Pro forma invoices

About pro formas

Pro forma invoices are used when you want to issue an invoice to the customer before you despatch any goods or services.

For example, you might use a pro forma when:

A customer's account is on hold or they have exceeded their credit limit, and you want to receive payment before goods are despatched.
A new customer puts in a large value order. If the new customer becomes a regular customer, you can convert the pro forma invoice into a sales order.

You can create pro formas for existing customers, or for prospect customers who don't yet have a customer account. Using a prospect account is useful, because you don't have to create new customer accounts that you might never use.

A new pro forma is Live once it's saved, and becomes Completed when payment is received and the pro forma is converted to a sales order. Goods are only despatched once payment is received for a pro forma. You can delete pro formas (even ones that have been converted to a sales order) and this removes them from Sage 200.

Enter pro formas

Open: Sales Orders > Proformas > New Proforma.

Pro formas can be entered for existing customers, or for new or prospective customers.

If you are entering the pro forma for an existing customer, the pro forma is created using the customer details and the goods and services you supply which are held on Sage 200.
If you are entering the pro forma for a new customer, you can create the customer account at the same time as creating the quotation.

If you don't want to create an account for the customer just yet, you can create the pro forma for the prospect account.

The information you enter in a pro forma is similar to a sales order.

Information you need to enter for a pro forma.

The items or lines required. You can add the following types of lines:
- Stock item: These can be for products or services.
- Free text items: Use this for one off items that have a value but don't have stock record.
- Additional charges: These are added to an order to cover costs, such as delivery or insurance. You can add these as one-off charge or create a record for charges you use regularly.
- Comment lines: These simply add information. You choose whether they're printed on your documents.
The warehouse the stock is to be supplied from.
The delivery address if it's different to the customer's main address.
For foreign currency customers, the exchange rate to be used.

Enter a pro forma for a prospect

Open: Sales Orders > Proformas > Enter New Pro Forma for Prospect.

You can create a pro forma for potential customers and record them on a prospect account. This means you don't have to create new customer accounts that you might never use.

You enter the details of a prospect pro forma in the same way as you would enter a normal pro forma in Sage 200. However, as there is no customer account, you must enter a postal address for the pro forma.
If the pro forma is accepted by the customer, you can then convert the pro forma to a sales order.

Create a prospect account

To enter a pro forma for a prospect, you must have already created a customer account for prospects. This customer account will be used for any prospect pro formas (and quotations).

Set up a new customer account to use prospects.
Set this account as the Default Account For Prospect Quotations and Pro Formas.

To do this, open the Invoice and Order Settings, select the Invoice and Order Entry tab, and select the account you're using for prospects.

Enter a pro forma for a foreign currency customer

When you are entering for foreign currency customers, the exchange rate set on the Currencies and exchange rates screen is displayed on the Pro forma Details tab. This exchange rate is used to calculate the price of any items you add to the pro forma, because prices are stored in base currency. You must check and change the exchange rate, if required, before adding items to the pro forma, otherwise the default exchange rate will be used.

Note: The exchange rate used to post the invoice values to your nominal accounts is set when you print the invoice for the customer.

When you add items to the proforma, the VAT is set on each line. This means you can use different VAT rates for different items. When you sell products and services to customers in other countries, the VAT rate needs to reflect this. Sage 200 will always use the VAT rate set on the customer's account when the customer's Country Code is set to anything other than GB. When the foreign currency customer is selected on a pro forma, the VAT Rate on the customer account overrides the VAT rate on a stock item.

Copy a pro forma

Open: Sales Orders > Pro formas > New Proforma.

Click Copy Pro Forma.

Amend a pro forma

Open: Sales Orders > Proformas > Amend Proforma.

You can amend pro formas that have not been converted into sales orders.

You can't amend the pro forma number or the price of items that have been marked-up.

Processing pro formas

Print the pro forma

Open: Sales Orders > Proformas > Print Proforma.

The pro forma invoice must be passed to the customer for payment. Printing the pro forma provides you with the document to pass to the customer by hand, post, email or fax.

Convert the pro forma to a sales order

Open: Sales Orders > Proformas > Convert Proforma to Order.

If the customer pays the pro forma you can convert the pro forma to a sales order and proceed to despatch the goods and services from the order.

There are a number of checks carried out in Sage 200 when you convert a pro forma to a sales order. For example, you can't convert a pro forma if the customer account is on hold, so check the customer account status before beginning.

When you convert, you are prompted to confirm you want to convert the pro forma, you must enter the preferred warehouse for supplying the goods, and a conversion summary will confirm whether Sage 200 has anything to report to you about the conversion, for example, if there is insufficient stock to meet the quantity required you would be informed in the following way in the conversion screen:

Document Line 1: The quantity to allocate on the line exceeds the quantity available at the warehouse.

The pro forma is converted but this alerts you to the fact it is only part-allocated and you will need to allocate stock to complete the order once it is available.

When you continue, you confirm the pro forma to order conversion.

Delete pro formas

Open: Sales Orders > Proformas > Delete Proforma.

From time to time, you will want to delete pro forma invoices that you no longer need, either because the pro forma was issued and payment was never received, or because the pro forma has been converted to a sales order.

You can delete any pro forma, even ones that have been converted to sales orders.