Sales

Customers, products and projects

Under Customers & Products you keep who you write to and what you bill. Folnaro puts these details into every new quote and invoice, checks them as you type and helps you merge customers that exist twice.

Add a customer

A customer only needs a name and an address before you can invoice them. You add everything else when you need it.

1. Choose File > New > Customer, or under Customers click New Customer in the toolbar. In the list, ⌥⌘N works too.
2. Choose the Type: Business, Private individual or Public authority. Enter the Company, Authority or Name.
3. Under Address, enter street, postal code, city and Country.
4. If needed, add Email, Phone and CC under Contact, and Payment Terms, Hourly Rate, Document Language and Sender under Terms.
5. Click Save.

The Customer No. is assigned automatically. Later you open the customer with a double click or with Edit in the inspector. An existing customer opens without a focused field, so no stray keystroke replaces the company name.

What Folnaro checks as you type

Each field shows its note right below it as soon as something is off:

• a missing street, postal code or city, because invoices need a complete address
• a postal code that does not match the format of the chosen country
• email and CC addresses that do not look like an address
• an IBAN with wrong check digits, a BIC without 8 or 11 characters, a tax number in the wrong format
• a VAT ID without a valid format and a Leitweg-ID with wrong check digits
• a negative hourly rate

While a value is invalid, Save stays off. Beside it you read what to change, for example “The IBAN is not valid. Check it or leave the field empty.” An empty optional field is always fine.

Tax and e-invoice settings of a customer

These details decide how Folnaro handles VAT and the e-invoice on this customer’s documents.

• Tax Treatment: Automatic picks the treatment from country, type and VAT ID. You can still change it on each document.
• VAT ID: Check confirms the number with the EU service VIES and shows the Registered Name. If VIES does not answer, you can save anyway and check again later. Without a VAT ID, invoices to an EU business can’t use reverse charge.
• Tax Number: optional, for customers who give you a tax number instead of a VAT ID.
• Leitweg-ID: public authorities in Germany need it on every XRechnung. Folnaro checks the check digits. Invoices to authorities always carry the e-invoice.
• E-⁠Invoice in PDF: Automatic, Always or Never. With XRechnung as separate XML file, finalized invoices also get the XRechnung as an XML file. It is archived and attached to the email.
• Bank account: the customer’s IBAN, BIC and account holder. A self-billing invoice names this account as the payment account in its e-invoice.

Formal or informal address

Emails and documents to your customers use the formal form (Sie) by default. To address a customer informally (du), turn on Address informally under Terms in the customer form. The inspector shows the chosen Form of Address. Folnaro then uses the informal version of your email templates and texts for this customer.

Contact persons and further addresses

When invoices go to accounting and quotes to the project lead, add both as contact persons.

1. In the customer form, under Contact Persons, click Add Contact Person.
2. Enter Name, Position and contact details. Under Receives, choose which documents this person gets.
3. Mark one person as Main Contact. Documents for a role go to the first contact person who receives it, everything else goes to the main contact.

Under Additional Addresses, Add Address adds for example a delivery address. An address with a role replaces the main address on those documents, for example the delivery address on delivery notes.

Customer prices

For individual customers you can set their own titles and prices for products, for example an agreed framework price.

1. Select the customer and open Customer Prices in the inspector.
2. Choose the Product and enter a Custom title or Custom net price. The Catalog price appears beside it.
3. Click Save.

New lines for this customer use these titles and prices. Existing documents keep their lines. Remove Customer Price makes new documents use the product’s standard price again. A negative price cannot be saved.

Customer statement

The customer statement shows a customer on one page which documents are open and what they have paid. You need it for example when a customer asks for their balance, or before a reminder.

1. Select the customer and in the inspector, under Open Items, click Customer Statement.
2. Under Documents, choose All or One year, and if needed the Year and the Document Language.
3. Click Save PDF….

The summary shows the number of Documents, the Payments received, the amount that is Overdue and the open amount under Open. When the customer is owed money, for example because they paid an invoice that was later canceled or an invoice correction lowers the amount, Folnaro names it separately as Customer Credit. It never hides inside the open amount. Open documents always appear, even when they are older than the chosen year. The open total matches the open items.

See profitability

Profitability shows which customers and projects pay off for you.

1. Under Customers, click More > Profitability… in the toolbar.
2. Under View, choose Customers or Projects.
3. Enter your Internal hourly cost, meaning what one working hour costs you. Folnaro uses it to price the approved hours.

The table shows per year Revenue net, Expenses net, Hours, Time cost, Margin and Rate. A negative margin is labeled in words. Expenses count when you assigned them to the customer or one of its projects. These figures are internal only and never appear on documents. The inspector of a customer shows the same figures for the current year.

Import CSV

If your customers, products or invoices are in a spreadsheet, bring them over as CSV. For a full switch from SumUp Invoices, lexoffice or sevDesk, the import in Settings works better, see Bring over data from another app.

1. Under Customers, click More > Import CSV… in the toolbar.
2. Under Import, choose what the file contains: customers, products or invoices.
3. Click Choose File…. Folnaro recognizes exports from lexoffice, sevDesk, FastBill or any spreadsheet, shows the source under Recognized as and suggests the Columns. Set a column you do not need to Not imported.
4. For invoices, Only from a date leaves out older years.
5. Check the Preview: each row shows New, Existing or Skipped and its notes.
6. Click Import.

Existing records stay untouched. Invoices arrive finalized and read-only, drafts and quotes are skipped. The Sum in file shows whether the stored amounts match the file.

Spot customers that exist twice

A customer is quickly added twice, for example once as “Acme Ltd” and once as “ACME”, or after an import. Folnaro spots such duplicates by the same VAT ID, the same email address or the same name. Upper and lower case, accents, punctuation and the legal form do not count.

• When you type a name, email address or VAT ID in the customer form that already exists, a note below it says for example “A customer with this name already exists: Acme Ltd.” Open takes you to that customer.
• In the customer list, the search token Possible Duplicates shows every customer that resembles another one. Type in the search field and choose the token from the suggestions.
• When you finalize, the check Same invoice twice warns if the customer already has a finalized invoice, not canceled, with the same total for the same service period. Turn the check on or off under Folnaro > Settings… > Checks.

Merge customers

When the same customer exists twice, merge both into one. Documents, time and projects then move to the customer that stays.

1. In the customer list, select two or more customers with ⌘-click or ⇧-click.
2. Choose Merge Customers… from the context menu or from More in the toolbar.
3. Under Customer That Stays, choose the customer that remains.
4. Details lists only what differs, such as address, email or payment terms. For each, click the value the remaining customer keeps.
5. Under Moves to … you see what moves: documents (and how many are finalized), projects, time entries, recurring invoices, expenses, customer prices, contact persons, further addresses and shared time sheets.
6. Click Merge and confirm.

The other customers are archived, not deleted. Their customer number stays on the documents already issued.

Undo a merge

If you merged the wrong customers, choose Edit > Undo (⌘Z) right afterwards. Folnaro takes nothing back silently but records its own revert in the history: the archived customers are active again, and every document, time entry and project goes back to its earlier customer. Edit > Redo merges them again.

Archive or delete customers

Folnaro only deletes what leaves no trace in your books. Everything else is archived.

• A customer without documents can be removed for good with Edit > Delete Selection… (⌘⌫). The confirmation says so explicitly.
• A customer with documents is archived instead: Edit > Archive (⌃⌘A). In the context menu the command then reads Archive Customer…. The customer stays readable with all documents and no longer appears in pickers.
• Show archived customers with Archived or All in the Show menu of the toolbar, and bring them back with Restore.

If recurring invoices still run for the customer, the confirmation names them before archiving. They keep running but create no invoice until you confirm it in Recurring Invoices. The Overview shows how many of them wait for you.

You write no new documents for an archived customer. Restore the customer to write an invoice or quote. The same applies to products and projects: a product used on a document, and a project with recorded time or documents, are archived instead of deleted.

Products and services

Under Products & Services you add the products and services you bill often. In a line you insert them by name or by product number.

1. Choose File > New > Product or click New Product.
2. Enter the Name and, if needed, a Description. The description is printed below the name on the document.
3. Under Price, choose the Unit and enter Net Price and VAT Rate. The Product No. is optional.
4. Click Save.

The unit sets the unit code in the e-invoice (UN/ECE), such as hour or piece. For hours, a project or customer rate wins over the product price. If you use the small business rule, your documents use 0 %.

At the top of the list Folnaro shows Hourly rate on average and Flat fee on average, the mean net price of the listed services billed by the hour and of the flat fees. The figures follow your search.

What Folnaro checks for products

• Product number already taken: when you type a number another product has, the editor warns. Give each product its own number, so inserting by number stays unambiguous. The list marks numbers that several active products share.
• Negative price: a price can’t be negative. For a discount, use the discount of a line or of the document.
• Name missing: without a name the product cannot be saved.

Delete a product

Select the product and choose Edit > Delete Selection…. The confirmation tells you beforehand exactly what happens: if no document uses the product, it is deleted for good. If it is used on documents, it is archived instead of deleted. Existing documents keep their lines. Show archived products again through Show.

Projects

Projects group time and invoices per customer, with their own rate, budget and rounding. You find them in the sidebar under Time & Projects. How to add projects, set rates and budgets and bill project time is described in Working with projects.

Write an invoice or quote quickly

Invoice and quote for a customer come as a pair in the File menu and the context menu. Select a customer or a project and press:

The File menu then shows the name, for example New Invoice for “Acme Ltd”. A customer’s context menu also offers Write Email, Show Documents and Copy Customer Number. In the customer inspector, Bill … h puts unbilled time straight on an invoice.

Common problems

Save stays dimmed

A field has an invalid value. The text beside the button names it. Correct the value or leave the optional field empty.

No invoice can be created for a customer

The customer is archived. Bring it back with Restore.

Folnaro offers only “Archive” instead of “Delete”

The customer, product or project appears in documents or time entries. Those must stay readable, so Folnaro archives. The entry then no longer appears in pickers.

Merge Customers… is dimmed

Only one customer is selected. Select at least two customers with ⌘-click.

VIES did not answer

The EU service is sometimes unavailable. Save the customer anyway and click Check again later.

An invoice still shows the old address

Finalized documents keep the address they were issued with. New documents use the changed address. If the invoice is still a draft, choose the customer in it again.