Apply & Save, then click Retry Step. Drafts can be published without a due date.
Add a sales document
Add it yourself
Click Quick Add (the + icon at the top of the screen), then Add Receipt.
Choose the client.
Under Publish as, click Sales invoice.
You'll see Records income - published as a sales invoice against a customer, not as a bill against a supplier. Use this for an RCTI.
Add the files, then click Queue.
The document appears on the Receipt Capture page, marked Sales Invoice under its file name.
Sales invoices can't be sent from the XBert Capture app, because its payment methods only create bills and expenses, so add a sales invoice yourself or switch an emailed bill.
Switch a bill to a sales invoice
Emailed documents always come in as bills, so if an RCTI or account sale arrives by email, or was added as a bill by mistake, switch it to a sales invoice before it's published:
In the left-hand menu, click Receipt Capture.
Click the document to open the preview panel.
Next to Publishing as Bill, click Change to Sales Invoice.
You'll be asked Change to sales invoice? Click Change to sales invoice to confirm.
XBert reprocesses the document as a sales invoice, picking up the customer, income accounts and deduction lines again.
To switch it from a sales invoice back to a bill, click Change to Bill.
⚠️ Switching discards any edits
If someone has already edited the document, the confirmation says Edits, comments and history on its current work item will be discarded. Check the details again after it reprocesses.
You can switch a bill to a sales invoice for Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks Online clients, but not while the document is still processing, after it's been published, or while it has supporting documents attached. Expenses can't be switched to a bill or sales invoice.
⚠️ A bill with supporting documents can't be switched to a sales invoice
If an RCTI or account sale arrives in an email with other files attached to it, switching the bill to a sales invoice shows This document has supporting documents attached to it, so its destination can't be changed. Process the supporting documents separately first. Open each supporting document and click Promote to its own transaction, or Process separately if it's still Awaiting grouping, then switch the bill to a sales invoice.
👉 Read more here: How To: Work With Emails That Have More Than One Attachment
Check and publish
Open the document's Receipt Capture work item.
From your work views, such as the Task List, or from the Receipt Capture page by opening the document and clicking Open.
Check the details:
To: the buyer or agent who issued the document.
Lines: the sale on an income account, and each deduction as a negative line. Check every account and tax rate, because XBert doesn't use memories for sales invoices.
Tracking: XBert may leave tracking blank on a sales invoice, so set it if your client uses it. QuickBooks Online doesn't receive tracking.
Total: the net amount paid to your client.
Correct anything that's wrong, then click Apply & Save.
Click Publish at the top of the work item.
XBert works through the publishing steps one at a time: Validate sales invoice data, Check for duplicate sales invoices, Validate tax registration, Create or update contact, Create sales invoice and Update notification status.
Wait until you see All steps completed successfully!
MYOB clients only: download the document from XBert and attach it to the invoice in MYOB. You'll see MYOB doesn't accept attachments on sales invoices through its API. Download the document from XBert and attach it to the invoice in MYOB.
Sales invoices are always published this way, by someone on your team, because Publish with XBert rules can't publish them.
👉 Read more here: How To: Publish a Receipt
How XBert finds the customer
At Create or update contact, XBert looks for the buyer or agent among your client's contacts:
A customer it already knows is used straight away.
A name it doesn't recognise pauses the step with Action Required, and lists any contacts with a similar name.
To use one of them, change To to that contact, click Apply & Save, then publish again.
To create a new customer, click Resume.
On MYOB and QuickBooks Online, customers and suppliers are separate records. If the business is set up only as a supplier, XBert creates a matching customer record without pausing, and the step says Creating a customer record for '[name]', which the accounting system holds as a supplier only. On QuickBooks Online, if a supplier already has that exact name, the customer is named [name] (Customer).
On Xero, one contact can be both a customer and a supplier, so XBert uses the existing contact.
If XBert finds a possible duplicate
Before creating the sales invoice, XBert checks your client's accounting software for one that's already there. It looks for:
an invoice for the same customer, date and amount
an invoice with the same reference and customer, and the same date or amount
money already received from the same customer for the same amount, such as a Receive Money transaction, dated within a week
On MYOB, XBert also checks MYOB directly, so it finds an invoice that hasn't synced to XBert yet.
If it finds one, publishing stops at Check for duplicate sales invoices with Action Required, and you'll see Resuming will publish this document to the accounting system anyway.
Check the client's accounting software for the matching invoice or transaction.
If it's genuinely a separate sales invoice, click Resume.
If it's a duplicate, delete the document in XBert.
⚠️ Check for corrected or re-issued documents
Buyers and agents sometimes send a corrected RCTI or account sale with the same number but a different amount. If the original was published recently, XBert may not warn you. Before you publish, check your client's accounting software for an invoice with the same number: the Reference in Xero, or the customer PO number in MYOB.
If the total is below zero
If the deductions are more than the sale, the total is below zero. That means your client owes the agent money instead of being paid. XBert can't publish a sales invoice with a total below zero, so it holds it for review at Validate sales invoice data.
Check the amounts against the document.
If XBert read an amount wrong, correct it, click Apply & Save, then click Retry Step.
If the total really is below zero, record it yourself in your client's accounting software, as a sales credit note against the agent.
Delete the document in XBert.
⚠️ Don't upload it again as a bill
XBert treats a bill with a total below zero as a supplier credit note. That records the agent as owing your client money, which is the opposite of what happened.
👉 Read more here: How To: Publish Supplier Credit Notes to Xero
The Sales Invoice Agent
Sales invoices have their own Sales Invoice Agent, alongside the Bill Agent and Bank Transaction Agent.
You can customise its work items the same way, but Publish with XBert rules can only be set up on the Bill Agent and Bank Transaction Agent, so someone on your team always publishes a sales invoice by clicking Publish.
👉 Read more here: How To: Customise and Configure Receipt Capture Work Items
👉 Read more here: How To: Publish Receipts Automatically with an XBert Rule
⚠️ Memories don't work for sales invoices
Memories are saved against suppliers and describe how to code what your client buys, but on a sales invoice the other party is a customer paying your client, so XBert doesn't use memories for sales invoices and codes each one fresh. You can still click Add Memory on a sales invoice, but the memory won't be used for sales invoices, only if a bill or expense comes in from that same contact.
👉 Read more here: How To: Use Memories with Receipt Capture
Need help?
If you have any questions, our support team is here to help!
Reach out via the chat widget on the bottom left of your XBert screen (Help), or email us at support@xbert.io