In this instance i'm not too fussed as to what the end invoice will look like - I am only loading the invoices into sage. these are services invoices therefore do not really need input sections relating to products etc - i would prefer to have a simple input screen with as little input fields as possible.

is this something you can help with?

That makes life alot easier - thank you

I am able to obtain most of these invoices in an excel and or csv format - have thought about whether it would be possible to load the invoices directly into sage - however, havn't been able to get to the bottom of this yet.

I have a list off all the invoices which need to be imported
e.g. say there are 100 invoices which need to be keyed in, therefore there are 100 rows in excel showing only the invoice number, date, VAT exclusive price, VAT and total - this is more like a summary - therefore if further information is required then I can obtain a detailed invoice from another source.

Okay, that's the sort of thing you want - but you do seem to have one important thing missing from the columns you mention: The customer! (One of the compulsory fields for importing is a customer account reference.)

This does lead to a slight problem that I'd forgotten about - if the invoices are generated manually, outside of Sage, the person doing it doesn't know what any given customer's account on Sage is, so can't include it on the invoices.

A way around that is to do what I did for another company some years ago - in their case, the invoices were all, in essence, cash sales - customers would book the firm to do the job, and the day before that job was to be done, the invoice would be raised, with the customer paying on the day. What I did in that instance was just use a single customer account on Sage for all invoices raised that way - but even then, the customer's name went into the details field.

(Obviously, you can use the invoice number to uniquely identify an invoice, but I often saw payments coming in from "Mr Smith" or whatever, with no reference to the invoice - tying the payment to the invoice could only be done by name and when it happened.)

So before we go any further:

1) Do you need a separate customer account for each customer?
2) Can you get a version of the spreadsheet with the customers' names on each line?

Right, in that case you're pretty much good to go.

Previously you said you had invoice number, invoice date, net, and vat showing in the spreadsheet, one invoice per line - so I assume those are columns A, B, C and D - and that you can get the customer account into column E. (It doesn't matter which order they're in on modern versions of Sage).

What you need to do is add a few more columns:

One that contains the transaction type - SI for invoices. Say, column F. (I'm assuming there are no credits to keep things simple).

A column to contain the nominal code - eg 4000. Say, column G.

You could add another column for a short piece of text to go in as the detail - column H. (I'm not sure what happens if this isn't included - whether Sage leaves it blank or puts in some generic text).

You will also need a column for the tax code - probably T1 unless you've changed things.

If there's nothing complicated about your invoices - such as all having the same nominal code, the same tax code, etc, then you can put appropriate figures in those four columns for the first line, then copy it all the way down.

Save the file as a CSV. (Actually, I think Sage can read the Excel file directly - but I use OpenOffice, so I save as a CSV!)

Go to File => Import. Take a backup as per the warning at this point, and when done, click on Next.

Choose Audit trail transactions and click on Next.

Browse to find the file you just saved, and tick "First row contains headings" if that's the case in your file - leave it unticked if not. Click on Next.

Now you get to map the columns in your file to the fields Sage imports. Set the "Imported field" to the column that matches the data described; so for "Type" set the column that contains the transaction type - which would be F if you used what I suggested above.

Once you've mapped the columns, you can 'Save' that mapping so that it remembers it next time.

Click Next and it should then try to import the data. It looks over the file in two passes - the first one is to check it and make sure the data looks correct and, if it is, the second one actually imports it.

If it doesn't like the data, it'll give you an error window telling you what problems it found and on what lines. Typical problems might be that it didn't recognise the customer account reference - which might happen if an invoice is raised to a new customer not already on Sage.

I think that just about covers it.

1. Yes, you need to use SC for a credit note. On top of that, Sage expects positive integers only - so when there's a credit, so if the value and VAT amounts are negative (which is the case in a monthly list I get), you need to change them to a positive.

2. Yes - I just suggested copying down the 4000 nominal code on the assumption that all the invoices will be the same. There is no problem using a different code where appropriate - in fact, that's the point of the import routine; you can import just about any type of transaction to just about any nominal code.

For the VAT, in that case, rather than just copy down T1, try using a formula along these lines:

IF(D10;"T1";"T0")

Putting that on the first row, in the column you're using for the tax code (and assuming D is the VAT amount), and copying it all down, should put T1 or T0 in the tax code for everything, depending on whether or not there is VAT - and when exported as CSV, it's the T1 or T0 tha's exported, not the forumula.