Serial invoices

With the Estimates and Invoices Application, you can quickly create serial invoices from a data list in Excel. It is ideal for sending bulk invoices to clients or members of an association.

• Enter the data in Excel.
• Import it into Banana Accounting Plus using the import functions.
• Create and print the invoices.

Prerequisites

To create serial invoices with the Offers and Invoices Application, you need to:

• Use the following pre-prepared Excel file to enter the contact data.
  • [Download] Excel file for contacts.
• Use the following pre-prepared Excel file to enter the invoice data.
  • [Download] Excel file for invoices.
• Use the Offers and Invoices Tools extension to import the invoice data into Banana.

Create Serial Invoices

Serial invoices can be created as follows:

1. Install the Offers and Invoices Tools extension.
2. Create the Offers-Invoices file and enter the basic data.
3. Create and import the contacts.
4. Create and import the invoices.
5. Print the invoices.

Install the Estimates and Invoices Tools Extension

Launch Banana Accounting Plus and install the Estimates and Invoices Tools extension.

From the menu Extensions > Manage Extensions, search for Estimates and Invoices Tools among the online extensions and click on Install.

Create the Estimates-Invoices File and Enter the Basic Data

There are two ways to prepare the file:

• Create a new file from the menu File > New, select the region and language, select the type Estimates and Invoices, select the blank template.
• Use your existing Estimates and Invoices file.

In the menu File > File Properties (Basic Data) > Address section, set the address of your association, which will appear in the invoice header.

If you have a logo you want to use, refer to the Logo setup page.

Create and Import Contacts

Contact data can be created using an Excel file. In this file, all the data is entered and then subsequently imported into Banana. There are two ways to do this:

Method 1

The first method is described on the page Retrieving data from Other Programs > One-Time Data Importing using Excel.

• In Excel, arrange the columns exactly in the same sequence as they appear in the Contacts table of Banana accounting.
• Select the data in Excel that you want to copy and use the Copy command (Ctrl+C or Copy from the Edit menu).
• Go to Banana accounting and issue the Paste command (Ctrl+V or Paste from the Edit menu).

Method 2

The second method uses the Import Rows command from the Data menu.

• Download the specific Excel file to enter the contact data.
  • The file is already set up with the necessary columns for entering the data.
  • Row 1 contains the column headers. This row should not be deleted, and the column names should not be changed.
  • The subsequent rows are example contacts.
  • To enable editing of the file, click "Enable Editing" in the yellow bar at the top.
• Open the file and enter the address data of your contacts in the appropriate columns. The columns are as follows:
  • RowId: The unique ID of the contact.
  • OrganisationName: The name of the organization or company.
  • FirstName: The first name.
  • FamilyName: The last name.
  • Street: The street.
  • PostalCode: The postal code.
  • Locality: The place.
  • CountryCode: The country code.
  • LanguageCode: The language of the contact used to create invoices. The invoice texts are printed in the defined language (it=Italian, de=German, en=English, fr=French).
    
    
     
• Save the file
• Select all the rows and use the Copy command (Ctrl+C or Copy from the Edit menu).
• Import the contacts into Banana accounting.
  • In Banana accounting, open the Estimates and Invoices file type.
  • Select the Contacts table.
  • From the Data menu, select the Import Rows command.
  • In the dialog that opens, check the option Import data from clipboard, then confirm with OK.

Create and Import Invoices

Invoice data can be created using an Excel file. In this file, all the data is entered and then subsequently imported into Banana accounting.

• Download the specific Excel file to enter the invoice data.
  • The file is already set up with the necessary columns for entering the data.
  • Row 1 contains the column headers. This row should not be deleted, and the column names should not be changed.
  • The subsequent rows are example invoices.
  • To enable editing of the file, click "Enable Editing" in the yellow bar at the top.
• Open the file and enter the invoice data in the appropriate columns.
  • For more information on the columns, see the Column paragraph of the Estimates and invoices import page. 
  • Each row represents an invoice.
  • You can enter an invoice with multiple items. For each item, add a row to the invoice (see example in the image, rows 5-6).
    
    
     
• Save the File.
• Convert the Excel invoice file into one of the two required formats (*.csv or *.txt) to import the data into Banana Plus.
  • Open the Excel file with the invoice data.
  • Click on File > Save As.
  • Choose the option CSV (Comma delimited) if you intend to use the *.csv format; or choose Text (Tab delimited) if you intend to use the *.txt format.
  • Save the file (once the file is created, it's advisable not to open it to avoid making any changes, even unintentional ones, that could compromise the import into Banana Plus).
• Import the Invoices into Banana.
  • In Banana Accounting Plus, open the Estimates and Invoices file type.
  • Select the Invoices table.
  • From the Extensions menu, select Estimates and Invoices Tools > Import Invoices.
  • Select the *.csv or *.txt file you saved.
  • A dialog will show the changes that will be applied to the Banana file. Confirm by clicking OK.

Print Invoices

See how to print invoices and customize the print settings.

Error Messages and Troubleshooting

Per eventualFor any error messages encountered during the import process, refer to the documentation on Error Messages and Troubleshooting.