Editing Invoices in a Third-Party Application
In Interactive Billing, you can download an invoice that would have been created by Vantagepoint to your workstation, edit it in third-party software, and then upload the edited invoice back into Vantagepoint.
This edited invoice will be used instead of an invoice generated by Vantagepoint for the project. For example, you may want to edit an invoice's formatting in third-party software before you final accept and finish processing the invoice in Interactive Billing.
Before you download an invoice to third-party software, check whether the functionality offered in Billing Settings, Billing Terms, or the Invoice Template Editor can meet your needs instead.
Third-party applications that you can use to edit invoices are Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Adobe Acrobat. Or, you can save the invoice as an RTF (Rich Text Format) file, which lets you open and edit the invoice in any word processing program such as WordPad.
Summary of the Steps for Editing Invoices
| Step | Action | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | After you select the transactions to include on an invoice on the Labor, Expense, and Units tabs in Interactive Billing, download and save an invoice to your workstation. | Interactive Billing: on the Actions bar. |
| 2 | Edit the invoice using third-party software. | Other software, such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, or Adobe Acrobat. |
| 3 | Upload the edited invoice file to your Vantagepoint application server, which links the edited invoice file to the project. | Interactive Billing: on the Actions bar. |
| 4 | If you make further edits to an uploaded invoice, you must upload it again. | Interactive Billing: on the Actions bar. |
| 5 | Final accept the invoice. | Interactive Billing: Accept on the Actions bar. |
IMPORTANT: Changes that You Make to Invoice Amounts and Calculations
Any changes that you make to invoice amounts or calculations in third-party software are not be recorded in Vantagepoint.
If you change amounts in invoices outside of Vantagepoint and you want the amounts to be updated in Vantagepoint, make any necessary changes on the Invoice Accept dialog box in Interactive Billing during the last steps of accepting an invoice.
Invoice Numbers for Edited Invoices
Before you download an invoice to edit in third-party software, you can click on the Actions bar in Interactive Billing to reserve an invoice number for the edited invoice. If you do not reserve the invoice number now, do it before you accept the final invoice. If you do not assign an invoice number, Vantagepoint automatically assigns the next available invoice number when you accept the invoice.
If Yes is selected for Print Invoice Number on Draft Invoice in , the invoice number that you reserved using the Assign Invoice Number action is automatically added in the upper right of the edited invoice when you open the invoice in the third-party software. If you did not select this option in Billing Settings, you must manually enter the reserved invoice number that you selected using the Assign Invoice Number action.
Accessing Edited Invoices from Vantagepoint
You can open an edited invoice in the third-party software directly from Interactive Billing by clicking the Edited Invoice on File link below the Invoice Number field on the General tab in Interactive Billing. This link displays on the tab after you upload the invoice to Vantagepoint. Each time you edit an uploaded invoice in the third-party software, you must use the Upload Invoice action in Interactive Billing to update the link again between the updated invoice file and the project to ensure that it opens the most recent copy of the edited invoice file.
You can also preview an edited invoice from the Invoice Approvals form or Interactive Approvals form.
Printing Edited Invoices
If you have linked an edited invoice to a project, when the final invoice is printed in Interactive Billing, it prints the edited invoice rather than the standard invoice that would have been created by the Vantagepoint Billing application.
When you preview or print billing invoice from other Vantagepoint applications, the edited invoice will print rather than the standard invoice from Vantagepoint. Other places in Vantagepoint that you can preview and print invoices include , , and on the Invoice History tab in Interactive Billing.
Your Ability to Download and Upload Invoices
You can download, edit, and upload an invoice only if your security role allows you to edit and upload billing invoices (the Allow Edit/Upload check box is selected on the Accounting tab in ).