How Do You Invoice in SyteLine®?

Last time, we dove into Avalara and how to utilize the Tax Interface Invoice Tax Credit (which, yes, is a mouthful). But before you get to all that tax logic… you need an invoice.

So, let’s back up a step.

How do you generate an invoice in SyteLine®?

Turns out, there are quite a few ways. Some are pretty standard. Some are more niche. And each one serves a different purpose. Let's walk through what I consider the core invoicing methods inside SyteLine®—and toss in a few side notes as we go.

Customer Orders (Where It Usually Starts)

If you're working with customer orders, you've got options:

▸ Progressive Billing

This lets you bill a customer before anything ships. Think of it like a deposit—or a milestone billing before shipment. You can bill a percentage, a flat dollar amount, or even issue a credit memo if you need to reverse a prior progressive billing.

It’s standard functionality in SyteLine® and super helpful when you're doing project-based work or custom manufacturing where cash flow starts before the shipment goes out.

▸ Standard Order Invoicing

Once an order ships, the most common next step is to generate an invoice using the Order Invoicing / Credit Memos form. One order, one invoice. Pretty straightforward.

You can also control whether the system creates one invoice per shipment per order—or combines things a bit more.

There’s a setting on the customer record called One Invoice Per Shipment Per Order. If that box is checked, SyteLine® will create one invoice per shipment per order (as long as you’ve also selected Create From Shipments on the Order Invoicing / Credit Memos form). That’s helpful when your customer wants a separate invoice for each shipment.

If it’s not checked, then the system can pull in a mix—lines from multiple shipments, or even lines not tied to a shipment at all—onto the same invoice. It gives you a little more flexibility, depending on how you want invoices to look and what your customer expects.

Note: The term "shipment" refers to the Shipment Master (PPS), not just the use of the Order Shipping form.

And yes, the form name includes “Credit Memo.” That’s because if you process a credit return using the Order Shipping form, this is where the corresponding credit memo gets issued.

▸ Consolidated Invoicing

If your customers place lots of orders or get frequent shipments, you might prefer to send them a single invoice that covers everything. That’s where consolidated invoicing comes in.

Instead of sending one invoice per order, SyteLine® can combine multiple shipments into a single invoice—for example, one invoice every Friday that covers everything shipped that week. It's cleaner for your customers and cuts down on admin time for your team.

You can set up consolidated invoicing based on:

• Shipment Master (especially pre-v10, where this was required)

• Delivery Orders (requires consolidated invoicing)

• Billing Frequency (like weekly, monthly, etc.)

Beyond choosing how often the invoice is generated—daily, weekly, monthly—you can also choose whether or not to summarize similar line items. So instead of listing 10 identical parts across 10 lines, the invoice could show just one line with the total quantity.

Ideally, your preferences are set at the Customer level, so they flow down automatically to each order.

There are a few setup steps, some specific requirements, and a handful of exclusions—but once it's configured, consolidated invoicing is a great tool for high-volume customers and a much cleaner way to manage your AR process.

▸Price Adjustments (Post-Invoice Fixes)

Sometimes pricing needs to change after an invoice goes out. That’s where the Price Adjustment Invoice comes in.

You can:

• Adjust prices

• Add or remove discounts

• Correct freight or miscellaneous charges

The system figures out whether it’s a debit memo or credit memo based on the net change—so you don’t have to.

Bonus: It also updates the customer order pricing going forward. So any future shipments reflect the right price. Handy, right? And for teammates who aren't in finance, they see the final value of the customer order without the need to see the transactional details.

Service Orders + Service Contracts

Not everything that needs invoicing in SyteLine® starts with a customer order. If you’re handling repairs, maintenance, or other non-product work, you might be using Service Orders or Service Contracts instead.

With a Service Order, you can track labor, materials, and miscellaneous charges—and then generate an invoice once the work is done. These are great for things like field service, on-site repairs, or internal shop jobs. They give you visibility into costs and allow you to build up charges over time before invoicing the customer.

Service Contracts, on the other hand, are more about recurring work—think warranties, support agreements, or preventive maintenance plans.

And here’s the part finance teams love: starting in v10, the system can automatically amortize revenue across periods. So, if you invoice a contract for 12 months of service, SyteLine® can generate one invoice up front, but spread the recognized revenue over the full contract term. No external spreadsheets or manual entries needed. (Honestly, this is one of my favorite quiet upgrades in v10.)

You can generate both invoices and credit memos from either module, and they work smoothly inside your standard AR processes.

If your business supports service or recurring agreements, it’s worth taking a look at how these forms can simplify billing and revenue recognition.

Note: These features are part of the optional module—Service Management.

RMA Credit Memos

Returns happen—and when they do, one of the ways SyteLine® handles them  is through the Return Material Authorization (RMA) process.

An RMA is a formal way to track customer returns. You can issue a credit memo for the returned goods once they’re received and inspected. Or, depending on the selection made on the RMA Line Items form, even without the need for products to physically come back (depending on your company’s policy).

Each RMA is usually tied to a specific customer order or invoice, so you get a clean audit trail and accurate inventory and revenue updates. You can:

• Reference the original order or invoice

• Specify whether the return is for credit, replacement, or repair

The credit memo itself is generated through the RMA Credit Memos form. 

Note: Even if the credit amount is $0, you still have to generate the credit memo to officially close the RMA. It’s a required step.

Residual A/R Balance Eliminations

This one's for when you’ve got a bunch of tiny balances floating around—like a few pennies left open on hundreds of invoices.

You can:

• Set a dollar threshold (say, $25)

• Run the utility

• Have the system generate offsetting credit or debit memos

Just know: It’s not perfect. If the original invoice is entirely unpaid but still under your threshold, it’ll show up in the results. Not a “residual” balance—but it meets your filter criteria, so it gets pulled in unless you fine-tune it.

Some teams use this once a year. Others never touch it. Personally, I think if your cash receipts process is dialed in, you won’t need it much. But if you’ve got a backlog of small amounts to clear? It can help.

Manual Invoices (Use with Care)

All system-generated invoices, debit memos, and credit memos land in the Invoices, Debit and Credit Memos form as a kind of holding area until they’re posted. But—you can also use this form to create manual entries when needed.

Just use it wisely.

✅ Good for:

• Writing off a bad debt

• Issuing a rebate or post-period annual credit (assuming you're not using the SyteLine® feature designed for rebate tracking and issuing system credits.)

• Invoicing for a one-time service or event (like a customer golf outing)

🚫 Not good for:

• Fixing errors tied to orders or shipments

• Anything that needs item-level detail or tax accuracy based on the ship-to address

Here’s why: this form doesn’t let you specify a Ship-To. That means all tax calculations default to the Bill-To location. That might be fine for general credits or adjustments, but it’s definitely not what you want if the transaction is tied to a specific shipment or order—especially if tax jurisdictions differ.

Use it for true one-offs, not to patch other processes.

Last, but not least ... SyteLine® has a full Projects Module that supports milestone billing and project-based AR. However, it doesn't fit our "back to basics" theme. So, while worth mentioning, we'll reserve this topic for a future journal entry.

As you can see, you’ve got options in SyteLine®. 
Here’s a quick recap of what you can generate—and where:

Next up? Cash Receipts.
We’ll talk about payments, deposits, chargebacks, and how to clean up small balances during the payment process—so you don’t need to circle back later.

This entry is posted. See you in the next journal.
Stacey