How to select which invoice template to use?

1

I want to use two different templates for two different projects under single account. The template should be selected based on the project. Can we specify which template to use when sending invoice using freeagent API?

2

Hi there. I’m afraid your company can only have one New Invoice template; it’s not possible to create different templates for invoices belonging to different projects. However, you can make some customisations by using the email tags, which include [project_name], to fill in content dynamically.

Alternatively, if you’re using the POST https://api.freeagent.com/v2/invoices/:id/send_email endpoint, then you can specify the email on the API request by supplying an "email": {...} object as part of the request - see the API docs for more information on the fields accepted.

Hopefully that helps you out a bit.

Chris Howlett
FreeAgent

3

Thanks.

For one project, I need to include payment details, including my bank information, so users can pay us. However, for another project, we charge users before sending invoices, so I don’t include bank details. A single template won’t work for both scenarios and as mentioned above we cant have multiple templates. So Is there a way to create invoices using the API without including my bank details?

4

I understand your situation, and I can see that would be frustrating. Whether the bank payment details appear on an Invoice is controlled by a setting on the Bank Account, which is not exposed over the API, so it will be tricky for you to set it as you need.

A couple of suggestions that might let you make it clear that your second project’s invoices have already been paid:

  1. You could specify comments when creating your Invoice, saying something like “This invoice is for information only. Payment has already been made - thank you!”. This will add additional text onto the invoice for the customer to see.
  2. You could set the project to use “Project-level invoice sequencing” (uses_project_invoice_sequence on the projects endpoint), and make sure your first invoice on the project has a reference like RECEIPT 0001 which makes it clear it’s not an invoice.
5

Thanks.
Is my understanding correct?

To address the requirement of using different invoice templates for two projects in FreeAgent, one with bank details and the other without, here are the options:

  1. Multiple FreeAgent Accounts: Use separate FreeAgent accounts for each project. This allows you to configure distinct settings, including invoice templates with or without bank details.

  2. Single Account, Single Template: Stick to one FreeAgent account and one invoice template that either includes or excludes bank details. This simplifies management but may not meet the requirement for different templates.

  3. Manual Adjustments: Consider manually adjusting invoices before sending them out. This involves editing each invoice to add or remove bank details as needed, which could be less efficient but works.

6

That sounds close. For point 3, you can’t specify on an Invoice whether the bank account details should be included; that’s set on the Bank Account. You can edit the invoice so that there is additional text (comments) that make it clear it doesn’t need to be paid.

If you’re able to use a different Bank Account (within the same FreeAgent account) for the two projects, that would also be an option; you could set one to be included on invoices, and the other not to be. But I’m aware that may not work with your business setup.