A/R Invoice

An A/R (Accounts Receivable) Invoice is the customer billing document. It creates the legal claim on the customer and posts the revenue side of the sale to the general ledger. Where the delivery moved goods, the invoice moves money into the books: it is the document that recognises revenue and records that the customer owes the company.

Purpose

An A/R Invoice is created when the company bills the customer. It establishes a receivable — a debt the customer must pay — and recognises the sale as revenue. It is almost always required in the sales chain: it is the document that turns a shipment into a claim for payment.

Most commonly the invoice is based on a delivery, so that billing follows the goods that actually shipped. For service companies with no physical goods, the invoice is raised directly from the sales order (or from scratch), bypassing the delivery step. Issuing an invoice before goods ship recognises revenue too early — a control error the delivery-based flow prevents.

Position in the document chain

The invoice copies from a delivery (or an order) and is later settled by an incoming payment; its value can be reversed by a credit memo.

flowchart TD
    DEL[Delivery] -->|billing| ARI[A/R Invoice]
    SO[Sales Order] -.direct bill.-> ARI
    ARI -->|customer pays| IP[Incoming Payment]
    ARI -.reversed by.-> CM[A/R Credit Memo]

    style SO fill:#dbeafe,stroke:#3b82f6
    style DEL fill:#dcfce7,stroke:#16a34a
    style ARI fill:#fef9c3,stroke:#ca8a04,stroke-width:3px
    style IP fill:#fef9c3,stroke:#ca8a04
    style CM fill:#fee2e2,stroke:#dc2626

• Copies from: a Delivery (most common) or a Sales Order (direct / service billing).
• Becomes: settled by an Incoming Payment; its value is reversed by an A/R Credit Memo.

Key fields

The invoice is a Document entity with DocObjectCode = oInvoices.

Header

Lines (DocumentLines)

Stock and G/L effect

No stock movement when the invoice is based on a delivery — the delivery already reduced inventory. (An invoice raised directly, with no prior delivery, does reduce stock, since it is then the first document to move the goods.)

Full G/L posting. The invoice posts the revenue side of the sale:

DR  Accounts Receivable        1,170   ← the customer now owes us
CR      Revenue                        1,000   ← earned income
CR      VAT Payable                      170   ← owed to the tax authority

This is the entry that recognises revenue and creates the receivable. Later, the Incoming Payment clears the receivable (DR Bank / CR Accounts Receivable).

Service Layer entity

How to create it in Norma

Use the create_invoice tool. It needs:

• card_code — the customer’s code (e.g. C001).
• lines — each an item_code + quantity.
• Optionally per line, unit_price — when given it is authoritative (the invoiced amount); when omitted the line uses the item’s list price. This lets an agreed or negotiated price be billed exactly, rather than the standard list price.

Use it when the user wants to invoice, bill, or charge a customer — not for orders, deliveries, or A/P (vendor) invoices. Because the invoice posts to the ledger and creates a legal claim, the human-review gate is essential: the tool prepares the invoice, the review gate shows customer, lines, prices, VAT, and total, and only on approval does the connector POST it to /b1s/v1/Invoices. No approval, no posting.