Using Invoices with Room & Resource Reservations

How Invoices and Rooms & Resources work together for clean billing and accounting.

1) Before You Start

a) Rooms & Resources setup

• Create rooms/resources (e.g., Sanctuary, Gym, Kitchen).
• Define rate types (flat fee, hourly, per day, internal vs. external).

Best practice: Use clear names like “Gym – Hourly (Internal)” and “Gym – Hourly (External)” to prevent pricing mistakes.

b) Invoice Settings for reservations

Go to Accounting » Financial Settings » Invoice Settings → Default Accounts:

• Default Register Account – Bank/register for deposits (e.g., 1000 – Chequing).
• Default Fund – Fund to credit (e.g., 3000 – General Fund).
• Default Accounts Receivable Register – Typically 1100 – Accounts Receivable.

If a rate type sets its own income account/fund, it overrides these defaults for that line item.

2) Create a Reservation and Attach Pricing

1. Open Rooms & Resources and create a Request or Reservation. This can be created from either one! You can create a reservation from Requests if this reservation will need to go through the approval process and you do not have permission to approve, or Reservations if you do have permission to approve. Any Reservations entered in Reservations that are not approved right away will be listed in Requests until approved.
2. Select the room/resource, date & time, and the person/organization.
3. Choose the correct rate type (hourly/flat, internal/external).

Tip: Add purpose/setup notes in reservation Notes to help staff later.

3) Generate an Invoice from a Reservation

From the reservation, click Generate & Send to generate an invoice that will be pre-filled with the following information for that booking:

• Customer/Client pulls from the reservation.
• Fund, Register, AR come from the rate type (if set) or your Invoice Settings defaults.
• A line item is created with room name, date (and time/event), and the calculated price.

Double-check:

• Due date (e.g., Immediately or 30 Days).
• Line item description clearly states what is billed (e.g., “Gym Rental – Community Event – Mar 12, 6–9pm”).

4) Sending the Invoice & Getting Paid

2 Ways to Send an Invoice:

a) Generate & email directly

• Click Generate and Send and check the box "Email Invoice to ..." to email on generate, and click Generate & Send.

If Allow Online Payment is enabled in Invoice Settings, the recipient gets a secure pay link. When paid, the invoice is marked Paid, and posted to the correct Register. It will be cleared from Accounts Receivable once the payout occurs.

b) Share the payment link manually

From Accounting » Invoices, click the Payment Link icon to copy and paste into your own email/message.

You can also copy the Payment Link from Reservations » View for that reservation and click “View Invoice”.

From either of the above, you can also Download PDF, Record Payment, Void Invoice or Send Invoice

5) Recording Cheque or Cash Payments

1. Open the invoice (Accounting > Invoices > View Invoice OR Reservations » View » click "View Invoice")
2. Click Record Payment.
3. Select payment date, register, and optional reference (e.g., cheque #).
4. Save.

This zeroes the Outstanding balance, posts to the right register/fund, and keeps your AR accurate.
Best practice: Always record via the invoice (not a generic deposit) so invoice & ledger stay in sync.

6) Common Workflows & Examples

Example 1: One-time Wedding Rental

1. Create a reservation for the date:
   • Sanctuary (flat fee)
   • Fellowship Hall (flat fee)
2. Generate an invoice from the reservation.
3. Line items:
   • Sanctuary Rental – Wedding – July 18
   • Fellowship Hall – Reception – July 18
4. Set due date (Immediately or 30 Days) and send.
5. Use online payment or Record Payment when received.

Example 2: Monthly Gym Rental (Community Group)

1. Create weekly (or recurring) reservations with the correct rate type.
2. End of month:
   • Generate one invoice per reservation or
   • Create one invoice and add line items for each booked date.
3. Use a consistent description format:
   Gym Rental – Apr 2, 9, 16, 23 (Community Sports Night)
4. Set due to 30 Days, email, and track status in the Invoices list.

7) Quick Best-Practice Checklist

• ✅ Invoice Settings » Default Accounts align with how you book rental income
• ✅ Generate invoices from reservations to keep details consistent
• ✅ Enable online payment to reduce cheque chasing
• ✅ Record all offline payments via Record Payment on the invoice
• ✅ Use descriptive line items (room, date, purpose).