The books: client invoices

For the accountant: how to open the books of a company, what is in the menu, and how to read, download and re-file the client invoices the company has issued.

What it is for

The books are a separate area of FSMCore for the person who does the company's accounts. You get the issued documents themselves, with their payments and their history, so the office does not have to email you every PDF.

The books have no dashboard. The first page you see, and the first item in the menu, is Client invoices: every invoice the company has issued to its clients.

On this page you can:

• find an invoice by number, client, category, status or issue date,
• open it as a PDF, download it or print it,
• see every payment recorded on it,
• read its history: who changed what, and when,
• open the completion report of the invoice's job,
• change the accounting category the invoice is filed under.

Everything else is read only. The office side of the same invoices is described on Invoices.

Who can use it

A person who is archived in the company cannot sign in at all.

Nothing can be created, edited, deleted or restored in the books, and no list has bulk actions. The one change you can make is Change category. See What you can and cannot change.

The books have no notification bell and no search box at the top of the page. FSMCore sends you nothing inside the books. Emails about the company's documents reach you only when the office has put your address on one of its lists in Settings > Company > Notifications. The copy of a client invoice goes out when the office ticks the internal copies box as it issues or sends the invoice. See Internal copy and Notifications.

While a company's FSMCore access is paused, the books show the lock page instead of the lists. See Locked company.

Sign in

The address of the books is the company's own web address with /books at the end, for example yourcompany.fsmcore.com/books.

1. Open the /books address.
2. Type your email and password and sign in.
3. You land on Client invoices.

Good to know:

• Use the /books address when you are not signed in yet. The plain company address shows the office sign-in page.
• If you are already signed in and hold only the Accountant role, the plain company address takes you to the books.
• Forgot password? is on the sign-in page of the books.
• Two-factor sign-in is optional for an accountant. Owners and admins must have it on before the books open for them.
• If you do the accounts of several companies, each company has its own address and its own books. You never see another company's invoices.
• If you do not know the address, see Find your company.

The menu at the top right shows your name, Help, Password and two-factor and the sign-out. See Signing in.

The menu

The menu has up to five items, in this order, with no groups:

The switches are set by an owner or admin of the company. An item that is switched off is not in your menu.

The word "Crew" in Crew invoices may be different for the company.

The list

Client invoices lists every client invoice of the company except drafts. A draft has no number yet and is not a document for the books until the office issues it. Void invoices stay in the list.

The newest issue date is on top.

Clicking a row opens the invoice as a PDF in a window, the same as View document in the row's menu. On a phone the PDF opens in the phone's own PDF viewer instead.

When nothing has been issued yet the list says No issued client invoices yet.

The list can be shown as a table or as cards. A computer starts with the table and a phone starts with cards. A button above the list switches between the two, and your choice is remembered in that browser. A card shows the invoice number, the Client, the category, the VAT, the Total and the Issued date.

The books use a slate grey colour where the office uses amber, so you can tell at a glance which area you are in.

The list has no tabs, no New button and no export to a file. To take figures out, download the PDFs one by one, or ask an owner or admin: they can download all company data from Settings > Export. See Export.

Columns

• You can sort by Invoice, Client, Net, VAT, Total, Issued and Due.
• Amounts are shown in the currency the invoice was issued in.
• Dates are shown in the company's date format.
• The word VAT may be different for the company's country.
• The list has no status column. Use the Status filter to see only paid, unpaid or void invoices, and Payments in the row's menu to see what was paid.

Search

The search box above the list looks in the invoice number and the client's name. Words can be in any order and small typing mistakes are forgiven.

Filters

A filter applies as soon as you choose it.

Good to know:

• The Category filter offers only the categories on the company's list today. An invoice that still carries a category removed from that list, and an invoice with no category, cannot be picked out with this filter.
• The status words can be different for the company. The meaning of each status is on Invoices.
• For a month or a quarter that is over, choose Custom range and set From and Until.

Row actions

Each row has one ⋮ menu. An action is shown only when it applies to that invoice.

Bulk actions

There are none. Rows cannot be ticked, and nothing can be done to several invoices at once.

View, download and print

To read an invoice:

1. Click the row, or open its ⋮ menu and choose View document.
2. A window Invoice INV-0084 opens with the PDF. Under it: "The issued document. Use Download PDF for the file."
3. Click Close when you are done.

On a phone, or in a browser that cannot show a PDF inside a page, the PDF opens on its own instead of in the window. Go back in the browser to return to the list.

To save the file:

1. Open the ⋮ menu on the row.
2. Choose Download PDF. The file is named "invoice-" and the number, for example invoice-INV-0084.pdf.

To print:

1. Open the ⋮ menu on the row.
2. Choose Print. The same PDF opens in a new browser tab. Print it from there.

All three give the same document the office sees and the client was sent. The company's details, the client's details and the bank details on it are the ones kept when the invoice was issued, so an old invoice does not change when the company later changes its address or bank. What is printed on the PDF is described under What the PDF shows.

If the office changed the invoice after it was issued, the PDF shows it as it is now. The change is listed in the History.

Payments

Payments shows every payment the office recorded on the invoice.

1. Open the ⋮ menu on the row.
2. Choose Payments. The item is only there when the invoice has at least one payment, counted or removed.
3. A window Payments of Invoice INV-0084 opens.
4. Click Close when you are done.

• The newest payment date is on top.
• A removed payment stays in the list, greyed out. It no longer counts towards the amount paid.
• An invoice is paid when the cash received plus the RCT deducted covers the total. See RCT deducted.
• Nothing can be changed in this window. Recording, correcting and removing a payment is done by an owner or admin in the office. See Payments.

History

History tells you what happened to an invoice after it was created, so you can check whether a document you already entered in your records was changed.

1. Open the ⋮ menu on the row.
2. Choose History.
3. A window History of Invoice INV-0084 opens: "Every change, payment and email of this document, newest first. Read only."
4. Click Close when you are done.

It is the same list an owner or admin reads in the office: each change with who made it and when, each payment, each removed payment, and each email of the invoice. A change to an issued invoice shows the old and the new total. Your own category changes are listed there too, with your name. What each kind of line means is on History, and how a change to an issued invoice is confirmed and recorded is under Changes to an issued document.

Nothing in the History can be edited or deleted, by anyone.

Completion report

The completion report is the job's record of snags, damage by others, photos and the client's sign-off. You can file it with the invoice.

1. Open the ⋮ menu on the row.
2. Choose Completion report to see the PDF in a window, Download completion report to save it, or Print completion report to open it in a new tab.

The three actions are shown only when the invoice belongs to a job and the snags feature is switched on for the company. The window is named Completion report with the job's title. Under the PDF it says: "Generated now from the job's snags, damage reports, photos and sign-off. Use Download completion report for the file or Print completion report to print it." The report is built at that moment from the job as it is now. See Completion report.

You cannot take a sign-off or change anything on the report from the books.

Change category

The category is the accounting bucket an invoice is filed under, for example labour or materials. The office picks it when it writes the invoice. When it was filed under the wrong one, or under none, you can correct it yourself.

1. Open the ⋮ menu on the row.
2. Choose Change category.
3. The window Change the accounting category opens: "Re-files this invoice for the books. Nothing else on the document changes."
4. Under Category, pick one of the choices.
5. Press Save category.

A message Category updated confirms it, with "Filed under" and the category name. When no category is chosen it says "Category cleared."

The rules:

• Owners, admins and accountants can change the category.
• It works on a Sent, Part paid or Paid invoice. A Void invoice cannot be re-filed: the action is not in its menu.
• The choices are the company's own category list, plus the category the invoice carries now. Under the field: "From your company's category list. An invoice keeps a category that has since been removed until you change it here."
• A category that is not on the company's list is refused: "The selected accounting category is not one of your company's categories."
• Only the category changes. The number, dates, lines, totals, payments and the PDF stay as they are. The category is not printed on the invoice.
• Nobody is emailed. The change is recorded with your name and shows in the History as the old and the new category.
• You cannot add, rename or remove categories. The list is kept by an owner or admin in Settings > Company, section Invoice categories. See Company settings. When the company keeps no list, there is nothing to choose.

The category of a crew invoice is changed the same way in Crew invoices.

What you can and cannot change

When an invoice is wrong, tell the office. An owner or admin corrects it there, and the correction shows in the History. See Change an issued invoice.

What happens after

• A category you change shows in the Category column at once, here and in the office.
• The change is recorded with your name and the time.
• Viewing, downloading and printing change nothing on the invoice.
• No email and no notification is sent for anything you do in the books.

Common mistakes

I get a refusal on the company's address. Use the address ending in /books and sign in there. A person with only the Accountant role cannot open the office or the crew app.

An invoice the office told me about is not in the list. It is still a draft. Drafts are listed only after the office issues them. Also check that no filter is set.

There is no Payments item in the menu. The invoice has no payment yet. The item appears once one is recorded.

There is no Change category item in the menu. The invoice is void. A void invoice cannot be re-filed.

The category I need is not offered. It is not on the company's list. Ask an owner or admin to add it in Settings > Company.

The Category filter does not find an invoice. The invoice has no category, or it carries a category that was removed from the company's list. Find it by client or number instead.

There are no completion report actions. The invoice has no job, or the snags feature is switched off for the company.

I cannot find Hour logs, RCT credits or Reallocated costs. That feature is switched off for the company. See The menu.

The Net and VAT columns are missing. The screen is narrower than 1024 px. Use a wider window, or switch to cards, which show the VAT. On a wide screen, check that Net is not switched off in the column picker.

The total of an invoice is different from the PDF I downloaded earlier. The office changed the invoice after it was issued. Open History to see who changed it, when, and the old and new total.