Your First Invoice

Reading time: 8 minutes

Create, send, and track your first customer invoice in Atlas. By the end of this tutorial you will have a customer, an invoice, and a recorded payment — all reflected in your general ledger.

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Prerequisites

• An Atlas account with Bookkeeper role or above
• At least one company set up in your organization
• A Chart of Accounts with an Accounts Receivable account

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Step 1: Create a Customer

1. Navigate to Contacts > Customers from the sidebar
2. Click New Customer
3. Fill in the required fields:
   • Name — your customer's business or personal name
   • Email — used for sending invoices electronically
   • Currency — defaults to your company's base currency
4. Click Save

Tip: Add a billing address now — it will auto-populate on every invoice you create for this customer.

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Step 2: Create an Invoice

1. Go to Invoicing > Invoices
2. Click New Invoice
3. Select your customer from the dropdown
4. The invoice number is auto-generated (you can customize the prefix in Settings > Invoice Numbering)

Add Line Items

For each product or service you are billing:

Field	Description
Description	What you are billing for
Account	Revenue account (e.g., "Service Revenue")
Quantity	Number of units
Unit Price	Price per unit
Tax	Select an applicable tax rate (optional)

5. Review the totals at the bottom — subtotal, tax, and total due
6. Set the Due Date (defaults to your payment terms)
7. Click Save as Draft

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Step 3: Review and Send

1. Preview the invoice by clicking Preview PDF
2. Check the layout, amounts, and customer details
3. When ready, click Send Invoice
4. Choose delivery method:
   • Email — sends directly with a PDF attachment
   • Download PDF — for manual delivery

The invoice status changes from Draft to Sent.

Note: Sending an invoice creates a journal entry: Debit Accounts Receivable, Credit Revenue.

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Step 4: Record a Payment

When your customer pays:

1. Open the invoice from Invoicing > Invoices
2. Click Record Payment
3. Enter the payment details:
   • Date Received — when the payment arrived
   • Amount — full or partial payment
   • Deposit Account — the bank account receiving funds (e.g., "Business Checking")
   • Payment Method — check, ACH, wire, credit card, or cash
4. Click Apply Payment

Partial Payments

If the customer pays less than the total:

• The invoice status changes to Partially Paid
• The remaining balance is tracked automatically
• You can record additional payments until the balance reaches zero

Full Payment

When the full amount is received, the invoice status changes to Paid.

What happens behind the scenes: A journal entry is created — Debit Cash/Bank, Credit Accounts Receivable — completing the revenue cycle.

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Step 5: View in Reports

Your invoice and payment are now reflected across Atlas:

• Accounts Receivable Aging — shows outstanding invoices by age
• Profit & Loss — revenue appears in the period the invoice was created (accrual basis)
• Cash Flow Statement — payment appears when received
• General Ledger — full audit trail of both journal entries

Navigate to Reports from the sidebar to explore each report.

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Troubleshooting

Issue	Solution
Cannot create invoice	Check that you have Bookkeeper role or above
Customer not appearing	Ensure the customer was saved successfully
Tax not calculating	Verify tax rates are configured in Settings > Tax Rates
Invoice stuck in Draft	Click Send Invoice to advance the status

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Related Guides

• Invoicing & Accounts Receivable — recurring invoices, credit notes, and collections
• Chart of Accounts — setting up revenue and AR accounts
• Reports & Analytics — understanding your financial reports

What's Next

Now that you have created your first invoice, try:

• Setting up recurring invoices for monthly clients
• Importing bank statements to reconcile payments automatically
• Running the AR Aging report to monitor outstanding receivables