How to raise a sales invoice (or credit note) when selling goods and services to external customers

This process has been temporarily amended for Covid-19; details in point 3. below.

1. Select the relevant form

Use a Sales invoice request form (MS Excel , 64kb) to send a customer an invoice for what you have sold them.

Use a Credit note request form (MS Excel , 63kb) to send a customer a correction to an invoice already sent or to cancel it.

Before you start please note…

• The minimum amount we raise a sales invoice or credit note for is £25

• It takes around three working days for the Fees team to generate an invoice once the form is submitted

2. Complete the form

• We recommend using Excel as built in formulae will work out VAT and totals for you

• Any boxes marked with an asterisk * are mandatory

• The “Customer name” is the individual or organisation liable for payment of the sales invoice

• Please check if the customer operates a ‘no PO no Pay’ policy.  If they do, please obtain a Purchase Order number from them and include it in the "PO Order number" box on the form.   Otherwise the customer will reject our sales invoice.

• In the “Description to appear on Agresso reports” enter what you would like to show in Agresso reports for this invoice, including any departmental reference.  Up to 60 characters can be held in Agresso.

• The “Description’ box should be a concise description with enough detail for the customer to identify what they are being charged for (e.g. goods or services provided, dates, names)

• If the invoice currency is not Sterling please change clearly the £ signs in the form to the currency required

• Please include the customer’s VAT registration number in the “Description" box if they are based in an EU country.  This is so the VAT team can check the VAT coding.

• Please enter the VAT code to be used in the “Code” box. This Sales VAT codes for use within the University of York and subsidiaries (MS Word , 18kb) guide provides further information on which VAT code to use. The VAT team can advise on any VAT questions you have.

• Finance Coding - the account code (4 digit) and workorder (8 digit) are mandatory.  Analysis code is optional. Account codes should usually start with a “4” but note 4074 cannot be used.  Also, any account code starting with a “1” cannot be used. For help with coding please contact your Department finance team or Academic Accountant.

• Please ensure any workorder used is setup and open; if not, your request will be rejected as Agresso will not accept a sales invoice against a workorder that is not open

• If using the credit note request form please enter amounts as minuses, and include the original invoice number the credit note relates to.  The account code and workorder should also be the same as the original invoice. This helps the Fees team to match it against the original.

• Use the continuation sheet on page 2 if needed

3. Authorise and submit the form

TEMPORARY Amendment for Covid-19

Follow your department's local practice for who authorises requests.

Email the form to your authoriser with ‘Sales invoice request’ as the subject line.

They complete the authorised box on the form; typing in their name, date in the spreadsheet.

The authoriser then...

• If it's a research grant (workorder starts with “R”) email it to Research Grants and Contracts research-grants@york.ac.uk).  This is because they need to check what is being charged for against our funding contract.
• For anything else, email it to the Fees team fees-office@york.ac.uk.
• Copy in the original requestor so they know it's been authorised.

4. The Fees team process the request when the form arrives

• The fees team print and file any form received, including the authorisers email if needed

• A sales invoice or credit note is generated in Agresso and sent by email to the customer (if we have an email address for the customer)

• At this time we can’t add attachments to the email; please forward any supporting documents to your customer separately

5. Customer payment

• Usually if payment is not received within 28 day of the invoice date the Fees team will start debt recovery as per the University’s debt collection process for non-student debtors.