In Finale Inventory, invoices represent the financial record of what you have billed a customer for goods shipped or services provided. Invoices tie directly to your Sales Orders (SO), ensuring that your revenue, accounts receivable, and cost of goods sold remain accurate—especially when syncing with QuickBooks® Online (QBO).
Whether or not you integrate with QuickBooks, using invoices keeps your sales workflow clean, auditable, and financially complete.
Why Create an Invoice?
Invoices serve as the final step in your sales workflow. They confirm what was shipped, what the customer owes, and the revenue recognized.
When you post an invoice in Finale, it can record the receivable and sales revenue in your Finale General Ledger and sync the posted invoice automatically to QuickBooks Online.
Creating an Invoice
You can create an invoice directly from a sales order.
To Create an Invoice:
Open the relevant Sales Order.
Click Create Invoice from the SO Right Side Menu.
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Review or enter the following details:
Customer name (auto-filled from the Sales Order)
Invoice date (editable if needed)
Invoice reference number (e.g., customer-facing invoice number, if different from the SO ID)
Line item prices and quantities (these default to the Sales Order and what has shipped, but may be adjusted depending on your workflow)
Click Post to finalize the invoice.
You can also create an invoice directly from the Selling > Invoices page and manually link it to an existing sales order if needed.
Posting an Invoice
Posting an invoice in Finale performs the following actions:
Finalizes the amount owed by the customer
Records the invoice in Accounts Receivable on the General Ledger (and syncs to QuickBooks Online, if integrated)
Locks the invoice from further edits unless it is unposted
Applying a Customer Payment
If you use QuickBooks Online integration, posting an invoice in Finale will automatically create a matching invoice in QuickBooks.
From there, you will apply customer payments directly in QuickBooks as part of your normal Accounts Receivable workflow.
If you are not integrated with QuickBooks Online, Finale allows you to manually record payments for internal tracking.
To Apply Payment Manually
Open the invoice record.
Click Mark as Paid.
Enter the payment date, reference number, and any notes.
This will close the invoice in Finale and indicate that the customer balance has been settled.
If you are integrated with QuickBooks Online you should not post payments in Finale.
Editing or Voiding Invoices
If you need to make corrections:
Change the invoice status to "Draft" to unlock it for edits.
Update the necessary details (quantities, prices, dates, reference numbers).
Repost the invoice once the changes are complete.
If your account syncs with QuickBooks Online, you should only edit or void invoices in Finale.
Any changes made in Finale will be pushed to QuickBooks automatically.