Invoice Status Overview

Statuses are a powerful workflow tracking feature throughout Stratus, designed to keep things from falling through the cracks by organizing the many areas of your business - clients, communications, sessions, invoices, and tasks - into custom workflows. Basically, you create a workflow by defining the steps of a process from beginning to end. These steps are your statuses.

Invoice Statuses are used to help you track your invoices from the time an order is placed through the final payment and delivery. Each status can include a default duration (which Stratus uses to automatically generate a due date). A sample invoice workflow may include the following statuses:

• "Order Placed"
• "Production Pending"
• "Order Ready, Pickup Pending"
• "Order Complete and Delivered"
• and so on 

Before using invoice statuses, complete the following set up.

Setting up Invoice Statuses

1. Go to Maintenance > Invoice > Invoice Status to open your list of invoice statuses.
   
   
   

2. Click New to create a new status at the bottom of the list or just start typing a description in the first row where it says, "Click here to add a new record."

3. Complete the following fields:

• Description - Enter a short description for the invoice status.

• Typical Duration - Enter the number of business days an invoice should normally remain at this status before it's considered overdue. Stratus uses the duration to calculate a status due date that appears on the invoice. You can use status due dates to see what orders are overdue and catch things that may be falling through the cracks. Find out more in the Using Invoice Statuses section below.

• Initial Status - Select this option on the status that all invoices should default to when first created.

• Final Status - Select this option on the status that indicates the invoice is complete.

4. To maintain your invoice status list, you may also want to:

   • Make a Status Inactive - Make an invoice status inactive by checking the Inactive box on a status in the list.

   • Delete an Invoice Status - Highlight the status and click Delete on the ribbon.

   • Rearrange the List - Highlight a status and use the Move Up and Move Down tools on the ribbon.

   • Hide Inactive Statuses - Click Hide Inactive on the ribbon to hide (or reveal) any inactive statuses.

   • Print the List - Click Print on the ribbon to generate a printed report of your invoice statuses.

   • Export the List to Excel - Click Export to Excel to export an Excel file that you can download.

5. Close the invoice status list when finished.

Using Invoice Statuses

Updating Invoice Statuses

Follow these steps to change the status of an invoice:

1. Open the invoice.

2. On the General tab, click the Change Status ("...") button to the right of the invoice status line. The following Status Change window appears:
   
   
   

3. Stratus will automatically fill in some or all of the fields. Modify the information as needed.

   • Current Status - This is the current status of the invoice.

   • Date Completed - This will default to today's date.

   • Change to Status - This will default to the next status in the sort order you've defined. You can open the drop-down list to select a different status.

   • Due Date - Stratus will calculate the due date based on the typical duration for the status. Click the down arrow to choose a different due date for this invoice.

   • Status Updated By - This will default to the current user. Open the drop-down list to select another user.

4. Click OK when finished.

5. The status information will be updated on the invoice and Stratus will automatically log the status change in the the invoice's Status Notes (on the Notes tab).

Tracking Statuses on an Invoice

Tracking Statuses on the Invoices Hub

Invoice statuses and due dates can be used to find specific invoices on the Invoices hub. See also: Invoices Hub