Invoice and Payment Sample Scenarios

This is the most basic scenario for an event.  Invoice the customer once for all of the event charges – locations, setup, catering, beverages, staffing, etc. – and the customer pays the invoice.

In the Invoice Wizard, select Create an Invoice Automatically from all chargeable items.  If you do not change any of the options, EventPro will create one invoice for 100% of all items.

When the Customer pays, go to the Payment Wizard and select Regular Payment.  EventPro will, by default, apply the entire payment to the one existing invoice.

Many companies require a standard deposit of all customers, which is later applied to the event charges.

In the Invoice Wizard, select Create a DEPOSIT invoice manually and create the invoice for a set amount.

When the customer pays the deposit, select Deposit Payment in the Payment Wizard.  The deposit payment will be applied to the deposit invoice, but it will also be stored as a payment that can be applied to future invoices.

Create your invoice for the event charges in whatever manner you choose.  When you move through the Invoice Wizard, you will have the option to apply the Deposit Payment to the invoice.

In some situations, you may want to split a payment over more than one event.  For example, you may have a company hosting two events at your facility, and they want to pay for all event charges with one check.  In this situation, you will simply create a payment for the appropriate amount in each event, both payments referring to the same check in the Payment Details Ref # field.  For additional future reference, you could also refer to the booking numbers or names of both events in the Description for both payments.

Some facilities will collect a deposit and return it to the customer after the event under certain circumstances.  For example, an event facility may require a $100 damage deposit from a customer, which will be returned if the venue is undamaged after the event.  However, the event facility will keep some or all of the $100 if any damage has occurred.

To handle refundable deposits, it is recommended you use miscellaneous items.  Using miscellaneous items allows you to track the money you have collected for the event.  If you do not use miscellaneous items, refundable deposit amounts that are not returned to the customer will look like extra payments instead of legitimate event costs.

1.Before you do any invoicing, ensure that the appropriate miscellaneous items exist in your resource item setup.  Return to 1: Setting Up EventPro, Step 9: Resources, Miscellaneous Resource Items and review how to create miscellaneous items in your Resource Items so that they are easily accessible for each event.  Create a “Deposit” for x dollars (e.g. $200), and a “Refund Deposit” for –x dollars (e.g. -$200.00).

2.Return to the event for which you want to create a refundable deposit.

3.First, you need to add to the event a miscellaneous item that will represent the amount of the deposit.

a.In the Detail | Miscellaneous tab of the Event Maintenance screen click the New button to the right.

b.In the Miscellaneous Item [New] window, select Deposit from the Item Code drop-down list.  The Price of the deposit (the deposit amount) will default to the amount you entered when you created the item under resource item setup, but you can enter a different amount if required.

c.Click Save.

4.Now you are going to create an invoice for this deposit.

a.Go to the Finance | Invoices tab in the event.  Click the Create button on the far right of the screen.

b.In the Invoice Wizard, select Create an invoice automatically from all chargeable items.

c.Set the Cutoff Date so that it is after the last date of the event.

d.In the lower right corner of the Invoice Wizard, under Group, unselect all of the checkboxes except Miscellaneous.  Only Miscellaneous should be checked.  This will create an invoice for the refundable deposit amount.

e.Click Next and Finish to complete the invoice.

5.After you give the invoice to the customer and receive payment of the deposit, you can now record the payment.

a.Go to the Finance | Payment tab for the event.  Click the Create button on the far right of the screen.

b.In the Payment Wizard, select Regular and click Next.

c.Enter the Payment amount and any other required information, and click Next.

d.In the payment summary review screen, check that the entire payment amount is allocated to the correct corresponding deposit invoice.

e.Click Finish and post the payment.

6.After the event, you may need to refund some or all of the deposit.  You will now add to the event a miscellaneous item that will represent the amount of the deposit you are refunding.

a.In the Detail | Miscellaneous tab of the Event Maintenance screen click the New button to the right.

b.In the Miscellaneous Item [New] window, select Refund Deposit from the Item Code drop-down list.  The Price of the refund deposit (the amount being refunded) will default to the amount you entered when you created the item under resource item setup (should be a negative number), but you can enter a different amount if required.  Remember that the refund must be represented by a negative amount (e.g. -100.00).  The Return Deposit item should have been created earlier in the resource item setup.  See step (1) of these instructions.

c.Click Save.

7.Next, you will create an invoice for this refund.

a.Go to the Finance | Invoices tab in the event.  Click the Create button on the far right of the screen.

b.In the Invoice Wizard, select Create an invoice automatically from all chargeable items.

c.Set the Cutoff Date so that it is after the last date of the event.

d.In the lower right corner of the Invoice Wizard, under Group, unselect all of the checkboxes except Miscellaneous.  Only Miscellaneous should be checked.   This will create an invoice for the return deposit amount, i.e. a negative amount.

e.Click Next and Finish to complete the invoice.

8.Finally, when you refund the deposit money to the customer, you will record the payment you made.

a.Go to the Finance | Payment tab for the event.  Click the Create button on the far right of the screen.

b.In the Payment Wizard, select Regular and click Next.

c.Enter the Payment amount (a negative number, e.g. -100.00). To make the amount negative, type the number into the Payment field, click the drop-down arrow to open the Calculator and click the +/- key to put a negative sign before the number. Enter any other required information, and click Next.  Remember that this must be a negative amount to correspond with the negative amount in the refunded deposit invoice you created earlier.

d.In the payment summary review screen, check that the entire payment amount is allocated to the correct invoice, which contains the corresponding negative refunded deposit amount.

e.Click Finish and post the payment.

9.These steps will record the deposit you received and the portion you refunded.  If you kept some of the deposit, that amount will be added to the billable charges for this event.

Instead of receiving a “Deposit”, you prefer that customers pay up front for a certain portion of the event charges.  For example, you may require that in order to reserve the booking, the Customer must pay for all location charges.

Before the event, you would create an invoice for location charges only.  In the Invoice Wizard, select Create an Invoice Automatically from all chargeable items, but under Options, uncheck all of the item types except LOCATION and continue.  The Customer will provide a payment, which you will apply as a Regular Payment towards this invoice.

After the event, you would create an invoice for all remaining charges.  In the Invoice Wizard, select Create an Invoice Automatically from all chargeable items, and leave all items checked under Options.  EventPro will create an invoice for all remaining event charges (automatically excluding the location charges already invoiced) including any new locations you might have added.

The event occurred, the charges were all invoiced, but the customer refuses to pay for the swan ice sculpture that never showed up.  Void and re-create the invoice?  Not anymore…

In the Invoice Wizard, select Create a CREDIT Invoice manually.  Create a credit item, enter the amount as a negative value (e.g. Swan Ice Sculpture = –$60.00) and apply it to the relevant invoice.  There will no longer be unpaid charges for the event.

In this situation, the client has overpaid, and you need to write a check to the client to return the excess payment. If you look in the Summary/Discount area of the Finance tab, you will see that the event Balance is surrounding by parentheses, indicating it is negative.

You can simply create a Regular Payment for the negative amount of the payment excess.  To make the amount negative, type the number into the Payment field, click the drop-down arrow to open the Calculator and click the +/- key to put a negative sign before the number.  When you leave the Payment field, the number will be surrounded in parentheses, e.g. (100.00), indicating that the value is negative. The payment will not be allocated to any invoice. Complete the payment.

If you return to the Summary Discount area, you should see that the Balance is at $0.00.  The original excess payment will still be highlighted in yellow, indicating that it is not fully allocated, and the refunded payment will not be highlighted, indicating that it is unallocated, but the Event Balance will be settled at 0 (zero).