Clients and invoices are the backbone of Finocket: add a client with GSTIN validation and state auto-fill, then raise any of seven GST document types — invoice, tax invoice, bill of supply, export invoice, receipt, credit note or estimate — from one form, and share it on WhatsApp.
Add a client
Two paths: Add → Client from anywhere, or Clients → + top-right. Only the name is required — phone, email, address and GSTIN can come later. Type a 15-character GSTIN and Finocket checksums it as you type: a valid GSTIN gets a tick and the client's tax state auto-fills from the first two digits; a wrong state code, bad checksum or wrong length shows a red hint with the exact issue.
The Clients screen is built for a real book of customers: a hierarchical tree with sub-clients, search and a Leads/Clients lifecycle filter, a split view on tablets, bulk select and merge, a Cleanup tool that groups likely duplicates, and a CSV import wizard (upload, map columns, confirm a mandatory consent declaration, import). On a client's detail page you can convert a lead to a client, open their ledger and statement, merge or re-parent them, and fire WhatsApp quick actions.
The GST document types
Pick the document type when you create the invoice. Each type gets its own numbering prefix and the PDF header reads whichever you picked:
- Tax Invoice — for GST-registered clients. CGST + SGST for same state, IGST across states.
- Bill of Supply — for composition dealers who can't collect GST.
- Export Invoice — for foreign clients; an optional LUT number declares no IGST is charged.
- Receipt — advance payment or informal acknowledgement.
- Credit Note — returns, refunds or discounts against an existing invoice, on its own series so your invoice sequence is undisturbed.
- Estimate — a quote your client can accept online before any invoice exists. Full flow in Estimates & deposits.
Create and send an invoice
- Open Invoices → New. Pick the document type, numbering series and currency.
- Pick or create the client.
- Set dates and terms — payment-terms presets, due date, PO number, place of supply, reverse-charge (RCM) and LUT switches, shipping address.
- Add line items: pick from your catalog or type fresh, with quantity, rate, HSN/SAC and the GST split (CGST/SGST or IGST — Finocket picks based on states; Australian and US tax handled per region). An HSN or SAC code can be up to eight characters — HSN codes are 4, 6 or 8 digits and SAC codes are 6.
- Review totals — discount, adjustment, coupon; a warning appears if the client is over their credit exposure.
- Add notes and terms, then Save. The invoice saves as a draft and opens its detail page.
Only drafts are editable — once marked sent or paid, an invoice is locked and the edit route redirects, keeping your audit trail honest. From the detail page: print preview, PDF download, WhatsApp share, and a payment link. INR invoices carry a UPI QR automatically.
Credit notes under GST
Open Invoices → New Credit Note, pick the same client, add the returned items and save. It prints as "CREDIT NOTE CN-0001", lands in the client ledger against their outstanding, and reduces your GSTR-1 correctly. Under GST you should issue the credit note by 30 November following the financial year of the original invoice (or before filing the annual return, whichever is earlier).
Sent a wrong invoice?
For an invoice not yet filed, use Cancel & reissue on its detail page — Finocket cancels it (with Undo) and you raise a corrected one; the record of the cancelled invoice is preserved. For an invoice already reported in GSTR-1, issue a credit note instead.
Access & control
Owners and assistants can create and edit; an invited accountant sees everything read-only. Invoicing is a core module — it's on for every business workspace.
Related: Payments & TDS, Reports & GST filings.
Sending an invoice
From an invoice you can share it on WhatsApp or email it with the PDF attached. The email address is filled in from the customer's record and you can change it before sending — the person who approves the payment is not always the contact on file. You can add a line of your own, or leave it blank for the standard note.
Mark as sent stays a separate button, and it is not going anywhere. If you posted the invoice, handed it over in person, or sent it some other way, say so: your books need to know the invoice is out, and no email is sent.
Leaving an invoice half-written
If you need to change a setting — a number series, a tax rate — while writing an invoice, go and change it. There is a link straight to your number series from the invoice form and a way back from there, and what you had typed is kept.
The same applies if you leave the page by accident. When you come back, Finocket offers the invoice back and shows you what it kept; it never fills the form in behind your back. The draft lives only in that browser tab and is cleared the moment the invoice is saved.
A thank-you when a payment arrives
Finocket can send a short thank-you when you record a payment. It is off unless you switch it on, under Settings → Invoice defaults, because a customer paying in twenty instalments does not want twenty emails. You choose email, WhatsApp or both, and you can write your own wording.
Part payments get one — “received ₹20,000 against INV-14” is what a customer is waiting to hear. Refunds never do. If a customer has no email address, the note is skipped and the reason recorded, so nothing fails silently.
Your items and services master
Rather than retyping a line every time, keep a reusable library of what you sell. Each item carries its rate, its unit, its HSN or SAC code and a longer description — so an invoice line is a pick rather than a paragraph, and the GST code is right because it was set once.
This is your internal library. It is not the same thing as the published items catalog, which is a read-only page you share with customers.
Finding a document in the list
The invoice list has two rows of filters. The first is the document type — Invoice, Tax Invoice, Bill of Supply, Export Invoice, Receipt, Credit Note, Estimate and Delivery Challan — the same list, in the same order, as the Document type dropdown you used when you created it. The second is the status: Draft, Sent, Overdue, Paid or Cancelled.
The two work together, so “Tax Invoice” plus “Overdue” shows only unpaid tax invoices. On a phone each row slides sideways; on a larger screen every option is visible at once.
Pick Estimate and the status row disappears. That is deliberate: an estimate is not money owed to you, so it does not have an invoice’s statuses — it is accepted, declined or converted instead, and it never appears under Paid or Overdue.
Delivery Challan is worth knowing about. A challan records goods moving, not a sale, so it never counts towards what you are owed and never appears under any status. Its own filter is the way to find one.
A challan needs a connection at the moment. Its number comes from the server, so you cannot write one out at a customer’s premises with no signal — raise it before the goods leave. Finocket says this on the form itself when you pick the document type, rather than letting you find out at the gate.
“This document belongs to another workspace”
Open an invoice and the top of the page shows who issued it — your business name, address and logo. If you ever see “This document belongs to another workspace” there instead, it means the invoice on screen was issued by a different business, so Finocket will not put your letterhead above it.
If you work across several businesses — an accountant with a few clients, or an owner with more than one company — open the invoice from the workspace that issued it and the full details appear as normal.
If you did not expect that invoice to be in your list at all, sign out and sign back in on that device. This device is holding an old copy of something it should no longer show, and signing out clears it. Nothing in your own books is affected, and the invoice itself is untouched in the account that does own it.