Everything on the money-in side lives under Sales in the sidebar.
Customers
Sales → Customers. Add a customer with their name, email, billing address (street / suburb / city / code — it renders on invoices as a proper postal block) and VAT number — both are required on a full tax invoice of R5,000+ (VAT Act s20), so capturing them here keeps every invoice compliant automatically. Add tags ("VIP", "retail", "monthly"…) to group and filter customers — the same tags you use on CRM leads carry over when a lead converts. Each customer has a full history — quotes, invoices, payments and credit notes — and you can deactivate one you no longer deal with. Their email is used to send invoices and reminders.
Quotes
Sales → Quotes. Create a quote with line items (description, quantity, unit price, discount and VAT rate — or pick an item to fill those in; quoting never moves stock). When you email it, the customer gets a "Review & accept online" button — a public page (no account needed) where they see the quote and click Accept, typing their name as a signature. The moment they do, the quote is marked accepted (with who and when, on record), any linked CRM deal is won automatically, and you get an email. You can also copy the accept link from the quote and send it by WhatsApp. Then convert it to a draft invoice in one click — no re-typing.
Sent quotes also show 👁 viewed ×N in the list — every time the customer opens the public quote page, it's counted (with the last-viewed date on hover). "They looked at it twice yesterday" and "they never opened it" are two very different follow-up calls, and now you know which one you're making.
Invoices
Sales → Invoices. This is the core of getting paid.
- Create an invoice: choose the customer, dates, and add line items. Each line posts to a revenue account and can carry its own VAT rate and discount. Live totals show the subtotal, VAT and total.
- Issue it — this posts it to your books (DR Accounts Receivable / CR revenue and VAT) and lets you email or print it.
- Record a payment when the customer pays — into a bank/cash account, allocated to one or more invoices.
- If you make a mistake, you can void an unpaid invoice, or reverse a payment.
Invoice statuses move from draft → open → partial → paid (or void / written-off).
On any line you can pick an item from the dropdown instead of typing a description — it fills in the description, price and VAT rate for you. If it's a stock item, issuing the invoice also relieves the stock and posts the cost of sales, and voiding puts the stock back. Items are on the Business plan and up — see Items & stock.
Orders, deliveries and credit limits
If customers order goods before you invoice them, there's a step between the quote and the invoice. Sales → Sales orders records what the customer committed to buy, Deliver produces a delivery note, and Invoice raises the invoice — with partial deliveries and partial invoicing both supported, and a back-orders report showing what people are still waiting for.
Neither the order nor the delivery note posts anything or moves stock. Issuing the invoice is still the only moment that happens.
The same chapter covers price lists (different prices for different customers) and credit control — a credit limit and an on-hold switch per customer, checked when you issue an invoice, with the numbers shown and the choice left to you. See Orders, deliveries & credit control (Business plan and up).
Your letterhead
The PDFs you send carry a proper company header: your registration number, business address, phone and email (set under Settings → Letterhead, or during company setup), plus your VAT number from the SARS tax profile. The same header appears on invoices, quotes, pro forma invoices and payslips. Add your banking details under Settings → Get paid and they render in a payment block at the bottom of invoices and proformas.
Recurring invoices
Sales → Recurring. Set up a template (customer, line items, frequency and next run date). 360books generates the invoice automatically on schedule — and issues it too if you choose "auto-issue". Perfect for retainers and subscriptions.
For fixed-term work, set "Ends on" — a 12-month contract invoiced monthly stops itself after the twelfth run and shows as Ended in the list, so invoice #13 never goes out because someone forgot to switch the schedule off. Leave it blank for open-ended retainers.
Payments
Sales → Payments. A history of every customer payment, where you can also reverse one. Overpayments become a customer credit you can apply to future invoices.
Credit notes
Sales → Credit notes. Once a tax invoice is issued you can't delete or edit it — the correction instrument is a credit note.
When you need one. Section 21 of the VAT Act calls for a credit note when a supply is cancelled, goods are returned, the nature of the supply changed, or the price was reduced after the invoice went out (including plain billing errors).
What makes it valid. A compliant s21 credit note must identify the original tax invoice, carry both parties' details and VAT numbers, state the reason for the credit, and show the amount and the VAT portion. 360books prompts for the original invoice and the reason because without them you can't legally reduce your output VAT — and "no reason recorded" is the first thing a SARS auditor asks about. The PDF carries your letterhead and all of the above; ✉ Send emails it to the customer, or ⬇ PDF downloads it.
Returns and stock. If the line is a stock item, tick Back in stock and the goods return to the shelf at the cost they left at. Untick it for a price correction or an agreed discount — the customer is credited and the VAT reversed, but no stock moves. See Items & stock.
Apply the credit to reduce what a customer owes, or write off a bad debt — which correctly reclaims the VAT portion. Background reading: credit notes explained.
Customer statements
Reports → Customer statements. A per-customer statement of invoices, payments and credit notes with a running balance. ⬇ PDF downloads it on your letterhead (with your banking details for payment), and ✉ Email statement sends it straight to the customer.
Getting paid faster (dunning)
Turn on Settings → "Automatically email customers about overdue invoices" and 360books will chase overdue, unpaid invoices for you — a polite reminder at most once every 7 days per invoice, until it's settled.
Next: Time & billing →