Here’s how to generate invoices in QuickBooks Online right from Skimmer. Log into the web portal and click the QBO Billing button on the main menu. On the billing page, you’ll start by choosing your date range, the invoice date, and the due date. The due date will be set automatically by your default choice in QBO.
Next, choose whether you want to invoice for regular pool service and related items (chemicals, parts, etc.) only, or whether you want to include work orders that you have not yet invoiced.
Your next choice is about grouping invoices. You can send a separate invoice for each service location, or you can combine a customer’s service locations into one invoice. If multiple locations are combined, we cannot set the location of sale address inside QBO. If you’re not concerned with that, then either choice should be fine for you, it’s just based on your preference.
Lastly on this page, choose which online payment methods you prefer to accept. For this demonstration, we’ll walk through invoicing for pool service, dosages, and installed items. Start by clicking on the Continue button.
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At the top of the screen, you’ll see the different categories you’ll need to work through. They show red X’s at the beginning because, the first time through, Skimmer needs you to provide some information about how you want to generate these invoices.
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Pool Service Line Items on the invoice are the first thing to customize. The first dropdown box gives you a list of all the services you have set up in QBO. This will be the default that you use for your customers.
A little lower on the page, you’ll see a sample line item, so you get an idea how it’ll look on the invoice. You also have some check boxes for certain options, such as whether you want to include the service location address in the description, as well as the service dates. For the third check box, if you like to change the Default QBO Service each month, you’ll likely want to check this box to ensure that this tab always appears first when you invoice for the month.
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What if you have different customers that you want to bill differently than just monthly pool service charges? Scroll down to the Customize For Each Customer section, which will let you choose individually how you want to bill each customer. This will change what the line item looks like for that customer’s pool service.
Note that Skimmer will use the service rates you’ve put in Skimmer when it creates the invoice.
Once you’ve made the changes you want to make, click the Save and Continue button. This will save your choices and move you forward to the next step.
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Now we’re at the Customers tab. This appeared because Skimmer found that there are customers listed in Skimmer that do not yet exist in QBO, or we haven’t linked them. Skimmer will try to find a match and set it for you. If it can’t find a direct match, it’ll automatically check the box to add this customer to QBO. However, you can always choose one specifically from the list. Once all your customers are linked, click the Save and Continue button.
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On the next tab, you’ll customize dosage types. This tells Skimmer what these line items should look like in the QBO invoices. If you already have a corresponding Product set up inside QBO, you can choose it from the first dropdown menu. You can also choose a more general category if you prefer, and use the QBO description to provide a further identifier. Note that the prices you have customized in Skimmer are the prices that will be used in calculating the line items that will appear here. When finished, click Save and Continue.
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Next we have Installed Items. This is a list of all items that were installed during this billing period, divided by customer. What we must do is link the item in Skimmer to the appropriate Product in QBO. If you’re using Products inside of Skimmer where you can already customize and preconfigure this, we do a lot of the work for you. Product info such as price can be easily associated this way.
For items that aren’t automatically matched, you can manually choose from the available list. Once you make the choice, the quantity and price populate. Also, if there’s an item you won’t want to invoice for, you can choose Exclude from the dropdown box.
If you’ve installed an item that doesn’t exist yet in QBO, you can click the + symbol to add it as a Product, both in QBO and Skimmer.
Once finished, click Save and Continue.
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Now we’ve arrived at our Invoices Preview. You can see at the top that everything is green and ready to go – you’ve supplied all the information that Skimmer needs. Now you can see an overview of the invoices that will be generated for your customers.
You can choose to see a Details screen for any of them before continuing. If the Details page shows something you don’t prefer about how an item has been customized, you can go back to any of the pages you worked through and make the appropriate change.
Once you’re satisfied, click the Export button. It will generate the invoices inside QBO for you. And now that you’ve set up your Product and Service connections, Skimmer will remember the choices you made. You will not have to make all these same choices next time, they’ll already be saved for you. Which means billing is going to get really fast and simple in the following months!
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What about work orders? We’ll work through that now. Skimmer will only show you the work orders that have not yet been invoiced.
The first thing we’re going to do is click the Link Work Order Types button. Here we’re able to choose a default QBO Service. When you make the choice, it will also bring across the description. Then you can choose to use the work order price for the service labor price. Once you’ve made all those choices, click Save.
Once back on the main page, click Continue to move to the next screen, where you’ll see that it has automatically defaulted to the proper description and price.
What about something like repair or replacement? Skimmer tracks and includes the installed item for you. It also lets you choose what kind of service or labor activity to associate with this work, as well as the price. Once your work orders are sorted, click Continue.
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This will take you to same Preview screen we reviewed before. The process is the same. You can view details, and go back to make adjustments as needed. Once you’re happy, click Export.
