Creating & Sending a Proforma Invoice
This guide tells you how to generate a proforma invoice from Salesforce and send it to a customer.
What is a proforma invoice and why is it required? A proforma invoice is a document required by some individuals and organisations in order for them to process a payment, when their payment terms are upfront only.
The document is required in place of an invoice, because an invoice isn't generated until after the delivery of goods has taken place.
1. Updating the Corporate Sale Opportunity Stage
A proforma invoice is generated against stock items only (not training). Therefore, the functionality has been enabled for the "Corporate Sale" opportunity type only. It's also available for medical alarms.
Step 1- Create your corporate sale opportunity and you've added your products, the usual process is to generate a quote and send it to the customer.
Step 2 - Once the customer has signed the quote and they request a proforma invoice, update the opportunity stage to "Proforma Invoice" + click "Save".
You'll notice two things here:-
1. The probability of winning this opportunity increases to 80%
2. A proforma invoice number is automatically generated - this is a combination of "PFI" + Quote (Q) number - as shown below
2. Generating the Proforma Document
In order to generate, preview and email the proforma document from the opportunity, follow these steps:-
1. Click on the drop-down arrow on the far right-hand corner of the opportunity and select "Proforma Invoice":
Step 2 - Select the contact name (this will show all contacts from the account relating to the opportunity). Click on "Download" to preview or "Email" to send without previewing the document, and then click "Run":
Step 3 - Once the document has sent, upload a copy of the proforma invoice against the opportunity under the "Notes & Attachments" section.
Once payment has been received, change the stage opportunity to "Order Stock".
See below example of completed proforma invoice:
