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Create Menu - Invoice - E-Mail

You can use this function to create a Mail containing details of the Invoice, which you can use to send the Invoice to the Customer by email.

When you select the function, the following screen appears, in which you can create a new Mail:

A new record will be opened in a window entitled 'Mail: Inspect'. This means that it has already been saved and is being opened for checking. The details in the Mail will be as follows:
  • The sender of the Mail will be the current user. If the current user doesn't have a Mailbox, the sender will be the From System Mailbox specified in the Mail and Conference Settings setting in the E-mail and Conferences module. If there is no From System Mailbox, no Mail will be created.

  • The Recipient of the Mail will be chosen as follows:

    1. If the Customer in the Invoice has a record in the Additional Email Recipients setting in the CRM module, the Mail will be sent to the Contact Persons listed with the Form Type "Invoice" in that record.

    2. If the Customer does not have a record in the Additional Email Recipients setting or its record in that setting has no Contact Persons with the Form Type "Invoice", the Mail will be sent to the Email Address of the Contact Person quoted in the Attention field in the Invoice.

    3. If the Contact Person quoted in the Attention field in the Invoice does not have an Email Address or there is no Contact Person in the Attention field, the Mail will be sent to the Email Address specified in the Contact record for the Customer.

    4. If the above points are not satisfied, no Mail will be created.

  • The Subject and Text of the Mail will be taken from the record in the Mail Texts setting in the E-mail and Conferences module in which the Form is "Invoices". If the Invoice has a Language and the Mail Text record contains a row for that Language, the Subject and Text will be determined by the fields in that row. Otherwise, they will be determined by the fields in the Mail Text header, as follows:

    1. The Subject in the mail will be composed from the Subject in the Mail Text record (which should have a trailing space), the text "Invoice" or "Credit Note" and the Invoice Number. For example, if the Subject in the Mail Text record is "Please find attached " (with trailing space), the Subject of the Mail will be "Please find attached Invoice XXXX" (where XXXX is the Invoice Number).

    2. The Text of the Mail will be built up as follows:

      1. The initial text will be taken from the Standard Text record quoted in the First Text field in the Mail Text record.

      2. Depending on the Do not put Record Details in Mail Body option in the Mail Text record, the Items in the Invoice will then be listed, followed by the Invoice totals and the Payment Term.

      3. The final text will be taken from the Standard Text record quoted in the Last Text field in the Mail Text record. It is recommended that the first line in this Standard Text record should be a carriage return, to ensure that the text in the mail is neatly spaced.

    If there is no suitable record in the Mail Texts setting, the Subject and Text will be taken from the Invoice Mail Settings setting in the Sales Ledger, in the same way as described above, The Subject in this setting should not have a trailing space. If the Invoice Mail Settings setting is empty, the Subject of the Mail will be "Invoice XXXX" or "Credit Note XXXX" (where XXXX is the Invoice Number). The Text of the Mail will be constructed as described in step ii above.

  • A PDF version of the Invoice will be attached to the Mail, accessible through the Document Manager. This requires you to have designed Form Templates to be used by each type of Invoice (i.e. Invoice, Credit Note, Cash Note, Interest Invoice and Project Invoice), and to have assigned those Form Templates to each Invoice Form using the 'Define Form' function. When you design the Form Templates, you may need to use Styles that will embed fonts in PDF files (this will depend on the fonts you use). You may also need to choose a code page and page setup, which you can do in the Form Template Properties. Please refer here for details about designing Form Templates, and here for a list of the fields you can include in the Form Templates used by the various Invoice forms.

  • The Invoice record itself will also be attached to the Mail through its Link Manager, and similarly the Mail will be attached to the Invoice. This allows you to open the Mail quickly and easily when reviewing the Invoice, or to open the Invoice from the Mail.

  • The status of the Invoice will change to Printed. So, if you send it by email again or print it, the word "Copy" will be printed diagonally across the page as a watermark (unless you are using the No Test Printout option in the Optional Features setting in the System module).
You can reformat the main body of the Mail to suit your requirements, and change the recipient if necessary, perhaps to the Mailbox of a member of staff. If you are then ready to send the Mail, check the Sent box. Finally, save the Mail by clicking the [Save] button in the Button Bar. If you are using the Lock and Send E-Mails Automatically option in the Mail and Conference Settings setting in the E-mail and Conferences module and the Mail contains an external email address (i.e. one with the @ sign), it will now be sent automatically. If you are not using this option, select 'Send E-mail' from the Mail's Operations menu after you have saved the Mail. Finally, close the Mail using the close box. You will be returned to the Invoice window.

If the function does not create a Mail, the probable causes are:

  1. The current user does not have a Mailbox.

  2. No suitable recipient email address was found.

  3. The Invoice has not been saved.

  4. The Approval Status of the Invoice does not allow a Mail to be created from it. If you need Invoices to pass through an approval process before you can create Mails from them, you can configure such a process using the Approval Rules register in the Business Alerts module. Please refer to the description of the Approval Status field on the 'Inv. Address' card for brief details about the approval process and here for full details.
If you wish to use this function to send Mails to other members of staff, the intended recipients must have Mailboxes. If you need to send Mails to Customers, you must be using the External Gateway module, and you must have configured the E-Mail SMTP Server setting. Please refer here for full details about the mailing facilities in Standard ERP.

If you are using the Use External Mail Software option in the Mail and Conference Settings setting, the Mail will not be created inside Standard ERP as described above. Instead, it will be created in your default mail application (e.g. Eudora, Outlook, etc).

If you need to send several Invoices by email, use the 'Create Mails from Invoices' Maintenance function.

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The Invoice register in Standard ERP:

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