This series is written for anyone who handles invoicing, whether that is a dedicated office team or an owner who does the books alongside everything else. Every walkthrough follows Claire in the SunComfort Systems office and one customer, Dr Sean Spencer, so you can watch them in order or go straight to the one you need.

Before the first walkthrough, you need a completed job to invoice, and your business units, nominal codes and tax rates set up, because the invoice form asks for them. If you are already running jobs, those are in place.

By the end you will be able to take a completed job through to paid: raise the invoice, record what the customer pays, correct it with a credit note if it was wrong, send a statement of what is still owed, check it has reached your accounting package, and bill several jobs on one invoice.

Raise an invoice from a completed job, choose how the charges are broken down for the customer, and hold it back as a draft if the figures are not settled.

Record what the customer has paid against the invoice, so it closes and the account balance is right, including when they have only paid part of it.

Raise a credit note when an invoice was wrong, leaving the original untouched, and refund the customer if they have already paid.

Send a statement listing everything still outstanding on an account, so the customer can see their position on one page and settle it.

Check what is waiting to go to your accounting package, choose when records are sent, and confirm they have arrived. You need an accounting integration connected first.

This walkthrough is coming soon.

Combine several completed jobs for the same customer onto one invoice. Consolidated invoicing depends on your plan: the minimum is Go Paperless in the UK and All-in-one in the US.

Working from the job keeps each step honest. The invoice is built from the work done, the payment closes the right invoice, and a mistake is corrected beside the original instead of over it. The customer's balance stays true, so you chase what is actually owed, and your accounting package matches Commusoft without anyone typing it in twice.

You will know it is working when a customer's balance in Commusoft matches what they actually owe and, if you use an accounting package, nothing you have invoiced is still waiting to go to it.