Because the product hasn’t yet changed hands, a proforma invoice, also known as a sales order, isn’t a true invoice or official receipt. This document is a preliminary bill documenting the commitment of a seller to deliver goods for a specific price. It may be considered the opposite of a sales invoice. Also known as a credit memo, a credit note is issued by a seller to a buyer to detail that a specific amount has been credited to the buyer’s account, often due to correcting a mistake. The buyer may call it a purchase invoice since he or she is the one making a purchase, whereas the seller may refer to it as as sales invoice. This is the same thing as a sales invoice, and the phrase used usually depends on which end of the transaction the user is on. If you routinely deal with firms in Europe, you’ll need VAT invoice that contain a field for a VAT (Value Added Tax) identification number, which is used by international companies instead of the retail sales tax common to U.S. Here are some related sales invoice terms you might see: VAT Invoice. Because business is so global these days, it’s good practice to make sure you include all applicable information if you’re dealing with clients in a foreign country and billing in a different currency. Not only can invoices differ based on the company, but you can also expect differences depending on the industry you’re in and sometimes even the country. There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ rule for how they should look and the information they should include. Variations in Sales Invoice Formats and TermsYou’ll find a wide variation in sales invoice templates because there are so many different uses for them.

Invoices examples