Disable Automatic Invoice Generation from Sign Up

[lostnspace]

Is there a way to stop the "automatic" invoice creation when a new customer signs up?

 

I have it set so that when a customer signs up, they are in "pending" until I accept the order. Once I have completed the setup, I accept the order and on the next cron run, the invoice gets generated.

 

Is there a way to stop the invoice at generation?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Derblub]

I need this too and ask Matt. His answer is not so satisfying :

 

Posted: 13/02/2008 20:48
Hi Lars,
No, this is not possible.
Regards,

Matt

I think this is a topic for "Feature Requests".

[PPH]

Not sure I understand. Why do you not want an invoice created? The invoice is the bill for the services when signing up. If you don't approve them as a customer, the created invoice gets marked appropriatly. Also if the invoice is not created, how can the user pay?

[pebu]

If you don't approve them as a customer, the created invoice gets marked appropriatly.

I can name a reason why... In many european countries (EU regulations) this is not allowed. Once an invoice is created, it can not be cancelled, nulled or removed. (It's not even allowed to have gaps inbetween invoice numbers.) There are ways to handle this, by creating credit invoices. But in the end it's much faster to just not send bogus invoices to spam customers at all.

[amnesia]

Im glad we dont have laws like that in the US, it seems to complicate the process more than needed.

[lynnette]

I can name a reason why... In many european countries (EU regulations) this is not allowed. Once an invoice is created, it can not be cancelled, nulled or removed. (It's not even allowed to have gaps inbetween invoice numbers.) There are ways to handle this, by creating credit invoices. But in the end it's much faster to just not send bogus invoices to spam customers at all.

That is precisely why Matt brought out Pro Forma Invoicing. If you have that set up in WHMCS it doesn't produce the actual invoice until its paid.

[pebu]

That is precisely why Matt brought out Pro Forma Invoicing. If you have that set up in WHMCS it doesn't produce the actual invoice until its paid.

That's not useable unfortunately.

For two reasons, one legal and one practical:

 

- Customers have to pay an invoice, not a proforma invoice. As a customer you can not book money against a proforma invoice. That makes bankstatements disagree, for both parties, with actual invoices. This because the bankstatement does not show the invoicenumber, because that was not yet known at the time of payment.

 

However if you hold a firm administration in paper you may get away with it if you want to go to the trouble of explaining this when the Tax people ask for what you think you are doing.

 

More importantly:

 

- Proforma invoice will lead to the assumtion it's an offer and not an actual invoice, which is not the case ... especially not for renewals.

 

The only completely valid way of solving this for (most?) EU users is being able to create a credit note for that customer, that exactly nulls the open invoice. The credit note should have its own invoicenumber, just like normal invoices.